How I went from homeless to multi-millionaire tech boss in eight years
I was homeless and slept under a bridge when I was 17. Now I’m a multi-millionaire tech entrepreneur with overseas properties. Here’s how I turned my life around in just eight years
- Harry Sanders homeless at 17 after parents split
- At 25 he’s a tech millionaire keen to help others
A young entrepreneur has revealed how he went from sleeping rough to building an award-winning tech business worth millions.
At 17 Harry Sanders became homeless after his parents split, sometimes living on the streets of Melbourne alongside heroin addicts, but eight years on the company he founded as a teenager is now Australia’s largest SEO agency.
Mr Sanders’ first night after his family upheaval was spent under a bridge in Preston, but he kept focusing on his unlikely dream of building a business, even working on his laptop outside in the dark.
‘It is intimidating when it gets dark. You can hear noises and it feels like you’re constantly on edge,’ he told The Project.
‘You wake up every morning tired and groggy. Not really wanting to get up and do anything.’
Mr Sanders’ now runs his own award-winning SEO agency which is Australia’s largest
Mr Sanders had started his own small tech firm as a a teenager and he never gave up on his unlikely dream
What are Harry’s tips for success?
1. Sacrifice: Harry was forced to skip going to classes at uni and going to parties with mates because he dropped out of high school and never went to uni, and instead jumped into the business world early on.
2. Accept your struggles as your path to success: He understands now that the struggles and adversity he has faced has brought him to where he is today.
3. Honesty is always #1: ‘Transparency is our biggest underlying value. Sometimes this means falling on our sword when we make mistakes, but businesses respect a company that takes responsibility,’ he said.
4. Lay it all out on the table: Harry’s generosity and willingness to take risks has paid off. ‘Putting everything I have into what I do is what keeps me on top. I never stop giving, and I have been given so much in return,’ he said.
5. Never lose sight of how far you’ve come: He never gets too caught up in his success because he’s seen the struggle and knows how fortunate he is to be so successful today.
In the daytime, he charged his phone and laptop, used wifi and made work calls from his local St Vincent de Paul.
Still, Mr Sanders found himself struggling to get benefits from Centrelink and when he did he ended up in dire living quarters.
When he was given government housing, he found himself rooming with people who were battling drug addiction.
Mr Sanders said it was ‘insanely tough’ to get onto Centrelink, even as a homeless 17-year-old, and he found himself jumping through ‘many hoops’.
However, his experiences living on the street and relying on Centrelink taught him valuable lessons he still applies today.
No matter how much shame and exhaustion he endured during his ‘very grim sitruation’, Mr Sanders persisted.
His daily grind paid off when he finally earned enough from a handful of clients to pay for a room in a share house.
‘I remember moving in, just getting in and just sobbing, like oh my god I have a room, I can close the door and this is my room.
‘That was a life-changing moment.’
Among the strategies he used and still swears by is getting eight hours sleep each night, researching his industry and dressing clothes that reflect the ‘real’ him each day.
Today Mr Sanders’s agency StudioHawk has three offices – in Melbourne’s Prahran, at Surry Hills in Sydney and London’s Hackney.
He owns property in London and is building his own dream home in Melbourne.
StudioHawk is worth over $4million, and has won awards such as SEMRush’s Agency of the Year and Optus Media Marketing & Advertising Business of the Year.
But Mr Sanders, who is still the youngest person in his team, is a long way from finished.
‘My vision is to lead and grow StudioHawk to be the largest dedicated SEO agency in the world, and have a boatload of fun while doing it,’ he says.
That doesn’t mean he’s setting out to join the superstar tech billionaire club.
Harry Sanders’s first night after his family dramatically split at 17 was spent living under this bridge (pictured above) at Preston in Melbourne. He’s now a multimillionaire
He now owns properties in London and Melbourne and has offices in both cities and in Sydney
‘Unlike Elon, my mission is not to get to Mars,’ he said.
‘I just want to leave the world a better place, by providing opportunity and education to at risk youth, or other such people going through difficult hardships in their life.’
Aside from StudioHawk, Mr Sanders works with youth homelessness organisation the Lighthouse Foundation.
If you are experiencing homelessness you can call Link2home 1800 152 152, the Domestic Violence Line 1800 656 463, Link2Home Veterans and Ex-Service 1800 326 989 or the Child Protection Helpline 13 21 11.
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