Tom Stockill
News & Notes
Archie Hewlett (2007) From The Sunday Times, April 2015 by Tom Stockill
Mini-Bransons turn their back on ivory towers Teenagers with good A-level grades are choosing start-ups over getting a degree. With better advice, more would follow.
A public school education gave Archie Hewlett excellent A-level grades, but little appetite for university. At just 18, he wanted to set up a business, not become an undergraduate. “We had spent our whole time at school getting ready for university and I assumed that’s where the path had to go,” said Hewlett, who left Radley, near Oxford, with an A* and three As at A-level. He gave up a place to read psychology at Durham, and instead studied how to become his own boss. 158
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After time spent travelling and toying with ideas, Hewlett set up Duke & Dexter, which sells affordable but highquality slip-on shoes. He borrowed £9,000 from his parents, the equivalent of his first year’s university fees, and contacted manufacturers overseas. His family provided more than financial support for the fledgling entrepreneur. “In the early stages, I always went to the family for feedback on ideas or support with the more boring aspects of business, such as accounts and legal criteria,” said Hewlett, now 20. Today, he has three staff at his base in Watlington, Oxfordshire, and he has repaid his parents in full. The business, which has seen revenues grow 20% month-on-month since it started, has won a string of repeat clients, including Eddie Redmayne. He wore a pair of Duke & Dexter shoes in February when he collected the Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in the film, The Theory of Everything.
Hewlett sells to 85 countries and has stockists at home and abroad. Materials come from Italy and Spain and his manufacturers are in Portugal. Youth has not held him back. “We have had high-net-worth clients who looked surprised when I met them, but my age is not something I need to justify,” Hewlett said. There has been an increase in support for young entrepreneurs, he added, but more should be done. “I would like to see more advice available to those who are 15 to 18 years old, who are still in school and are concerned as to whether they really must join the mad rush to get into university,” he said. “Running a business is incredibly hard work and will take over most of your life, but if you love it that’s never going to be a real problem.” High tuition fees and poor exam grades are often cited as reasons for youngsters going into business rather than higher education. For more and more of them,