About Me

Hi, my name is Lee Benning and I’m excited to share my journey in the world of technology and marketing with with you.

lee benning suited

I left school when I was 16 years old, and at that time, I had never seen a PC. However, within just 12 weeks, I was already writing my first software program for one of the UK’s leading energy suppliers.

One year later, during my college work experience, I didn’t have any idea about how computer networks worked. But just two weeks into that placement, I had already written a software program that allowed students at the University of Southampton to send their work across a network to a print station and debit their print balance for the correct amount.

In 1998, my college got Internet access, and I managed to convince my parents that we needed Internet access at home. This was a defining moment for my future. Just two weeks later, I created my first website, and within a month, I created another website that received over 500 visits a day (impressive for a guy on his own in 1998!).

Four years later, I started a sports news website that consistently received over 70,000 visits a month for over five years, with a peak month of 120,000+ visits. During this time, I also experimented with SMS text updates from the website to phones, and I tried a new advertising technique that boosted visits to an all-time high. They now call this ‘viral marketing’ and ‘social media,’ but there wasn’t a name for it back then.

In 2005, I graduated from university with a degree in Business with E-Commerce. I dropped out of two other courses because they didn’t teach me anything new. Six weeks after graduation, I turned down an invitation for a second round pitch to business angels for an investment of £50,000 because it went against the reason why I wanted to run my own business.

A month later, I was short-listed for the first season of BBC’s “Dragon’s Den” TV show. However, they wouldn’t disclose full details about the show, and I’m glad I didn’t end up on it! From there, I spent a few years working for large corporations in both technical, strategic, and marketing roles, but always in the online realm.

One of those companies was Sony, where I managed an online platform that was responsible for 2 billion Euros of transactions a year.

Since then I have worked with all sizes of companies and budgets and today choose only to work with companies that excite me. In my spare time I like to train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Catch Wrestling. Nice relaxing down-time!

Some of the companies I have worked with:

I Love Talking All Things Digital!

If you have a question or fancy a chat, get in touch with me and I’ll let you know how I can help with your digital marketing needs.