Edinburgh Business Lessons: Dario Valente, founder of IAD Marketing
Sponsored
Back in late 2020, Dario Valente saw a new way to combine and apply his many years’ experience in sales, business development, marketing and account management. He launched his business IAD Marketing, specialising in LinkedIn ghostwriting, a few months later – and he hasn’t looked back.
Here, Dario shares with us some of the lessons he’s learned about running a business and doing business in Edinburgh, as a member of the capital’s thriving entrepreneurial community.
What is the biggest lesson you've learned from running a business and doing business in Edinburgh?
I’ve learned the value of networks here. Edinburgh's small enough that being connected to the right people can quickly change the trajectory of your business.
What do Edinburgh clients want - and how do you deliver it to them?
Edinburgh clients want someone who shows up and does the work, not someone who talks about doing the work. I deliver by being hands-on with every client myself – there are no juniors or outsourcing involved.
What strengths do Edinburgh businesses have?
Edinburgh feels like a village but does business like a city. You can become a known face. Most people here are one or two degrees of separation from anyone you'd want to reach – that’s an advantage most bigger cities don't have.
Why do you choose to do business here?
I've lived in Edinburgh for 30 years. That's 30 years of relationships built up before I even
started the business, so choosing to work here wasn't really a decision. It was more about putting an existing network to use rather than starting from zero somewhere else.
If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice when you launched your business, what would it be?
Don't be so scared. There's a world of opportunity out there – back yourself and be bold enough to go after it.
What's one business decision that has proved transformative?
The decision to stay small on purpose: no hiring, just going deeper with fewer clients.
It's the opposite of most growth advice, but I've got clients who've been with me for five years. That's proof it works.
What has surprised you most about growing a business?
I’ve been surprised by how much comes down to consistency, rather than cleverness. Two LinkedIn posts a week, every week, for years has done more for my clients than any single viral idea ever has.
How important are relationships and networking in Edinburgh's business community?
I'm not a big in-person networker. My relationship-building happens on LinkedIn, and in DMs, one-to-one calls and ‘real’ conversations rather than at events. Relationships matter enormously to me, but I just build them where I work, rather than in a room full of strangers.
What opportunities do you see for Edinburgh businesses over the next five years?
The biggest opportunity lies within the creator economy, applied to business – more business owners building a genuine personal brand, but also more employees doing the same, on behalf of the businesses they work for.
The businesses that combine personal content with strong LinkedIn company-page content, rather than treating either as an afterthought, are the ones that will stand out.
What trend do you think more businesses should be paying attention to?
Businesses should take note of LinkedIn's crackdown on AI-generated content. Feeds are filling with generic, obviously AI-written posts, and the platform is starting to penalise it. Businesses that sound human will stand out simply by not sounding like everyone else.
What excites you most about the future of your business?
Relationships and personality matter more than ever, precisely because AI is flooding the feed. My job as a ghostwriter is to get my client’s real personality out there.
More people are waking up to the value of having a personal brand, and that's exactly where someone who understands writing, marketing and the platform itself becomes valuable. That's the opportunity I plan to keep chasing.
Pictured: Dario Valente, founder of IAD Marketing
Comments