Archive for Millennial Enrepreneuers – Page 3

Matthew Mullenweg: Founder of the WordPress

Matt Mullenweg was born in Houston, Texas. Matt went to a performing arts highschool where he studied Jazz saxophone. He later went on to attended Houston University majoring in political scientce. He later dropped out to pursue a job at  CNET. In 2003 Matt and his friend Mike started the beggining of wordpress. At the time matt was just 19 years old. After Matt took the CNET job he designed a brand called automattic. Now Automattic has around 1,100 employees working from more then 67 countries. Automattic is a company that works with the web so it can be done from all around the world. This company was the bases of many brand sincluding wordpress.

Word press  is now used by over 40% of the web. WordPress is a company that created a way for people to build their own blog websites with little to no experience. This was a big deal because back in the day creating a website would take a ton of time and skills like coding and designing. Now with WordPress many more people can blog on their own website. Matt’s story teaches us alot about following your dreams and pursuing them. Matt was so into Blogs and websites that he dropped out of school to pursue his job. And in doing that he created a massive company from his own hands. To think that only 19 years old Matt thought of an idea this complex is truly increadible.

Benjamin Kickz

Benjamin Kapelushnik was born on October 14, 1999, in Brooklyn New York. Benjamin got into sneakers when his mBusiness Is Boomin: Benjamin Kickz for Grailed | Grailedom first purchased him some Nike sneakers in middle school. This is when Benjamin Kicks was born he started to get involved in the sneaker resell market. Ben started to purchase one pair of shoes and flipped it for money. He then used that money to buy two pairs and then eventually he was buying hundreds of sneakers at a time. Ben was one of the first in this sneaker reselling Industry and became the “plug” for sneakers.

Ben gained a lot of success when he first met DJ Khaled and created a very close relationship with him. His clients kept getting better since DJ Khaled Ben really created his name in the sneaker industry and also in the music industry. At the age of 16, Ben reached the achievement of one million dollars in sales of sneakers. Ben was also seen on many TV shows like Complex, CNN, Business insider, and The Daily Show. He also won the SHorty awards finalist in 2018. One thing that Ben teaches me is that he is a hard-working man and when he had his goal set to resell sneakers he was laser focused and worked up to a millionaire. Ben also showed the world that no matter your age if you are confident you can achieve anything.

Luke Economou – Madman Los Angeles

Luke Economou is a Greek/American young entrepreneur who goes to UC Santa Barbara. Luke was born in Connecticut but has lived around half of his life in Santa Monica, California, before moving to Santa Barbara this past year for school. I consider Luke to be one of my closest friends from back home as we have known each other for almost 10 years now (ever since he moved to Los Angeles) and have built a brother-like relationship. Luke has always had a passion for fashion and is one of the most innovative and entrepreneurial-minded individuals I have met. Similar to me, Luke graduated high school right after the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. He was originally planning to attend UCSB right away but instead decided to attend a local community college online. It was during this time that he started his designer/streetwear brand, Madman. Luke’s vision with Madman is to provide extremely stylish and luxury clothing that blends the culture of Los Angeles with our inner “madman.” The moto for his brand is, “What’s done in the dark, must come to light.” Luke wanted to establish a culture around his brand so that when people acquired his fashion pieces, they became part of the Madman family. Luke has been selling his product mostly through his online store, https://madmanlosangeles.com/, but has also initiated multiple pop-up stores in various locations around Los Angeles. Most notably, Luke held pop-up stores and events several times in the renowned shopping mall, The Beverly Center, at the Lost Warhol’s concept store. Madman was featured on the Beverly Center’s main attraction screen and has received overwhelmingly positive feedback on his brand’s design, message, culture, comfortability, uniqueness, and much more.

Benelab

Benelab is an alternative search engine that donates all of its ad revenue to charity. Jack Kim founded the non-profit when he was 16, in 2011, after realizing how much money a major search engine, like google, is able to generate. Searching for information is one of the largest markets on the internet and Benelab seeks to tap into that by redirecting funds to help solve issues around the world. Each month, the team (initially consisting of Kim and his schoolmates) selects a new charity to support and sends out a newsletter to keep their users updated. Benelab highlighst how if just 0.0001 percent of the aproximate 4.1 billion web searches each day occurred through the site, it could donate $250,000 a month to non-profit causes.

Sean Belnick Bizchair adventure

Sean Belnick is an entrepreneurial genius. At just the age of 14 while attending pope high school he created a website that sold office furniture. The name of the company is Bizchair and Sean’s net worth is 42 million. The way that Sean got into this industry of selling products online all started with selling Pokemon cards on eBay. After he got a passion for this he put money into advertising and created the website himself at just 14 years of age. For a kid in high school to create a fully functioning website is truly spectacular. Even though he was young he still possessed so much ambition to sell things that he figured out how his father’s business ran and created a website off of that model. The reason why Sean’s business took off was because of how ahead he was in using the internet. He saw that it would be easier to sell things if they were out there for the whole world to see them.

In 2006 2o-year-old Sean was making 24 million dollars in revenue. Because of Sean’s ambition, he isn’t content with what he has. He wants to expand and expects his sales to be 50-54 million dollars in 2007. Sean was running a million-dollar company while attending college because he believed that he still had more to learn in the business field. He is also a boss of 75 employees at that time all of whom are older than him. Sean stated that he liked being younger than them because the working environment wasn’t as stressful and the employees came to him more often if they have ideas or concerns. Sean’s story really shows how ambition is a key trait to possess when becoming an entrepreneur. Without it, there would be no reason to try and make anything better than it is.

SoundMind – an App for a Better Future

In a world full of stressors and increasing anxiety, two students from the University of Southern California decided to address the situation in a new way. 

Brian Femminella and Travis Chen, the creators of SoundMind, were 20-years old when their idea was born. With extensive research on music therapy and neuroscience, these entrepreneurs created an app to aid in the fight with a multitude of mental disorders. The main goal of the company was to bring awareness to this rising issue, especially with the impacts of COVD-19 on mental health. Thus, the app was born. 

The app’s design is unique. Femminella and Chen use the power of binaural beats and soundscapes to help users deal with stress, anxiety, or trauma. The music has been developed specific to the app by different artists on the SoundMind team. The more you listen to the music, the more the app tailors the music choices to you. It keeps track of the music you find most relaxing and the AI sound recommendation remembers your choices. Since the app’s release, it has also shown that users sleep better, focus better, and feel less suicidal. This app has had an amazing impact so far. 

 

The SoundMind website highlights a few other benefits of using their app:

  • Health security and compliance
  • Analytics and Insights
  • Music customization 
  • Integrations
  • 24/7 support 
  • Rapid Response and Intervention

 

The integration feature allows you to link your SoundMind account to the Apple Health app so you can keep track of how you feel and your improvement. 

 

The brilliance of this app aligns with a lot of scientific research on our brains and how they react to music. If you constantly feel overwhelmed by your anxiety, this app can help calm your mind and help you refocus. If you are interested in trying out the app, you can go to their website to check it out.

 

https://www.soundmind.app/

Stephanie Conway

Stephanie Conway made a career in brand marketing and events once she graduated from University of Los Angeles. Stephanie worked in public relations for awhile until she quit and started her own marketing virtual assistant business. Circumstances happen in everyone’s life that potentially change the trajectory of their life. Same goes for Stephanie. Stephanie moved back to the UK after a death in the family. She realized later that she thrived much more in the United States. She moved back to the states and continued to thrive. Stephanie had created an impressive resume while working on campaigns with the top influencers and celebrities of the world. Stephanie’s business allows her to life the exact lifestyle that she needs in order to continue to thrive and be successful. I find her lifestyle remarkably interesting. I think that her values of something as simple as the sunrise has made her travel the world more than I can fathom. Stephanie is truly inspiring because of her story as well as how enthusiastic she is about her work. Stephanie is a big advocate for people wanting to become entrepreneurs but who may be too afraid to do so, because of the competition within a space. Stephine believes that people can be innovative and succeed in what they are enthusiastic about. I wonder if Stephanie utilizes her travel to meet new people, network, and build relationships with people or if she purely travels for her enjoyment. I feel like her lifestyle puts her in such a unique position to meet all sorts of influencers and celebrities from around the world.

TRNDSTTRS

Josyah Lavina-Maldonado is the co-founder of TRNDSTTRS. Josyah is a High School student who is a part of a music group that creates rap music and videos. The group is composed of Josyah and his brothers. This group of boys have always shared an interest in music, this accompanied with their interest in having fun and spreading positivity has created something wonderful. These productions give a positive message by talking about the value of friendship and more. To me it is so interesting and fascinating that this group of boys have turned their talents into spreading a positive message for their audience. I think that this innovative way of creating music and spreading a positive message about certain values, is a fantastic way to reach and inspire younger audiences to do something similar. I think that this group of boys have received appropriate attention from companies. I think that they should continue to grow and engaged with a larger audience, especially the youth. By spreading these positive messages and reinforcing certain values, I think it will help the culture for the generations to come. I have also found myself to enjoy their songs and performances. The group is incredibly talented and very entertaining. I am very curious to see what happens with the group as they become adults and are offered even more opportunities. I wonder if they will continue with the trend of positivity or if they will change their material to something else? Regardless, I am sure that this group will continue to thrive and have a positive impact on their audience.

Tehzeeb Lalani by Anna Ortiz

Tehzeeb Lalani, a young entrepreneur based in Mumbai, India, seeks to heal peoples’ relationship with food. She owns the company Scale Beyond Scale, a Mumbai-based company that consults clients on nutrition. Scale Beyond Scale is designed to help clients move beyond mindsets of short-term weight loss goals and on to mindsets of wholistic and long-term health. Lalani seeks to teach people to design behaviors that they can keep for a lifetime. Working with clients including those with health concerns such as diabetes and heart disease, Scale Beyond Scale is equipped to help people look at issues other than weight loss. She calls the movement toward wholistic health” more sanity, less vanity!” Lalani believes that two strategies for success in implementing ideas are setting deadlines and having a partner for accountability. “Telling people about the idea and that you will bring it to life in a few weeks/few months is also a great way to ensure you hold yourself accountable,” she says for an interview with ideamensch. She is also fond of her morning routines, which include meditation, breakfast, an hour of work, and a yoga class. She says that because she lacks control over the rest of her day, her morning is important for her to feel centered and grounded; she can then tackle anything that comes her way next. I think Tehzeeb Lalani conducts herself with thoughtfulness in both her personal context, with her morning routine, and professional context, in her field that prioritizes psychology. People would do well to slow their lives, think hard, work hard, and take care of themselves as Lalani does.

Youngest CEO Yip Hillary

Hillary Yip is from Hongkong where she went to school in Kellett school. Hillary came up with her millionaire idea when her mother sent Hillary and her brother to summer camp. The summer camp they were sent to was to help them speak Mandarin more fluently. After Hillary came home she thought of an idea like her summer camp, where everyone could connect with each other from around the world. She then started to enter her idea into several competitions and won all of them. Then she created her company and branched it out to sixty-plus countries.

“People treat me as a kid sometimes I get that. I’m 15, but I prefer being treated as an adult because I’ve had some experiences. I’m still learning, but that doesn’t mean you should count me out as immature.” says Hillary.

She created an education app where you can talk to others around the world about topics you are passionate about while learning about the other person’s culture through their conversations. The main purpose of this app is to help with learning a language in a fun way. This is very smart because most kids are not very interested in learning different languages, but when you can talk about interesting topics it makes learning more fun. When creating this MinorMynas Yip Hillary was just ten years old. It came out on IOS in 2017 and has over 65,000 downloads worldwide.

Hillary truly shows how anyone who has drive and motivation can pursue their dreams. Hillary even though she was very young still pursued her goal and proved to all the people telling her she was too young wrong. Hillary shows a very important entrepreneurial trait of courage. Hillary to this day is still perfecting MinorMynas.