Skint dad-of-two is reduced to tears after CEO offers him opportunity

A young multi-millionaire who used to be homeless is helping a family after swapping homes with them on Rich House, Poor House. 

Australian entrepreneur Harry Sanders, 24, owns several properties around the world, including a three-bedroom flat in Shoreditch thanks to his SEO business, worth £12million. 

The internet whizz now enjoys a disposable income of nearly £6,000 a month, and says he earned his money through hard graft after becoming homeless at 17 and having to claw his way off the streets. 

It made him particularly sensitive to the story of father-of-two Angel Blanco Lista, who shares a one bedroom Notting Hill Gate flat with his wife Santana and their son, four, and daughter, two. 

With £9,000 of debt, the couple live on money Angel picks up working shifts at a Leylands shop, and Government benefits — and are left with just £66 of income per week to feed their family.

The dedicated father had to sleep on the floor so he could sleep in the same room as his family.  ‘It’s getting a bit of a nightmare to be honest with you,’ he told the show. 

Santana is a stay-at-home mother who is looking after the kids, but also dreams of developing her own skincare business after coming up with products during lockdown. 

The couple said they have £9,000 of debt and rely on Universal Credit for help to top up Angel’s salary. 

The busy dad-of-two had tried to create his own digital marketing company a few years prior, but couldn’t live off it and eventually had to give it up to feed his family. 

‘When I come home I’m just so exhausted, I don’t have the energy or the time to invest into the business I actually want to get into,’ he said. 

‘We just need that support, we need somebody to push us, to be there for us, someone who’s already been there,’ Santana said. 

Viewers were moved by last night’s Channel 5 show, and praised Harry for making a commitment to help Angel achieve his goals. 

Harry said he wanted to give Angel an opportunity to better his family’s finances because he had been given an opportunity to create his own business when someone took a chance on him.

The 24-year-old CEO founded his company after a businessman decided to fund an idea he pitched during a business meeting aged just 17. 

Knowing that Angel had digital marketing skills, but needed the extra money his Leylands job offered to feed his family, Harry handed him with an SEO content brief role at his company. 

These briefs help SEO analyst create content for specific clients. Harry promised to pay Angel £150 for each brief he would complete, and said he could make sure Angel received several briefs a month in order to make the extra cash.    

‘I’m blessed to give you the opportunity to help your family,’ Harry told the father-of-two. 

The CEO also vowed to help Santana, who was struggling to market the website of a skincare product business she started from scratch.  

‘It doesn’t matter where I am in the world, I will be around, to guide you through and to help you guys make this work,’ he told the couple. 

Angel and Santana were both reduced to tears by Harry’s generosity and said he had gone ‘above and beyond’.  

‘To be able to make such a big impact in their life with such a little gesture is…I think really lovely,’ Harry said. 

Santana said that they were deeply grateful for the amazing opportunity Harry offered them, and said it would help ‘open doors,’ for their business ideas.  

Meanwhile, Harry said swapping lives with Angel and Santana took him back to his roots and reminded him of the rough years he faced before finding his success.  

Viewers learned on the show that the CEO’s company had offices in Melbourne, Brisbane, London and soon the US. 

And even though he only spent two to three months a year in London, he decided to invest in a central London three-bedroom apartment, that he shares with his best friend Hadia, a Qatari heiress trying to make it into the UK film industry. 

After going through some family trouble age 17, Harry found himself homeless and couch surfing before eventually ending up on the street.  

‘I had no money, literally nothing,’ he recounted on the show. 

‘This experience helped shape me.It’s probably the reason that I am successful because I kind of went through that kind of hardship, I had to build that resilience, I didn’t have another choice or another option,’ he said. 

He added he couldn’t believe he had gone from being homeless to now being a multi-millionaire at age 24 in just seven years. 

And the CEO also partnered with a homeless charity to give back and help other youth getting off the street.  

‘I work with the Lighthouse Foundation. They do a lot of work with at risk youth and homeless kids get off the streets, which is obviously dear to my heart,’ he said. 

When he isn’t working, Harry and his housemate Hadia, who appeared on the programme with him, revealed they liked to ‘get out of their comfort zone’ and do adrenaline-packed activities.  

‘Anything that involves heights, I love doing, because even though I’m scared, it invites me out of that comfort zone, which is one of the things I attribute to me being successful,’ Harry said. 

Both families swapped lives, schedules and budget for a week to see how the other half lived.  

Angel and Santana admitted they felt ‘overwhelmed’ after hearing Harry had a disposable income of £1,370 a week.  

‘My brain is working overtime right now working out how we’re gonna spend that money,’ Angel joked. 

‘It was really shocking and really surreal to have that kind of cash I my hand,’ he said later. 

On the other side of London, however, Harry and Hadia were shocked to find the Blanco Lista only lived on £66 a week, and all shared a room.  

The next day, Harry put himself in Angel’s shoes and went to work his Leyland shift, where he realised the father-of-two was doing back-breaking work. 

Meanwhile, Angel and Santana met with Anthony, who managed Harry’s London office and told them more about how the CEO came up with his business. 

The next day, Anthony interviewed Angel for Harry to gauge his digital skills, as the CEO realised he could perhaps use his won company to help Angel move forward. 

Angel and Santana also revealed they used the leftover money they had from the week to replace their old wedding rings, which they had lost.  Watching the episode last night, viewers’ praised Harry’s good nature.  

‘I liked both pairings tonight.The «poor» couple really are hard working and deserve good things and the «rich» couple were wanting to help and never acted like they were better than anyone,’ one said. 

‘That guy was bang on he’s given them a great chance to get a better life,’ another wrote. 

‘Love this show.The rich people brought down to earth if only for a week and the poor actually given a chance in life,’ one said.