At the age of 18, Erik Finman made international headlines as having become the youngest verified Bitcoin millionaire. At the age of 19, Erik again made headlines, this time through his company Botangle.
Erik is an entrepreneur. However, due to his age, he is actually a very special type of entrepreneur, he’s a kidpreneur. Of all the millions of entrepreneurs the world over, there are only 500 kidpreneurs!
In recent weeks and months, we’ve covered several kidpreneurs, including: Mikaila Ulmer, Rachel Zietz, Ben Pasternak, Mo Bridges and Maya Penn (among others). And we plan to cover many more soon!
Early Life
Erik Finman was born on October 26 1998 to Paul and Lorna Finman. Paul and Lorna had met whilst at university, and had began their own company, manufacturing the signal jammers used by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Erik has two older brothers, Scott and Ross, who are both very successful in their own rights, with both having graduated university before they were 18.
Despite being highly successful entrepreneurs and university graduates, Erik’s parents don’t believe in our education system. Instead of sending them to school, they homeschooled their children.
Here, they would each be given offices at their parent’s company. Their parents would teach them about everything. This gave the Finman children a rather different perspective on life than most other children.
Erik in particular despised the concept of school, having briefly attended high school. Here, he found school poor, confusing, and most of all, a complete and utter waste of time!
Despite homeschooling their children, Erik’s parents still believed in the power of universities. As such, they expected that each of their children, including Erik, would go to university.
Erik was raised in Post Falls, Idaho, where his parents still live today.
Bitcoin
In May 2011, at the age of 12, Erik Finman had saved up $1000, mostly from money his grandmother had given him. This money had been given in order to kickstart Erik’s college fund.
As with many American parents, Erik’s parents wanted him to go to university, for no other reason than he needed it to “get a good job”.
However, Erik made a bet with them that if he could become a millionaire before he was 18, he wouldn’t have to go to university. His parents didn’t believe that he’d accomplish it, and as such, agreed to it.
At this time, Bitcoin was relatively unheard of, being priced at around $12 a coin (compared with the $15,000 per coin as of the time of writing). However, Erik saw potential in the coin, believing that it would increase in value over time.
Armed with this knowledge, Erik began learning how to trade Bitcoin from his older brothers. Not soon after, he opened an investments account, and began buying and selling Bitcoin.
Before too long, Erik knew more about Bitcoin than his brothers did, and was trading it daily, making huge profits in the meantime. With these profits, Erik would buy more Bitcoin to do it with again.
After doing this for six years, he had turned his grandmother’s initial $1000 into well over $1 million. This allowed him to win the bet he’d made with his parents, and as such, didn’t have to go to university.
Entrepreneurship
After becoming a Bitcoin millionaire, Erik had several options, many of which would see him spending the rest of his life not having to work whatsoever.
However, whilst he likely considered this option, he decided it wasn’t for him. Instead, he chose to do something different, he chose to start his own business…
Botangle
Whilst at school (in 2014), Erik found that school, whilst a noble idea originally, has become nothing more than an exam factory. He found that students were bombarded with facts and statistics that they will never use.
On top of that, Erik found that teachers often mock those students who don’t seem to understand the work. And it isn’t just behind their backs, it’s often to their faces, and often, in front of the rest of the class!
Erik spent a while looking for an alternate method of education, but they were few and far between. Mostly these were local, regional or statewide efforts, and for the most part, were very similar to traditional schools.
With this, he saw an opportunity to make give students such as himself- academically gifted, yet not in the “school way”, a way to learn freely. After doing much research, Erik decided to sell a few Bitcoin to start a startup.
However, Erik also realized he needed to learn how to code, as no website builder (available either today or at the time) could build the type of website that Erik needed.
After taking the time to learn to code, Erik founded Botangle (named as a mixture of “bots” from computing and “angle” in math). Erik would then spend the next months designing the Botangle website.
Botangle was an education website that aimed to teach you the syllabus for a particular subject, in around the same timeframe s you would in school. However, it removed the useless pieces of information and made it more enjoyable!
Botangle 2.0
By 2016, Botangle was doing extremely well. Erik had a steady stream of users, learning everything from another language, to Computing, to English, to Math, to Science.
As such, Erik was also making a large amount of money- more than he would ever make if he went to traditional school and got a traditional job. Due to this, he asked his parents if he could drop out of school and pursue his business full time.
Erik’s parents agreed. With this, he launched what he called “Botangle 2.0”. This was the same company as the “original” Botangle, still doing the exact same thing as before.
However, Erik Finman decided to broaden the scope of Botangle. At first, it had only been doing the core subjects, as well as a few optional subjects. However, “Botangle 2.0” saw almost every optional subject added.
To show the established users that this was the case, Erik sent out an email to each and every one of them. On top of this, the site received a completely new makeover.
By the end of that year, he had sold Botangle to an investor who had offered him $100,000 or 300 Bitcoin. Naturally, Erik Finman chose to sell the company for 300 Bitcoin.
Today
Today, Erik Finman’s net worth is estimated to be at around $6 million, mostly owing to his cryptocurrency holdings (according to research done by Finance Friday).
In 2017, Erik Finman worked with NASA to send a small satellite into space with the voices of “ordinary” people, entrepreneurs and celebrities. This satellite was sent into space in November 2017, earning him worldwide praise.
As with many other kidpreneurs, Erik Finman is very active on social media, having large followings on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. These accounts all have well over 20,000 followers.
Due to his extremely young age, and the fact that he is the youngest Bitcoin millionaire, Erik has received a lot of media attention. He has been interviewed by hundreds of outlets about his career as an investor and as an entrepreneur.
Many of these media outlets have performed interviews with him. Many of them bring up the concept of school, to which Erik often tells them that when he has kids, they will be homeschooled just as he was!
Erik is also known for making rather… controversial statements. He has repeatedly said that if you aren’t a millionaire in 10 years, it’s your own fault, something that has been heavily criticized for making.
How Can I Replicate What Erik Finman Did?
Short answer: You can’t. And to be brutally honest, why would you want to be a carbon-copy of someone else? Surely you’d rather be remembered for being the first to do something, not the person playing catch-up!
Chances are that you can’t really replicate what Erik has done, at least, not without a time machine. Erik has become so successful because he has taken advantage of something that he knew people would buy in the coming years.
Long answer: You can. Without belittling Erik’s achievements, you can learn a lot from what Erik did and you can replicate it for your own purposes. However, as with any worthwhile thing in life, it won’t be easy.
I’m going to assume that you, as with Erik, want to invest in something that will make you a millionaire in only a relatively short amount of time (without the “help” of get rich quick schemes).
First of all, you’re going to need to do some research, hopefully following rule one investing (or another tried-and-tested investment philosophy!) into what type of assets you want to buy.
If your goal is to replicate Erik Finman as much as possible, you’d need to research obscure, yet proven coins, to invest in. If you aren’t, you could look at strong stocks, or some types of real estate instead!
What Can we Learn From Erik Finman?
Despite only being in his early twenties, Erik is already more successful than 99% of other Americans. As such, his life can teach you a lot, not just about running a business but also about life itself!
You Don’t Need a Degree
As a kid I distinctly remember my English teacher telling me, that without a degree, you can never be successful. At that time, I, like Erik, was running my own business and going to school.
Due to this, I didn’t take much notice of her. But the vast majority of my peers did. However, Erik (as with most other kidpreneurs) has proven my old English teacher wrong. After all, Erik hasn’t got a degree…
As a kid, Erik struggled at school (as did many other successful entrepreneurs). Erik has come to realize that doing well in school will not set you up for life. And getting a degree will certainly not help.
So why would he bother spending $50,000 and three to four years of his life going to somewhere he hates, that doesn’t actually help him? He wouldn’t. So he hasn’t ever chosen to go, and likely won’t ever go (he’s very vocal about his opposition to our education system).
Be Consistent
When Erik first started out, he likely evaluated several different cryptocurrencies to invest in. Chances are, that he didn’t spend a few minutes evaluating each, he likely spent quite a few weeks doing this.
After selling his cryptocurrency, Erik had several options with his life. However, Erik decided to start his own business, likely spending several weeks evaluating each aspect of the education industry.
Once he established his business, he has similarly had to continue spending lots of time focusing on one thing. This time, it’s his business. This is because he physically can’t afford to leave his business for one day.
He doesn’t have the luxury that many other entrepreneurs have. He can’t spend 14 hours per day on his business, he has to go to school, even if he hates it.
As such, he spends every non-school related minute on his business. This isn’t just after school, but also the weekends and holidays too (yes, that may even mean Christmas!)
Diversify
With the success of the original Botangle, Erik Finman chose to relaunch the brand under what he called “Botangle 2.0”. For the most part, it was simply a modernized version of the first Botangle.
However, Erik’s “Botangle 2.0” also reached into new niches that the original Botangle did not. This allowed Botangle 2.0 to be far more successful than the original Botangle.
Erik Finman chose sell Botangle for a large profit, where he was paid in Bitcoin. Much of this Bitcoin is still part of his investment portfolio today!
However, it isn’t just Bitcoin that Erik owns. He also owns several other cryptocurrencies as Ether, alongside his main Bitcoin-backed investments portfolio.
Age is Just a Number
When we were kids, we were told that our time in school would be some of the best years of our life. We’re told to just go out, be a little silly (but still be safe) and have some fun.
For the most part, people listen to this “advice” and then spend the next thirty to forty years wishing they had not. Erik on the other hand, has not listened to this “advice”.
Instead, he invested his money as a teenager. Once he sold his Bitcoin, he decided to start his own business, competing with people often twice, or even triple his age. And he often beats them!
Most people believe that you can’t make money as a teenager, nor can you run your own business. After all, who would trust a kid? Erik proves that you can indeed do both, and people will take you seriously, if you give them a reason to!
Don’t be Afraid to do Something Different
At school we are taught one thing: Go to school, do well at school, go to a good university, get a good job and you’ll be set for life. We’re taught that the government will take care of us with a pension, which your 401(k) can supplement.
Anyone who deviates from that is considered to be “weird” or more often, “stupid”. However, Erik didn’t listen to them. Instead, he chose to do something different. Erik understands that most people with a 401(k) don’t live the life they want.
On top of this, Erik’s generation probably won’t get the national/statewide pension. He could moan about it. But instead, he has invested his money, and when this had accrued much value, his sold it and started again.
People have undoubtedly mocked Erik Finman for investing in Bitcoin. Even more people have undoubtedly mocked him for starting his business. Yet this hasn’t stopped him. In all likelihood, it has only served to drive him.
Has the story of Erik Finman inspired you? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Erik Finman.
