15yo Gold Coast schoolboy sells his cup business for $1 million

A Queensland school student has just become an instant millionaire after selling his booming business for seven figures over the weekend.

A Queensland teen has just become an instant millionaire after selling his booming business for seven figures over the weekend.

Sam Richards, just 15 years old, from the Gold Coast, started his own plastic glassware company called Bellaforte in December 2019.

In the first week of launch, Bellaforte made $1500. His best ever month saw him rake in $180,000 in sales.

The online Amazon-based business “took off during Covid”, according to the teenager, causing him to come to the attention of Sydney e-commerce start-up aggregator Una Brands.

Last month, they entered negotiations and on Sunday, Sam sold Bellaforte for a whopping $1 million.

“It’s a lot of money to have to figure out what to do with,” the high-schooler told news.com.au. “I’ve invested most of it already.”

He’s put most of his hard-earned cash into disruptive technology stocks as well as buying a new set of headphones and a Samsung galaxy watch. When he’s old enough to get a driver’s licence, he’s going to buy a Tesla.

This was the very pool where Sam Richards came up with the winning idea. Picture: Dan Peled/Supplied

Sam was only 12 when he literally stumbled upon the idea that would eventually make him a millionaire.

He was taking drinks out to his parents by their pool when he lost his footing and the glasses shattered.

“I tripped over and smashed them,” the Gold Coast student recounted.

“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have unbreakable cups you can keep by the pool?’

“I did some research and found there was only crappy plastic cups.”

It helped that Sam was an aspiring entrepreneur and had already attended an education summit run by Amazon into how to start an e-commerce business.

He’d been on the lookout for a gap in the market and realised he’d found one.

Sam is a 15-year-old high school student who just got $1 million richer over the weekend. Picture: Dan Peled/Supplied

Trying to create an unbreakable cup, Sam first used acrylic as a material for his products.

However, there was a glaring problem.

“I did a drop test on one and it actually broke. That’s when I found tritan,” he said.

Tritan is an impact-resistant plastic that was perfect for Sam’s requirements.

He designed cups that were premium, high-quality products.

“It’s good looking, looks as good as glass. Some people can’t tell the difference,” he said.

Jetting off to China with his parents, he sourced a factory and picked his first 13 products.

Sam Richards with his family. Picture: Dan Peled/Supplied

To get enough funding to get started, Sam went to another Amazon conference, this time as a speaker.

He pitched the idea to 2000 investors in the room and it was an instant hit.

An impressive 1200 people wanted to invest in Bellaforte, offering to put in $750 each. This led to a grand total of $900,000 in crowd-funding for his business.

However, “legally” he was only able to take $15,000 in crowd-funding otherwise he’d be facing a whole bunch of compliance issues.

In the end, they had to run a lottery to choose the 20 investors who would fork out the cash.

“We bought them all [the investors] out later,” Sam said. “It was too much to handle.”

As the business rapidly expanded, he had to start looking more closely into government regulations. Luckily, his father has a background in accounting and helped out.

He started with an average of 14 orders a day.

Most of the initial funding was spent on products and advertising, which involved hiring a professional photographer and employing a marketing manager on a part-time basis.

“Amazon has all the traffic but you need to drive customers to our site,” Sam said.

Sets of the cups sell on average for $35 on the website.

Americans are the main customers and they often run out of stock.

Although Sam conceded that while it was very time-consuming to set up Bellaforte, once it was under way, he only had to put in minimal effort, which made school work easier.

“Amazon does all the shipping and stock work, so I don’t have to send out every order or manage the transactions. While I’m at school, customers are ordering.

“It means I didn’t have to spend every waking hour on my business. I had automated stuff and hired someone.”

All the profits Sam made, he reinvested into the business. The only money he’s ever taken out was $3000 for a mountain bike.

He also received dividends which he added to his shares portfolio.

Sam Richards was approached by Una Brands last month. Picture: Dan Peled/Supplied

Sam had big plans for Bellaforte, including expanding to Australia and getting deals with catering and hotel companies to stock their wares.

However, he thought it would be too difficult to do in his final years of schooling.

He will stay on as a consultant with the company for two years while in its transition process.

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