Timothy (or Tim) Armoo became a millionaire before turning 30. Now, as Gen Zers blame a brutal job market and AI for their struggles, the millionaire entrepreneur isn\u2019t having any of it: He says this is actually the easiest moment in history to get rich.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is scarily easy\u201d to build wealth right now, Armoo told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cThis is the greatest era of wealth creation ever. And it kind of pains me when a lot of young people are like, \u2018I\u2019m bored.\u2019 How can you be bored? This is the greatest technology ever in history, and you\u2019re not obsessing over it.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cIn 2026, if you\u2019re talking about the small things [that you can do to become successful], one of the most obvious things is to build relatively small projects with AI.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Armoo knows more than most what it\u2019s like to make it, despite the odds being stacked against you. Sent to live with his grandmother in Ghana as a baby, he described the start of his life as \u201cuncertain and dangerous.\u201d When he finally moved back to London, home became a council estate in the middle of gang violence and knife crime.<\/p>\n Yet despite arriving in the U.K. with no money, no network, and years of instability behind him, Armoo started his first business\u2014a tutoring service\u2014at just 14, scaling it to 65 tutors within six weeks. By 17, he already had an acquisition under his belt: the sale of his publication, Entrepreneur Express, to Horizon Media. In 2017, while most of his university peers were out partying, he spent his second year founding Fanbytes, an influencer marketing agency that went on to land clients like the U.K. government, Deliveroo, and Samsung<\/a>. Brainlabs acquired it in 2022 for an eight-figure sum, when Armoo was just 27.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that Gen Z don\u2019t want nine-to-five jobs<\/a>. Research, surveys, and snap polls have consistently revealed that the latest generation of workers want to be their own boss<\/a>\u2014and Armoo says AI has made that dream more achievable than ever. He\u2019s put real money behind the claim, too.<\/p>\n \u201cAI enables you to think of an idea and put it out into the world,\u201d Armoo added. \u201cAnd social media means that you don\u2019t need to pay someone in order to do it. You just need to spend time on the platform and just keep posting.\u201d<\/p>\n And he\u2019s backing that up with cash. Armoo\u2019s just launched Legon Fund<\/a>, where he\u2019s committed \u00a35 million (around $6.7 million) of his own cash to fund AI startups founded by minority entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason I did that was that my wealth wave was social media,\u201d he explained. \u201cNow I think the wealth wave is AI, and I don\u2019t want anyone to say, \u2018Well, I had the idea, but I didn\u2019t have the money to distribute it.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cSo now, you have no excuse, because you can learn\u2014ChatGPT and Claude are virtually free\u2014and if you\u2019ve got something that\u2019s working, here\u2019s the money to get more customers for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Entry-level hiring has slowed sharply as companies lean on AI, and Gen Z graduates are applying to hundreds, sometimes thousands of roles without a single offer to show for it. But Armoo isn\u2019t wrong: It has perhaps never been easier to ditch the corporate ladder and become your own boss.<\/p>\n A generation ago, creating a shop front and marketing your business would have required renting a physical space and splashing out on ad space in your local paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now entrepreneurs don\u2019t even need to leave home to build a website on Squarespace,\u00a0sell directly to\u00a0customers on TikTok<\/a>, and catch up with contractors or clients anytime on Zoom.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gen Zers, the oldest of whom were born in 1997, have barely known a world without those tools.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much more infrastructure available for people who want to create things of their own,\u201d says Natasha Stanley, head coach at careers site Careershifters.org, previously told Fortune<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> adding that there\u2019s been a \u201cdemocratization of access to the entrepreneurial world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Chase Gallagher, the 24-year-old founder of $1.5 million a year CMG Landscaping, echoed<\/a> that starting a business is \u201ceasier now than ever before because 20 years ago we didn\u2019t have this here\u201d\u2014while pointing to his phone. \u201cThis device has made me millions of dollars because it\u2019s helped me market my business.\u201d<\/p>\n And in fact, plenty of Gen Zers are already ahead of the curve: The second-fastest-growing job title among the generation is \u201cfounder,\u201d according to LinkedIn<\/a>. According to Intuit\u2019s Entrepreneurship in 2026 report<\/a>, 43% of Gen Z are considering starting a business in 2026\u2014more than any other age group.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy generation doesn\u2019t want to go work a consulting or banking job. They don\u2019t even want to be an astronaut anymore,\u201d Steven Schwartz,<\/a> the Gen Z founder and CEO of the creator-commerce platform Whop, previously told Fortune<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> \u201cThey want to make content online; they want to find customers online.\u201d<\/p>\n His advice? \u201cThe biggest learning is you have to just start a business if you want to. You can\u2019t be successful in business if you\u2019re not starting a business. That\u2019s step one,\u201d Schwartz says, laughing. \u201cSo I think just doing it is a huge thing and not really worrying about, \u2018What if this doesn\u2019t work?\u2019 Because like, what if it does work?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nArmoo is putting his money where his mouth is\u2014$6.7 million of it<\/h2>\n
Gen Z is giving up on corporate jobs entirely and increasingly betting on themselves\u00a0<\/h2>\n