Richard Branson played Coke and Pepsi against each other at high school aged 14
The Virgin founder started a student magazine at just 14 and got business rivals to both advertise in it
By Lucy Handley
Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson’s commercial acumen was honed at a young age.
When he was just 14 years old, Branson started a student magazine and pitted two of the world’s biggest business rivals against each other — Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
First, he would persuade the telephone operator to connect him to companies. “I was working out of the school phone box where you had to put money in. So instead of putting the money in, I just rang up the operator and said: ‘I put the money in,’“ he told CNBC’s “The Brave Ones.”
“The operator became my secretary and (would say): ‘Hello, I have Mr Branson for you.’ And I would go straight through to Coca-Cola or Pepsi without paying.”
Branson soon realised that the best way to get competitors to advertise in his magazine was to tell them that their rival had agreed to do so.