Author Archive for hasseea20

Catherine Cooke: myYearbook

Posted by hasseea20 
· Monday, December 14th, 2020 
· 3 Comments

Another relevant entrepreneur for students is Catherine Cook, creator of myYearbook, a free interactive online yearbook. At the age of fifteen Catherine and her seventeen-year-old brother Dave came up with the idea to be able to interact with more fellow students online. They quickly got their first investor from their web designer older brother and set to work. Soon after building their website, they combined with a user generated quiz site to garner many more interactions.

As they grew, Catherine’s business encountered some pivots as she tried to figure out what would work and what would not. At some points potential investors would want her to move headquarters or determine ad space. Ultimately, she stayed true to her business and vision and it paid off. MyYearbook.com was ranked one of the most popular sites for middle school and high school students in 2006. As her business grew, it attracted nicer advertisers like Disney and Neutrogena.

While she put time into growing it, as was a struggle for many school age entrepreneurs, school and grades started to suffer. Because being in the heart of her target market and being able to optimize her website with direct input and feedback made myYearbook more user friendly, it also became very overwhelming when trying to balance work and school. Later in her high school career Catherine found herself having to skip classes to work.

Yet through every obstacle and inconvenience, starting when she was just fifteen years old, Catherine Cook’s myYearbook has carved itself a niche for high schoolers and grown to 3 million members.

Cook kept up her business all throughout college, after which she sold myYearbook. She remains a partner however, working full time for the business. Catherine Cooke has become a very well-known entrepreneur, inspiring many young people to not let their age keep them from pursuing their big ideas.

3 Comments
Categories : App, Blog, Business, Challenge, Content Entrepreneurs, Creating, Education, Female Empowerment, Kids, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Reselling, Startups, Women Entrepreneurs, Youngest Entrepreneurs

Andrew Mason – Groupon

Posted by hasseea20 
· Sunday, December 13th, 2020 
· 2 Comments

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.

2 Comments
Categories : App, Business, College, Content Entrepreneurs, Creating, eCommerce, Investing, Male Entrepreneurs, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Podcast, Shopping, Startups, Websites

Hey it’s WordPress!

Posted by hasseea20 
· Monday, November 30th, 2020 
· 4 Comments

Matthew Mullenweg grew up with hobbies like coding, art and economics. A fun mix. One of the main founders of WordPress, his hobbies and skills throughout his life led to many amazing web related ideas. In 2005 Matt left school at Houston and a consulting job to start his overhead business, Automattic. This later led to a slew of other companies that used Automattic as a launch pad, including WordPress. He was just nineteen when he decided to change the way people use the internet to publish.

Automattic and all of its resulting companies has turned into a completely virtual company of over 1,100 employees in more than 62 countries.

WordPress, which is used by many authors and writers to publish blogs, was started because of the closure of b2, the only other open source platform option at the time. Having used b2 throughout his life, its end was a pain for Matt. The idea and plan for WordPress started when Matt was approached online by a fellow coder after he had talked about the lack of a publishing space.

Using b2 as a starting base and template, the two entrepreneurs proceeded to build upon the main idea while improving any faults. A classic mash up of ideas and innovation, WordPress is now used by over 31 percent of the web. It is only one of many successes Matt made for himself, but it very much added to the open source world of the web.

He works on it constantly and takes joy from the benefit people receive.

From educational to professional, WordPress has added levels of simplicity, convenience, and efficiency to the way people work. Matt has an entrepreneur’s  spirit, and from his career history so far, it is easy to see he looks for problems to solve and thrives in finding solutions.

4 Comments
Categories : Blog, Business, Challenge, College, Communication, Convenience, Great Ideas, Male Entrepreneurs, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Millennial Entrepreneurs, Uncategorized

Behind Quizlet

Posted by hasseea20 
· Friday, October 9th, 2020 
· 6 Comments

During the school year, one website always rises hugely in popularity among students.
A popular study tool, Quizlet has provided quality studying help to all levels of students. A website and app that allows teachers and students to study through use of flashcards and study sessions, Quizlet has gotten many through midterms and finals. Designed by a young entrepreneur with personal insight to a need, Quizlet was founded in 2005 by high school sophomore Andrew Sutherland. He designed it at first to help him study for his French vocabulary and after acing his test, shared it with his friends.
Andrew applied a little bit of the 0 to 1 method to his project which has been part of making Quizlet so successful. It took until 2007 to be released to the public but has since come to be realized as one of the first steps into education gamification. When he saw the impact Quizlet was having on students everywhere, Sutherland dropped out of MIT where he was pursuing a computer science degree to give more attention to his project.
A personality trait of entrepreneurs is willingness to pursue risk and take opportunity when it shows. After having taken a break from Quizlet to work on his education, Andrew fully committed to growing his business. A student designing with students in mind, his approach was correct from the first.
His care for his users and their platform has continued to grow. In addition to the base platform’s effectiveness, Sutherland did not stop there. “The most important thing that I realized during this process was how to treat my users. They’re Quizlet’s biggest asset.” With a business mind and courteous personality, he decided that interaction between user and owner would be part of what made Quizlet exceptional. Andrew Sutherland replies personally to each message, furthering the positive impact his company has on the world.

6 Comments
Categories : App, Business, College, Education, Experience, Male Entrepreneurs, Uncategorized

Sofia Overton: The Power of Pockets

Posted by hasseea20 
· Friday, September 25th, 2020 
· 2 Comments

Sofia Overton has wanted to be on Shark Tank since she was six. With a mind primed for innovation, it did not take her long to find her niche. An observer by nature, in 2017 Sofia noticed her older cousin struggling to store her phone in her pocket-less leggings. Sofia watched her cousin put the phone in her boot, so she tried it but found it too uncomfortable.

That is what started her entrepreneurial career. She designed a prototype sock with a pocket to hold her phone. It worked great and Wise Pockets was born. Through crowdfunding, Sofia was able to raise enough money for manufacturing. Crowdfunding can be a hit or miss risk, but for her it was a resounding success.

It worked so well that she expanded to leggings with pockets designed for carrying phones. It worked so well in fact, she earned spotlight attention and made it to Shark Tank in summer of 2020, scoring two investors.

Her self-confidence has set Sofia up for success and she is not afraid to look for new angles; she inspires with her ability to find problems with daily life and come up with a way to solve them.

Another important aspect of entrepreneurship, Sofia has a kind philanthropic heart. Impacted by the rate of homelessness at her school, she determined for every pair of socks sold one would be given to a child in need.

She said, “We are Generation Z kids who want their purchases to make a difference.” Sofia Overton is heading the wave of teenagers striving to make the world a better place. Both with purchasing, and with the opportunities they can offer the world by opening up their mind and not being afraid to use their gifts.  Sofia shows us the mindset of the Gen Z.

2 Comments
Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Charity, Clothing, Convenience, Fashion

Moziah Bridges: Bowties for the Boys

Posted by hasseea20 
· Monday, September 14th, 2020 
· 1 Comment

Moziah Bridges is a fifteen-year-old CEO of his own fashion line. At such a young age he has embraced his colorful style and his driven personality has taken him far. The fashion industry fell in love with his designs and Mo featured on shark tank in 2014 when he was ten.

His main focus started with bowties; Moziah had always had an acute sense of style but the fashion market was too boring for his taste. So, he took matters into his own hands with the help of his granny.

The business started as a hobby, with a desire to be fashionable and make the world a more colorful place. Mo’s mission has remained constant with his ever-growing fame. A 600,000 dollar business started with just a sewing machine. Mo’s first bowties were made from scraps of his grandmother’s dresses and curtains, first just for himself. As word got around however, he started selling over Facebook and later Etsy.

It did not take long for news networks to take notice of the young entrepreneur with his bright designs and Moziah has made appearances on the Oprah Magazine, the Steve Harvey Show and others. Even the NBA was taken with his style and Mo got a licensing deal to use their logo in his designs.

Ever the model entrepreneur, Mo has not only been an innovator and a risk taker, he has used his success to benefit others. Very tied to his hometown of Memphis, he wanted to give other kids there the ability find their own opportunities. He paid for several children to attend a summer camp. His philanthropic personality and love for color have fueled the basis of his business.

Maybe on of his most amazing traits is his drive. Never letting his age keep him from pursuing his dreams, Moziah Bridges is the perfect example of entrepreneurs coming in every age.

1 Comment
Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Business, Clothing, Content Entrepreneurs, Fashion, Uncategorized