Self-taught.Fast-moving.UK-built.

Tufayl Ahmed grew up in a family of first-generation immigrants, the only one of his siblings born in the UK. Money was for necessities, but he had plenty of wants. So at age 11 he turned to the one place he knew he could earn on his own terms: the internet.

He started with simple services: Photoshop work, website design, anything computer-related he knew how to do. He quickly became known as something of a prodigy with computers. That was the beginning of Yami, run as a sole trader.

Before long he was building brands of his own, at first with help from his brother's connections and network. From 15 he stopped relying on outside help. He ran everything himself, from the technical side to the business side, and built his own network along the way. In total he founded, grew and sold ten ventures for a combined $750k, and several went on to seven, eight and nine figures under their new owners. See the case files →

Along the way he realised he was more passionate about growth itself than about any single product. You can't scale a business long-term if you're not passionate about it, so he turned the playbook outwards. In January 2025, Yami was incorporated as Yami.ai Ltd, an agency that scales brands through social media, built on a simple idea: businesses and creators deserve marketing that's original, fast and genuinely tied to growth.

The name comes from yami, the Japanese word for dark, a nod to the anime and manga Tufayl grew up on. The team behind it is small and self-taught by design. We'd rather work with people who've proven they can learn quickly than people who've only been told how. That mindset runs through everything, from the content we make to how we use AI to move faster without cutting corners.