Andrew Wilkinson
Andrew Wilkinson

Andrew Wilkinson

Type of Investing:

🐌Micro Private Equity

🚧Small Business Ownership

Background

MacTeens

Andrew Wilkinson started to learn how to program when he was 15; he had always been into technology and companies like Apple. He co-founded his first website when he was 16, a site called MacTeens. MacTeens was a platform where Wilkinson could talk about innovations in technology and review different tech for his peers. It was super cool for him, as a teenager, to be able to email different companies and have them send him tech to review for his website. At the age of 17 Wilkinson was invited to tour the Apple store - but he wasn't aware that Steve Jobs was the tour guide. He was able to have a brief interview with Jobs.

After Highschool

Wilkinson's father convinced him to give away MacTeens and go to college for a time, although the moment he arrived he felt out of place. After just 3 months he dropped out and returned home, doing data entry at a grocery store chain for work. After some frustrating exchanges with a boss who didn't want to automate the data entry process, Wilkinson quit that, too.

MetaLab

When he was 19, with no money and no job, Wilkinson realized that it would be difficult to start working for a large company like Google since most are based in the United States and he was a Canadian without a Visa (or a college degree). This motivated him to start freelancing, and he quickly realized that if he posed as an agency he would attract more work. Wilkinson invented the name MetaLab, threw up a website with some pictures of his friends, and started calling startups. He would always say "we" or "my team" when talking to clients, but in reality it was just him working solo on their projects.

Growth

Now MetaLab has grown and Wilkinson has, too. He has founded over 20 companies, including Tiny, a 2-man operation that buys startup internet companies. Wilkinson certainly has an entrepreneurial mindset.

Tiny Capital

Sources