Dan Hunjas started out in applied science before a chance in marketing pulled him in a different direction.
Twenty four years later he is the founder and CEO of Edge Marketing, a business he has spent two decades building to the point where he could finally focus on where it goes next.
In this week’s Fast 10, B&T’s very own Greg ‘Sparrow’ Graham and Dan Hunjas explored what it takes to build and eventually step back from a business, and why he thinks the marketing industry has a results problem.
1. You’ve had a wild career from the Pepsi Challenge Team to now, as the founder and CEO of Edge Marketing. If you had to pick only one, what would be your career highlight so far?
Dan Hunjas: Scaling the business to a point where I could fully step out of day-to-day operations and into a true founder’s role. That took 20 years to earn. Focusing now on the biggest strategic decisions and the vision for where Edge goes next. That is the highlight.
2. 24 years running your own business, what is the 1 factor in your entrepreneurial success?
DH: Mission, purpose, and values. Wrapped into one. Staying true to the Northern Star. When everything else is moving, that is what keeps you oriented.
3. Do punters still recognise you from MAFS season 10? Has this experience helped propel your business momentum?
DH: Yes, from time to time. But the MAFS audience and my target market in business are very different people. No measurable, no material benefit. Two completely separate worlds.
4. As a young boy, what did you want to be when you grew up?
DH: Something in the sciences. I was always fascinated by how the world works. I studied applied science, majoring in forensics and biotechnology. It was through taking on some part-time marketing and promo work whilst studying that I discovered where my passion truly lay: connecting brands with the people who actually need or want what they offer. That pivot into marketing was a life changer.
5. Your physical resilience is outstanding. How has this framed your leadership style?
DH: Discomfort is where you find growth. When you train yourself to stay composed and keep moving while everything in you wants to stop, you are practising exactly what leadership in a crisis requires. The physical and the professional are not separate disciplines. They are the same one.
6. As an industry, in marketing, what’s one thing you would change to make us all better?
DH: Accountability. Most agencies operate without real consequences for poor performance. We celebrate tactics, and results are an afterthought. If every agency was measured against actual business outcomes, half of what we currently charge for would not survive the week.
7. Please share a recent example of how you are driving client growth in a challenging marketplace?
DH: The attention economy is fracturing and the old playbook is losing its edge. Right now we are focused on GEO, helping clients rewrite their brand stories so they are visible and ranking inside AI and LLMs, not just traditional search. The businesses that show up in that space early are going to have a significant advantage. That is the conversation we are having with clients right now.
8. What’s the best and worst career advice you’ve ever been given?
DH: Best: align with a mentor. Someone who has been there before you. You can learn from their experience and fast-track your own wisdom by a decade.
Worst: offshore everything at the expense of client and campaign results. Heard it early. Ignored it. Glad I did.
9. What’s one thing that’s not on your LinkedIn profile?
DH: I played an extra in a Broadway musical after randomly winning a street competition in Times Square. New York has a way of pulling you into things you never saw coming.
10. Important last question: Do your parents really know what you do?
DH: Yes. And I am proud of that. A lot of my family are in business and being able to help them along their own journeys with their marketing has been one of the more meaningful parts of mine.
