Author Archive for Leona Bently

Airbnb

Once upon a time, on a cool October night in San Francisco a pair of roommates by the names of Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were just too broke to pay rent on their apartment. They had to get money and get it fast so what did they do? Three air mattresses later and they had an Airbed and Breakfast for people who were attending a conference nearby and didn’t have a hotel room because all of the hotels were full. The pair were then able to get paid by renting said air mattresses and thus were able to pay rent. The end…or maybe not. Why not use this ingenious idea on a bigger scale? That’s exactly what Chesky thought. A few months later Airbnb was started. Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace in which people can rent out their spaces to travelers for both a cheaper price and a more authentic experience. This clever business gives college students and younger families the ability to travel cheaper and better and also allows homeowners to make extra money even while they are away from their homes. Airbnb now connects people to over 34,000 cities, 191 countries, and even 1,400 different castles. So how about we take a trip? Maybe to a castle?

Did Someone Say Scholarships?

In the big bad world of college searching and funding every student will ask the question “how much?” This question almost always refers to both how much it actually is to go to a school and how much scholarship said school will allot them. However, most students do not know about outside-of-school funding, whether it be state or private funding. The reason being is because of the hassle of the applications for said other scholarships and thus students leave a great asset and well of wealth to the wayside. But now there is a brilliant App/Website designed by a student to help students with their funding needs. Scholly is the brilliant and much needed brainchild of Christopher Gray. Being a low-income student himself, Gray searched for months during his latter years of high school applying for various scholarships until he had racked up enough cash to cover all college fees and then some. The process he went through however, was not an easy one nor a quick one. Thus, Scholly was born. Designed to easily connect students to private scholarships, Gray and his co-founders Nick Pirollo and Bryson Alief came up with an 8 parameter algorithm for easy scholarship connections. Even though it is practically a brand new company, Scholly has helped give out over $20,000,000 to 600,000 users since early 2015. From Chris Gray and me to my fellow broke classmates who are required to write comments; you’re welcome.

Inside voices? No, Outside Voices

Usually a great idea starts small. When you think of  the word “small” one of the things that comes to mind is childhood. Millennial Entrepreneur Tyler Haney reminds us all of our mother’s words to use “inside voices” in her clever, hip, and trendy line Outdoor Voices. Her clever company is based off the idea that fitness should be freed from the competitive world and thus make exercise a lifestyle. With that key idea in mind she has come up with a spunky and trendy line of great athleisure and athletic wear. All of her designs are simplistic and sleep thus giving the consumer the freedom to mix and match from any of her selections. What’s so incredible about Haney and her business though is how she brought Outdoor Voices into the highly competitive market of athletic wear. She started the idea at the Parsons School of Design, continued on to the Silicon Valley, and after pitching some 70 times landed a $7 million deal to start the business. However, it wasn’t the money that made Outdoor Voices successful, it was Haney’s ambition and smart marketing tactics that truly made her sight stand out. She implemented the idea of using celebrity fans and icons such as Lenah Dunham and Gwyneth Paltrow to help expand the knowledge and desire of her specific brand. Haney’s business is now a big and booming enterprise with a future as bright as the sun.

College Hunks Hauling Junk

College Hunks Hauling Junk is the genius brainchild of Nick Friedman, an American Entrepreneur, dedicated to helping both people that need a hunk and hunks that need people. With his childhood friend Omar Soliman, Friedman built the company from the ground up. They first started with one van and a few strong buddies to make some extra cash in the summers between semesters. A few years after their college years they decided it was time to go all out and make College Hunks Moving Co. a legit thing. Freidman and Soliman put countless hours, nights, and weekends into organizing licensing regulations, figuring costs, and finding the necessities such as vans, uniforms, logo brandings, and most importantly; hunks. They first started hiring several college buddies and then hired buddies of buddies and finally branched out to all kinds of hunks. Football players, basketball players, trackletes, swimmers, and even mechies all started finding this awesome summer job geared towards college kids to help not only them out with their financial situation, but to also help their community with heavy lifting that would be more difficult for both the older and younger generations. The company itself has grossed billions in the past decade and has made Friedman famous in the Entrepreneurial world. Friedman has been featured in the Top 30 Entrepreneurs under 30 by INC Magazine along with iconic figures like Mark Zuckerberg. Today the company continues to grow across the nation; spreading to smaller towns and larger cities to get junk out and get good into the community by uniting its youth to needs.

 

Nohbo

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Meet Benjamin Stern. At the ripe old age of 17, this kid made a deal with Shark Tank Judge Mark Cuban for 25% of his company for $100,000. Crazy right? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Then I looked into this miraculous product he thought up and developed and understood why. Ben’s product, the Nohbo, is a ball of dried shampoo that when run under water can be rubbed between your hands to produce a rich shampoo. This ingenious style of shampoo produces the perfect amount of soap for you while at the same time cutting down on plastic waste, which is the main goal of this company. These travel friendly spheres are perfect for any excursion you undertake. Just take however many you need for however many days and you’ll be good to go! Because of their small design and liquid free formula they will prevent spills and wont take up tons of space in your bag. However Ben’s products aren’t just limited to shampoo. He has also produced conditioner, body-wash, and shaving cream. Robert Herjavec of Shark Tank also commented “This could be the most successful product I’ve ever been presented with on Shark Tank.” Stern is continuing to be innovative in his product ideas as well as with his upkeep on Nohbo. He says his “…growing passion is to help the environment…” and we can’t wait to see what he’ll come up with next.

Go check out his awesome product in the video below:

Mashable

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Mashable is a top 10 multi million dollar blog that reaches audiences of all sorts; from the tech world to sports, to news stories with hot and relevant information on the top new products and info in the market. In 2005 it’s founder Pete Cashmore started this revolutionary data generator at the tender age of 19. His clever blog design, quick tips, tech advice, and social cultural aspects have attracted over 29 million followers on the many social media platforms he posts on. Cashmore grew his business from the ground up by adding sites for consumer contact and departments in the company itself to expand the empire. On the site itself found here, http://mashable.com/, you will find a variety of posts on a variety of topics for a variety of viewers. Its humorous takes on noteworthy company failures, quick views on sports games and reviews of new tech products and software are what make the blog so successful. By 2012 Cashmore was ranked in Time Magazines Top 100 Most Influential People for his great work in the social media world. Along with Mashable’s commitment to excellence and accuracy in their posts, Cashmore has also committed it to give back to the community by finding job opportunities in the career realms of “technology and social media, marketing and business, and design and development.” It also promises to attribute to a concept of “Social Good” to “make the world a better place.” In all these senses of this company I believe Mashable and its founder are both the stuff of the future we need to continue to push us into the future.