Akshay Ruparelia from Harrow, North East London is a regular 19-year-old who completed his A levels last year at Queen Elizabeth's boys' grammar school in Barnet. He's also the millionaire managing director of online estate agent Doorsteps.co.uk, the "Uber" of the property world which was recently valued at £12 million after doing business for just over a year.
Ruparelia told Business Insider: "The commission estate agents in Britain charge is just unfair." So he came up with an idea to provide good customer service at a fair price to people who are selling their homes.
Instead of the average 2-3% commission most property agents apply to a sale -- which on an average London property equates to about £10,000, according to Ruparelia -- Doorsteps charges just £99.
Ruparelia set the Doorsteps site live just over a year ago, and in a recent funding round it was valued at £12 million. He raised almost £400,000 ($530,000) with around 500 investors via Crowdcubein return for just over 3% of his business. He sold his first house -- a five-bedroom detached house with a swimming pool -- while he was taking his A levels.
The owner also decided to sell land next to the house through Doorsteps, which resulted in the company selling £650,000 worth of property for him in total.
But instead of going out celebrating, Ruparelia had exams to revise for. He eventually gained an A* in Maths, an A* in Economics, an A in History, A* in Politics, and an A in IFS.
