Archive for Websites

Catharine and David Cook and their idea of MyYearbook

Catharine and David Cook (brother and sister) were 15 and 16 respectively when they came up with the idea of MyYearbook.com in 2005. MyYearbook.com is basically Facebook for high school students to create their own yearbook profiles on. The idea to create an online version of a high school yearbook came to Catharine and David as they were flipping through their high school yearbook and wanting a more realistic way to see and connect with their fellow students. Rather than the inaccurate photos taken for the traditional yearbook, MyYearbook would feature more normal and natural pictures that students chose to post of themselves. Although I presume that an occasional student would still post an inaccurate picture of themselves, the general goal was to not do that in order to get to know other students better through their profiles. Catharine and David also added a place for students to name their extracurricular activities just like a yearbook would.

The idea of MyYearbook took root pretty quickly, and soon the Catharine and David’s little entrepreneurial undertaking was making them millions of dollars.

When I saw MyYearbook, I immediately thought it was interesting because it’s much like an idea that I’m creating for an upcoming entrepreneurial competition that I’m entering into (The Elevator Pitch Competition). I think Catharine and David did a great job in following the entrepreneurial process (whether that was their goal or not) because they saw a problem and were able to come up with a solution that didn’t just impact their high school, but high schools all over the country by making them see something has been a tradition for decades under a new light.

 

To read more about how MyYearbook took shape and took off, check out this article: Catherine Cook: The brainwave that made me $10m by age 18 | MoneyWeek

Avi Schiffmann – Self-Taught Website Developer

No one could have predicted that there would be a need for his website, but now it has become an important website during the COVID-19 era. 

Avi Schiffmann is a 19-year-old high school student in Washington State, USA. He gained a spotlight in 2020 because of a website he developed on his own to track COVID-19 cases throughout the world. Just a few months later, Avi’s website was getting 30 million visitors each day, which added up to over 600 million visitors. 

When he was 17 years old, Avi was looking online for the COVID-19 case numbers online and all he could find was a slightly sketchy website in Chinese that he couldn’t understand. Because of this, Avi decided to create his own website which could display COVID-19 information in an unbiased and user-friendly way. With his experience with coding and website development that he taught himself, Avi was able to build the website and code it himself. 

The website was released in January 2020 and made it possible for millions of families to stay up to date on the condition of the world during those difficult times. 

The website shows a number of different types of numbers, including total confirmed cases, total of deaths, total recovered, and total vaccinated. The website also shows cases in each country and has a map to show data per country. The website is continually updated and shows accurate data. 

 

Click here to visit the website. 

TheRebelution.com

Alex and Brett Harris have been doing big things since they were teenagers. It all started when these twins were sixteen years old, and they started the website TheRebelution.com. This website has been challenging young people everywhere to “rebel against low expectations” and is one of the “most popular Christian teen websites on the Internet.” It is run by young people who want to make a change in the world and inspire others to do the same. In addition to this website, Alex and Brett interned in the Alabama Supreme Court at seventeen, becoming the youngest interns to date. Then at eighteen they coauthored their first book. The book is titled Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations and it is one of the most impactful books I read in high school. At its peak, the book reached #5 on the Amazon.com bestseller list. This book launched the twins into the public light, and they received a lot of media coverage because of it. However, the twins have since then grown up and have moved on to different projects. Alex and Brett are no longer in their teenage years, but their website and writings are still relevant today.

The Rebelution | rebelling against low expectations

“Press” Forwards

With the world headed in the direction of the digital age, it is impossible to avoid it at this point. Every person in the entire world is affected by it now and there is no avoiding it. With that being said, many people are wholeheartedly embracing it and taking small steps in its direction. WordPress has helped with these steps and with its development since 2003 it has revolutionized the internet world. People are now able to make their own websites and begin their own journey into the world of entrepreneurship, (if that’s the direction they choose to head with their website).

Building a website for yourself is hard, and it requires a background in coding and digital design, which is something that most people do not have. Matt Mullenweg saw this as an opportunity to help others with their aspirations while also working on his own. WordPress is constantly developing to assist the wants of thousands of web publishers across the world. Where WordPress goes in the future drastically depends on the needs of the people. They claim that they “can safely assume that it will continue to empower people around the world to create wonderful web spaces.”

We need websites, and without them, we wouldn’t have some of the major ones like youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, or many others of the like. We need people like Matt who see the potential that the internet has to bring the world closer together and with people like him, in the future, people across the world wont seem so far away.

Brian Chesky and Airbnb: Providing Cereal and Homes to Rent

Brian Chesky - Airbnb NewsroomBrian Chesky created Airbnb in his own house, supplying an Airbed and Breakfast to guests for only $80 a night. Being unemployed, this allowed him and Joe Gebbia to pay for their rent. Chesky believed the idea of Airbnb could evolve into a digital platform. After launching it the first time, he and Gebbia noticed it struggled to gain trust and traction. Chesky has publicly shared this was a stressful time for him. He remembers having a binder full of credit cards, an enormous amount of debt, and trouble attracting investors. During the Democrat National Convention in Denver, however, Airbnb started to gain success. This was mainly because a level of trust existed between Obama supporters opening up their homes for other Obama supporters.

As bookings started coming in, Gebbia and Chesky contemplated what their hosts should provide for breakfast. They decided on their own branded cereal: Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains, which were the two presidential candidates at the time. Chesky contacted a variety of cereal companies, including Kellogg’s and General Mills. Yet, they were uninterested. To improvise, Chesky and Gebbia bootstrapped the cereal by handling the designs, supplies, and logistics independently. This endeavor had decent success, amassing $30,000 for Airbnb.

The climax of Airbnb’s beginning was their first round of funding from Y Combinator: an incubator that provides mentorship and financial support for early startups. Since then, Airbnb has grown to become a $100 billion-dollar company. When sharing his story, Chesky confesses this success did not come easy. Many people told him Airbnb was the worst idea ever. Chesky has said:

We had really smart, credible people out their telling us “No.” Had we listen to them, there might not be Airbnb today.

Airbnb shows how an entrepreneur must be flexible, persevere, and learn from failure. If an entrepreneur neglects these attitudes, their business may not last.

Sources


https://getpaidforyourpad.com/blog/the-airbnb-founder-story/

https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-30-billion-startup-2016-8

Anthony Casalena, Founder of Squarespace

Squarespace Founder Is A Billionaire Ahead Of Direct ListingAnthony Casalena founded Squarespace after noticing the difficulties of building a website. He was a web designer himself, having a familiarity with technologies such as HTML, Java, and CSS. He thought he could make the process more accessible, enabling anyone to make their own website. While being a student at the University of Maryland, Casalena started building Squarespace. It started as and still is, a drag-and-drop website builder.

Casalena’s beginnings as an entrepreneur are similar to that of Mark Zuckerburg. Both started technology startups in college and gained considerable success. Like Facebook, Casalena has led Squarespace to gain a large following and even a place on the stock market. Squarespace has allowed thousands of businesses to build their own website, eCommerce stores, and blogs. To date, Squarespace is hosting over a million websites. This makes it one of the largest website platforms in its industry.

A unique feature of Squarespace is its pre-built designs and all-in-one solutions. Although there are competitors that operate similarly, Squarespace websites are distinctive. Animations and colors are minimalistic. They can also be implemented rather quickly. Previously, building your own website led to a poorly poor product. Squarespace has enhanced this process, allowing users to more beautiful and complete designs. Casalena has mentioned this, stating:

I believe that minimalism is a process. It’s not an aesthetic. It’s not black and white. It’s the thoughtfulness that goes into creating these things.

More recently, Casalena is working on expanding Squarespace by acquiring other startups. The most notable acquisitions by Squarespace have been Tock, a reservation application, and Acuity, a scheduling utility. This shows Squarespace’s goal of making an all-in-all tool for business owners and their online presence.

Overall, Casalena shows how a business can take on multiple markets, have humble beginnings, and be known for its design.

Sources


https://tracxn.com/d/acquisitions/acquisitionsbySquarespace

https://www.forbes.com/sites/denizcam/2021/04/20/squarespace-founder-is-a-billionaire-ahead-of-direct-listing/

Catherine Cook and Her Yearbook

In 2005, Catherine Cook and her brother Dave were just two normal high school students without any kind of technology or business experience. One day, the two of them sat down to go through their Yearbook, as many students do, when they had the idea of combining their yearbook with the current technology boom. They proposed doing this by digitalizing yearbooks and putting them on the internet to create an interactive experience.

The pair decided to approach their older brother who was already a very successful entrepreneur and was interested enough in their idea to invest money into it and help them get the idea off the ground. I think looking back on this story, and their brother’s belief in this idea, you can see the foresight that these young entrepreneurs had to recognize that the digital age was coming and if they could harness that, it would take them very far.

The business began to grow significantly, and in 2008 it was the fastest growing social media site in the U.S. and had 11 million members. Over the years Catherine has been a huge innovator through MyYearbook and has been constantly brainstorming features to keep it popular and current. The most recent innovation the company has done is a huge rebrand with a new name, MeetMe. A huge takeaway that Catherine has mentioned from this experience is staying true to your vision, if you do this, no one will be able to knock you down all the way, and the growth of your business can be limitless.


Sources

https://vanitystardom.com/founder-of-myyearbook-catherine-cook/

Catherine Cook – How MyYearbook.com Was Founded (businessideaslab.com)

Guillermo Rauch: Making the Web Faster

Guillermo Raunch is the founder of Vercel, a hosting company for web applications. Raunch’s desire is to make the web faster and streamline development. These two features rarely intersect. Typically, complex technology and skills are required to make a fast website. Through Vercel, Raunch has eased this process. With only a couple of clicks, someone can deploy their site, make it globally available, and optimized.Loupe 2019: Guillermo Rauch on Merging Design and Developement - YouTube This idea of simplicity is very new and unique. Some companies find it concerning. Others, however, are embracing it. They see the benefit of letting another company maintain their infrastructure so they can focus on their business. Facebook, McDonald’s, The Washington Post, Uber, and Tripadvisor are examples of companies that work with Vercel. Raunch also wants to make the development process more collaborative. This can be seen in the Vercel dashboard, which allows teams to see what others are working on and view previews of the changes.

Vercel Company Profile: Valuation & Investors | PitchBookUnlike other companies, Raunch believes anyone should be able to host a site for free. As such, Vercel offers a free tier that allows customers to host unlimited sites within reasonable limits. Paid plans are based on the number of team members a company has. This pricing is perfect for big companies and startups alike. It is also competitive with other platforms. Many have moved their sites to Vercel because of this reason alone. Another attractive feature is Vercel’s global network, which allows customers to distribute their website across the world within seconds. This is a particularly interesting innovation. Before, companies had to choose a single location for their servers. Vercel’s technology allows for multiple locations, each being optimized, updated, and maintained automatically.

Rauch has had quite a journey, both as an entrepreneur and as a person. To learn English, he read software manuals. At age eleven, he taught himself web development and started remote contracting work. Most of Raunch’s success, however, derives from Vercel. With his leadership, he has been able to gain 15 investors and $163 million in funding.

Sources:


https://www.businessinsider.com/vercel-zeit-pitch-deck-21-million-accel-github-ceo-2020-4

https://www.gv.com/news/vercel-founder-guillermo-rauch/

Matthew Mullenweg, Founder of WordPress

Matt MullenwegMatthew Mullenweg is the founder of WordPress, a popular blogging and website platform used by one-third of the internet. Although WordPress is a free product, Mullenweg has still been able to create a thriving business. Mullenweg, being a blogger himself, saw a lack of free blogging platforms. He previously used b2/cafelog, which was free but outdated. Upon seeing this problem, the idea of WordPress was born. Mullenweg, alongside Mike Little, took the codebase of b2/cafelog and began the first version of WordPress in 2003. As other blogging platforms increased their pricing, consumers began looking for alternatives. Many flocked to WordPress because it was free and highly customizable. Once WordPress started to grow, Mullenweg added new features that would attract even more users. Examples include forums, moderation, spam prevention, and themes.

Although WordPress gained massive adoption, Mullenweg did not have a way to gain revenue. Eventually, he created Automattic: a for-profit company that now oversees WordPress. Automattic is a collection of different subsidiaries; however, their most prominent is a premium version of WordPress. They will host your blog, ensure it is secured, maintained, and fast. Automattic also owns various paid extensions for  WordPress. A big one is WooCommerce, which allows WordPress sites to have e-commerce capabilities. It is used by a variety of companies that wish to have an online storefront that is feature-rich and customizable. By introducing these innovations, Mullenweg began to attract companies from all industries to move their sites to WordPress.

Mullenweg has also been innovative in how he runs his business. For many years, he has chosen to operate remotely. Even with 1,747 employees, Automattic continues to be remote first. Mullenweg believes this strategy allows for better productivity and cultivation of talent. He has previously stated:

“It’s one of my life missions to have more companies be distributed. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for opportunity. It’s good for the economy.”

Clearly, Mullenweg has proven himself to be a capable entrepreneur that is able to adapt and innovate. His practice of running a remote business has inspired others to do the same, especially amid the recent pandemic.


Sources:

https://www.yourtechstory.com/2018/08/24/matt-mullenweg-founder-ceo-wordpress/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/business/matt-mullenweg-automattic-corner-office.html

https://ma.tt/about/

Andrew Mason – Groupon

The story of Groupon and its main entrepreneur is a dramatic one. Andrew Mason was a web designer paid by tech billionaire Eric Lefkofsky to drop out of grad school and start a business. With his prior experience and classic dropping-out-of-college storyline, Andrew was heading down the road of successful entrepreneurship.

Although he had built enough reputation to warrant a million dollar investment from a former employer, Mason was still in uncharted territory. In an interview with the Gimlet podcast, Mason had said “In the early days we would buy a bunch of academic books on collective action, and me and the other people there would just sit around and read.” The book learning was effective, but there were still some trial and error steps along the way.

While still figuring out what genre of value Groupon would provide its users, Mason and his partners had a few tries and guesses and trips. The original point was to provide an area for people to come up with an idea and go into it together. “I have a plan, but I’m not going to go through with it unless a lot of people do it with me.” Early on, they would seed ideas out to the public and see if they would take. Business was slow, and eventually the users started coming up with their own ideas.

This caused Mason to risk losing his funding; unless he could find an avenue that would provide steady usage and income, Groupon would be shut down. Mason eventually landed on group discount. Groupon sold retail discounts, giving a cut of each sale to the business providing it. Starting off by manually distributing and building relationships Groupon ended up growing faster than Apple, Google, and Facebook. Though he is no longer a part of Groupon, Andrew Mason continues to work as a successful entrepreneur.