The graduate with a thirst for success

Daniel Dunn was just 14-years-old when he started his first business.

Eight years and five business ventures later, the now 22-year-old graduates this week from the University of Queensland Bachelor of Advanced Business Honours.

“I always knew I wanted to study something related to business and I was lucky enough to be in the pilot cohort of the degree through the UQ Business School,” Mr Dunn said.

His first venture had been buying headphones online and selling them for a profit while in Year Nine at high school.

“I sold almost two thousand dollars’ worth and started a business club at school,” he said.

“I got a taste for it and before long had my next business idea – my own brand of power banks that I had made in a factory overseas.”

The entrepreneurial teenager also started a web design business and mowed some lawns.

“But that only lasted about a month because I realised I wasn’t very good at it,” Mr Dunn said.

Another business, selling personalised wrist watches, failed despite Mr Dunn spending thousands of dollars on marketing.

“I actually didn’t like wearing a watch, so no wonder I couldn’t sell any," he said.

“It taught me an important lesson – that you have to believe in your product.”

It was a hobby that sparked his current vending machine business.

Mr Dunn and his friends had an after-school tradition of discovering and sampling new flavours of drinks in Asian grocers and supermarkets across Brisbane. 

“Dan Dan Drinks came about because I noticed you couldn’t buy these particular soft drinks on the UQ campus at St Lucia," he said. 

“When a couple of my business subjects required us to research a business proposal, I got permission to use the vending machines as a case study and found it could be profitable.”

UQ’s Central Library is now home to the first of several planned vending machines, offering an ever-changing selection of Asian teas and sodas.

“I’ve sold around 20-thousand drinks so far and hopefully introduced people to products they might not have tried, and given others a taste of home.”

Mr Dunn said his studies at UQ gave him necessary structured learning as well as the practical means to apply it in business.

“I couldn't think of a better degree – and running a business while learning was the best of both worlds because they fed into each other,” he said.

Mr Dunn is considering an internship at a top four accounting firm in Singapore for 2023, but will first travel to Taiwan to complete a UQ Diploma in Languages (Chinese).

“My long-term goal is to run an international business that brings out the best in employees and truly benefits the community in the Asia-Australia space," he said.

“The cultural and educational learnings I’ve had from my time at UQ made me feel prepared to make this dream a reality.”

UQ will confer 5400 students this month, including students who were unable to attend graduation ceremonies in 2020 and 2021.

Image above left: Dan Dan Drinks vending machine in UQ's Central Library. Supplied. 

Media: UQ Business School, Alysha Hilevuo, a.hilevuo@uq.edu.au, +61 (0)409 612 798.