I racked up £19,000 of debt on nights out and used credit cards like it was free money. But now, at 43, I run a £250million business. Here’s exactly how I got out the red

A 43-year-old who quit school and racked up thousands of pounds worth of debt has revealed exactly how he got out the red to turn his life around and become the founder of a global online learning platform worth £250million.

Sean Reddington, who grew up in Nottingham, walked out of his A-levels at the age of 16, a few months into his sixth form studies, with just a handful of GCSEs to his name.

The father-of-three recalled to the Daily Mail: ‘I just thought, this isn’t for me. I’ll get a job. I’ll survive.’ However, living at home with his parents, Sean was at a ‘loose end’, so the offer of a credit card felt too good to resist.

‘It felt like free money,’ admitted the businessman. He splashed the cash on nights out, clothes, having fun with friends, all the while convincing himself the debt did not matter because his monthly repayments were so small.

He said: ‘Back then lenders were like: “Don’t’ worry about saving. How about having this credit card instead? You don’t have to pay it all back, you can pay it off in small chunks.”‘

Sean was around £19,000 in the red before his spending spree came to a crashing halt when his parents opened his credit card letter and confronted him with the bill. ‘It wasn’t pretty,’ joked Sean. ‘But it woke me up.’

Now, the tech entrepreneur is founder and co–CEO of global AI–powered firm Thrive, which has more than 250 employees. Their Learning Management System is used by household names like Vodafone, BA and Aston Martin F1 to train and upskill their staff to better perform their roles.

Launched in 2019, it was named by the FT as one of Europe’s fastest–growing tech firms this year, and among the Sunday Times’ top 50 fastest-growing tech firms in 2025.

But the route out of debt wasn’t easy – and success was ultimately through hard work for Sean.

He thankfully saw a job ad for a graduate scheme in telesales. Despite not being qualified, Sean applied.

The businessman, whose children are aged seven, five and nine months, said: ‘I wrote to them saying “I chose not to go to university”. I remember writing it in frustration at the time, but it worked.’

Recalling his decision to quit education, Sean said: ‘I just didn’t enjoy school at all. I didn’t have a bad school. I was one of the best at football, I was popular, I got on with everyone, I was never bullied.

‘But, I just didn’t enjoy the learning part, the academic side of it. I remember being so young and saying “what on earth am I going to do with learning about the Battle of Hastings?”

‘With algebra, I remember being so inquisitive and curious, asking my parents, aunties and uncles “what do you actually use it for in your job?” And, they’d all just laugh. But had no answer.’

By his own admission, Sean had a ‘pretty normal’ upbringing in Nottingham, growing up in a detached home with his parents and sister, ‘playing outside with his friends’.

His own mother a teacher and surrounded by a family of academics, Sean recalled the graduation photos proudly displayed on the wall of his grandparents’ home. 

He said: ‘There are only two out of the ten grandchildren who didn’t go to university – and I am one of them. At the time, I felt like the black sheep of the family. University just never felt right for me. I just didn’t want to go.’

Thankfully, Sean eventually discovered he possessed a skill nobody at school had encouraged him to pursue.

He said: ‘No one ever suggested sales in those careers lessons because I think sales wasn’t really deemed a profession. It’s always had a stigma that it’s not a real job.’

Sean found he had an instinct for communicating with people. He said: ‘I can talk to an 85–year–old grandma in a care home in the same way I could be in a booth talking to a 21–year–old. I quickly found that I had that ability, that skill, really early in my career.’

Sean believes schools should spend more time teaching children about money, business and practical life skills rather than topics that won’t prove useful in the real world.

He said: ‘I’d love maths at school to get rid of all that algebra and just focus on what a profit and loss account is, what a balance sheet is, what a net recurring revenue model is.’

And, Sean’s view on university remains as strong today as it was in his teens. And, he will certainly not be pushing his children to go.

He said: ‘University doesn’t really matter any more. The whole system needs to change. Unless, it’s a specialist subject like medicine, I’m quite against it.

‘My sister is a dentist, so I’m over the moon she did eight years at university because I know she’s medically trained when she does my teeth.

‘Whereas, I think 75 per cent of subjects – the history degrees, the media studies degrees, even business degrees to a point – I’m quite against.

‘We probably get 200 applicants a month from university, people with all sorts of degrees that have no relation to anything, they’re just desperate to get a foot in the door.’

Sean said the turning point for him came in his telesales job when he stopped booking meetings on the phone and realised his strength was getting in front of customers.

‘My real skill was not being on the phone booking interviews and meetings, it was actually being out in front of people and building those relationships,’ he said. 

Sean’s first major deal was worth £31,000 – a moment he still remembers vividly. ‘You never believe in yourself in sales when you’re so new. Worrying whether you’re going to be any good. There are always people a lot older and more experienced.

‘But once that first deal comes in and you see the commission cheque, you do start to believe in yourself.’

And, some of the customers Sean met in his early twenties are still buying software from him today.

He said one woman has been a customer since he was 21, while others became close enough friends to attend his wedding.

‘I could probably give you four or five customers that I’ve had for 15 or 20 years who have bought from me again and again,’ he said.

Sean now believes that willingness to take calculated risks became one of the defining characteristics of his career.

‘There is an element of risk–taking that every entrepreneur has. I still take loads of risks at Thrive.’

On the back of his sales successes, Sean went on to found software business MindClick, which he sold in 2016 for £5million.

Instead of banking the proceeds and having an easy life, he ploughed the money into creating Thrive – his big idea.

Sean wanted to tear up the traditional corporate training model and make workplace learning feel more like the social media platforms people were already using every day.

He said: ‘A lot of these learning products are still very old–school. I wanted to build a mix of Instagram and Facebook that we would use as a corporate learning product.’

Rather than immediately chasing the biggest possible revenues, Sean said Thrive initially concentrated on working with ‘cool’ brands that would get them noticed.

That long–term gamble paid off, with Thrive securing deals with huge household names and growing to 250 global employees.

Despite Thrive’s growth, Sean still sees the company as an underdog competing against far larger and longer–established rivals.

Two decades later, and at the helm of a Great British success story, Sean admitted that while his photo may not be on his grandmother’s wall, he is ‘probably the highest earner’ in the family.

And, it was only later when his successes became clear, did his family agree with him that: ‘University doesn’t really matter anymore’.