Daniel Priestley

Priestley grew up in Australia, where he became fascinated by entrepreneurship and by how businesses can stand out, scale up, and make a positive impact on the world. He has said that he grew up in a fairly normal household; after moving out at 18 he slept on a mattress on a concrete floor and simultaneously worked as a Pizza HutPizza HutPizza Hut is a pizza restaurant chain founded in 1958 by brothers Dan Carney and Frank Carney in Wichita, Kansas, known for pizzas such as the Original Pan and Original Stuffed Crust; at the end of 2025 it had nearly 20,000 restaurants in 108 countries and territories. PepsiCo acquired it in 1977, and in 1997 it went with PepsiCo’s restaurant spin-off into the company that became Yum! Brands. In 2026 Yum! Brands sold it in two transactions for $2.7 billion in the aggregate: the Mainland China business to Yum China and the rest to the private equity firm LongRange Capital.Open the full entry delivery driver, a McDonald’sMcDonald’sMcDonald’s is a publicly traded restaurant company headquartered in Chicago, known for hamburgers, fries, drive-thrus and its franchise network. Its origins lie in the restaurant opened by Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940; Ray Kroc expanded franchising from 1955. It operates across more than 100 countries, with the great majority of restaurants run by independent operators.Open the full entry worker, a door-to-door salesman for a roof insulation company, and a barman working until 3 a.m. He said he made his first million at about 22 or 23 by starting and growing companies in Australia.⁠[1][2][3][3]

He said on the show that he spent two years working for a millionaire, learning skills as a “number two” while helping that person get rich. He went on to build multi-million-dollar businesses in Australia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.⁠[2][2][1]

Since 2010, Dent Global has run business accelerator programs and events for entrepreneurs. As of October 2026, the company said more than 5,500 businesses had been through its accelerators, delivered by teams in the United Kingdom (covering Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), Australia (Asia Pacific), and Canada (the Americas); its programs are recognised by the Institute of Leadership and Management and CPD. Glen Carlson and Mike Reid are also co-founders of Dent Global.⁠[4][4][4][4]

Dent Global’s core program is the Key Person of Influence (KPI) accelerator, of which Priestley is chief executive and co-founder; he occasionally runs workshops himself. The program is built around a 12-month foundation year in which participants build 15 to 17 “assets of influence”, including a book, a scorecard, a productised offer, and a lead generation system, in structured 10-day sprints with live coaching.⁠[5][5][5][5][5]

On March 1, 2012, Priestley became a director of Dent Accelerators (UK) Limited. The company was incorporated in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2011, and traded under the names Tyrolese (717) Limited, Entrevo Limited, and Dent Trading (UK) Limited before adopting its current name in January 2020; its registered office is on Old Bond Street in London. As of October 2026, he remained an active director of the company.⁠[6][6][7][7][7][6]

On February 22, 2024, The Diary Of A CEO, the podcast hosted by Steven BartlettSteven BartlettSteven Bartlett, born in Botswana in August 1992, is a British entrepreneur, investor, author and podcast host. He co-founded Social Chain and thirdweb, hosts The Diary Of A CEO, and founded FlightStory and Steven.com. He is also known for roles on Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank. His health-related interviews and commercial endorsements have attracted public scrutiny.Open the full entry, released a long-form interview with Priestley titled “The Money Making Expert”. The episode description called him an award-winning serial entrepreneur who had built and sold several successful businesses and written five books on starting and scaling businesses; the interview covered how to judge a business idea, how to pitch business ideas, management buyouts, and how AI would change the way businesses work.⁠[8][8][8][8][8][8]

On January 20, 2025, The Diary Of A CEO released a second long interview with Priestley. The episode description said he had built the entrepreneur accelerator company Dent Global, co-founded the quiz marketing platform ScoreApp, and written books including Key Person of Influence and Scorecard Marketing: The four-step playbook for getting better leads and bigger profits; the interview discussed the rise of personal brands, how to test demand for a product, and business opportunities created by AI.⁠[9][9][9][9][9][9]

On July 13, 2025, The Venture Room published a compilation of street interviews that included a segment with Priestley (from 20:01 in the video). He said he ran a group of seven businesses spanning software and technology, agencies, and education and training, and said the group was then running at about a million a month in revenue. He advised people who are struggling financially to get under the wing of someone who is creating wealth, and described launching new businesses by first opening a waiting list using his own company’s software, ScoreApp; he also mentioned “vibe coding” AI tools that let people build a website by describing it in everyday language.⁠[2][2][2][2][2]

On December 7, 2025, The Venture Room published a street interview filmed in Mayfair, London, in which the host recognised Priestley at 07:25 in the video and interviewed him again. He said he earned eight figures a year and shared how he would start from scratch: find a big problem that many people face, favour scalable subscription or repeat-purchase models such as software, put together waiting lists for 10 ideas, and then use a “150 test” and a “30 test” to decide whether to launch. He also discussed the opportunity created by baby boomer business owners passing on their companies, and the difference between being rich and being wealthy.⁠[3][3][3][3][3][3]

At the end of the video, The Venture Room announced a partnership with Revolut Business under which Priestley would run an online masterclass for the channel’s community on January 14, explaining how to go from zero to £1 million; viewers who signed up for a Revolut Business account would receive an invitation link.⁠[3][3][3][3]

On March 16, 2026, The Diary Of A CEO released a third interview with Priestley on financial freedom and lifestyle businesses in the age of AI. He discussed how to build a personal brand that can survive the wave of AI automation, a prediction that AI could trigger a financial crash, the disappearance of traditional wages in a power law economy, and the skills entrepreneurs need in the AI era.⁠[10][10][10][10][10]

He describes himself as the most returned guest on The Diary Of A CEO.⁠[11]

As of October 2026, Priestley’s personal website listed him as a co-founder of Dent Global and ScoreApp and presented a range of products and services for founder-led businesses: the Key Person of Influence accelerator, the AI scorecard tool ScoreApp, the video software for business owners Vidonary, the book-writing service BookMagic, and August, which helps businesses enter business awards. He also gives keynote talks at conferences and corporate events on entrepreneurship, business growth, leadership, and the impact of AI on business.⁠[11][11][11][11][11][11][12]

Priestley is the author of best-selling business books including Key Person of Influence, Entrepreneur Revolution, Oversubscribed, and 24 Assets; Dent Global says he has written seven business books. Key Person of Influence explains how to become more visible, valuable, and connected in one’s industry; Oversubscribed is about creating more demand than supply and proposes a core team of four: the Key Person of Influence, a head of sales and marketing, a head of operations and products, and a head of finance, logistics, and reporting.⁠[1][4][4][11][13][13][13]

He has been named Entrepreneur of the Year, listed among the Top 10 Business Advisors in the UK by Enterprise Nation, and named one of the top 25 entrepreneurs in London in the Smith & Williamson Power 100 Awards.⁠[4][1]

ScoreApp was co-founded by Steven Oddy and Priestley. It is marketing software that lets businesses create interactive scorecards, quizzes, surveys, waitlists, and other forms to generate and qualify sales leads. As of October 2026, ScoreApp said more than 100,000 scorecards had been created on the platform, with users in 187 countries and more than 10 million leads generated.⁠[14][14][14][14]

“The number one secret if you’re struggling financially is get under the wing of someone who’s creating wealth.” He believes nobody starts as number one: you should begin as a “number two”, ideally reporting directly to an entrepreneur with fewer than 10 employees, and learn the skills while helping that person get rich (at 20:35 in the video).⁠[2][2][2]

“I want to run what’s called a 150 test and a 30 test.” He recommends opening a waiting list for a new idea, seeing how hard it is to get 150 people to sign up, then talking in depth with 30 of them, in person or online, about their problem before deciding whether to launch; ideas that cannot attract 150 sign-ups are not taken further (at 08:33 in the video; at 21:24 in the compilation).⁠[3][3][2]

“There is a structure to starting a business and there’s a structure to getting it to take off.” He compares entrepreneurship to flying: a hundred years ago planes crashed constantly, but now there are proven playbooks, and a business can likewise be built step by step (at 09:27 in the video).⁠[3][3]

“You can use the baby boomer as the vendor finance.” He argues that baby boomers hold a large share of business equity but struggle to pass it on, and that a young, dynamic team that knows how can take over an existing business with the former owner funding them into ownership through vendor finance (at 09:48 in the video).⁠[3][3]

“Rich is a state of money, wealth is a state of mind.” He explains that being rich is about how much money you have, while wealth is what you would be left with if you lost all your money, including your networks, ideas, contacts, and knowledge; money is like the water in a river, and wealth is the riverbed (at 10:45 in the video).⁠[3][3][3]

Dent Global: Official website: https://www.dent.global/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

Key Person of Influence: Official website: https://keypersonofinfluence.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]

ScoreApp: Official website: https://www.scoreapp.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]

Personal website: https://danielpriestley.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[11]

X: Public account: https://x.com/DanielPriestley (opens in a new window)⁠[11]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielpriestley/ (opens in a new window)⁠[11]