Dubsmash is a lip synching app where users can pick from multiple soundbites to record themselves with. The video then can be shared to multiple other social media platforms. Roland Grenke, Jonas Druppel, and Daniel Taschik are the inventors of Dubsmash. The creators originated from Germany. The team previously created two failed apps, but Dubsmash was reigned number one in one week in Germany. The team saw the rise of social apps and the music industry, deciding to combine the two. More than 100 million people have downloaded Dubsmash. Celebrities like Selena Gomez, Jimmy Fallon, and Rihanna have even used Dubsmash. Many entertainment outlets like movies, music, and tv shows have been promoted through Dubsmash. In May of 2016, Dubsmash earned six million dollars. Dubsmash’s major competition has been Musically and Snapchat. Sadly, Dubsmash has not stood the test of time. It has faded away despite its success in the app store. It goes to show that applications are big business, but it takes a lot to stay on top.
Author Archive for Katheryn Frazier
Maya Penn is an e
ntrepreneur, coder, philanthropist, designer, animator, writer, and illustrator. She was just 8 years old when she started her first company. Penn got interested in eco-friendly alternatives when her dad taught her about solar energy. She then discovered how harmful chemical dyes were to the environment and sought to combine that into a business idea. Penn out started by making ribbon headbands out of unused fabric around her house. The businesses started out with a $200 budget and grew from the profits received from there on out. Penn was taught how to sew from her mother. Her father was an entrepreneur and taught Penn about business and computers. At an early age Penn learned how to take apart a computer and even coded basic HTML at age 10. She now codes her own website. Her current online store is called Maya’s Ideas where she sells handcrafted clothes and accessories that are eco-friendly. The fabrics are organic or recycled. In 2013, Penn brought in $55,000 in sales and gave 10% to local charities. Penn always gives back to charities because her parents taught her to share with the less fortunate. Maya’s Ideas 4 the Planet is her nonprofit and Penn volunteers locally to this day. In addition, Penn creates also creates videos that she animates, writes, and produces about the environment. She has also created two children’s books and has a novel on advice to young entrepreneurs. Penn advises to start an idea journal. She also said to “….believe in yourself and what you’re doing. Don’t get discouraged if things are going slower than you expected. And don’t give up too quickly.”
Deepti Sharma is the founder of Foodtoeat.com. She is 27 years old and double majored in political science and business. Foodtoeat.com specializes in a service were people pre-order food from immigrant communities. The site was beta launched in 2011 and actively launched in 2013. Sharma got the idea when she was waiting in line for 20 minutes one day for food. The benefit to Sharma’s service is that people do not have to wait in line for food. It also allows food owners to engage with their customers, increase their business, and have a define amount of orders placed. Restaurants and vendors sent Foodtoeat.com their open hours so that customers can only order from restaurants/vendors available at that very moment. When customers order, an email is sent to the rest
aurant/vendor and the restaurant/vendor must confirm the email. Foodtoeat.com charges a 10-cent fee per transaction. 700 restaurants and 50 food carts are involved in the enterprise. The service relies on customer feedback. The service is concentrated in New York City, but Sharma looks to integrate this service in New Jersey, Connecticut, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. She also looks at developing an app for the service. Sharma had previous knowledge in the field with her food management and hands on experience in the food industry. Foodtoeat.com employs six people for marketing/sales and four people technology people in India. Foodtoeat.com also works with many interns and relies heavily on social media to advertise. Sharma is a great entrepreneur because she has combined technology and multicultural food together to best serve restaurant owners and consumers.
Isabella Rose Taylor became interested art at the age of 3 and later became interested in sewing and fashion design at the age of 8. She started to create clothes for her friends and family. Soon enough Isabelle was creating a collection of clothing and selling it online. At the age of 11, Isabella was introduced during Austin Fashion Week in Austin, Texas. Isabelle also graduated high school the same year, at age 11. Two years later, Nordstrom partnered with her to create clothing for their company. Isabella was at the age of 13 when she was picked up by Nordstrom. She is in charge of a Junior Clothing Company; whose only employees are her mother and father. She is the young
est fashion designer to be picked up by a department store, displayed clothing at New York Fashion Week, and named MAGIC Emerging Designer. Currently she is 15 years old and has partnered with PB Teen to design furniture. She is also working for an Associate’s degree in fine arts. Isabelle manages to balance schoolwork, traveling, and growing her business all at once. Isabelle’s advice is that “It’s just a matter of making things because you love to create.” She is very driven, creative, and mature which allows her to succeed as an entrepreneur.
Styrofoam i
s a commonly used material. It’s useful in so many ways, but often styrofoam ends up in landfills too often. 25% of landfills comprise of styrofoam and takes up to 500 years to decompose. Ashton Cofer and three other students from Gahanna Middle School East developed foam trash into carbon to purify water. The students were in eighth grade when the project started and are in currently ninth now. The students got the idea from a trip to Central America, where they found that styrofoam littered the area excessively. They began to think of ways to recycle foam because the solutions for recycling styrofoam was very limited and expensive. Cofer and his friends went through many failures to receive their final solution. The group got together a couple days a week to work on the project and divided up the work. Finally, the group found the solution with the correct temperatures, time, and chemicals. The final name for the idea was called Styro-Filter. The idea received a grant from eCYBERMISSION, First Global Innovation Awards, and from the Lego League. The money will be used to get a patent and further develop research. Ashton was even given the honor to explain his story on TedTalks. The project is a great humanitarian and chemical engineering victory. Cofer and his group turned a wasteful material into a useful material with some hard work and brainpower.
Eddy Zhong had no prior experience in the field of entrepreneurship, but has shown that to create a successful tech-startup you do not need to. At age seventeen, Zhong started up a technology company called Blanc Inc that manufactured smart watches unlike any other kind. The Blanc Smartwatch, called Spark, is a motion censored watch that vibrates when it senses the user is falling asleep. The estimated revenue for the first year of the watch is projected to make $70,000. The target market for Spark is to students, medical professionals, and security guards who tend to have trouble staying awake. The price for the Spark is between $50 to $100.
Zhong got the idea from his brother, who had difficulty staying awake during a test after studying too much. To build his prototype without funding, Zhong used his connections through friends and school. His startup work force composes of other high school students like himself and first worked out of the Cambridge Innovation Center.
After establishing Blanc Inc., Eddy dropped out of high school. In addition to Eddy’s start up business, he has invested in a summer camp with a concentration of entrepreneurship. It will be called Leangap and is targeted for teenagers. Students that are looking to attend Leangap have come from across the world. The program will be the first of its kind and involve building and coding. Leangap will be held in Cambridge, MA, which is Eddy’s hometown.
Zhong will continue to enterprise. He also looks to attend Babson College, which has the most prestigious program in entrepreneurship.