Mitul Patel - Specialist, Business Development EMEA at McLaren Racing
“With everyone passionate about driving towards a clear goal, communication becomes simpler, ambition becomes greater, and all aspects of work become incredible”
After graduating University with First-Class Honours in Mechanical Engineering, Mitul started his career in Aviation before taking a leap into the work of E-sports with LDN UTD and later football with Tottenham Hotspur. Today, Mitul combines his unique experience with his passion for sport at Formula 1 giants McLaren Racing.
Introduce yourself!
Hi, my name is Mitul Patel and my role is Specialist, Business Development at McLaren Racing Group. I was born in London, but have spent the majority of my life growing up in Essex. My main hobbies are Golf, Hiking, Bouldering (indoor climbing) and a casual Skier – a bit of a strange mixture! A huge fan of most sports, I can always appreciate the intricacies and passion of high performing teams. A keen fan Formula 1 – of course McLaren is my team.
Tell us a little bit about McLaren Racing and what your role is there.
I am the first part of the Business Development process for McLaren Racing, focused on EMEA region – the lead generation and qualification of companies and brands that could benefit from a potential partnership with one or more of McLaren’s Racing IPs (Formula 1, Formula E, Extreme E, IndyCar and Esports). This could span across your typical sports sponsorship model, to a B2B fuelled opportunity aimed at improving business processes through racing mentality
Did you take on any higher education courses (university etc?) and if so, how does that relate to what you do now?
Yes I did, I have a First-Class Honours in Mechanical Engineering from Brunel University. The degree was excellent, met so many inspirational and incredible people, whilst studying one of the most challenging subjects (a rewarding feeling to do well). However, during a year in industry, I discovered that the Engineering culture wasn’t for me. Culture is such an important aspect of your day-to-day work, if you don’t enjoy your environment, you’ll find that you struggle to be fully committed to your role, impacting your goals, ambitions and eventually life fulfilment. I made a decision to ensure I do not fall into this Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 trap.
I graduated during COVID, in June 2020 (so I had plenty of time on my hands) and I started to shape my goals and think about what brought me the most fulfilment in life. At the time, I decided to focus on two passions industries, Gaming and Fashion – this slowly changed to Sports after I realised my love for its fulfilling, youthful and exciting nature. The desire of getting involved in partnerships came to me when I saw the LV X League of Legends collaboration in 2019 – It was creative, authentic and iconic – I thought “I want to be the person who created that partnership”.
Now, all I had to do now was pick a role. I was a pretty shy person, introverted and barely wanted to speak to people, it’s something I recognised and decided to improve. I made the choice to get into a role which puts me so far out of my comfort zone, that I would have no choice but to change… so Sales it was.
Now, this hungry, ambitious, driven young person had a dream.
I made this post three years ago, which I loved reading back on. However, this does encapsulate where my mind was at during this period.
What does your career history look like and how did you get into working in sport?
My first job was as a Project Management Intern at an Aviation Wing Manufacturer from 2018 to 2019. A job that changed my life and solidified my future.
As I mentioned, during my degree, I worked at THFC as part-time Event Support working on the event day delivery of all football matches at Old White Hart Lane, Wembley Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
I started to figure out who I wanted to be during COVID, but… all sports were cancelled. Rather than giving up, I chose to think about what I could do to support my future and Esports was the only sports-esq industry still operational. Around 2 months and 60 cold LinkedIn messages later, I had secured a part-time role as a Business Development Intern at LDN UTD (an Esports start-up with a purpose) – where I helped to build new sponsorship conversations for their purposeful gaming activations. A life-changing opportunity (Olly Weingarten what a hero!) and my salary was purely based on supporting my golf addiction. During this time, I also took part in an American Sales training programme, Legends Global Sales – highly recommend it, I’ve built a network in a country I have never been to and learned the fundamentals of sales.
In May 2021, I applied for a Venue Sales role at THFC and was successful. I do think my drive, story and prior experience put me ahead of most candidates. My responsibilities were to sell Match-by-Match and Third-Party hospitality. Five months later, I was promoted to Sales and Membership Executive, where I started to manage 400 Executive Members and start selling Seasonal Memberships. This is where I was truly moulded as a Sales Executive.
In November 2022, I decided to throw a hail mary application to McLaren and I was successful. Again I do believe my story, drive and desire to get to this point put me above all others.
“Every single person you meet is passionate about what they do, there’s a desire to be there”
What do you enjoy most about working in the sport industry?
Passion. Every single person you meet is passionate about what they do, there’s a desire to be there, achieving the best, doing things which haven’t been done before and succeeding. With everyone passionate about driving towards a clear goal, communication becomes simpler, ambition becomes greater, and all aspects of work become incredible.
Name one thing that excites you about the future of sport that you have learned from your role?
Creativity. We are seeing more and more unique brand opportunities in sports. Most recently, the interactive branding options McLaren introduced for Google and Android – the first of its kind and not the last. There was also the simple yet effective Duracell battery on the Williams F1 car. It brings another level of competitiveness, which of course will be great in the long term for the entire industry.
Share your favourite experience that has come as a result of your work in sport.
To add context, I am an Arsenal fan (albeit not a very good one). My favourite experience was watching Arsenal lose at Tottenham, 3-0 in a fight for Champions League football. I stood watching that game with goosebumps – that whole day, there was not a single point I could hear myself think, Tottenham fans overpowered everything. It was one of the first days I realised the fan passion and love for the game was bigger than the results.
“Start small, build experience and knowledge and you’ll get there”
If someone reading this is wondering how they take their first steps towards a career in sports, what would be your advice?
My route was unique. The biggest challenge for me was picking what I truly wanted to do – but once I had that, nothing was stopping me from getting there. I was constantly messaging people, joining groups with likeminded people asking for advice instead of work, and offering my time to learn the fundamentals. There were so many different actions which helped me, you just have to try everything and find out which one works for you.
How could someone try to elevate their chances of securing a job in sport?
Think about the level you want to enter at, everyone wants to work for the biggest companies but realistically it will be 100x more challenging to get in the door. Start small, build experience and knowledge and you’ll get there.
What is one piece of advice you would give to anyone with ambitions of a career in sport?
Show people that you are 100% committed to your goals and ambitions. Actions have much more significance than words.
Want to connect with Mitul or learn more aboutMcLaren Racing?
You can connect with Mutil via LinkedIn, and learn more about the McLaren Racing via their website and LinkedIn page