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Robert Nay and Bubble Ball

Posted by HeiserKW17

· Thursday, November 8th, 2018

· 2 Comments

One of the most explosively popular iPhone apps in the last decade was developed by a 14-year-old. That’s right, a 14-year-old. An eighth grader from Utah, Robert Nay, created Bubble Ball in 2010, pouring hours of time and thousands of lines of code into what would become an extremely popular physics-based iOS game in which players must manipulate a course to navigate a ball to the end. Nay, an avid math student and video gamer, said that he just took ideas from his favorite games at the time and combined them into one concept. In the first week of being on the App Store, Bubble Ball surpassed 1 million total downloads and quickly overtook Angry Birds as the most downloaded game on the App Store charts.

This incredible rise did not come without some prior programming experience. Nay taught himself how to program in third grade and created his first website shortly after. In middle school, a friend suggested to him that he learn how to code games for an iPod Touch. From there, Robert learned how to use an app development program called Corona, the program he used to create Bubble Ball all by himself. However, Robert himself claims he wasn’t necessarily naturally gifted in programming and learning to code, saying there were times where he seriously questioned his ability to make a working app. However, he pressed on and was able to complete a project that became extremely popular. Since then, Nay Games has released a follow-up in Bubble Ball: Curiosity Addition, but has not released any other games. Bubble Ball is still available on the App Store today. Robert Nay’s drive to see his idea through despite his personal doubts is an example to other entrepreneurs who may encounter similar doubts to continue on and trust in their own abilities.

2 Comments

Categories : App, Smartphone, Video Games

Andrew Mason – Groupon and More

Posted by warricknj18

· Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

· 2 Comments

Andrew Mason is most well known for founding Groupon, the coupon program, but that was not his first business, nor his last. Andrew grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh called Mount Lebanon, PA. At age 15 he started Bagel Express, a Saturday morning delivery service. After college and a few jobs, he started The Point, a company that helped groups connect about issues they cared about. He decided that The Point was too complex, so it was then boiled down Groupon. Eric Lefkofsky, Andrew’s former employer, gave him $1 million in seed money to help get the idea going, and it became a huge success. In 2011, Groupon projected that they were on track to make $1 billion faster than any company ever. Unfortunately for Andrew, the company was not doing as well as investors thought it should, so he was ousted from the CEO position, and from the company in 2013.
It was not long before Andrew had another business idea, called Detour. It is a company that makes smartphone audio tours. They raised $11 million in investments, and the company is still around today, even though Andrew had another business idea and moved on from that company. Through Detour, they had to edit large amounts of audio, and it took a lots of time. To make the process go easier and take less time, Andrew developed a business and program called Descript. The program transcribes audio files and matches up the word with the place it appears in the file, making it much easier to edit. His goal is to make it as easy to edit audio as it is to edit photos and videos on a smartphone app.
From these examples, we can see that Andrew did not just end up running forever with his first idea. It changed over time to fit the needs of people. The Point developed into Groupon, and Detour developed into Descript. This is a good example for us all – to keep looking for new opportunities or better ways to help people, and to form our ideas around that.

2 Comments

Categories : App, Business

Spotify

Posted by Gretta Kriner

· Sunday, October 28th, 2018

· 4 Comments

Spotify was co-founded by the current CEO Daniel Ek. Spotify is a music streaming service used by more than 150 million people, 70 million are payed subscribers. Ek owns nearly 9% of the shares in the company still today. Him and his business partner Martin Lorentzon founded the company in 2006 in Sweden, and launched there product in 2008. Spotify has managed to remain current in a society of continually changing media.

4 Comments

Categories : App, Millennial Entrepreneurs, Technology

Gerard Adams – The Millionaire Mentor

Posted by warricknj18

· Monday, October 15th, 2018

· 2 Comments

According to Inc.com, Gerard Adams was the second most influential millennial entrepreneur to watch in 2017, only behind Mark Zuckerberg. Adams has started and invested in a number of businesses, many of which have become huge successes. He spent one semester at Caldwell University before dropping out and going off on his own. His father worked at Prudential Financial which grew Adams’ interest in the stock market. He started several companies in the financial industry. One of these was called StockSpot, which he says grew to a revenue of $10 million before the 2008 stock market crash. In recent years, Adams has invested in or started nine companies, all of which have made over a million dollars.
The business Adams is most well known for is Elite Daily, a news platform for millennials. The site reached over 80 million monthly visitors. In 2015, Adams and his two co-founders sold the company to Daily Mail for $50 million.
Adams calls himself The Millionaire Mentor. His goal is to inspire millennials in their passions. He does this through a few avenues. The first is his website (GerardAdams.com). On this he has blogs, videos, and other information to help entrepreneurs. He also has a business called Fownders, which has classes, articles, and other things that encourage social entrepreneurs.
Gerard Adams is very passionate about helping entrepreneurs, especially millennial ones, in pursuing their passions. It is great to see a successful person using their gifts to help other people who are starting out just like he did at one point.

2 Comments

Categories : App, Bootstrap Business, Building, Business, Celebrities, Droupout, Social Entrepreneur, Technology

Need a Lyft? (John Zimmer)

Posted by boltonjr1

· Monday, October 15th, 2018

· 5 Comments

About Lyft:

Lyft is a ridesharing platform created in 2007 in order to improve transportation in urban environments. Co-founder and acting president, John Zimmer, came up with the app by identifying an unnoticed problem. Since its inception, Lyft has been steadily growing into one of the best ridesharing services in the U.S., competing with other large companies like Uber.

John Zimmer (Inspiration and Innovation):

John Zimmer first identified the previously mentioned problem while attending college at Cornell. The problem was that 20% of seats in vehicles are vacant while these vehicles operate on highways. This statistic can be easily overlooked as insignificant, but Zimmer saw this as an opportunity. Capitalizing on the perceived potential, he joined forces with Logan Green who was already working on a ridesharing service called Zimride. Because Zimride was not very successful, the two decided to start developing a more mobile-focused app. With the launch of Lyft, Zimmer and Green established the solution they had been working towards.

Importance:

One of the qualities that stood out to me as I was researching John Zimmer was his ability to frame a problem. Because it is very common to see vehicles on the road with empty seats, it is not a factor that most people would consider to be a problem. George Zimmer was able to see past mundane details and use this perceived problem to discover the value of filling empty seats.

5 Comments

Categories : App, Business, Cars, Millennial Entrepreneurs

Brother-Sister Pair Create Multi-Million Dollar Online Yearbook

Posted by murphybm1

· Sunday, October 14th, 2018

· 4 Comments

Who knew that a pair of brother-sister millennial entrepreneurs could create a multi-million dollar business by the ripe ages of 14 and 25? Geoff and Catherine Cook of New Hope, Pennsylvania, built a website called MyYearbook from the ground up – and they did this while Catherine was still in high school. In 2002, when their family decided to make the move to New Hope, Catherine was extremely interested in making new friends at her new high school. One day, she was flipping through the pages of her yearbook when she realized that this was not the most efficient way to make new friends. She thought if only there was an online yearbook where she could reach out to people who did not already know her, but who were interested in making new friends as well. She brought the idea up to her already successful brother who had recently graduated from Harvard and had sold a few of his own companies, and he jumped right on board. He invested a whopping $250,000 and stepped in as CEO. These siblings launched what would become one of the nation’s most-trafficked websites from the comfort of their parents’ home. Within the first week of its launch, 400 users had already signed up and were avidly using the site. After reaching out to investors and focusing on branding their company as “MySpace for high school”, Catherine and Geoff were able to hire a team of engineers to expand their company even further. In 2011, MyYearBook merged with Quespasa – a $100 million deal – that allowed them to reach an even larger Brazilian and Mexican audience, with the new name of: MeetMe. Through this deal, they were able to take their website worldwide and affect millions of people around the globe.

Catherine and Geoff Cook are exemplary millennial entrepreneurs because they started with a simple idea, and through hard work and dedication, they were able to create a world-wide business out of their parents’ home. They were motivated and dedicated, a combination that would drive them to succeed and achieve even more than they could have imagined. Catherine had a vision and at the age of 14 was able to pursue her dreams by pushing every limit and overcoming every stereotype that tried to hinder her. She did not allow her age to stop her, nor did she allow the opinions of others at her new school to impede her goals. She simply worked countless hours, contacted the right people, and most importantly never gave up.

I believe Catherine and Geoff’s story is inspiring and can teach many lessons. Their passion and persistence led them to astounding success and drove them to continually innovate their idea. Catherine talked to other students every day while Geoff networked online to truly see what others though of their site. They constantly critiqued, tweaked, and pivoted their idea based on their target audience’s desires so that MyYearbook became one of the most popular social networking sites in the world.
This has taught me the importance of continuous improvement. I believe that products and ideas can always be improved. As society changes and technology, stereotypes, and expectations change along with it, companies need to constantly develop their products. Even a successful product can always be improved because improvement leads to more success. This is a concept that I intend to bring into the products and businesses that I create both now and in the future.

4 Comments

Categories : Academia, App, Business, College, Communication, Creating, Education, Great Ideas, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Online Companies, Social Media, Technology, Websites, Women Entrepreneurs, Youngest Entrepreneurs

Tags : millenial entrepreneurs, Social Media, websites, yearbook

Your Brokenness is Welcome Here

Posted by stewartlg1

· Friday, October 12th, 2018

· 3 Comments

It doesn’t take long scrolling through social media to feel like you’re missing out on the life that someone else is enjoying. So many girls are left feeling broken and inadequate from a society that thrives off of likes, shares, and comments. Jordan Lee Dooley, 24, is on a mission to change the culture of social media as she helps “everyday girls live intentional lives.” Her hobby turned blog turned business, SoulScripts, has become an online ministry for young women seeking their purpose.

SoulScripts originated in the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority house at Indiana University, while Dooley was a student in 2015. Her Etsy shop included personally hand-lettered mugs and journals with scripture and Biblical quotes. Eventually, she expanded her business into a blog where she tackled the personal topics behind the scripture, keeping the name SoulScripts as the title of it. It didn’t take long before she quickly discovered that this was the purpose God had for her life and pursued her true passion of writing and speaking full time.

She now travels all over the country speaking at churches and events, while also writing for her blog and Instagram. Dooley is telling her own story one post at a time as she encourages other women to seek Christ first while also giving advice on finance, relationships, self care, faith and more. She tells of her own times of heartbreak and brokenness and how God saw her through to the other side.

With an Instagram following of over 200,000 followers, she turned a college hobby into a full blown business. Dooley has since expanded Soul Scripts into a podcast named SHE, and her book, Purpose, about “breaking through insecurities, expectations, and the pressure to prove” comes out in 2019. She also leads a twelve week Bible Study Boot Camp called Soul Session that includes access to a Facebook group with her and other Soul Session members, 12 Bible study videos, and 12 downloadable worksheets for $97.

Jordan’s mantra of “Your brokenness is welcome here” has become a movement that is being worn by girls all over the country. She is promoting authenticity and encouraging women to pursue their purpose. Her passion turned purpose has led other girls to lead intentional lives of pursuing Christ and knowing their identity is determined by their faith in Christ.

https://jordanleedooley.com/

instagram.com/jordanleedooley

instagram.com/SHEpodcast

instagram.com/soulscripts

3 Comments

Categories : App, Art, Business, College, Creating, Decor, Social Media, Websites, Women Entrepreneurs

Matthew Mullenweg

Posted by clementsma1

· Friday, October 12th, 2018

· 1 Comment

Matthew Mullenweg is a 34 year old from Houston, Texas and he founded the web software that we are currently using. That is right! Mullenweg is the founder of WordPress. WordPress is a website building software that focuses on accessibility and ease for its users. Matt realized that it was extremely challenging and expensive to build a website. Before companies like WordPress you had to go out and hire someone to build it for you, or learn how to code yourself. Matt believed that everyone should be able to create a website, whether they knew how to code or not. The philosophy behind the web platform is that anyone should be able to get a WordPress site up and functioning in less than 5 minutes. It’s customers do not care about the technology behind the site, most of them are just there to share their information. The largest takeaway that Matt has given with WordPress is the concept of giving customers decisions and not options. This may confuse some, but the idea is to make everything easier for everyday people to use. When you give every day people options, that they are not educated on, they get confused and do not know what to do. When you give people a decision there is no confusion and people have the ability to work. WordPress is an extremely easy to use platform with tons of different widgets to use for a million different functions (which you have the option to choose from). Take myself for example, last year I created a blogging site about the dying game of golf. The website had a blog section, a browsing section of all the courses I have played, and a section where readers could learn about me. I made all of this with only a couple of hours of work and no coding experience. I still cannot code by the way. Matt is also a college dropout, but do not get any ideas. He is a pretty unique character, considering the fact that he helped found WordPress at 19. WordPress makes a majority of its money from subscriptions, but also a small cut from advertising.

1 Comment

Categories : App

Buzzings Around The Dating World

Posted by cummingsld17

· Thursday, October 11th, 2018

· 2 Comments

After co-founding one of the world’s most popular dating apps, Whitney Wolfe Herd refused to be silent about some of the issues she had discovered about this app. While using Tinder, she experienced sexual harassment and later decided to sue Tinder because of this. A long battle began along with hate mail, threatening her life from total strangers causing her to leave Tinder and her home. She never wanted to be in the dating industry again until she reconnected with Andreev, owner of the world’s largest dating network, reaching over 190 countries. He saw her potential years prior and reached out to this young entrepreneur, now age 25. When discussing their new dating site ideas, Whitney asked, “What if women make the first move, send the first message? And if they don’t, the match disappears after 24 hours, like in Cinderella, the pumpkin and the carriage? It’d be symbolic of a Sadie Hawkins dance–going after it, girls ask first. What if we could hardwire that into a product?” This question has shaped how their site has been developed, gearing it towards women and keeping the app safer to use. The way the site is set up also eliminates most of the nude photos lurking within most of other online dating sites, making the searching aspect an unpleasant experience. Whitney and Andreev decided to name their new company Bumble, which received over 100,000 downloads within the first month. The company is now a billion dollar business, with over 12.5 million users. It has expanded to platonic friendships, which Tinder has now also implemented. Even though Whitney Wolfe Herd went though a terrible experience with her past company, her past experiences have led her to the company that finally puts women first in the dating world, opening the door to a different way of viewing dating apps.

2 Comments

Categories : App