Timothy Armoo, co-founder and former CEO of Fanbytes.
Tim Armoo.
Timothy Armoo, co-founder and former CEO of influencer marketing firm Fanbytes, isn’t what you’d expect from a multi-millionaire.
He says he owns no mansions or any property at all, preferring to spend some of his money on eclectic investments, from an exotic fruit business in Africa to financing the sale of a lithium mine.
Armoo made its money by selling Fanbytes to digital marketing agency Brainlabs in May 2022 for an eight-figure sum (the exact amount was not disclosed).
But the young entrepreneur told CNBC Make It that after growing up poor in public housing in south London, he felt “almost too crippled to spend money”.
“I was convinced that if I started spending money, everything would start going away,” Armoo said, explaining what he calls the “scarcity mindset” he developed growing up.
“I would watch it every week, maybe twice a week,” he said. “I had this spreadsheet where I would keep track of how much money 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 everything – so he called his bank. “I said, ‘I’d like to come and withdraw a million pounds in cash.’
After various checks, Armoo collected the cash from the bank and took it home in a large bag. Then he spread everything on his bed.
“I just looked at him,” he said. “The reason I did it was I wanted to make it very visceral to me: ‘Dude, if all else fails, if you spend it all on gambling or spend it on cryptocurrency or something bad, at least you’ve got a million pounds in cash.'”
‘Completely exotic’ investments
Armoo said it invests its money in index funds — passive funds that track an index like 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 treasuries. And then the other side of things is totally exotic.”
Some of Armoo’s more unusual investments include financing avocado, soy and mango businesses in Kenya, Angola and Tanzania.
Armoo on a banana farm in Angola
Tim Armoo.
He also admitted dabbling in “random business” 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 money instead of ‘we’re going to put it all in index funds,'” he said.
Armoo is minimalist and not a host
Most wealthy people like to invest in real estate, but not Armoo.
“I don’t actually have a home. I’m not involved in any residential or direct commercial property,” he said.
“Most people see property as a way to build wealth, but I use business as a 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 young millionaires to make that choice, giving up property so they can travel more and move around more. “I probably only spend half the year in London,” he said.
Unlike his peers, he is less inclined to buy extravagant things.
“I’m generally a pretty minimalist person,” he said. An example he gave of “skyline” purchases were first class flights to Bali for him and his now ex. “It was cool. I remember thinking, ‘No, that’s a gangster.’
The young millionaire emphasized that sometimes it is good to give up traditional jobs.
“I think there’s actually a bigger point here, which is to examine the rules by which you live your life. You have to examine them and say, ‘Well, why do I have to do this?’ Why should I choose this career? Why should I invest? my money like this?” he said.
“You really have to study those rules, because if you don’t, you’re going to wake up later and realize you’re living by someone else’s rules.”
