This Self-Proclaimed ‘Weird Kid’ Became a Millionaire at 19. Here’s How He Grew His Net Worth to $35 Million By 23.

It took Emil Barr conscionable 14 months of activity to spot his first $1 cardinal deed his slope account. He was 19 years aged astatine the time.

Today, astatine property 23, the laminitis and CEO, who created 2 companies while still in school, estimates that his individual nett worthy is astir $35 million. He is unapologetically aiming to beryllium a billionaire by property 30. 

Born successful Russia, Barr moved to the U.S. erstwhile he was 3 years aged and grew up successful a mini Ohio town. He stuck retired astatine an early age.

“I was the weird Russian kid that didn’t speak immoderate English,” he tells Entrepreneur. “I deliberation I ever felt retired of place. And I deliberation that arsenic an entrepreneur, you person to beryllium comfortable pinch discomfort and that emotion of cutting against the herd.”

Emil Barr. Credit: Jerry Ta, Fluff Studio

In precocious school, he made his bid pinch being different and moreover leaned into it. 

“I’m convinced each precocious schoolhouse has astatine slightest 1 weird kid that wears suits to schoolhouse each day,” he says. “You astir apt had one. That was me.”

Money, not ambition, first pushed him into entrepreneurship. When it came clip to take a college, Barr enrolled astatine Miami University, the only assemblage that he could afford. He was looking into transferring to an Ivy League school, but tuition was retired of reach. 

“I was like, If money is the limiting factor, really difficult tin it beryllium to make $100,000 [and] spell salary for a year’s tuition?” he says.

How he made his first $1 million

Barr was connected the lookout for money-making ideas erstwhile he met a classmate pinch 11 cardinal TikTok followers who was hardly earning thing from her societal media presence. 

“She sewage 1 brand deal for $200,” Barr says. “This is crazy because connected Instagram, moreover if you had a cardinal followers, that would beryllium your full-time career. This was a level that everyone was using. There was nary gross location yet.”

Barr started his company, Step Up Social, successful his freshman twelvemonth dorm room. His scheme was straightforward: Businesses had nary thought what to do pinch TikTok, but Gen Z did. Step Up Social positioned itself arsenic a societal media trading and advertizing agency focused connected creating short-form video content.

Starting the institution required small much than an iPhone and an Internet connection. 

“We grew from $0 to $1 cardinal successful gross successful six months,” Barr says of Step Up Social. “As an 18-year-old, I had nary thought what I was doing. I ne'er had a firm internship aliases thing for illustration that.”

Instead of spending the money, he reinvested successful the company’s growth.

“I deliberation the first clip I had genuinely a cardinal dollars successful my slope relationship was 14 months in,” Barr recalls. “It was the commencement of my sophomore twelvemonth of college.”

Decisions that led to accelerated growth

Growing Step Up Social meant embracing risk, particularly debt. When the institution adopted 90-day costs position pinch ample clients, location was a backing gap. Barr had to salary influencers upfront while waiting months for invoices to clear. 

“I was fundamentally moving astir and taking retired arsenic galore credit cards and slope loans arsenic I could to support the institution afloat,” he says. “I took retired astir $1 cardinal worthy of personally guaranteed unsecured loans, and everyone thought I was crazy.”

His logic was simple: At 19, he had nary assets, truthful the downside was limited. “If we failed, what were they going to do?” he says. “Were they going to return my garment aliases my car? I didn’t person anything to take.”

The 3rd cardinal decision, successful his view, was prioritizing group complete lifestyle. The “absolute champion thing” he spent money connected was hiring people pinch “20 aliases 30 years of experience,” he says. 

Early on, intent connected gathering clients, Barr cold-emailed a fewer 100 companies. The first superior wound came from Kao, a Japanese user elephantine and Procter & Gamble competitor. Barr drove his old, beat-up car an hr and a half to downtown Cincinnati and walked into a 47th-floor boardroom wearing a assemblage T-shirt and shorts. The executives gathered location asked him for his deck.

“I was like, ‘What’s a deck?’” he laughs.

Despite underpricing himself astatine “$2,000 a month,” he landed the account. That 1 statement gave Step Up Social credibility and opened doors.

“It was exponentially easier for america to get our adjacent 10 to 15 brands, and it was conscionable disconnected to the races,” Barr says. 

From there, Step Up Social scaled into a full-service TikTok trading agency, hiring influencers and managing online presences for brands and celebrities. By the clip he sold it past year, the firm, by past acquired and rolled into a larger agency, was moving pinch Procter & Gamble, Nike, Nordstrom, Kroger, Alo and Banana Republic.

“We were doing astir $2 cardinal a twelvemonth successful revenue, but it was highly precocious margins,” Barr says.

Step Up Social earned gross by connecting brands pinch creators. For example, a marque mightiness salary the institution $600 for a video. The institution would past salary the creator $400 to make it and count the remaining $200 arsenic gross for arranging and managing the deal.

“Gross transaction gross was person to $8 to $9 million,” Barr says.

Convincing his assemblage to salary him

Barr didn’t conscionable build a business while attending college; he turned the schoolhouse itself into a gross root and trading machine. He convinced his assemblage to screen his tuition fees. The schoolhouse besides paid him $200,000 and gave him a module parking pass. 

Miami University had introduced its entrepreneurship programme comparatively recently. Barr saw leverage. “I was efficaciously the only student entrepreneur connected campus,” he says. If he dropped out, “they would person nary student entrepreneurs. It wouldn’t beryllium a very compelling lawsuit study.”

He started pinch “small asks” for illustration elastic attendance, arguing that it was much important for him to tally his institution than to participate successful group projects. Then, he applied for each assistance and transportation title he could find astatine the school, winning “$40,000 successful a mates of months.”

From there, he reframed himself arsenic some a case study and a vendor. Miami University became a client. Barr’s agency turned the schoolhouse into “the most-followed nationalist assemblage connected TikTok successful America,” a consequence he argues paid backmost immoderate support galore times over.

“For each $1 they spent, whether it was successful contracts pinch america aliases grants for the business, I’m judge they made astatine slightest $10 backmost successful tuition from students who heard of Miami and were drawn to the school,” he says. “So it was astir apt a bully woody for everyone.”

Building Flashpass

Barr’s latest venture, Flashpass, looks very different from a TikTok agency. At its core, Flashpass is his reply to a looming question: What happens to workers if AI replaces 25% to 50% of jobs?

“If we could really build a measurement for these 25% to 50% of group who mightiness suffer their jobs to beryllium capable to quickly get certified online and spell find a caller occupation successful 30 days, that would beryllium a very valuable work to authorities arsenic good arsenic to individual users,” Barr explains.

Flashpass is an online level built astir “micro credentials.” Users tin learn a caller skill successful 30 days aliases little and past beryllium matched pinch jobs successful industries that request talent.

“We person things for illustration earthy energy, for illustration lipid and state careers. We person things for illustration aesculapian billing and coding,” he says. “These are each industries wherever they person a batch of occupation openings, and they can’t find capable people, and the mean salary is over $80,000 a year.”

How Flashpass makes money

The level doesn’t complaint individual users aliases employers. Instead, Flashpass sells its services to authorities governments. 

“Typically what we do is we’ll partner pinch a school, and the authorities will salary the school, and we will divided the gross pinch the school,” he says. 

The schoolhouse helps build program and enlistee candidates; the authorities treats Flashpass arsenic 1 much acquisition and workforce tool.

“If we could return this Flashpass thought and really springiness it to the authorities and make it free for everyone who loses their jobs arsenic a consequence of AI, we could build a very valuable business,” Barr says. 

The stake appears to beryllium paying off. Flashpass began pinch a $4 million, two-year aviator statement successful Ohio, pinch astir $2 cardinal successful yearly revenue. Barr says he invested astir $75,000 of his ain money to build a demo, past utilized it to onshore that pilot. Since then, the institution has added contracts successful Louisiana (about $1 cardinal a year) and Delaware ($2.3 cardinal a year), and has proposals retired successful 17 states.

“This year, conscionable based connected the existing statement volume, we’re group to do astatine slightest $8 million, and that’s a four-fold summation complete past year,” he says.

Work-life imbalance

Today, Barr estimates his nett worthy is astir $35 million, up from $25 million erstwhile he said pinch Business Insider successful December. He’s unfastened astir the individual costs of becoming a millionaire. In college, his schedule was packed to the minute. He took assemblage classes from 8 a.m. to the early afternoon, past conducted back-to-back calls until 7 p.m. and went to networking dinners. He did his “true work” connected the business until 4 a.m., finishing his time pinch three hours of sleep. 

“I gained 80 pounds,” he says. “I lived disconnected of Red Bull…four aliases 5 cans of Red Bull each day.” He skipped holidays and ignored invitations to spell out.

He’s since lost 30 pounds and hired a trainer who comes to his location doubly a day. The hardest part, he says, is realizing “it’s 3 times harder to undo the harm than to do the harm initially.”

He besides has a individual chef, a location adjunct and a driver. Barr still useful 19-hour days, but he says he’s calmer and much measured arsenic a leader pinch the other help.

One instruction he wishes he’d learned earlier: Don’t walk your 18- to 20-hour days chasing mini goals.

“It takes the aforesaid magnitude of effort to do thing large arsenic it does to do thing small,” he says.