Abbi Murray
A former Burger King employee who left school with no qualifications is now in line to make a £35 million fortune.
Adam Frisby, 34, used his last £1,000 to set up a fashion brand from his bedroom in 2013.
Fast-forward eight years, In The Style has become a fast fashion empire, boasting collaborations with the likes of Dani Dyer, Stacey Solomon and Charlotte Crosby.
The company floated on the stock exchange last year for a whopping £105 million, which Frisby described as ‘an exciting new chapter in In The Style’s journey so far’.
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The entrepreneur is expected to pocket £12 million from selling some of his stake, which still leaves him with a holding worth £23 million at the start of trading.
Frisby grew up in Great Yarmouth before moving to Spain with his family during his teenage years.
During his teenage years, he returned to the UK to live with a friend in Cambridge, where he worked in Burger King just to keep himself afloat.
After a short stint in banking, Frisby quit work to look after his brother, who lost his sight in a serious car accident.
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He told Manchester Evening News: “He was in hospital for six months and we didn’t have any parents around so I came together with my sister to support him.”
After returning to Manchester to work for a disability charity, Frisby was made redundant.
“I could have signed on but I thought this was the time,” he said. “I had always wanted to do something for myself but didn’t know what it was.”
In 2013, the business-owner spotted a potential gap in the womenswear market, and, wasting no time, took £1,000 of his redundancy money to start his business.
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“I didn’t have a business model and had done no planning but I thought I would give it a go,” he said.
After buying six dresses from a wholesaler, he sold them at three times the price through social media.
Since then, In The Style has created unique collections with social media influencers and TV personalities but for Mr Frisby, ‘it is still just [his] baby’.
He continued: “I don’t get the chance to take stock and look at it from the outside.
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“Looking back, I always believed I could do something like this but I don’t think I would have expected to have been so successful.”
He also had a message for people to follow their dreams.
“A lot of people come out of school and feel quite lost,” he said.
“What my story goes to show is that it is never too late to do what you want to do in life.”