Timo Armoo Launches Bestseller at Old Kent Road King Rooster

Key Points

• South London entrepreneur Timothy “Timo” Armoo is returning to his childhood chicken shop, King Rooster on Old Kent Road, for a five-day residency to celebrate his book What’s Stopping You? reaching number one on The Sunday Times bestseller list.
• From Thursday 29 January, the former Fanbytes founder will give away free copies of What’s Stopping You? to the first 50 customers ordering wings and chips each day at King Rooster, totalling 250 books across the week.
• The residency will include informal mentoring chats and at least one live question-and-answer session for young people interested in business, careers and personal growth.
• Armoo grew up on a council estate a short walk from King Rooster, in an area long associated with deprivation, gang activity and a lack of visible role models, experiences he has said pushed him to pursue entrepreneurship.
• As noted in profiles by JLA and Kruger Cowne, Armoo started his first tutoring venture at 14 before going on to found social media marketing agency Fanbytes at 21, working with brands such as Nike, Samsung and Deliveroo.
• Fanbytes, which ran influencer campaigns including work for the UK Government during the Covid-19 pandemic, was later sold in an eight-figure deal to global digital media agency Brainlabs while Armoo was still in his twenties.
• Publisher Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin, describes What’s Stopping You? as a practical guide built around 11 “cheatcodes” or frameworks designed to help readers “unlock the life you want”, drawing heavily on Armoo’s Old Kent Road upbringing and subsequent business success.
• The book has been scheduled in trade listings with a publication date and summary highlighting Armoo’s journey from a council estate to an eight-figure business exit before the age of 30.
• As highlighted in speaker biographies, Armoo has been recognised as a Huffington Post Entrepreneur of the Year and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, and is now a prominent voice on UK entrepreneurship and social mobility.
• A recent social media post by entrepreneur and investor Sir Richard Harpin congratulated Timothy Armoo on What’s Stopping You? making The Sunday Times bestseller list, underlining the book’s early commercial impact.​
• King Rooster, located on Old Kent Road in SE1, is a long-standing local takeaway whose profile lists it as a popular neighbourhood venue for fried chicken and fast food.​
• The King Rooster residency is positioned by Armoo and his publisher as a “full-circle moment”, bringing his success story back to the same street and shop that formed part of his daily life as a teenager.
• Through the book giveaway and mentoring, Armoo aims to offer young locals both a tangible resource and direct access to his experience, at a time when debates around opportunity and inequality in South London remain live.
• The initiative complements a wider promotional push around What’s Stopping You?, including a live event described on Armoo’s social media, with free tickets and business funding support linked to the book’s themes.
• Literary and speaking-agency material emphasises that What’s Stopping You? distils lessons on mindset, resilience and practical action, including ideas such as managing an “internal scorecard” and “doing it scared”.

Old Kent Road (South London News) January 31, 2026 – South London entrepreneur Timothy “Timo” Armoo is returning to his childhood chicken shop on Old Kent Road this week, marking the rise of his book What’s Stopping You? to number one on The Sunday Times bestseller list with a five-day residency that will see hundreds of copies given away free to young people in the community where he grew up.

Why is Timo Armoo returning to King Rooster on Old Kent Road?

Old Kent Road’s King Rooster, a longstanding fried chicken takeaway at 388 Old Kent Road SE1, will host Armoo from Thursday 29 January for what his publisher and team describe as a symbolic “full-circle” return to the shop that helped shape his teenage years. As outlined in background material from his publisher Michael Joseph and speaker bureaus JLA and Kruger Cowne, Armoo grew up on a nearby council estate and has often spoken about spending time on Old Kent Road and in local takeaways like King Rooster while navigating an environment marked by limited opportunity and exposure to gang culture.

Publisher copy for What’s Stopping You? stresses that his book draws heavily on that upbringing, charting what it calls a “meteoric rise” from Old Kent Road to an eight-figure business exit before 30, and positioning the residency as a way to reconnect those two worlds.

By using the same chicken shop as a venue for book giveaways and mentoring, Armoo is deliberately rooting his bestseller celebration in the streets and spaces that defined his early life, rather than in more conventional central London launch settings.

What will happen during the five-day King Rooster residency?

According to information released alongside the book and residency, Armoo will be at King Rooster for five consecutive days from Thursday 29 January, with a structured giveaway and a programme of informal engagement for local young people. Each day, the first 50 customers who order wings and chips – a staple of the takeaway menu – will receive a free copy of What’s Stopping You?, meaning 250 copies are expected to be distributed over the course of the residency.

The event is not being pitched purely as a promotional stunt, but as a hybrid of community outreach and book launch. Armoo is expected to hold relaxed, one-to-one and small-group conversations with young customers, answering questions about business, careers, money, mindset and navigating difficult environments, with at least one live Q&A session signposted as part of the week’s activity. Notes from his publisher describe these discussions as “informal mentoring”, designed to give teenagers and young adults direct access to his experience without the barriers of a formal conference or corporate event.

Who is Timothy “Timo” Armoo and what is his entrepreneurial background?

Biographical entries from speaker agencies JLA and Kruger Cowne describe Timothy Armoo as a leading figure in the UK influencer and social media marketing space, best known as the founder of Gen Z-focused agency Fanbytes. According to JLA, Armoo started Fanbytes at the age of 21 and grew it into a 75-person business, running campaigns for brands including Nike, Samsung, Deliveroo and the UK Government, notably during public-information work around Covid-19.

Kruger Cowne records that before Fanbytes, Armoo had already launched and exited at least one venture, selling a business media publication called EntrepreneurXpress to Horizon when he was just 17, and that he had begun entrepreneurial activity even earlier through ventures such as tutoring.

Across these profiles, Fanbytes is presented as a pioneering agency that helped major brands connect with Generation Z audiences through influencers and short-form content, building on Armoo’s understanding of youth culture and digital platforms.

In 2022, Fanbytes was acquired by global marketing company Brainlabs in what both JLA and Kruger Cowne describe as an eight-figure deal, formalising Armoo’s status as a self-made entrepreneur who achieved a major exit in his twenties. Speaker and publishing material further notes that he has since been recognised as a Huffington Post Entrepreneur of the Year and listed in Forbes 30 Under 30, cementing his profile as a commentator on business, creativity and social mobility.

How did Armoo’s Old Kent Road upbringing influence What’s Stopping You?

In catalogue and marketing copy for What’s Stopping You?, Penguin’s Michael Joseph imprint foregrounds Armoo’s roots

“from a council estate on Old Kent Road”

as the starting point for the book’s narrative and lessons. The text summarises how he grew up in a part of South London that has often been associated with deprivation and limited opportunity, emphasising that he witnessed gang culture and a scarcity of positive role models while trying to find his own path as a teenager.

Those experiences underpin the frameworks the book sets out: Michael Joseph says Armoo uses 11 practical “cheatcodes” to show readers how to manage their “internal scorecard”, understand why “ego is the enemy”, recognise “how we become the stories we tell ourselves” and “embrace doing it scared”. The publisher presents these ideas as hard-won lessons that move beyond abstract motivation, drawing directly on decisions Armoo made as a young person who chose entrepreneurship over more destructive options available in his environment.

By bringing the book back to Old Kent Road through the King Rooster residency, Armoo is effectively staging a live extension of those themes, offering both the physical book and in-person conversations in the same neighbourhood context that the pages describe. This resonance is central to the way the residency has been framed by the publisher, which describes it as an attempt to show that the “cheatcodes” in What’s Stopping You? are accessible to young people starting from similar circumstances.

What does What’s Stopping You? promise readers?

As set out on Penguin’s official product page, What’s Stopping You? is marketed as an “accessible and indispensable guide” for anyone seeking to “build an exceptional life”, regardless of background. Michael Joseph’s description states that the book is structured around 11 frameworks or “cheatcodes”, each designed to help readers shift mindset and behaviour in specific ways, from managing their own definition of success to taking calculated risks despite fear.

The blurb notes that Armoo interweaves personal stories from Old Kent Road, the early days of his ventures and the scaling and sale of Fanbytes, using them to illustrate concepts around ego, narrative, discipline and resilience. It also highlights his collaborations with high-profile organisations, listing

“global giants like Nike and the British Government”

as examples of the level he reached before stepping away from day-to-day agency life.

Trade details on the Penguin New Zealand listing specify that the book is a 304-page title under the Michael Joseph imprint, with a focus on practical exercises rather than purely inspirational anecdotes. Across these materials, the promise is that Armoo’s frameworks can be applied by readers in a range of situations – whether they are starting a business, building a career or trying to make sense of their own circumstances – echoing the broad target audience expected to attend events such as the King Rooster residency and subsequent live sessions.

How has What’s Stopping You? performed so far?

A recent LinkedIn post by entrepreneur and investor Sir Richard Harpin states that Timothy Armoo has made The Sunday Times bestseller list with What’s Stopping You?, congratulating him publicly and signalling strong early sales. Publisher copy and promotional materials refer to the book as having reached number one on the Sunday Times list, which is being used as a central element of the chicken shop residency narrative and wider publicity.

The bestseller status comes amid a broader campaign around the book that includes live events and online engagement. In one Instagram post, Armoo invites followers to comment “BOOK” to claim free tickets to “What’s Stopping You LIVE” on 10 January 2026, adding that the event will include a £10,000 funding giveaway linked to the book’s themes of entrepreneurship and opportunity.

This combination of chart success, digital promotion and on-the-ground activity at locations like King Rooster indicates that What’s Stopping You? is being positioned as both a commercial publishing project and a platform for ongoing workshops, talks and funding initiatives. For the Old Kent Road community, the bestseller milestone provides the backdrop for a very localised celebration that is being consciously tied to questions of aspiration and representation.

Why does King Rooster matter in this story?

King Rooster’s listing on local site London SE1 identifies it as a takeaway on Old Kent Road SE1 5AA, offering fried chicken and fast food to a largely neighbourhood clientele. While it is one of many such outlets along the busy arterial road, Armoo and his team have picked it out as a personal landmark, describing it as a “popular local takeaway” that played a formative role in his youth.

Old Kent Road itself sits at the junction of longstanding working-class communities and waves of regeneration, and has been the focus of repeated debates over housing, opportunity and youth services. In this context, anchoring a bestseller celebration inside a modest chicken shop rather than a central London bookshop or corporate venue is being framed as a deliberate statement about where success can begin and who it is for.

For regular customers, the residency will mean the unusual sight of a nationally recognised entrepreneur handing out books and fielding career questions between orders of wings and chips. For Armoo, whose journey is repeatedly described by agencies and his publisher as starting “from a council estate on Old Kent Road”, it offers a chance to turn a familiar teenage hangout into a stage for a different narrative about what is possible from that postcode.