Have you ever been somewhere and heard a catchy song that you don’t know the name of? There’s lots of us that have that problem, but thanks to SoundHound, we don’t have that problem much anymore!

SoundHound allows you to sing, hum, or play a song into your phone speaker and it will identify the song  title, the artist, and the album. This app is helpful in the fact that it doesn’t leave you wondering when you hear a catchy song, but it tells you everything you need and would want to know about it.

SoundHound clocked in a total of about 12 million dollars by October of 2008 and in 2009 had additional funding from Walden Venture Capital which also assisted in the beginning steps of Pandora and Snocap.

SoundHound has revolutionized the way that we are able to find music and doesn’t leave you on a cliff hanger with catchy songs. This app provides an outlet for you to be able to know all about these songs! SoundHound is creative and awesome way to hunt for music and they continue to find ways to make the app even better.

Admit it, you’ve been bored sitting somewhere with absolutely NOTHING to do…until you decide to pull out your smart phone and play Temple Run. Temple Run is a great way to pass along waiting time or to get yourself out of the rut of boredom.

In this game, the player gets to choose who is running and controls where it is running to. The player can swipe and tilt the screen right and left to get their runner to the chosen destination…that is, wherever the “demon monkeys” that are chasing you aren’t.

Published by Imangi Studios, this endless running game that was developed by husband and wife team Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova. Initially launched for iPhones, Imangi also extended their market to Android and Windows phone users, bringing them up to one billion downloads.

Temple Run is a clever and creative game that is such a great time passer, not to mention a lot of fun to play. It brings out competitiveness that one may have never known was there. Temple Run is an innovative take on other endless running games that has succeeded a great deal on the app market thus far. Also, their other clever renditions of the game such as Temple Run: Brave, based off of the Disney movie “Brave” and Temple Run: Oz, derived from “Oz, the great and powerful.” This app is a great example of cleverness, creativity and innovation all in one.

Yik Yak

Yik Yak is only one of the apps that has taken the social media world by storm. Yik Yak is an anonymous social media app that allows you to post, or in this sense “yak” to those within a 10 mile radius of you. This app differs from other anonymous posting apps in the fact that it allows you to share your posts with people that are very close to you, making it more of a useful app. Some would say that it is synonymous to how Twitter operates.

Yik Yak was created by two Furman College graduates, Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington. Droll and Buffington began working together when they were in the same class working on coding iPhone apps. After the two graduated from college, they gave the development of this app their full and  undivided attention. Droll dropped out of medical school while Buffington waited on pursuing his career in finance. With all of this racked up progress, the app was released to the market in November of 2013 and was soon ranked the 9th most downloaded media app in the United States.

Buffington and Droll are great examples of innovation and creativity. Yik yak has made great success among high school students, college students, and many other markets. So what are you waiting for? Yak away!

Have you ever played a video game thinking that the reward of finishing isn’t enough? Well, thanks to Brian Wong, we don’t have to worry about that anymore. Kiip is a mobile app that gives real life rewards for in-game achievements.

Brian Wong

Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia and of Hong Kong descent, Brian Wong, at the young age of fourteen, received his high school diploma; that is, after skipping two grades. At 18 years old, he received his Bachelors Degree at the University of British Columbia. Being very young and fresh out of college, he experimented with starting new businesses but found Kiip to be amongst his most successful startups, clocking in $15 million of venture capital from companies such as Relay Ventures, Verizon Ventures, CrossLink Capital and more.

Brian Wong just one example of taking entrepreneurship to a whole different level. His idea is one of a kind and has paved the way for his success. His idea is not only one of a kind, but the first of its kind in providing people with rewards from their success in video games. It is also a very creative idea that gives victories in video games a whole different meaning.

Caine’s Arcade

From looking at the picture above, one might see a little boy, but others might see a young entrepreneur. This nine-year-old little youngster has made a huge dent in innovating the modern day things we look at as arcades. Places such as Chuck-E-Cheese and Dave and Busters are getting a run for their money in this industry from this little youngster.

The Dynamic Difference

Whenever you walk into an arcade, think of some of the things that you would hear and see. Sound effects from the games and flashing lights…all the things that make for a pretty interesting and fun atmosphere. However, Caine Monroy took a different spin on how an arcade might be looked at. Walking into Caine’s arcade isn’t like walking into any normal arcade, being that his arcade is made entirely out of cardboard in the back of his father’s used auto parts shop. Not what we would think of as an arcade, right?

While innovating the way we look at the arcade, he also changed up the process a bit too. While some might go feed their dollars to dispense tokens, Caine charges $1.00-$2.00 for 4 plays, and 500 plays respectively. He also sells “Caine’s Arcade” t-shirts for $15 dollars.

Not only has Caine changed the way we look at games, but life in general. His passion, drive, and determination at such a young age has inspired many to do things that they never thought they could. As we can see from this example, age is but a number and you can do ANYTHING when you put your mind to it.

From Fork to Flourishing Business: Lizzie Marie Cuisine

From her own personal kitchen, to the farmers market, to a prospering young business woman, this young entrepreneur has a lot going for her, especially at such a young age.

This eleven-year-old empress had a passion for healthy food her business has transformed her into a miniature Rachel Ray, which she also gained some business advice from. Lizzie Likness (Lizzie Marie Cuisine) has created a website featuring, blogs, recipes and videos to encourage children to eat healthy.

What first began as fundraising for horseback-riding lessons grew into something that she had never expected it to become. Once she realized how people starting reacting to her delicious, tasteful (and not to mention healthy, of course) food, Lizzie though that it was time to take her cooking to the next level. Lizzie had asked her father to make her a website and she began posting cooking videos on YouTube. Anxiously awaiting what people would say, Lizzie had received a plethora of comments from a vast array of people with many different opinions. While some were shocked and pleasantly surprised by her age, others begged to differ that someone that young should not be in the kitchen. With that being said, that did not stop Lizzie from pursuing her passion harder and expanding the boundaries of her business.

Not only is this a story of mass success for one little girl, it is also one of inspiration. Lizzie had mentioned in an interview that one of the reasons that she encourages children to eat healthy is her parents weight loss. Lizzie’s father is also in the healthy-living business and as she got older, the more inspired she was by his work and jumped when she saw an opportunity to act.

Lizzie still continues to cook today, taking ordinary recipes and making them extraordinarily tasteful and healthy to eat. She continues to be an inspiration to those to pursue their passion, young and old alike.