Digital Beans Donates £500 to Support Future Entrepreneurs in Kent

Digital Beans donates £500 to business support charity The Kent Foundation. Piperis Filippaios, who started his first business at an early age, received help from The Kent Foundation at a vital time.

While studying at Kent University, Piperis set his sights on becoming a successful entrepreneur. At the end of his third year as an undergraduate and the start of his Masters degree at the University, he started a new website called uFlog.

The website was targeted at students to help them buy and sell items on campus for free, with any income coming from advertising. Like any university student, finance was tight and Piperis approached The Kent Foundation for help.

They agreed to give him a grant of £150 to help him purchase some advertising to increase awareness of the site. However, although uFlog was being used by students, he struggled to get businesses to advertise.

A bi-product of this relationship with the businesses though, meant that he started receiving requests to help them with their digital marketing instead.

Digital Beans Donates £500 charity supporting Kent's Young Entrepreneurs

Piperis said: “Like any start-up, it was tough getting it going and The Kent Foundation gave me the boost I needed. Setting uFlog up led me in a direction I had not expected. Getting businesses to advertise was hard, but I started to receive requests to help with their digital marketing instead. This set me on the journey I am on today. Because of this, it led me to evolve my business into uTargeting, which was the start of my current digital marketing agency – DigitalBeans. So that £150 grant has led me to where I am today.”

Digital Beans, which is located in Canterbury, now employs three staff and has a number of clients helping them with organic and paid search and social media strategies including Search Engine Optimisation, Google AdWords, Paid Social Media Advertising and Retargeting.

Piperis added: “The business has been steadily growing and I am fortunate to be able to now offer something back as a thank you for the help The Kent Foundation gave me when I needed it. This is why I am donating £500 to them, so that they can help other young people in their business journey as well.”

Stuart Tanton, the Operations Manager at the charity, said: “The Kent Foundation, over the last ten years, has grown into the number one charity for supporting young people under the age of 30 in business. It is great to know that Piperis benefited and valued our support, and has created a successful business. It is essential our charity continues to offer the next generation the same opportunities Piperis had. His generous donation will go directly towards our volunteer business mentoring service which will support other aspiring young people to achieve success in their businesses.”