As the world of E-Sports become more and more popular, it only makes sense that people would want to watch their favorite creators play their favorite games. In 2011 that’s exactly what Justin Kan and Emmett Shear thought when they created Twitch. Twitch is a streaming platform for people to stream and watch their favorite video games.

Twitch has since been taken over by Amazon and has been made huge. Creating a massive platform for streamers to gain publicity and make a living for themselves by doing what they love. Without Twitch, the world of E-Sports would be much smaller and many content creators would still be trying to live their dream job of playing video games else where.

It is innovative apps like Twitch that show the creativity of entrepreneurs looking for new platforms for others to enjoy. It will be exciting to see the next steps that Amazon takes with Twitch and to see what they do next.

Have you ever been making a purchase online? Whether it been food, clothes, furniture, etc. and wished you had a coupon to make it cheaper but didn’t know any promo codes? I mean hey, who doesn’t like to save some money? That’s exactly what the web extension app Honey does. Any time you are checking out online, if you have Honey installed in your browser, it will automatically search the web for all working promo codes and automatically apply the one that saves you the most money!

Ryan Hudson had this dilemma when he was struggling to get his bills paid and was looking for any way to save money on his online purchases. We all wish we had a promo code when checking out, but wer don’t always know where to find the codes. So Hudson collaborated with George Ruan to create Honey. It searches and applies the promo codes so you don’t have to.

I have saved hundred of dollars using Honey on my online purchases, especially around Christmas time. It is extremely useful and it will son gain more traction as millions of people begin to install Honey on their web browsers.

For the longest time, the only way you could stay overnight somewhere was in a hotel, motel, or friends/family’s house. But in 2008 Brian Chesky reimagined how you could do lodging by allowing people to use their homes to not only provide some extra income for the renter but also creating cheaper stays for the one renting.

Staying the night or multiple nights in a hotel is expensive and you can only have 2-4 people per room, but with Airbnb you can find homes that are substantially cheaper and can house as many people as you want.

I have used Airbnb many times and I’ve come to find that not only is it cheaper, the homes are usually just as nice as a hotel and you get total privacy! A company like Airbnb is super beneficial to both parties, allowing the renter to make money on a home they are not currently occupying and also providing a cheaper alternative for those looking to rent.

A good friend of mine in high school, Alex Papa, has always been pretty entrepreneurial. He was pretty successful on Ebay for many years and in the Summer of 2019, he opened his own authentic gelato shop in New Castle PA.

He recognized an opportunity that New Castle and surrounding areas had no gelato shops. He took a leap and bought his own building, renovated it, hired staff and opened up his shop. He has since then sold out of stock over 10 times! He is frequently teaming up with other groups and festivals to bring attention to not only his shop but to bring the community together.

He is an inspiration to me because he is such a close, successful example for me to learn from. It will be exciting to see what he does next.

Here is a link to his website where you can learn more about him and what he is about:

https://www.papagelateria.com/

Founded in 2013, Mercari is a buying and selling app that has kind of revolutionized and modernized selling your old stuff. The founders of Mercari saw a problem: people don’t want their old stuff and people want money for that stuff too.

Typically, when you get too much stuff you need to get rid of and want some money for it, you have a garage sale or a yard sale, but Mercari eliminates the need to set all that up and get attention brought to your yard sale and so. It’s a hassle doing all of that so Mercari created a solution.

Mercari is an app that allows you to list and sell anything and everything, and makes it very easy to do so as well. I started using Mercari back in 2016 when I wanted to make some extra cash by flipping some of my old stuff I had. I made a couple hundred bucks in a couple weeks and I was hooked on selling anything and everything that I could. Since then, I have stopped using Mercari and started using Ebay, but Mercari taught me a lot about how to sell and how e-commerce works. To this day, I’ve made close to $5,000 just by flipping and selling the past 2 and a half years.

It is an easy side hustle to make fast cash and anyone can do it, and Mercari has made it very easy for people to do this. The app will only continue to grow and become more popular. This goes to show that a simple idea can become something much bigger than it may initially seem.