How Adelaide 26-year-old has a net worth of $170m

An Adelaide man has hit a net worth of $170 million at the age of 26 despite leaving a trail of failed businesses in his wake.

An Adelaide man has hit a net worth of $170 million just weeks shy of his 27th birthday.

Davie Fogarty, 26, said it took more than a dozen “failed” business ideas before he struck gold back in 2018. He was only 23 at the time.

Now, three years later, his products have become a household name and last month he was the newest addition to the AFR’s Young Rich List, ranked at number 38.

“I went to uni straight after school, tried to do a marketing degree,” Mr Fogarty told news.com.au.

“I dropped out of uni, became a personal trainer, that failed, started a bunch of businesses including a singlet [store], all a bit of a disaster. That didn’t work out either, [I was] kind of flailing around.”

Using the last $500 he had in his bank account, he started selling weighted blankets. Then the entrepreneur went a step further and started selling ‘wearable blankets’ — creating a product that is now widely known as an ‘Oodie’.

He’s since launched a number of other products including furniture and dog baskets that all sit under the Davie Group banner.

Mr Fogarty says his group of brands are on track turn over $200 million this year. In fact, he’s selling a new product every 10 seconds.

He’s failed at more than a dozen businesses, which he attributes to his success.

Failure is the key to success, according to the multi-millionaire.

As well as the failed singlet store and stint as a personal trainer, Mr Fogarty said he had a number of other steep learning curves including running his own Vietnamese restaurant.

In his lifetime, he said he’s had at least a dozen business failures — with four of those since he became a success.

He recalled “reading a lot of books, watching YouTube video, podcasts,” to learn the skills of an e-commerce enterprise, which has a big focus on marketing through social media.

Once he applied these skills, his business started to take off.

Davie Fogarty is a multi-millionaire at the age of 26.

He sold 14,000 weighted blankets and Oodies and had made $1 million in revenue in the first seven months of launch.

Since then, it has expanded the UK, Canada, the US and New Zealand.

To date, Mr Fogarty has sold 3.6 million products across these markets bringing in more than $281 million in sales.

The Covid-19 pandemic did wonders for the e-commerce space and Davie Group was no exception.

Mr Fogarty said Covid-19 “accelerated” the success of all his products.

During the pandemic lockdowns, popularity in Oodies spiked with 20,000 Victorians buying the product during the July 2020 lockdown.

By the end of October last year, as Victoria’s lockdown had just ended, 85,000 more sales came through from the beleaguered state.

However, it hasn’t all been a smooth ride.

Davie Fogarty launched other products including Pupnaps, a calming bed for dogs.

He said he worked non-stop, never taking a lunch break and working 12-hour days, six days a week.

Even now, with 79 employees helping run the company, the young entrepreneur still wakes up 4am and doesn’t usually end the work day until 6pm.

For other aspiring entrepreneurs, the young man said: “The main thing is never give up, always stay humble in the fact that you don’t know everything. Constantly talking to smarter people than yourself.”

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