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Young Entrepreneur Andrew Dewar Sold His First Business At 15, What's Next?

This Young Chap Sold His First Business At 15, What's He Up To Now?
Asa Bennett
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Some have business ideas young, but Andrew Dewar had already built up and sold his business by the age of 15 - a social network he set up two years ago called Ooblur. The young entrepreneur, now 16 years old, won't let on how much he sold it due to the terms of the deal, so you know it did not go for nothing.

Dewar has now moved onto two new businesses, an advertising network JustAdvertise.me and a fashion line - FENO. And he's already aiming for even more success.

HuffPostUK caught up with him to find out how the 16-year old serial entrepreneur is getting on with his new projects.

Why did you decide to sell Ooblur?

I decided to sell Ooblur because I actually got pretty bored of the site and I believe if you get bored of your own product, you shouldn't be running the company. I decided it was time to let someone else run the site and share the same enjoyment I used to get out of Ooblur.

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Andrew at the age of 14, when he started up Ooblur

I also had a couple of other companies I was working on and I found it hard to find the time to work on all the projects, as well as Ooblur.

What was the idea behind the advertising company?

I started JustAdvertise.me nine months ago because I was getting a bit annoyed at the big advertising networks like Google Adsense taking 50% of publishers’ revenue. I have been there myself and I know how hard publishers work to create great content and the bigger companies take a lot of there revenue, it annoyed me, so JustAdvertise.me is the lowest commission taking ad network. We only take 20% compared to the big advertising companies 50%.

Now we serve over 3 million ad impressions a month.

How did you take the leap into fashion with FENO?

FENO didn't really start as a business, I just wanted to make cool clothes to my taste, that I would just wear, then a lot of my friends said they liked the clothes and ended up buying them, so I actually ended up entering the fashion industry by accident! I then set up a professional website and made everything official, contacted fashion blogs, then I started getting orders.

I got a lot of orders from the @Fenoclothing Instagram page and that I believe my business wouldn't have taken off if it wasn't for social media.

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How have you got those businesses going? Did you use proceeds from Ooblur?

Everything has been funded out of my own pocket. Obviously having the capital from the Ooblur sale has helped, but I have created everything my self. A lot of people are surprised by that and say "didn't your dad help you?" but no, I've always had to start my projects out of my own money. I have had a lot of venture capitalists interested, but I feel a VC would want to change everything about my companies and I want the freedom to run my companies the way I want.

What's the aim with the businesses now over the next few years?

The plan is to continue growing FENO into an international brand, getting celebrities wearing the clothes and also growing JustAdvertise.me, then eventually sell JustAdvertise.me. That's the plan for now.

You told us last year that "I'm interested in starting lots of different companies from different sectors" - do you still have that? Or are you focusing on your two firms for now?

I'm focusing on JustAdvertise.me and FENO at the moment but I would really like to get into investing in new start ups and help out other entrepreneurs, especially young entrepreneurs.

Who are your inspirations as an entrepreneur?

My inspirations are Lord Sugar, Roman Abramovich, Theo Paphitis, Mark Zuckerberg and I am also inspired by Jay Z, Floyd Mayweather, Jaden Smith and the Kardashian family. I am especially inspired by Jaden Smith and the Kardashians because they are so young and they know how to use their fame and influence to create a successful business.

I would love to meet all these people at some point!

Interview continues below gallery

How Entrepreneurs Come Up With Great Ideas
"You're Never Too Old" -- Vivek Wadhwa, vice president of academics and innovation, Singularity University(01 of11)
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Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, Paul Allen and Bill Gates with Microsoft, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs with Apple -- those success stories lead some people to think that coming up with big ideas is a young person's game. But the tech entrepreneurs who rose to early fame and fortune are just the outliers. The typical entrepreneur is a middle-aged professional who learns about a market need and starts a company with his own savings.Research that my team completed in 2009 determined that the average age of a successful entrepreneur in high-growth industries such as computers, health care and aerospace is 40. Twice as many successful entrepreneurs are aged over 50 as under 25, and twice as many over 60 as under 20.Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:Facebook)
"Get Inspired By History" -- Sam Calagione, founder and president, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Inc.(02 of11)
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You often hear about the pursuit of the new new thing. But I believe entrepreneurs have a lot to gain by looking into history for inspiration.In the mid-'90s, some beer enthusiasts and experts called us heretics for brewing beers with ingredients outside of the "traditional" water, yeast, hops and barley. So, I started researching ancient brewing cultures and learned that long ago, brewers in every corner of the world made beer with whatever was beautiful and natural and grew beneath the ground they lived on.We now make a whole series of Ancient Ales inspired by historic and molecular evidence found in tombs and dig sites.Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:Getty)
"Head Into The Weird Places" -- Victor W. Hwang, co-founder, CEO and managing director, T2 Venture Capital(03 of11)
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For entrepreneurs to stretch their brains, they should seek out the unusual.Watch and listen to weird stuff. I enjoy watching obscure documentaries and listening to unusual podcasts. It's thrilling to find cool ideas lurking just a few clicks away.Walk in weird places. I take walks in hidden suburban neighborhoods, department stores, community colleges. When you're walking with no purpose but walking, you see things in fresh ways, because you have the luxury of being in the present.Talk to weird people. Striking up conversations with people who are different from you can be powerful. I still remember random conversations with strangers from decades ago, and how they shaped me.Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:Facebook)
"Think Big" -- Kevin Colleran, venture partner, General Catalyst Partners(04 of11)
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There are several factors an entrepreneur should consider when choosing a business idea or opportunity.Go big or go home: There are opportunities to make money by building businesses that marginally improve on existing products or services, but the real thrill sets in when the decision is made to go after an enormous idea that seems slightly crazy.Make the world a better place: The best kind of entrepreneur pursues a business that simplifies or improves the lives of many people. He or she repeatedly asks "what if" when thinking about how the world works and how the status quo could be dramatically improved.Fail fast: As overall startup costs decline and markets move much more quickly, it has become easier to test ideas without devastating consequences of failure.Pivot quickly: Many of the most successful companies exist in a form that is entirely different from how they were first envisioned. A successful entrepreneur will realize when a company is moving in the wrong direction or is missing a much larger opportunity.Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:Twitter)
"What Not To Do" -- Guy Kawasaki, author and former chief evangelist of Apple(05 of11)
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One thing that isn't a rich vein of entrepreneurship gold: reading a market forecast from a big-name consulting firm and deciding to create a product to serve that need.Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:AP)
"Let Your Subconscious Do the Work" -- Ben Baldwin, co-founder and CEO, ClearFit(06 of11)
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When the mind is occupied with a monotonous task, it can stimulate the subconscious into a eureka moment. That's what happened to me. The business model for my company, ClearFit, which provides an easy way for companies to find employees and predict job fit, hatched in the back of my mind while I was driving 80 miles an hour, not thinking about work at all.The subconscious mind runs in the background, silently affecting the outcome of many thoughts. So, take a break and smell the flowers, because while you're out doing that, your mind may very well solve the problem that you are trying to solve or spark a solution to a problem you hadn't considered before.Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:Twitter)
"Look At What's Bugging You" -- David Cohen, founder and CEO, TechStars(07 of11)
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Ideas for startups often begin with a problem that needs to be solved. And they don't usually come while you're sitting around sipping coffee and contemplating life. They tend to reveal themselves while you're hard at work on something else.For instance, one company of mine, earFeeder, came about because I wanted news on music I loved and found it hard to get. So I created a service that checks your computer for the music you have stored there, then feeds you news from the Internet about those bands, along with ticket deals and other things.Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:Youtube)
"Be Present In Life" -- Angela Benton, founder and CEO, NewME Accelerator(08 of11)
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Start your brainstorming with problems that you are personally invested in. Building a business is hard as hell and takes the kind of relentless dedication that comes from personal passion.The next big question is "How?" Great ideas and innovations come from executing on your idea in a different way than everybody else is attacking it, if they're attacking it at all. A great way to do this is to look outside of your industry to see how others are solving problems. Approaches that they think are routine might be out of the ordinary for you—and inspire great ideas.Also, most businesspeople tend to ignore our creative side until we really need it. Making sure that your life has a balance of the arts is a great way to stay engaged creatively.This last tip will seem insanely obvious. However, in the world we live in, it's easier said than done: Simply be present in life.I'm sure you can relate to how overconnected we all are. Something as simple as having a cup of coffee becomes a juggling act of replying to emails and managing schedules. It's easy to miss a potential piece to your innovation puzzle when it's right under your nose if you aren't there.Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:Facebook)
"Attack Practical Problems" -- Brian Spaly, founder and CEO, Trunk Club(09 of11)
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Make a note whenever you encounter a service or a customer experience that frustrates you, or wish you had a product that met your needs that you can't find anywhere. Then ask yourself, is this a problem I could solve? And how much time and money would it take to test my idea?That last point is crucial. As my sage Stanford professor Andy Rachleff encouraged me, "Make sure you can fail fast and cheaply." In business school, I had a couple of big ideas. One was improving domestic airline service—which would have cost millions and taken years. I decided to pursue another opportunity that was a lot cheaper and would show results faster—a clothing line called Bonobos.In the end, it took me just nine months and $15,000 of startup funds to get a little traction and market feedback.Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:Twitter)
"Taking It To Market" -- Ellen Rudnick, professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business(10 of11)
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It is important to look at an idea in two ways: first, to consider the initial inspiration for the business, and second, the often very different concept that ends up being executed to create the new company. We typically think of these ideas as the thing that sets these great entrepreneurs on the path of success. However, an idea is only that until you do something with it. Great entrepreneurs also discover the strategies to deliver the new innovative solution to the market.Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:Twitter)
"Listen To People Who Know" -- Dave Lavinsky, co-founder and president, Growthink Inc.(11 of11)
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Entrepreneurs come up with great ideas in a number of ways. Here are some of the best.Get customer feedback: Listen to customers and create products and services that give them more of what they like and/or remove what they dislike.Listen to front-line employees: The workers who manufacture the widgets, interact with customers and so on see what takes too long to accomplish, what is too expensive, what causes problems. Talk to those workers, or even do those jobs yourself.Reverse assumptions: Many great entrepreneurs come up with ideas by reversing assumptions. For example, the old assumption was that a bank needed to have tellers and branch locations. The ATM concept asked: How can we offer banking services without having a branch location and tellers?Source: The Wall Street Journal (credit:Facebook)

What have you learned so far in your early years in business?

I've learnt a lot in my business years. When I owned Ooblur, I had to manage a lot of advertising sales and I have to admit, I was very naive and rude, I expected people to know how advertising worked and got angry when people criticised the company.

I have learned from those days and now try to help out anyone, even if they are criticising my company.

I remember someone said JustAdvertise.me was a scam and I ended up giving this guy £5 to advertise his business on JustAdvertise.me. I just think if you go the extra mile and be nice to everyone, you will be way more successful in business. At the end of the day, the client always knows best and you've got to listen to them!

What's your ultimate aim as an entrepreneur?

My ultimate aim as an entrepreneur is to wake up and have the freedom to do whatever I want. I want to travel, live somewhere hot and one day own a super yacht!

I also want to raise as much money for charity that I can. I'm fully aware there are people out there less fortunate than I am and I want to change that. A lot of people say that but I really do want to change a lot of peoples' lives. I'm even doing a charity skydive!

I'd love to retire at 30, but I don't see that happening because I love business and my job!

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