While no two teenagers are alike, there are some notable characteristics of them that stretch across the board. They can be a little more energetic, a little more adventurous, and a little more risk-taking. So, at 14, while walking the streets near his home in South London, Timothy Armoo was challenged by a friend that he wouldn’t see £500 before he turned 18 – and Armoo took the bet.
Despite common teenage impulsivity, the challenge proved profitable for the recent multi-millionaire, who set off on a tutoring business journey in his school. Determined to prove his friend wrong, Armoo’s tutoring business inspiration came on a day he received the highest grade, in his class, on a math exam. Armoo thought to himself, “I know maths. I’m going to tutor people maths.” And off the teenage businessman went, bravely approaching people he knew were struggling in math class, offering to tutor them for £10-15 per session.
But like many business adventures, a young Armoo hit a bump in his journey when students began seeking help with other subjects like biology and chemistry, which were not in his wheelhouse. Intellectual growth won over impulsivity for the teenager, who flipped the script on his situation and created a new revenue stream. Armoo went to his school teachers, asking which students performed the best on their recent tests. When the teachers told him, Armoo sought out those students for potential tutoring services in his first business. He would ask them “do you want to make money?” Working out a deal where he paid the tutors £10 and kept £5 for himself, Armoo grew his first business up to 65 student-turned-tutors and won that bet.
Massive success followed Armoo into his early adult years. During his second year of university, at age 21, Armoo founded Fanbytes, a Gen Z influencer company that had big brands like Nike, Estee Lauder, and Samsung reaching out to him for help. Realizing the power of social media influencers, Fanbytes is software and services that brands use to run influencer campaigns. Fanbytes would work with big brands, finding major influencers on social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, and devising a campaign strategy. But what made Fanbytes so unique is the design of their own platform where brands could activate their campaigns and approve influencers.
Armoo’s prediction of how Gen-Z-ers would impact the influencing market, and taking a risk on founding a business that aimed to capitalize on that, has made him a role model for the new school of entrepreneurs. Starting Fanbytes in 2017, Armoo grew the business up to a 75-member staff with co-founders Ambrose Cooke and Mitchell Fasanya, who were also the business’ Chief Operations Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Within 6 years, Fanbytes had reached its peak, and Armoo later received four letters of intent from companies interested in purchasing the business.
After careful review, the trio of young men signed a shared purchase agreement, which meant that the company’s shares would no longer belong to them or their investors, and made each member a multi-millionaire.
Like a picture painted for memory, Armoo can recall the details of the day he received his portion of the payment. May 3, 2022, was a day filled with constant swiping, waiting for the moment when the screen went from zero to millions, and solidifying Armoo as a major player in the business world.
