What REALLY Happens on Richard Branson's $100M Private Island

Richard Branson is one of the most iconic entrepreneurs of all time. Billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, space pioneer, world record holder, and owner of his own private island in the Caribbean. He's been redefining what's possible in business and adventure. And somehow I found myself on a plane heading to that very island. Why? I won the Maverick Next Entrepreneurship Award, which brings together young founders from around the world for three unforgettable days in the British Virgin Islands. For someone building an AI business from New Zealand, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. A chance to share my business ideas directly with Richard Branson himself and connect with some of the brightest entrepreneurial minds on the planet. This is what really happens on Richard Branson's private island. Ready?

Yeah. And that marks the start of our trip to Nick Island. Yes. Richard Branson's private island. I still kind of can't believe it. I have so much that I want to ask him. I can't wait. I saw his dawn.

I'm here with a group of other young entrepreneurs for the Maverick Next and we are here for the day and the night to meet with other older entrepreneurs who making a lot more money and a lot more successful than us. But it's all really based around impact and how we can use entrepreneurship for good. And so I'm very uh honored and blessed to have been chosen for this award to come and meet the man himself, a big idol of mine. Um and so I've been studying hard prepping for the questions I want to ask him and how I'm going to pitch my stuff. Real quick to give you a bit of context, NECA Island is a 74 acre private island in the British Virgin Islands. Branson bought it when he was just 28 years old for $180,000. And he spent over $10 million turning it into a luxury paradise with over 100 staff, a wildlife program, 140 plus species, including rescued lemurs and flamingos. Today, it's estimated to be worth over $100 million, and it's also mostly powered by solar panels and wind turbines. This particular group is called Maverick Next. It is the sort of junior group of the entire Maverick uh Maverick program and community. and it's a group of entrepreneurs who are really focused on impact and driving a positive change in the world through entrepreneurship and business. So, uh I've been selected as one of five um for the award around the world to come here and uh with a bunch of other cool young people to meet Rich Branson. Yesterday we did some awesome stuff. Uh we did some really cool conservation stuff, saw the island, went for swim, saw the national park, etc. Um so that was really cool and pretty eye opening for me to see the kind of impact related things you can do as an entrepreneur.

to help you get your bearings. This is Nick Snick Island. Down here is the red dock where we arrived. We're currently near the beach house, but we're about to head uphill to the round building up here. That's the temple house where the orientation speeches are held. It's the heart of the island where everything's about to kick off. Okay, so it turns out that I actually have to do my presentation, my pitch to everyone in here. um some mega successful entrepreneurs in a few minutes. So, I'm going to quickly try to practice it and get my I've only got two minutes to pitch my business and what I'd like to help with and everything that I do. So, wish me luck, but I'm going to try to get a bit of practice in now and try to get it down to 2 minutes, but a little bit nervous cuz there's a lot of guys in there and girls and they're all very successful. So, wish me luck. This wasn't when I'll get to share my business ideas with Branson. That would come later, but it was still a moment that mattered. I was standing in front of the Maverick 1000, older, experienced entrepreneurs who built serious companies. This was my shot to show them who I was and what I stood for. I kept running the pitch in my head, trying to keep it simple. Just 2 minutes to tell my story. No slides, no fluff. My name is I'm a 24-y old entrepreneur from New Zealand and no business for the past 6 years. I've been fortunate enough to find myself right in the intersection of AI, business, and education at the same time. I knew that if I deliver this right, the opportunities could be enormous. The pitch went super well. I

had some amazing conversations with the Maverick 1000 members afterwards. Made some great connections that can help us scale the business even further. I got some awesome ideas about licensing and even ways that we can integrate more impact into what we are building. Now, we're heading into the fun part. Time to explore the island. We jumped into the golf cart and made our way towards our next stop, the great house. And after that, I actually get to meet Richard Branson, play tennis with him, and finally share my ideas with the man himself. Thought I was Italian. What do you guys think? I do get I have got that before. In New Zealand, we have native people called Maui, and I've had that. Yeah, they say that I look like a mix between like the native New Zealand and I'll take it. On the way up to the great house, we pass flamingos just chilling near the pond, lemurs jumping through the trees, and apparently there's this massive 100-year-old tortoise that just roams the island like a local. It's kind of surreal. NECA is this weird mix of luxury and wild nature, and somehow it works perfectly.

So, is this the main house? Uh, this is the great house. Yeah. Wow. by guest stay rich. The great house features nine guest bedrooms, an infinity pool, a spacious communal dining room, and a massive wraparound terrace with views across the island. There's also a lounge room upstairs with big fans, and a huge couch that opens out to the balcony. Imagine the yarns there at like 1:00 a. m. Outside, there's a little golf pitching area where guests take turns hitting balls towards a floating target out in the sea. Surely not. Just whack it off. And don't worry, these balls are biodegradable and are actually designed to release fish food when wet. Oh, he's got a spar. And perched at the very top of the house is the famous Crow's Nest hot tub with arguably the best view on the island. At around 2:00 a. m. in 2011, lightning from a tropical storm struck the great house. Inside were over 20 guests, including Richard's 88-year-old mother and Kate Winslett. As the fire tore through the building, Winslet carried his mother to safety. I remember saying to Kate's kids, "Things don't matter in life. " You know, the fact that everybody's well is all that matters. And it's on moments like that you realize that things really don't matter. Branson rebuilt the great house, not just bigger, but with more purpose and care than before. And now I was standing at the very top of it. Right. So up here on the top of the island. Um I think this is the highest point. Um it is absolutely stunning. We have the on the flag of the British Virgin Islands there. We have Richard's little hot tub here right at the top of the island in the crow's nest. And it is absolutely stunning. All down there. And right now the Maverick uh 1000 members are staying in this building here. and us little Maverick nexters. Um I can look forward to that in future years when we sort of level up. So next year um hopefully I'll be in this um with the big boys, but I think it's a uh significant investment required, but I think to be around this group of people, it will be well worth it. So yeah, now we're going to go play some tennis. Oh, I should tell you I watched one of your videos this morning. You watched it? Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah. Thanks. Which one did you watch? I watched the one where it was like uh business startup to get into the AI space. Oh, so the simplest AI automation offer and then yeah, that's a good one to get started with. Well, it said beginner on it and I was like, oh, perfect. Yeah. I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed it. Okay. Thanks for watching, man.

Yeah. Big Greenlight

everybody. All right, guys and girls. This is when I get all sentimental and emotional on you as I sit here and ponder how the hell I got here and uh how fortunate I am to be living in a time like this, to have been born in a country like New Zealand, to have such a good start in life, to have the school that I went to that supports low-inccome families like my own. Um, for me to go from where I'm from in New Zealand to this point, um, playing tennis with Richard Branson and all these other wonderful people and super successful people, um, it's a dream come true. That book that you just saw me reading, it's I've read it three times. I read it first when I was 18 trying to become an entrepreneur and it inspired me to my whole ethos when it comes to entrepreneurship and how I approach it and I want to be like sort of build fun into everything I do and do it with cool people as well. So cool [ __ ] with cool people, you know, is has always been my kind of my motto for what I wanted to achieve as an entrepreneur. And I've been fortunate enough to do that for many years now. It took a lot longer than I thought to get to this point where I'm making a lot of money. I've got a big team. I've got a great opportunity in a vehicle. And I don't say that's a sort of flex and brag, but I've certainly applied myself over the past 6 years. And I mean, for the majority of it, it was awful. It was really, really tough. There's no real secret that I can give you now, apart from one, finding the right vehicle. Since I shifted out of the marketing world into learning how to code and starting off in the AI space, everything is just absolutely taken off and it's really really truly is the place to be. I just was swamped by people trying to talk to me about it here and they all run businesses and they're all successful. So you don't need some PhD to get into it at the at this time. So I just want to say I'm extremely grateful for everyone who's played a role in my success and on my team who support me every day. So all the entrepreneurs out there struggling or just trying to get it off the ground, please just the number one thing is just keep going. The path will reveal itself if you just keep your head down and keep working. And there is a time there is a moment when it actually starts working and that weight comes off your shoulders and you've actually got so much momentum that you have a business that you don't have to be pouring every single second of your time into it. That point does come. But it's not going to happen overnight and come easy. So that's my little inspirational speech for the night. are going to go up to the uh Q& A for dinner and a party. Now I have to get dressed in my ridiculous costume which you guys are going to really love. I mean there's some questions that I want to ask him that I just wouldn't trust almost anyone else to answer. I don't think there's anyone who has kind of the perspective on how big I'm trying to dream of my life and the impact I want to have. So I'll try to record it. I don't know if I'm really allowed to record too much of it. I'll be back in a sec.

Can you put your hat on though? Have my hat on? Yeah. you have a shark off too. Um, just quickly, Rich, um, I've had the third read of your book. Um, and so I've got a few quotations that I hope you don't mind me bringing up. As an entrepreneur who has this big dream and lots of people around them. Uh, what do you do when you are coming up against them? Did you kind of look at yourself and say, "Maybe I am a little bit crazy. " How do you deal with that self-doubt? Like, maybe they're right. Maybe I am crazy and I'm dreaming too big with these things. So, it certainly helps if you're going to be crazy to own the company. Um, uh, because ultim ultimately the buck stops with you. And then you have to, uh, prove to people that your crazy ideas uh, actually not quite as crazy as they thought that they were in the first place. The fact the Virgin Atlantic is still going 40 years after everybody thought I was the crazy one. Actually, Apple did an ad that year called The Crazy Ones, which they included me in twice. I would have been sacked many times if I hadn't done the company, but fortunately, I was able to um take the company into whole lots of different areas. I mean, going into space, I mean, a conventional company, um the directors would have got together and um got rid of me. At the moment I said that we're going to start building a spaceship and a mother ship and space ports because it's mad and it sort of was mad but um god life's a lot more fun being a little bit mad occasionally. Anyway, good luck. What

are you doing yourself? That moment sitting across from someone I grew up admiring was something I'll never forget. He was genuinely curious about what I was building. And while I couldn't include all of our conversation, the advice he gave me about staying bold and staying curious, that'll stick with me for a long time. It reminded me that this trip wasn't just about pitching a business. It was about something bigger. It was a reminder to me that when you work hard and surround yourself with the right people, then doors do open. I didn't come here to impress anyone. I came here to build something that matters. Some people say I'm crazy for how I see the future. But the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. My team and I have the opportunity. We've got the tools. We've got the ideas. And now we've got the momentum. The future isn't something we wait for. It's something we actively shape. Salute.