The startup story of AirBnb is personally one of my favorites. The story is of a now very successful company that almost went bankrupt early on in its founding. But due to entrepreneurial thinking on behalf of its founders, the company was able to step things up and make improvements to make it the incredibly successful company it is today.

Back in 2007, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia (AirBnB founders) were having trouble paying their rent and wanted to earn some extra cash. So they did what any young entrepreneur would do while living in NYC and noticing that most of the hotels were booked: they bout a couple of air mattresses and rented out space on their floor for $80 a night. Thus was the founding of “Air Bed and Breakfast” (the first iteration of AirBnb).

The company later gained a third co-founder, Nathan Blecharczyk, who was instrumental in relaunching the site in late 2008. The company looked to make a big splash with the Democratic National Convention, but only about 600 people utilized the site.

While brainstorming what could be wrong with the site, they noticed that all of the pictures on each listing were absolutely terrible. They immediately booked a flight to NYC to meet their users and to personally take more professional looking pictures. With this, they gradually begin to rebrand the site from shared spaces to all types of accommodation. In March 2009, AirBnB had 2500 listings and almost 10,000 users. It finally began to take off. Today, the rest is history.

Sources: https://getpaidforyourpad.com/blog/the-airbnb-founder-story/

In class, we frequently talk about identifying customer pain points and how to alleviate that pain to cause a disruption in a certain market. With Dollar Shave Club, Michael Dubin did just that.

He noticed the process of buying razors is filled with pain points: razors are too expensive, you have to drive to the store, and then get an employee to unlock the display in which they are kept. Dollar Shave Club aims to fix this in their subscription based business model. Each month, they will send you new razor blades for only $1.

Today, the business was bought by Unilever for $1 billion, and have expanded their product line to include many other grooming products to improve the overall user experience.

Sources: http://fortune.com/2015/03/10/dollar-shave-club-founding/

16 year old Ben Pasternak is living quite the entrepreneurial life while working on his new app, Flogg. The app has been said to combine aspects of Tinder and eBay to help teens sell their unwanted things. \

The app works by having users post something they want to sell on the platform, and then they can share the link to their social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for people to see. Interested buyers can then swipe left or right to say if they are interested in buying the item.

Ben has raised over $2 million towards the development of this app, and has since dropped out of high school to focus on developing and creating this app full time out of New York City. ­

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3541239/16-year-old-tech-tycoon-Ben-Pasternak-launches-new-app-Flogg.html

George Matus, as of May 2016, had just graduated high school, but he also had just started his first business: Teal, a commercial drone manufacturing company.

Teal’s first drone is battery operated and camera equipped that can reach speeds of up to 70mph. The product retails at $1,299. Matus, the founder of the company, not only  is a Thiel fellow (a program that encourages young entrepreneurs to skip college to pursue their business ideas), but has also raised $2.8 million dollars in seed funding for his business.

Matus started flying drones when he was very young, and soon drone flying became a new hobby. His first “flight” was with a toy helicopter that he modified to fly upside down, to which he posted the video on YouTube. The company that made the helicopter reached out to him and told him to take it down. However, they also offered him a job as a part time test pilot, since they were so impressed that he was able to successfully modify one of their products.

Since then, he has worked on building prototypes and testing them for this company. Throughout this time, he kept a running “wish list” on what his ideal drone would be, and thus Teal was born. What makes Teal unique, is not only the high quality and high speeds of their drones, but the fact that users can see real time what the drone is seeing through an app. The possibilities from hobbyists to security personnel are endless.

Sources:

http://fortune.com/2016/07/20/this-teenage-entrepreneur-raised-2-8-million-for-his-drone-startup-in-between-high-school-classes/

This is one of the cooler college startups that I’ve heard of recently. Anthony Zhang started EnvoyNow, a food delivery service, as a freshman at USC. Zhang identified the problem on his campus of students not being able to get food delivered to them on certain parts of campus, as only students and faculty were allowed to be there. Zhang, being the young entrepreneur he is, started delivering the food himself. It originally started with students texting Zhang their order, Venmo (a money transfer service) him the money, and then he would deliver the food to their exact location on campus. At first, he was making up to $50 a night.

Later, he and his friends launched a full-fledged web site and hired several other college students (‘envoys”) that delivered food. EnvoyNow charged a flat $2.99 delivery fee, along with a 20-25% cut of the total food order. Shockingly, in its first semester as a legit business, it made $22k. In 2015, it later expanded to the University of Wisconsin and Indiana University.

Today, Zhang sold the company to JoyRun (in 2017) for an undisclosed amount. On to another business venture!

Source: http://fortune.com/2017/03/30/anthony-zhang-envoynow/

Entrepreneur Highlight: Neil Blumenthal (32)

Profile: Blumenthal, co-founder of Warby Parker, an online retailer based eyeglass shop, came up with the idea while on a hiking trip with a few of his friends while they were college students. His one friend lost his pair of glasses while on the trip, and instead of paying the astronomically high price for a new pair, his friend went an entire semester complaining about how he couldn’t see things in class. In trying to find a cheaper eyeglass alternative, Blumenthal and his friends created Warby Parker.

Warby Parker creates their glasses in house, which cuts out the middle man of manufacturers that drive costs up. Since they design and make them in house, they can make incredibly stylish eyewear at an affordable cost of $95 per frame. Warby Parker also donates a pair of glasses to someone in need around the world with every purchase.

Blumenthal attended the Wharton school of business, along with his co-founder Dave Gilboa (who was the one that lost the pair of glasses). Neil credits not only his success in business, but also his leadership abilities, to Wharton. Neil primarily focuses on employee and customer experience: making this as easy and convenient as possible, which is shown through Warby Parker’s business practices. Their at home try on allows customers to try on 5 pairs of glasses for free before placing their order. They also stress the creation of stylish glasses, because they realize how important the accessory is as a part of someone’s wardrobe and personal style. Warby Parker also generates buzz through social impact through their “Buy a pair, give a pair” program, which Neil oversaw at the eyeglass company he worked at before founding Warby Parker.

Sources:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/warby-parker-cofounders-neil-blumenthal-dave-gilboa-affordable-eyewear-philanthropy/