'We've sold over 46,000 cameras': The Leeds couple who turned a university side hustle into a global business
What started as a side hustle for two skint university students has, in just a few years, blossomed into a flourishing global business - all from a modest office in Holbeck, Leeds.
Zak Megson and Danielle Gollings, both Leeds graduates, first took to eBay in 2020 to help fund their way through their studies.
After selling trainers and odds and ends, they stumbled across a batch of digital cameras. It proved to be a turning point.
Today, the couple’s enterprise, Digicam Collective, has sold over 46,000 cameras, with buyers and suppliers as far afield as Singapore and Japan.
Their daily routine involves tracking down, cleaning, repairing, and restoring digital cameras and SLR film cameras, camcorders, and accessories - all as demand among young people for pre-smartphone technology surges.
So why have digital and film cameras made such a comeback among Gen Z and millennials?
“Everybody has their phones out at a concert, and then they might be getting notifications from WhatsApp or Facebook that brings them out of that moment,” Zak, 25, told the YEP. “Whereas with a digital camera, it's very much more intentional. You don't have the distractions that you would on your phone.”
Danielle, 28, agrees nostalgia plays a role too: “When you actually look at the photos that you get from digital cameras, film cameras, and even video, some of it's about nostalgia. A lot of people like that grainy, vintage kind of effect.”
Their business journey has its share of adventure, and their discovery of a niche in digital cameras came completely by chance. “We were looking on Facebook Marketplace, and I saw a good deal on a film camera. So I asked the person if they had any more stuff that they would like to sell,” Zak explained. “And he said he had a whole garage worth of stuff.”
The couple jumped in the car and drove to Barnsley on the hottest day of the year. “It was the first time we'd ever spent four figures at once on a deal, and we loaded the car and could barely fit in, and it was just ridiculously hot.”
Growing Digicam Collective wasn’t without its challenges. Navigating VAT registration and scaling operations meant Zak put his degree on the back burner, while Danielle, who manages much of the systems and logistics, admits their big leap into entrepreneurship required some trust: “I told myself I’m gonna trust Zak. A lot of the time he does what he says he's gonna do. And so I was like, let's do it.”
Now, the business is entering a new phase. The pair are preparing to launch their own website, digicamcollective.com, designed by Harrogate-based Bluestone98, aiming to move beyond eBay and create a direct connection with their community of camera enthusiasts.
With the launch of the website, Zak and Danielle are also working on moving away from suppliers and instead buying their cameras from individuals: ”We feel like there's more of an impact, especially environmentally, and it'll ease the financial burden.
“We want to give back to people who want to sell their cameras and get a bit more money. Because a lot of people don't realise that what they're sending in might get sold for £100 quid, and these companies are giving them maybe £10.”
But even as the business grows, the mission remains the same. Zak said: “We want to push on the knowledge we’ve learned over the last five years into everyone else’s hands, free.”
The couple plan to share their skills through YouTube tutorials and events teaching camera repair - hoping to help others capture moments, one click at a time.