The fast-growing talent agency that has Tommy Fury among its clients
Entourage and Love Island inspired Jake Lee to set up his own business
Jake Lee knew his parents meant well when they advised him against quitting his job selling office space to set up a talent management agency. But he showed them that he had what it took to succeed by adding professional boxer and reality television celebrity Tommy Fury to his rapidly growing list of clients, which also includes Made in Chelsea star Digby Edgeley and Bethan Kershaw from Geordie Shore.
His parents became so proud of how he successfully built his business, Alpha Talent Group, that his dad invested in the company and became the chairman.
Jake, 26, fell in love with the idea of becoming an agent after watching a television show called Entourage, which featured an agent who managed actors and talent across various sectors. Then in 2019 he got hooked on Love Island – which featured Tommy, brother of world champion boxer Tyson – and decided to focus on working with reality TV personalities and digital creators.
Jake is building an impressive list of clients, headed by professional boxer and former Love Island contestant Fury, who finished runner-up on the show with his now fiancé Molly-Mae Hague. They are a popular couple, clocking up almost 14 million Instagram followers between them.
“I never went to university as I wanted to make my own way and my own money so I went straight out to work after A-Levels,” explains Jake. “I was selling office space but then I was given the opportunity to work for a football agency. I am a big football fan, and my dream was to become an agent, so I grabbed the opportunity with both hands. It was a great place to work for someone in their early 20s but, after a few months, I realised that the industry was not as it seemed, and the type of work also took away some of my enjoyment of football.
“I set up Alpha and went back to selling office space to make sure I had some money coming in while I built the company on evenings and weekends.
“I was following Love Island on social media and saw all the deals that were going on for the contestants and I thought that was something I could definitely get involved in. I used social media to message everyone on the show and one person got back to me, which was all I needed to get me in the door and get me invited to events where I could network.”
Jake made Alpha his ‘side-hustle’ alongside his full-time job, working every evening and every weekend to build his reputation and his client list.
“I knew I wanted this to be my life and realised the only thing stopping me was me – I had to make the jump and just go for it. Eighteen months after setting up the company, after being away with a few clients in Mykonos, I asked myself why that couldn’t be my life all the time. I told my parents I was quitting my job and making the leap full-time.”
Initially they were both against the idea and said he needed a steady job with a salary.
“In their defence, they’d both always had salaried jobs so the idea of me starting something without any security was quite foreign to them, so I fully understood their reservations. But I had a vision and I knew I could make it work.”
At the time, Jake, who went to Immanuel College and is a member of Edgware Reform Synagogue, was working with content creator Danny Williams and sports presenter Mac Griffiths, who were on Love Island with Fury in 2019. When Tommy mentioned that he was looking for a new manager, Mac told him to call Jake.
“My MD Kevin and I jumped on a Zoom call the next day with Tommy. It took him a little while to free himself from his contracts, and when we met he was cautious because he had been promised things in the past from people who didn’t deliver.
“He said there was a company he would like to work with who supplied protein bars, so I said I would get him a contract with that company and he said he would sign after we proved we weren’t just all talk. Kevin and I put a deal together in two weeks and Tommy was true to his word and signed an agreement.”
Jake, who likes to go and watch Tottenham Hotspur when he switches off, has since added Tommy’s older brother Roman to his list of clients.
“We build close connections with our clients outside of work and make sure they excel in their career and achieve their goals and ambitions. That’s what makes Alpha stand out – we put our talent first and genuinely care for their well-being,” he says. “We have now built-up credibility in the industry and the agency is starting to attract top talent all the time – that’s down to the dedication and effort of my team. There are seven of us working in the office in Farringdon and everyone gets on so well and works well together, it really does have that family feel.”
Life has changed beyond recognition for Jake. “I am doing a lot of travelling – recently I’ve been to New York (for 36 hours), Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and this year I have trips to Cannes, Saudi again, LA and Canada. However it’s not all glamour. The hours can be unsociable with lots of early starts and late evenings. Often things go wrong behind the scenes and it can get incredibly stressful at times.”
Jake spends a lot of time with Tommy and says that they are as close as two people can be without being family. “There’s a lot of trust there and we get on very well. We are both big fans of movies, particularly The Wolf of Wall Street, we’ll often sit there and recite lines of the film together back and forth and be sat there in stitches just laughing. Plus we both love the gym – when we’re away we will always find a gym to train in to make sure we’re not slacking while on the move.”
Where is Alpha Talent Group heading? “I am taking each day as it comes and enjoying it, and it is exciting to see where we can go. We see our talent as business partners, and we want to grow alongside them and be there for the journey,” says Jake.
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