Enlarge image
Boss at 16:
young entrepreneur Amir Gdamsi
Photo:
Patrik Temme
It is shortly after 4 p.m.,
Amir Gdamsi
(16) is too late.
His customer, the owner of a car dealership in Dortmund, is already waiting.
A short clap.
"Moin, are you okay?"
Then Gdamsi switches to business mode.
"I've built a new strategy - we need to do more content curation and crowdsourcing."
Gdamsi rewinds technical word after technical word, the car dealership owner nods.
Amir Gdamsi is 16 years old, a student and has been an entrepreneur for two years.
Germany's youngest entrepreneur, as Gdamsi himself emphasizes.
Every day after school he rushes to see customers.
"At first I didn't take him seriously, after all I'm almost 30 years older," says the 44-year-old car dealership owner.
"But the boy is not your typical teenager."
He is now enthusiastic about the young entrepreneur.
Gdamsi shows full commitment to his dream.
He works 90 hours a week, he says.
Next to the school.
He has just founded his second start-up.
How does it work?
And is that going well?
The beginnings of the young entrepreneur
It has been two years since Amir Gdamsi found his calling.
At that time he received a letter, an invitation to an event where young founders introduce themselves to schoolchildren.
Gdamsi, Dortmund's district student representative, goes there without great expectations.
But then he's electrified.
"The career path of an entrepreneur, the independent and free action, the attention - that's what attracted me," says Gdamsi today.
It was then that he decided to become an entrepreneur.
But at the age of 14 he is not yet legally competent.
His parents, the youth welfare office, the school management have to agree.
In court.
But Gdamsi is convinced.
He said today that he wasn't busy with school and had a very good grade point average.
"I have an IQ of 130 and I intend to use my skills."
When he talked about his idea at home, his mother was skeptical.
"I wasn't sure if Amir could do it outside of school," she says.
But the euphoria of her son and the promise not to neglect school convince
Marta Gdamsi
.
The youth welfare office also checks - and is convinced.
The school management remains skeptical and does not want to agree.
"I don't mince my words and also say things that don't suit the school," says Gdsami.
Finally, after a conversation, the headmaster also agrees.
The first foundation
Now the way is clear.
Gdamsi founds the marketing agency AGM.
Every day after school he starts working, for two years now.
Gdamsi is very happy with that today.
"I look in the mirror and see the personality that fills me," says the 16-year-old.
His business plan initially consists of building websites for smaller companies and managing social media channels.
Today that's just a small component.
With its four employees, Gdamsi helps companies to recruit staff, especially young staff - in times of increasing shortages of skilled workers.
The four permanent employees of the agency are hardly older than the 16-year-old boss.
"At 24 you're already old here," says Gdamsi with a laugh.
While his customers sometimes still think about placing job advertisements in the newspaper, Gdamsi knows where his generation is moving: on social media. His company looks after social media channels for customers, creates websites and advertising films, and places advertisements. Obviously, customers are willing to forgive some negligence: There are a number of spelling errors on Gdamsi's own website.
Nevertheless, the company could have long-term success, says the business start-up expert,
Andreas Kuckertz
. "If the start-up makes young target groups accessible to companies with its offer, then the young age of the employees is also a great strength." According to its own information, Gdamsi currently has a monthly turnover in the five-digit range with the business.
Another idea
Independence is in Amir Gdamsi's genes: his mother runs a café, his father runs a trading company, a grocery store and a real estate company.
Even Amir Gdamsi is not one company enough.
A few months ago he founded
his second start-up with
Noah Trojanowski (19): Breams.
The two founders rent out advertising space that can be transported by bike.
When Noah Trojanowski ran for the federal election that year, he sought help from AGM Marketing.
There the two came up with the idea of not just hanging up advertising posters, but of transporting them through the city by bike.
Everyone turned around to look at the poster, says Gdamsi.
From then on it was clear: "The idea has to be marketed".
Gdamsi claims to have built up a large corporate network with the marketing agency and was able to convince some customers of his new idea - including Volksbank and the city of Dortmund.
Breams has started a campaign every week since it was founded.
Mobile advertising costs 100 euros per day.
Is that lucrative?
Breams takes care of the pressure and the drivers still have to be paid.
"There isn't much left," says Gdamsi.
That's how big the long-term opportunity for start-ups is
Christine Volkmann
, professor for business start-ups and economic development at the University of Hohenheim, is nevertheless cautiously confident about Gdamsi's startups. "Both start-ups have a chance of success". There are already a lot of agencies for digital marketing - but hardly any that are managed by people who grew up with social media so intensively, or are still growing up with it. And Breams is also an innovative, creative business idea. It is questionable, however, whether money can be made with it in the long term if the business model is not expanded further.
The question remains: Is it possible to be an entrepreneur and a student at the same time?
"Sometimes I don't know myself how to get everything under one roof," says Gdsami.
He works around 90 hours a week, 12 hours a day, including weekends.
Although he tries to clear his head with exercise as often as possible, he often doesn't have the time even for that.
"Not everyone would be able to withstand this physical pressure."
Under the pressure, what Gdamsi's mother feared two years ago has now happened.
While Amir was a very good student in the past, his grades are now only average.
He says he doesn't have a clear head for school.
During class, he would answer emails, think about his business.
And after school he works until 11 p.m. every day.
Nevertheless, the 16-year-old intends to continue.
His next plan, like his father, is to get into the real estate business, he says.
After graduating from high school, he would like to study international management.
"I have a lot of ideas for new start-ups - but I still have to find the time to implement them."