When Andrew Barclay left full time education, he went to live in Hong Kong for 8 months. There he saw first-hand how free enterprise has enabled a small island with no natural resources to become one of the most successful economies in the world. The people he worked with there, mostly from the Far East and America, had a very different attitude towards free enterprise than so many in Britain and the EU. It seemed that everyone wanted to start up their own business.

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Andrew returned to the UK to work for a property company whose work was primarily focused on reviving our high streets. He spent two years learning the ropes. He then used that experience to launch his first entrepreneurial venture, a technology property business called YOPA. Within 4 years, the company had recruited over 200 people from across the UK. They raised almost £100 million from major investors, including Savills and the Daily Mail Group, who eventually bought the company outright.

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Since then, he has advised or invested in many other start-up technology companies, helping them to raise capital and grow their business, as well as providing support to the founders. This has included acting as the founder investor in Kitt, a successful property technology venture, investing in an online business called Farewill that enables people to write a will at low cost, and advising a fintech business, Trustshare.

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In 2023, Andrew Barclay was appointed as Director of Conservative Friends of Small Business, tasked with building its membership up to 10,000.