23 Years Ago

The future co-founder of Universal Partners FX gallops to school with a rucksack crammed with Haribo. He’s ten years old, and Dhaval Patel’s classmates mob him in the playground and give him their pocket money for the sweets. Each Monday, Dhaval buys a bag of sweets with his allowance, sells it, then buys two bags on Tuesday with the profit, sells them, and so on. Every Friday, he pushes a healthy return into his piggybank.

19 Years Ago

Now Dhaval’s at secondary school near London, but his sunny smile is rarer. Where classmates once bounced up to buy candy, now they stalk over. Dhaval regularly hears racist slurs. There are fights. He stands up to the racists. The bullies learn that this kid — whose Indian Gujarati mum and dad moved to London from Uganda in the 1970s to escape Idi Amin — will not back down.

17 Years Ago

Sixteen-year-old Dhaval gets ready for work, feeling like hell for the umpteenth day in a row. Now he’s a bank cashier. Rather than going to university, he’s dived straight into a banking job. But he’s regretting it, hating it. He feels he has no purpose and can’t see a way forward. He doesn’t want to wake up anymore.

16 Years Ago

Dhaval lies in bed on the eve of his 17th birthday. Something clicks. The young man makes a deal with himself — a pact that will change his life, a promise that still holds to this day. He whispers to no one in particular while staring at the ceiling: “If I’m going to do this job, then I’m going to do it at full tilt, harder and better than anyone. I will do my job like it’s my own company.”

14 Years Ago

The CEO of the bank, hands 19-year-old Dhaval an award in front of hundreds of colleagues. He’s topped the bank’s performance charts, smashing his sales target by 800%. “What do you aspire to, Dhaval?” asks the smartly dressed woman as the crowd listens. There’s a pause. “I want your job,” he says. “I want to be CEO.” Dhaval’s line manager’s mouth drops open. He’d warned him not to say that. But she smiles, and applause erupts. The promise he made to himself has paid off — and not for the last time.

10 Years Ago

Dhaval checks his watch: it’s 4.30pm. He’s three months into a new job at a City trading company with a cutthroat culture. At 5pm, his boss will fire him unless he has 15 clients. Dhaval has 14. The recent £300,000 deal he pulled off counts for nothing. Dhaval calls a lead and tells him his situation. The contact agrees to put through a 100 Euros trade to save his job. His boss relents, and Dhaval goes out with coworker and new confidante Oliver Carson to chew the fat. They start to discuss launching a company of their own.

Now

33-year-old Dhaval, chairman and co-founder of Universal Partners FX — a financial consultancy specialising in international payments and currency risk management — walks into his sleek Canary Wharf office. He has a spring in his step because his company has made it into the FEBE Growth 100 2024 list and Sunday Times Best Places to Work list. Universal Partners now handles over £2.5bn of client currency yearly. Dhaval’s smile broadens as his 100-strong team present him with a token of their appreciation – a giant banknote with Dhaval’s face on it and the company’s motto underneath: “We aim to change the lives of our staff and clients.”

Seven formative moments; seven milestones in Dhaval Patel’s entrepreneurial journey. Every entrepreneur has a unique human story, and Dhaval’s narrative directly links to Universal Partners FX’s success. Here how:

Racism & Bullying

No one wants to experience these horrors. Yet they play a vital role in this tale. Dhaval’s experience at school built his resilience, an asset he took forward into his career. He says: “Secondary school was a kick to the teeth. The racism came heavy, thick and fast. I had to stand up for myself. It taught me the ‘rough and tough’ needed for the business world. And it’s not just about skin colour. There are loads of people out there with disabilities and other issues who have probably faced this sort of stuff.”

Self-Discipline & Ambition

Dhaval discovered these gnarly assets during his first job at the bank. He hated the role at first but hung in there and promised himself to “do it at full tilt, like running my own company”. From there, Dhaval found a passion for his job and kicked on to become the bank’s best up-and-coming employee. The same pledge drove him to a City currency trading job, and finally, it propelled him to co-launch his company.

“My Guiding Light”

Why was Dhaval able to push on when times were tough? The answer lies at home. He says: “Mum was my guiding light. I never want to let Mum down. She’s always given me lots of love. Dad’s loving and supportive too. He made sure I was educationally sound and was slightly tougher to keep me on the straight and narrow.”

Doing the Right Thing

Dhaval also believes his upbringing is behind Universal Partners’ culture today. The company’s number one aim is “to change the lives of our staff and clients.” He says: “Since I was a kid, it’s been hammered home that I should help people and be a good person. Even today, Mum sends me motivational messages. They’re always about looking after other people.”

Truly Client-Centric

But Universal Partners is not a charity. Dhaval became an entrepreneur to transform lives and make money. The guy who once sold Haribo to his classmates and told his boss that he wanted her job has always wanted to earn cash and be successful. But he believes the best way to pull profits is to help people — extraordinarily well. He says: “I want to transform our clients’ businesses. And I want to make money doing it because I’ll do it better than anyone else. Businesses say they’re client-centric. They’re not. Being truly client-centric is about caring for the client more than the money. That’s where we’re at. We have to be client-centric because there’s no loyalty in our industry.”

Teamwork & Culture

Everyone at Universal Partners has a unique story and contributes to the company in their own way — not least Dhaval’s co-founder, Oliver Carson. Dhaval understands this. He knows how important every single one of his colleagues is. Universal Partners FX is built on their happiness and job satisfaction. He learnt this while working for a City trading company that he recalls “treated workers like expendable machines”.

Dhaval says: “People would arrive in big batches at that company and get fired. The turnover was crazy. I stayed by the skin of my teeth. It was a tough environment, but it taught me huge amounts. The managers were excellent at FX sales but had terrible people skills. They didn’t understand that if you don’t look after your people, you will eventually have no clients. I’ve taken that lesson forward.”

FEBE Says

Dhaval Patel’s founder story reveals – in technicolour detail – how entrepreneurs are often forged by their environments. From selling sweets as a schoolboy to overcoming racism and extracting vital lessons from challenging situations, Dhaval has consistently turned adversity into opportunity. His tale exemplifies the spirit of entrepreneurship and will inspire all aspiring founders.