Timothy Armoo, co-founder and former CEO of Fanbytes;
Tim Armou.
Timothy Armoo, co-founder and former CEO of influencer marketing firm Fanbytes, isn’t what you’d expect from a multi-millionaire.
He owns no mansion – or any property at all – saying he prefers to spend some of his money on eclectic investments, ranging from exotic fruit businesses in Africa to financing the sale of a lithium mine.
Armoo made his money by selling Fanbytes to digital marketing firm Brainlabs in May 2022 for an eight-figure sum (the exact amount has not been disclosed).
But the young entrepreneur told CNBC Make It that he felt “almost too disabled to spend the money” after growing up poor in public housing in south London.
Describing what he called the “scarcity mentality” he developed growing up, Armoo said, “I was convinced that if I started spending the money, everything would start working out.”
“I would watch it every week, maybe twice a week,” he said. “I had this spreadsheet where I would track down to the penny how much I had.”
Armoo knew he had to find a way to come to terms with the fact that he was now rich and wasn’t about to lose it all — so he called his bank. “I said, ‘I’d like to come and make a million pounds in cash.’
After several checks, Armoo collected the cash from the bank and took it home in a large bag. He then spread them all out on his bed.
“I just looked at it,” he said. “The reason I did it was I wanted to make it very visceral to me that, ‘Man, if all else fails, if you spend it all on gambling, or you spend it on crypto, or something bad, at least you’ve got a million pounds in cash”.
‘Totally exotic’ investments
Armoo said he invests his money in index funds — passive funds that track an index, such as the S&P 500 — and owns a variety of stocks, including Shopify and Cloudflare.
“So I basically have two camps: one is the ultra-safe bucket: index funds, overweight cash, bonds and debt and funds. Then the other side of things is completely exotic.”
Some of Armoo’s more unusual investments include financing avocado, soy and mango businesses in Kenya, Angola and Tanzania, which supply supermarkets in Europe.
Armoo on a banana farm in Angola
Tim Armou.
He also admitted to being involved in “random stuff” and “alternative investments”, such as buying uranium and financing the sale of a lithium mine.
“I enjoy the game of finding different arbitrages and different cool ways to spend and invest the money, as opposed to ‘we’re just going to put it all in index funds,'” he added.
Armoo is a minimalist and has no home
Most rich people love to invest in real estate, but not Armoo.
“I don’t actually have a home. I didn’t deal in any residential real estate or any direct commercial real estate,” he said.
“Most people see property as the way to build wealth, but I use business as the way to build wealth and I don’t have a family, I don’t have a partner now, so why?”
Armoo said he expects more younger millionaires to make that choice, ditching ownership so they can travel and move around more. “I probably only spend maybe half the year in London,” he said.
And unlike his peers, he is less inclined to buy extravagant things.
“I’m generally quite a minimalist,” he said. The only example he gave of a “fancy” purchase was first class flights to Bali for him and his now ex-girlfriend. “It was cool. I remember thinking, ‘Gee, that’s a gangster.’
The young millionaire emphasized that sometimes it’s good to reject the traditional way of doing things.
“I think there’s actually a bigger issue here, which is to look at the rules by which you live your life. You have to look at them and say, ‘Well, why am I doing this?’ Why should I choose this career? Why would I invest my money this way?” he said.
“You should really look at those rules, because if you don’t, you’re going to wake up later and realize you’ve been living your life by someone else’s rules.”
