From Shropshire Star paperboy to Twitter millionaire
Even at the age of 13, paper boy Simon Hudson was showing all the entrepreneurial qualities that have seen him recently become a self-made millionaire.
Fiercely ambitious and with an obsession for making money, he wanted to amass his own seven-figure fortune by the time he turned 30.
He didn't make that demanding target – but a week after his 31st birthday, it was job done.
And Mr Hudson, who was born and bred in Shrewsbury but now lives in Dubai, credits his first job delivering the Shropshire Star as critical on the road to riches.
"The newsagent in Bomere Heath, where I lived and was brought up, ran paper rounds," he said.
"I would have been about 13 or 14 at the time.
"There were six rounds, each delivering 50 papers a day for £7 a week.
"There was a huge waiting list so I contacted the Shropshire Star and said can I have a paper round?
"They said I needed to have at least 15 papers on the round to start one so I went out into the surrounding areas around Bomere Heath to try and find customers.
"I had a few friends in Leaton, a village nearby.
"It was a five-mile bike trip, but it meant I could get 15 papers and I could get my own round.
"So I was buying the papers from the Shropshire Star, and delivering and selling them on for a mark up.
"You don't realise it at the time, but I suppose looking back now even then I was running my own little business.
"I was getting paid £16 a week to deliver 15 papers while my friends were getting paid £7 to deliver 50.
"After a bit I started paying my friend, who was doing one of the Bomere Heath rounds, £8 a week to go and do my round. So I was making an £8 profit a week without actually doing anything!
"I did it for around two-and-a-half years."
Fast forward nearly 20 years and Mr Hudson is sitting pretty.
Last year he set up Twitter-based start-up tech firm Brndstr – pronounced "brandster" – in Dubai.
He said: "I saw companies on Facebook and Twitter getting literally thousands of likes and followers, but not actually utilising or doing anything with them."
His aim? To turn them into "brand ambassadors".
Using Brndstr on Twitter, people can get 'buy one get one free' or other discounted offers by recommending, for instance, a restaurant, to friends and followers.
The firm has recently agreed a deal with Le Meridien hotels and other clients include Virgin Megastores.
"For example, one offer to be put in place is if a customer at one of the hotel's bars messages a picture of themselves to @brndstr and includes the hashtag #LeMeridienMinaSeyahi, they would then receive a pin number enabling a 'buy one, get one free' drink deal," Mr Hudson said.
Brndstr has been a roaring success.
Mr Hudson, a former pupil of The Corbet School in Baschurch, employs seven members of staff.
He secured $600,000 in funding from Dubai-based Funsho International last year – and his backers have now pledged a further million.
"I always said I wanted to become a millionaire by the age of 30," he said.
"Well, I got there a week after I turned 31! I'm still trying to count it as 30.
"It's all only on paper though."
After leaving school at 16, Mr Hudson went on to do a modern apprenticeship with BT before going to university in Edinburgh to study computer science.
He worked in real estate before forming Brndstr, including a spell marketing Donald Trump's much-vaunted Trump Towers development in Miami.
But the entrepreneurial streak has never left him.
"I have always been looking to make money," he admits.
"When I was at university I tried to build and get the patent for a see- through toaster as I kept burning my toast.
"You have a microwave, you can look through them, see when its about to explode and get it out. But you have to play toast roulette. It was all this kind of stuff."
Mr Hudson married his partner Amanda last year.
The pair have no children – "the business is my baby at the moment" – but he is well aware of the importance of family and roots.
His mum and dad, although now separated, both still live in Shropshire in Telford and Shrewsbury respectively and he was back in the county this week to see family and friends.
Are they surprised by his success?
"Maybe, but they know what I am like," he said. "I don't know if I should say this, but I used to make and sell fake ID cards at school.
"We would go to clubs and give the bouncers fake IDs.
"It rebounded on us when we turned 18 though. We tried to start using proper ID but they knew we had already been going for a couple of years, so we got banned!"
His UK visit also has a secondary purpose – he is looking to share his new-found wealth by sponsoring a county sports team.
Mr Hudson said: "I follow very closely people like Richard Branson, and the key thing is never forget your roots. I still want to keep my feet grounded.
"I want to sponsor sports teams here in Shropshire. Through Twitter we will be asking children to send in videos of themselves with their sports teams saying why they should be sponsored, and we will pay for new kits and other costs for the chosen winners."
