George Matus developed his start-up company when he was in high school, and now that he has graduated, he has began to take his company to a new level. George is the founder of Teal, a company that develops and sells commercial drones. While he was in high school, George had a busier schedule than most high school students. He’s had to build a website, develop a warranty system, and prepare for the public unveiling of his company. In addition, he’s already raised $2.8 million to fund his investment and even entered one of his drones in the ABC show, BattleBots.

George developed his first drone while in high school, a battery-operated, camera-equipped, aerial drone that could hit speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. He was first able to prepare the product to be sold on the market in early 2017.

George has been building and flying drones since he was 11 after he took part in a forum that taught him how to fix airplanes and other small crafts. He fell in love with his new hobby, and he sought out fellow hobbyists online. After he modified other aircraft and received a job offer from HorizonHobby to test drive their drones, he began to work every day after school, building and testing his own drones. George’s story is impressive because he is so young. He was able to find out what he loved at a young age, and that passion led him to have pretty awesome job offers by the time he was 16. Now, he is able to use that experience to aid him in the intricacies of developing his own company.

During his time in school, David Karp learned HTML and practiced designing websites for businesses. He also spent his time interning at an animation studio, beginning at a young age. Later, Karp got a position at the start-up company, UrbanBaby, where he continued to hone is designing and programming skills. After leaving UrbanBaby, Karp started his own software company and developed an interest in tumbleblogging. This interest prompted Karp and his friend to create what would eventually be called “Tumblr,” a platform featuring tumbleblogs.

Tumblr became popular very quickly, gaining 75,000 users within two weeks. Today, Tumblr is a very popular site and was sold to Yahoo for $1.1 billion in April 2013. Karp is a great example of an entrepreneur who used skills he had previously acquired to create a fun, interactive service for people. He was able to use his expertise to create something he himself enjoyed. Not only that, he created something that was never before seen on the market. Now, Karp is extremely successful and involved in something he truly enjoys.

Pavel Durov has a very interesting entrepreneurial story. He was b0rn in Russia, and despite living in a country where entrepreneurship was not exactly encouraged, Durov worked hard to master skills that would help differentiate himself from others. He learned how to code in school, and his brother and he would change school network computer screens to insult teachers they didn’t like. As Durov got older and more experienced, he was able to create the Russian social media site VKontakte (VK), which functioned similarly to Facebook and actually became more popular than Zuckerberg’s site in Russia.

After amassing extensive wealth from the successful site, Durov was actually forced to give up control of his company, as the Russian government began to take increasing control. He fled Russia after his defiance led him into trouble with the government, but the incredible thing is that Durov was so smart, he didn’t skip a beat when he got to the United States. Durov and his brother arrived in Buffalo, NY and created the Telegram app which has become wildly successful.

Durov’s story is one of perseverance. Many people would not have the fortitude to rebound after losing their multi-million dollar company. Durov, however, used the skills he had already developed to create a new successful product in a space of innovation that was more conducive to success. While most young entrepreneurs can’t relate to seeing their previous project get overrun by the Kremlin, there is a lesson to be learned here. “When at first you don’t succeed, try again.”

Daniel Fine noticed an extremely pertinent problem that hit him very close to home. When he was 11, he watched as his 7-year-old brother Jake was diagnosed with diabetes. His heart broke as he watched his brother struggle cope with the disease at a young age, constantly having to estimate nutritional information and calculate proper insulin dosages. Fine noticed that the proper insulin dosages were often miscalculated, which could have dire consequences. Initially, he created a non-profit organization called “Team Brotherly Love” to “save lives and find a cure.” The non-profit flourished and has raised nearly 1.9 million dollars.

After watching his brother struggle for years with estimation and calculation, Fine noticed a friend take too much insulin at a restaurant after miscalculating the amount of calories in his food. To combat the issues his brother shared with millions of people around the world, Fine created Dosed to eliminate estimating and human math out of the equation to minimize the risk of human error. This mobile solution offers a completely new angle on dealing with and living with diabetes.

Fine offers a fresh new take on a problem that has plagued humans for a long, long time. His idea not only helps his brother, but millions of other people that face a similar struggle. His idea proves to be innovative and helpful. Hopefully, his solution will continue to provide help for diabetics in years to come.

Young Moziah “Mo” Bridges was extremely disappointed with the variety and creativity he saw in the bow ties available for him to buy. In his disappointment, he wondered whether or not other people recognized a similar problem. As someone who simply enjoyed dressing nicely, he sought to determine a solution to this issue. With the help of his grandmother, 9-year-old Mo learned how to sew custom-made, trendy bowties that he could wear himself and sell to others.

At first, Mo began selling his bowties on Etsy, but in a short period of time, his bowties began to be picked up by boutiques and retail stores. By the time he turned 15, Mo’s business had become wildly popular and successful. He had reached an agreement with the NBA to feature the logos of professional basketball teams on his bowties while also appearing on the popular TV show Shark Tank. 

It’s inspiring to see someone at such a young age develop a product that he is so passionate about. We are encouraged in class to dive into our interests to search for new ideas and niches, and this is what Mo did. He also recognized a problem that had no foreseeable, creative solution.

Brennen Byrne started his company with two of his friends from college after thinking about innovative alternatives to usernames and passwords. While attending Pomona College and interning at Adobe, Byrne was able to experiment with a user identification system that utilized cell phones. He realized that this idea could be extremely helpful after witnessing massive information breaches sustained by LinkedIn, Target, and Sony. In this process of innovation, Byrne was able to identify a viable solution to a pertinent problem in everyday society.

Clef allows users to have personal login information on their phones and simply wave their phones in front of any computer to log into it. This system eliminates the need for users to remember their information, and also prevents the need for the storage of usernames and passwords.

Byrne’s journey is inspiring because he originally did not have a personal interest in electronics and computer programming. In college, he almost randomly enrolled in a computer science course, not realizing that the skills he learned there would help him become wildly successful. His story proves that life events that may seem insignificant can make incredible impacts.