Author Archive for Boyce Cubarney

The Rise of Pewdiepie

Posted by Boyce Cubarney 
· Wednesday, December 23rd, 2015 
· No Comments

Imagine doing what you love, earning nearly six million dollars annually, and never even having to leave the house.

I know what you’re thinking, sounds like some kind of overused and obvious internet scam, right? Well, not exactly…

Felix Kjellberg, known by his subscription base as “Pewdiepie,” is a Swedish YouTuber with a passion for gaming. Now you might be questioning the legitimacy of a YouTube career, or the idea of a YouTube entrepreneur, but hear me out.

Humble Beginning 

After realizing how much happier he could be making YouTube videos and working a hot dog stand, Felix dropped out of Chalmers University of Technology in order to pursue his early 2011 YouTube career. During this period, Pewdiepie videos quickly caught on and spread like wild fire. Many would argue that a mix of hilarious horror game “jump scares,” his Swedish accent and a seemingly never ending stream of jokes and references were to blame for the viral explosion.

The Statistics Are There

Impressive statistics show that Felix has ranked as the most subscribed channel on the money making machine for three years running now, only behind YouTube’s top four video categories, even beating out the ‘News’.

Clocking in at 41,040,281 Subscriptions and over ten billion views, most would ask the question, why?

ICM Master

This man is an Internet Content Marketing master, that’s why. He puts out an immense amount of content curated for his audience, rolling with the punches in order to keep up with the times, and never let his channel grow old. One way Felix accomplishes this is by reviewing both popular and ‘underground’ games in order to offer the informative, yet still rather unpredictable comedic flare his audience loves him for.

Many games owe their success to his “Let’s play” videos, such and the infamous Slender horror game. This makes him a valuable asset in the indie gaming market, gaining nearly two and a half million hits on average per video. That’s a lot of viewers!

His humor can be both crude and explicit, however, if you so choose, check out his YouTube channel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Comments
Categories : Websites, YouTube

Shiza Shahid

Posted by Boyce Cubarney 
· Tuesday, November 17th, 2015 
· No Comments

Nothing can light a fire under a cause quite as quickly as an entrepreneur driven by passion.  If you speak truth and dedicate yourself to the grindstone, the world will stop and listen.

time-30-under-30-25

Shiza Shahid is perhaps as dedicated as they come. As a teen, she spent her free time volunteering and was already an activist of several different causes. Time went by, she attended Stanford University and afterwards started at a job in Dubai as a business analyst. During this period of time, Shiza kept up to date with news from her home country, but things looked pretty grim. Between the period of 2007 and 2009 the Taliban had taken control of Pakistan and, due to their beliefs, bombed nearly 2,000 schools for girls.

“When I grew up in Pakistan it was pretty safe; I used to cycle outside,”  She stated.

“I felt like home was being robbed from me. It was a very, very broken place.”

Not to long after reading about the atrocities, Shiza viewed a documentary by BBC about an 11 year old girl named Malala. The documentary talked about the struggle Malala faced in a realm where an education was hard to come by and even dangerous to pursue. Heartbroken for the girl, Shiza kept up to date with news on the issue until she received word in 2012 that Malala had been shot by a Taliban member on a school bus.

Shiza flew to London were Malala was hospitalized and the two became fast friends. The girl, now 15, stated that she wanted to continue her campaign in hopes that one day girls like her will not have to be fearful when it came to getting an education. Shortly after, ‘The Malala Fund’ was created and the young entrepreneur worked tirelessly to make sure it achieved the proper support, eventually bringing on a a board of advisers.

Their goal is to offer a safe, 12 years of quality education to girls, and they’re well on their way.

– Read more about the Malala fund or Donate at www.malala.org

 

No Comments
Categories : Education

Brian Wong

Posted by Boyce Cubarney 
· Tuesday, November 17th, 2015 
· 5 Comments

Imagine a world where apps and websites offered prizes instead of pesky advertisements. Well, our sought after technical advances have become a reality once again.

th

Brian Wong, a young entrepreneur, tackled this idea at the age of 23. It all began when he started to pay in-depth attention to the people around him and their mobile use habits, especially with application based game play. He then saw the opportunity, stating that  “I remember noticing that there were these achievements that people would be hitting, like leveling up or hitting a high score … but then what struck me was that in those moments of happiness people were actually not being appreciated but rather slapped in the face with a pretty terrible advertisement.” The over all idea in a nutshell is to replace traditional advertisements with prizes after the user has accomplished something in the game. Its brilliant, and an incentive that is way more powerful than random advertisement 95% of users will immediately ignore or even find annoying.

 

Below are some examples of his prize based advertising. Check out his website at www.brianwong.com

kiip

5 Comments
Categories : App, Great Ideas, Online Companies, Restaurants, Uncategorized

Mark Bao

Posted by Boyce Cubarney 
· Friday, September 18th, 2015 
· No Comments

Ever thought it would have been cool to start a company before you were eighteen? Try eleven of them.

mark bao

That’s right, eleven and counting is Mark Bao’s Entrepreneurial spree. This tech genius has been crunching code since the 5th grade, when he made an application to help him with his home work. He then copied the program onto floppy disks and sold them to his friends, this gave him a taste for the entrepreneurial realm and he’s been hooked ever since!

Among his portfolio are multiple non-profits, however, when it comes to making money, Bao prefers a solid monetary strategy, rather than advertising.

Mark also has a soft spot for charity as he stated; “My preliminary life goal right now is to donate 80% to humanitarian aid and research. Since my life goal for my career is to earn $10 billion, that would be $8 billion.”

On top of running all these businesses, this serial entrepreneur also keeps a blog with cool tips on college strategy, organizing email, and much more. Check him out here  www.markbao.com

No Comments
Categories : Uncategorized