Founder & CEO

John began his career in direct marketing at a large data consultancy, progressing from oik to Business Development Director. He then got sacked for calling the speaking clock to increase ‘talk time’. He then founded Databroker Ltd in 2009 before an interesting ‘exit’ in 2024. Clients that John brought on board to Databroker include British Gas, Nvidia, Apple, Market Makers and hundreds more, single handedly creating all processes within the company. 

In 2019, John launched Dark Horse with the aim of creating one of the best search marketing agencies in the UK. John was responsible for early sales, marketing, process and operations before delegating as the agency grew. Dark Horse is a now a multi-million-pound agency serving clients in tough markets going up against bigger competition. 

John’s specialism is creativity and courage in marketing and is now responsible for making decisions. Nonsense dictates he calls this setting the vision and other such spiel. 

John has talked at the University of Manchester helping students understand how to get a job in digital. He has also talked on many marketing podcasts about the growth, brand and marketing of Dark Horse. 

Dark Horse is regularly featured within university lectures around marketing and tone of voice. It is studied on professional marketing courses centred around content and appears in discussions as a case study. 

Dark Horse is featured in 2025 Marketing Book “Stand the Fuck out” by Louis Grenier as a case study.