A man has shared his ‘rags to riches’ story of how he used to sleep under bridges, struggling to find his next meal and is now a self-made millionaire who wants for nothing.
Hunter Johnson was just 13 years old when he created a computer game that saw him pull in $300 a week in revenue.
Now aged 25, the Texas native has built an information aggregation business that last year turned over $10.6 million (USD).
However, his path to success has come with challenges.
When he turned 18, family tensions ran high and Hunter decided to move out.
He crashed on friends’ beds or sofas when he could but some nights was forced to sleep outside, hiding out under bridges for cover.
Although he was homeless and at times didn’t have enough money for proper meals, the determined teenager kept pushing forward with his venture – spending his days working on his laptop in McDonald’s.
“I had quite a tense relationship with my mum, we didn’t get on that well so at 18 I moved out,” Hunter told Jam Press.
“I was still designing games and working on everything but that can take months, years even, and I wasn’t earning enough money to live on.
“I slept on friends’ sofas when I could but often I would end up camping under bridges.
“In order to work every day, I would go to McDonalds and use their WiFi and charge my laptop up.
“I don’t think they ever minded, even though I could be there for 13 hours a day working.”
“It was miserable. You always hear successful people talking about being ‘hungry’ for success.
“However for me, it was in the literal sense of the word, trying to make money so I could actually eat instead of rationing for food.”
After two years of working on his video game, Hunter was able to get a popular YouTuber dubbed ‘The Atlantic Craft’ to sign on for a promotional series, which helped make it a success.
It was enough to end his homelessness and see him pay for university, going to Arizona State, but after two years the tech wizard dropped out in 2018.
Instead of completing his degree, Hunter’s knowledge of programming led him to develop a ‘trading bot’ – which allows users to buy and sell on the stock exchange or crypto market automatically.
It became the start of his millionaire success but it also came with very big risks.
He said: “The bot allowed me to build a small hedge fund with several people I knew buying and selling.
“I did enjoy it but it was stressful.
“One day you’d be up and then the next minute you’d be down.
“There was a lot of pressure. If things weren’t going right then people would be banging on my door.
“It was a lot of stress.”
Eager to find a different way to earn his keep, Hunter then wrote an algorithm for a method known as information aggregation [collating information about someone on the internet].
He said: “I run everything through Google ads. This is the kind of product where people already know what they are searching for, and we bid on Google to be one of the first websites that pop up when they search for certain keywords.
“I made my first million liquid cash in less than six months with the new website in 2020 and another two months later – I had already made my second million.
“It was an incredibly surreal experience.
“This was the first time in my life where money was coming in hand over fist even when I wasn’t working crazy hours, and the best part was that it’s completely sustainable.
“I had more money than I knew what to do with, so I started spending it. “
By this point, Hunter was living in a flat in Australia’s tallest residential building, a few steps from the beach, and in the two years since, he has embraced the luxury lifestyle.
He said: “I’ve spent over $500,000 on jewellery like diamond Rolexes and diamond chains.
“I have three motorcycles, a jet ski, a three-story penthouse (worth $5.6million) in the middle of the city and a second multi-million dollar home on the Gold Coast with a movie theatre on the river with a jet ski.
“I’ve paid off several of my friends’ debts and bought cars for several of my friends.
“I got a Mercedes for my girlfriend at Christmas.
“Currently, life is a mixture of taking flights, spending $10,000+ at the club every weekend, throwing crazy parties, renting out yachts and bringing all my friends with me.
“If you’ve seen Wolf of Wall Street, it’s a lot like that.”
The self-made millionaire now rakes in $800,000 a month and is able to afford all the luxuries he had to live without as a teenager including driving a $400,000 McLaren car.
Hunter added: “Nothing that I’ve done is out of the realms for anyone else.
“This data system is something that normal people use all the time.
“My business isn’t for high running companies.
“It’s used by everyone that just wants to know something about whoever.”
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