‘I’m 30 with no proper qualifications – and a seven-figure bank balance’

When he was around 13, he started doing web programming video tutorials on YouTube, which amassed millions of views over the years. 

As a teen he started asking around and realised that a lot of people did not know how to build websites and needed help, which he offered and started getting paid. 

“I didn’t know what to charge or anything, but it was experience and I enjoyed doing it,” he says. 

“Some of the websites I designed were probably pretty terrible but they were websites. It’s better than not having a website. That’s the experience that helped me get my first job.”

‘We worked evenings and weekends to start our company’

For young people who want to start their own businesses, finding people you want to work with can be vital. Johnson co-founded his current company with someone he had worked with throughout the years on various projects.

“It really was an idea that we had,” he says. “We tested it by contacting loads of people and saying, ‘Is this the sort of thing that might be of interest to you?’ 

“We did as much as we could without funding, so we still had our day jobs and just thought, ‘Let’s build as much as we can without fundraising’.

“The mindset of a lot of start-ups now is it’s all about getting to that next level of fundraising and investment. 

“Actually, if you can get further along with less investment, by working early in the morning, late in the evening, and on weekends, which we were absolutely doing for the first year or two, then you retain more of a share of your business and you can prove it’s working before risking investors’ money.”

They then raised seed investments of £100,000 initially by networking and pitching the company at start-up events. Once they had secured investors they introduced them to others which helped build the funding. 

They raised around £300,000 in the second funding round, became profitable early on, and grew the business from there.