SUCCESS AND THEN SOME –
May 25, 2025 – This millennial founder got his start working alongside Diary of a CEO’s Steven Bartlett, before launching a rival multimillion-pound marketing agency of his own. But before his rise in the agency world, Sam Budd was grappling with the trauma of his brother’s death, battling school expulsions, and visiting his homeless father under motorway bridges.
Money makes money. Research estimates that just 12% of CEOs come from a working-class background. And the startup world is no different: Entrepreneurs without wealth or connections face an uphill battle for funding—without the capital, connections, or safety nets their privileged peers often take for granted.
Sam Budd is an outlier. He had a rough start to life—expelled from school multiple times, with a father battling heroin addiction and an alcoholic stepdad.
“My dad was a heroin addict, and my half-brother was in foster care. It was very heartbreaking to be a part of that,” he recalls to Fortune. “As I was growing up, I had to deal with my dad being under bridges, homeless.”
