Interview with entrepreneur Tim Dorrian—Founder at Aro Digital
Alumnus and entrepreneur Tim Dorrian, cofounded Aro Digital, a digital marketing agency, based in Wellington, providing data-driven marketing solutions.
What does being a graduate of Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University mean to you?
I feel a deep connection to Wellington as a city. My university days are responsible for the formation of Aro Digital. As students, we were inspired by the business owners we met at the Alumni as Mentors programme. Fast forward to now, it feels really cool giving back to current students, by mentoring budding entrepreneurs. It’s great seeing people’s progress, like Griffin Lilly, founder of Don’t Buy Media, a Generation Z consultancy business.
How was your university experience?
I look back on my time fondly. My education embraced chaos, as well as understanding chaos. There’s a balance of freedom and frameworks to understand the world from a critical-thinking perspective.
Practical assessments and presentations got me thinking about start-up principles: developing MVPs (minimal viable products), experimentation, and taking on challenges as a team.
At university, I became good at list-making. At the start of each trimester, I would identify what needed to be delivered, and develop an outcome-orientated plan. Also, I learned to prioritise multiple assignments by considering the weighting and percentages within a curriculum. This was super useful in balancing my work as efficiently and effectively as possible.
What’s a salient memory you have from your student days?
While studying, I was doing odd jobs I found through Student Job Search, from earthquake strengthening to painting houses. All my labouring jobs taught me how to put in a hard day’s work.
I clearly remember a pivotal moment: Sweeping earthquake debris in an office. There was a sheet of clear plastic draped over a whiteboard covered in campaign meeting notes, a window into another world. I was drawn in. I lifted the sheet away, and what I read inspired me. That was the moment that sparked my love for agency life.
Tim has eight key pieces of advice for starting your own business:
- Activate your passion
Starting anything, you must be passionate and truly in it. My last three focusses? Two of them I've been passionate about, and those were the ones that succeeded for me. - Lower barriers to entry
It is also about timing, mental energy, and minimising financial barriers. For example, you can get a brand presence going, simply with Facebook Marketplace and TradeMe. Over time, once you’ve made a bit of money, you can start developing a website. Take it step-by-step. Reduce the risks, reduce your stress. - Commit
Once you know you’re going to do it, you are all in, 100% commitment. - Edit
Know when to let go of sunk costs and feel at peace with your decisions. - Understand
Be your own customer. Or reallyget to know your customers. - Get testimonials
Do work that delivers high value, then shout about your successes. - Know yourself
Understand your strengths and weaknesses—be comfortable with not being good at everything. I’m good at marketing, and my business partner Jonty compliments me with his finance skills. - Start!
If you can—start while you’re young, with no kids or mortgage, rather than waiting until you're old and wise.
What’s new with Aro Digital?
In August 2021, we opened our second office, Aro 236. More recently, we’ve onboarded new team members.
We are freshly added to the All-of-Government advertising panel, and with this we can make positive impacts, at scale. This means we're now working with depression.org.nz, Te Puni Kōkiri’s COVID-19 response, The Lowdown, and alcohol.org.nz.
We have also recently launched the Awesome Index, where our clients can communicate where their passions flourish. We’re not just growing to be the biggest, we’re also moving with intentionality. We love purpose-driven clients who are proactively making a change.