In 2008, Elliot Bisnow decided for good that he wanted to help other young entrepreneurs. Being only in his twenties himself, Bisnow understands a lot of the issues and challenges that young aspiring entrepreneurs face. His venture is called the Summit Series which in 2008 consisted of gathering as many young entrepreneurs as he could and essentially having a summit which has been compared to TED Events for young entrepreneurial innovation. While only 19 people and Bisnow were part of the first Summit, he was able to bring in some heavy hitters such as the founder of TOMS Shoes. Only two years later in 2010, Bisnow managed to have the event in Washington D.C. where it was opened to the public for the first time and charged $2,500 per person. This conference drew in a crowd of 750 attendees and drew in many more speakers on the subjects of the talks.

I think this is a great idea and business just because it is all about what we have been talking about with these blogs. It is all about young, successful entrepreneurs. This guy is not only one himself, but what he is doing is trying to help others just like him to be successful in their endeavors. He was able to have the President request his services within two years of starting out. I don’t know much else that is that impressive. He managed to get the founders of TOMS Shoes, Twitter, and many other to come to this. All within the first two years. His revenues have not been released, but I can imagine he is doing very well for being in his twenties.

A graduate of the prestigious Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania, Slava Rubin, and his two partners have started a venture that would remind many of the company Kickstarter. Indiegogo, was started by Rubin and his partners in 2008 and is currently headquartered in San Francisco. It is a well funded and well respected crowd funding site. It has been estimated that Indiegogo will double its profits next year which would be more billions of dollars. It has also proven to be a very viable investment to many as it has managed to raise $15 million under Rubin as CEO. In addition, Rubin has managed to make himself a very well-known and respected individual in his field. He has now managed to help the White House with different things including rules and regulations for equity crowd funding and a few other things. As I mentioned before, this site is similar to those like Kickstarter. However, one of the big differences and selling points for this site is that they disburse the funds immediately when the contributions are collected through user’s Paypal accounts. Whereas, users of Kickstarter do not have disbursed funds in immediate time. The company is very well spread out and some of its users have raised hundreds of thousands to start their own business.

What I really like about this idea is it followed other ideas that were being started and also were looked at as being successful, however, it changed it with the way they operated it. Like by using the Paypal accounts, their users are happier because the transactions move faster than other sites. And, when you have similar businesses like that, a difference like that can mean a big difference in who customers go to. It’s a really smart way to do it. It differentiates themself when they market themselves. Also, it follows the trend of technology and how most business is headed these days.

As a freshman in college, Garrett Gee decided when the iPad 2 came out that he wanted to make a big impression and start his own business. He wanted to be one of the first people to create one of the best new apps for it. He got the new iPad right when it came out and went to work. He accomplished his goal of getting one of the top 10 apps for the device early on. He called the app Scan. This app is all about being able to scan codes for various uses. All you need is a barcode for something and the app can scan it and use it for various things. It is a very widely used app and continues to be today. As well, it has influenced further innovations.

Him and a team that he brought together was able to get $1.5 million from venture capitalists to further work on the application. They had over 21 million downloads by October of 2011. They have had even more since. I really liked this story because it shows a young entrepreneur who not only had an idea, but had an idea that needed to happen fast. Apps for things like the iPad are created very quickly. There are plenty of brilliant people who work on these apps and for a young man like Garrett to be able to create an app that was that popular is very impressive. He had to work extremely quickly and bring together a good team to further it. He used technology of his day, very new technology to start his own business. He now has the opportunity to make lots of money on this project and has a full blown team working with him. It’s quite impressive.

Michael Buckwald and David Holz developed a product that is essentially a hand sensor that is used in place of a mouse  for a computer. The invention is no bigger than a usb drive and it has a certain area of space that the user’s hand has to be within for it to work. However, as long as the users’ hand is within that space they are able to control their desktop just like they would if they were using a mouse or mousepad on a labtop. The invention costs $80 and comes with Leap Motion software which must be downloaded to the desktop. The software started to be developed in 2008 and they eventually got $45 million to start and develop their company.

I think this idea is really innovative because it really doesn’t cost much, but definitely has a large market of users. This is really the next step after touch screen if u really think about it. You just don’t have to touch anything. It’s all just motions. It is a simple product to use. It is what people want without them having to really be taught how to use it. This is really targeted to anyone who has a computer they would want this for. The price allows for it to be marketed to everyone.

Just in 2012, three guys began the start-up company known as ZenPayroll. The spokesman for the three, and partner, Tomer London, describes the idea of the business as making payroll easier, less dreadful, and less expensive. Based in San Francisco, the partners received first funding to start up worth $6.1 Million. They decided to attack the payroll business because it seemed to them a place where a lot of innovative things could be done. They seem like they have certainly succeeded in their judgement. The are offering payroll service at $25 a month for small businesses which is much lower than the price of many larger payroll companies. In addition, London claims that payroll duties that business owners dread are not the case with their new business. He claims payroll is very easy and much more relaxing with their service. This is due to their thinking that customer service is what needs to be focused on in the payroll industry.

I think this is a very innovative idea. These guys found a business that is vastly dreaded and are making it easier for business owners. Also, being business owners they have the dynamic of knowing how small business owners and fellow entrepreneurs think and feel about different parts of business. Simply taking some ideas to make something easier was simple, but very smart. The business is still very young, but I think it says something that they were able to get such ample funding. Obviously, people have confidence in their plan.

Nikhil Arora, 25, and Alejandro Velez, 24 were in there last semester at the University of California. They both had business positions lined up when they were given the idea to grow mushrooms out of recycled coffee grounds by one of their professors. They were told that nobody had ever tried to commercially produce mushrooms this way. When they succeeded in producing the mushrooms on a small scale and won a college innovation competition, they decided to take it further. So, they turned down their corporate jobs.

That summer they spent researching and developing what they thought would do to make this a sustainable business. They made there first mushroom sale to Whole Foods Market that October. However, they quickly moved to entirely making kits that mainly large companies use to grow there own mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds. They do sell them to individuals however. They now continue to successfully sell their kits. They started in 2009.

What I really like about these guy’s story is that they show so many entrepreneurial qualities. They were willing to take the risk of giving up nice positions in order to follow their entrepreneurial idea. Not only that, but they made it happen and started selling in less than a year of when they came up with the idea. They took the risk and they took it fast. They also did very well at recognizing what a great opportunity it was when they saw it. I think recognizing opportunities is something big to take out of this. I really like the concept of taking something that is known, just nobody has tried to make it into a business venture.