Matt Mullenweg started his adult life as a political science major at the university of Huston. He soon realized that this was not the place for him and he dropped out of college. He then worked at a network company for two years before leaving and creating his own company. He and a friend started Auttomattic, an internet company that has brands such as word press and tumblr. It is great to see a success story where someone found out that school wasn’t their calling and decided to leave and pursue a different path. Mullenweg had extreme courage to leave the normal path and plunder into the path of the unkown. We sometimes think that to become successful we must follow the lead of many other successful people and go to college, the fact is that if the college path isn’t for you, you may still gain wisdom in other ways and become successful in your own way. Mullenweg is now the CEO of Automattic which currently owns Word Press and its over 70 million websites.
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Jared Hecht is a millennial entrepreneur that changed the way the world communicates and made a significant impact in the startup space. In 2009, he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Political Science. Straight out of Columbia, at the ripe age of 22, the young entrepreneur founded startup messaging platform GroupMe. A little over a year after its official launch, GroupMe was sold to Skype in 2011 for $80 million and Hecht began working for Microsoft, who later acquired Skype. In 2015, Hecht was named to the Forbes “30 under 30” list for his entrepreneurial impact.
Though extremely rewarding, it wasn’t always easy for the young entrepreneur to see the light at the end of the startup tunnel. “Some nights you are on top of the world and think you’re building the best thing ever, and then other nights you think that some horrible competitor is going to knock you off the face of the earth,” says Hecht. However, even with the inherent risk, he confirms that developing ideas and changing the way people communicate is “the best feeling ever.”
Alongside his laundry list of impressive commercial accomplishments, Jared Hecht is vastly changing the social entrepreneurship game. Hecht is the current founder and CEO of Fundera, a start-up investment agency that provides loans and financial planning for entrepreneurial ventures. He has invested and advised successful startups such as Codeacademy, SmartThings, and TransferWise. He also currently sits on the advisory board of the Columbia University Entrepreneurship Organization and is a guest blogger for prestigious business sites like entrepreneur.com and Forbes. Jared Hecht is not only a man with good ideas, but he’s willing to take risks for ventures that he believes in, making him one of this generation’s greatest entrepreneurs.
Shelby Wildgust is a Philly native who is full of infectious energy. She loves all things from Philly Sports (GO EAGLES!) to rock climbing, but Shelby is most interested in supporting, mentoring, and coaching young female business leaders into becoming the best and most authentic versions of themselves. While working very closely with Shelby this summer, my favorite thing about her was her go-getter attitude that inspired me not to give up on my dreams for my summer job as a Branch Manager for Vector Marketing and Cutco Cutlery.
Shelby has always loved taking ideas and bringing them to life. In high school, she even started her own jewelry business called Treasures for Tuition to raise money for college. When Shelby was 18 years old, she found Cutco/Vector Marketing. She says she “has no idea what [she] was getting [herself] into”. After being quite successful and experiencing a lot of growth, she ran two branch offices, which is a summer only office that a college student runs while he or she is on summer break. Shelby claims that working for Cutco and having two very successful summer offices, equipped her with many skills which includes how to be resourceful, how to handle rejection, how to build relationships, how to communicate effectively, how to ask for what she wants, how to be a professional, how to public speak, and the list goes on. After graduating college in 2016, Shelby went into Corporate America but realized that she wanted to go back to Vector in a different role. She coaches and leads young individuals running a branch office.
In 2016, Shelby gave a TED Talk called “The Masks We Hide Behind”, where she opened up about her struggles growing up and wanting to fit in which sparked an interest in the idea that women wear masks. She attended a few events that encouraged women to becoming the best versions of themselves and thought she wanted to create something like this, but she wanted to stand out from any average networking event. So, she took the idea of women hiding behind masks and tied it into the idea of networking. In January of 2019, Shelby made the decision to become more involved in the Philly community of young women and she started Naked Networking.
The idea: “Women only. No Make Up. No Judgement.”
And it is exactly that. Upon arrival, women go through a “makeup removal station” where they remove the “masks” they were wearing all day.
Since it’s debut, Naked Networking has hosted two events. In June, Shelby hosted her first Naked Networking event. Thirty were in attendance (SOLD OUT!), there were two panelists, and she had multiple sponsors. At the second event, she saw familiar faces, which proved that women were getting a lot out of the experience. There were also 70 (SOLD OUT AGAIN!) in attendance, two panelists, and, again, multiple sponsors. Shelby and Naked Networking has been featured in Philly Mag and CBS 3.
The future of Naked Networking is bright. The next event will be held on October 29th, 2019 with 75 women in attendance. Shelby is also planning a large scale event with 200 women as an all day event. She also is expanding to a new city, but she wouldn’t tell me where yet, as it will be announced at her October 29th event.
Shelby is just getting started as she aspired to help more and more women “remove the mask” and feel more confident in themselves and being “exactly who they are meant to be.” Naked Networking has empowered so many young women already and is making strides to create a lasting impact on so many lives in the near future.
After searching the web for an entrepreneur to write this blog about, it soon came upon me that WordPress had to have a creator. Before this year, I had never heard of WordPress as I am not really one to blog or read them. As I’ve explored it more and more however, WordPress has fascinated with me with all that it has to offer.
Matt Mullenweg was born in Houston, Texas and attended The University of Houston before he dropped out to pursue a job. Essentially, a blogging site’s software that he used to use was discontinued. Instead of trying to find a new one, Mullenweg and his friend decided to build a new platform on top of the software that was defunct. Little did they know that they were about to start a site that would change the way people blog.
The first version of WordPress was created in 2003, right before Mullenweg dropped out of college. He was recruited by CNET to work on WordPress for them where he made continuous improvements to the site and gained many users. He left CNET after a few years to focus on WordPress full time and by 2011 the site had accumulated 50 million blogs. Obviously, the increase in traffic lead to WordPress needing more people to manage it. Presently, over 900 people work for Automattic, the company that oversees WordPress. Mullenweg is the current CEO of Automattic and is still heavily involved in WordPress. Thousands of companies and schools use it, as well as 41 countries, making it a highly profitable enterprise that rakes in millions yearly.
Matt Mullenweg is another example of a college dropout that had a plan and never gave up. Who would have thought that creating something as simple as a blog site could have so much success? Mullenweg revolutionized the way people now blog and as a result is a millionaire.
Lauren Bush, granddaughter of former President George W. Bush, was born in Denver, Colorado but was raised in Houston, Texas. She grew up in the spotlight, earning an internship with the NBC sitcom, Friends, and modeling. After graduating from Princeton University with a B.A. in anthropology and a certificate in photography, she signed with Elite Model Management. Although she loves modeling and fashion, her heart was pulling her in a different direction.
At the age of 26, Lauren Bush launched FEED Projects, which is a social enterprise. Emerging after Lauren traveled the world with World Food Programme, FEED believes what people choose to buy has the power to change the world. FEED offers everything from accessories to home goods, while working directly with artisans to provide sustainable lives for the partnership and families.
As of October of 2017, FEED Projects has donated over 100 million meals through their sales and fundraisers. Through her work with FEED, Lauren Bush was the first National Lady Godiva Honoree and in 2013, she accepted the Advocacy Award from the World of Children Awards. She was also named Fortune‘s 2009 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, the 2010 Accessories Council Humanitarian Award, 2011 Stevie Award for Best Non-Profit Executive, and named Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs.
Lauren Bush has impacted lives worldwide; she understood not only how to directly help feed hungry children worldwide, but how to create jobs for artisan individuals to provide an income for them and their families. She took two causes that she felt passionate about and figured out how to provide for both of them within one business.
Many young women looking to make a difference in this world can look to Lauren Bush. While incorporating her passion for fashion and feeding the hungry, she has helped to change the lives of many while being an inspiration for young, loving entrepreneurs everywhere.
In 2011, Entrepreneur Ryan Cohen was shopping at his local pet shop when he suddenly had an epiphany. The pet shop owner had always known Cohen and his pet by name, and Cohen realized that he had always trusted the owner. Why couldn’t Cohen bring the same level of care and trust he felt from his local pet shop to millions of pet-lovers? Cohen then decided, along with his friend Michael Day, to set out and create what would become the largest e-commerce pet business in the world.
After the failure of Pets.com in 2000 following the dot.com bubble, there was no real player in the online pet industry that consumers felt they could go to for convenience. Of course, companies like Amazon had come to offer millions of pet products online, but could not replicate the level of service that consumers typically experience when they go to their local pet store. Cohen realized there was a perfect opportunity to create a business where pet owners could take care of their pets without ever leaving their homes.
Chewy was founded on convenience and customer service. Cohen became obsessed with customer service, and wanted his customers to feel as if they were actually at a pet store when they went to shop online. Some ways that Chewy sets itself apart from competitors include: sending customers handwritten holiday cards, sketches of their pets, and flowers when their animals pass away. Additionally, a 24-hour customer service line promises to answer any call within six seconds. As for convenience, Chewy also revolutionized the pet industry by bringing a subscription based model to the e-commerce company, which accounts for almost two-thirds of revenue. Customers can set up instant reorders of pet foods, medicines or supplies that they use on a regular basis.
While Chewy has endured immense success unseen before in the pet industry, the company faced many challenges in its early days. In an interview with Inc. Magazine, Cohen talks about Chewy’s humble beginnings: “I couldn’t fund the business for the first few years,” Cohen says, noting that more than 100 investors passed on the opportunity. “And they were right. We were going head-to-head against Amazon, there was Pets.com–we know how that worked out–and selling 30-pound bags of pet food and shipping it across the country isn’t the highest-margin business.” Chewy also started in Florida, hundreds of miles away from Silicon valley, not the most ideal place for a startup looking to raise capital.
What inspires me most about Cohen is his perseverance and love for the pet industry. Despite the many challenges he faced when starting Chewy, Cohen continued to focus on his customers, and his business model. Cohen is among America’s richest young entrepreneurs thanks in part to Chewy’s listing on the NYSE in 2019, which valued the company at $8.7 billion. The company became so successful that is was acquired by Petsmart in 2017 in what was called “the largest e-commerce acquisition in history.” This success shows how important it is for entrepreneurs to take risk, and truly invest 100% of their time and resources in a business they want to grow. Cohen never backed down from his competitors, and proved that hard work and dedication will eventually pay off.
Sources:
https://www.inc.com/emily-canal/petsmart-acquires-chewy.html
As a Christian, we are running this race we call life with the end goal of crossing the finish line and into the arms of our Father as he whispers, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” The race is tiring and we sometimes get distracted from where the finish line is. We hesitate, we fall, we get up again and we keep going, because we ALWAYS have MORE strength, endurance, and power in Christ.
Audrey Roloff, the founder of her blog AujPoj started writing the phrase “alway
s more” on her arms and shoes in high school. A dedicated long distance runner, she kept every pair of running shoes she has ever owned and would spray paint them red, fill them with prayers and notes, and finally mark the bottom with the phrase “Always More” to signify the end of an era and the start of a new one. Her inspiration behind the phrase comes from Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine…” As she got older, she started applying the phrase to more in her life beyond just running. “When I get cut off on the road or treated rudely, these words remind me that there is ALWAYS MORE to someones’ story than what I know. When I am filled with joy, these words remind me that Christ will ALWAYS overfill me with MORE joy as I look to Him.”
What started out as a personal mantra for a girl growing up in the Pacific North West has now turned into 
a national movement.
Roloff started her blog AujPoj as a way to relate running and faith, but expanded it to include DIYs, tutorials, devotionals, personal stories, and more to create a true hodgepodge of creativity and inspiration. She has since expanded her blog into a shop inspired by the phrase, “Always More” where she sells clothes, hats, stickers, and more.
She frequently references her “always more” mantra with applications to her own life experiences to over 905,000 followers on her personal Instagram page. And with almost 75,000
followers on her shop Instagram page, Roloff’s personal motivation has expanded into a full blown business and ministry. Her mission to encourage other women to “ALWAYS believe in the MORE that is within them through Christ,” has reached young women all over the world. She’s also included an Always More Devotional which involves weekly text messages filled with encouragement, prayers, scriptures, and more to inspire and motivate you to always believe there is more to be found in Christ.
Audrey Roloff has created more than just a business. She’s created a movement. There is always more hope, love, and joy when we seek Christ, and she invites anyone and everyone to come alongside her to live out this truth.
Instagram.com/AudreyRoloff
Instagram.com/ShopAlwaysMore
https://www.aujpoj.com/always-more/
https://www.aujpoj.com/shop/
It seems as if entrepreneurs keep getting younger and younger. A 13 year old boy, named Hart Main created what would become the Beaver Creek Candle Company. The company started off producing and selling ManCans, a new kind of candle. ManCans are candles that have many manly scents such as bacon, campfire, coffee, fresh cut grass, and plenty more. The idea came about when Hart was teasing his little sister about the girly scented candles she used to sell for a fundraiser. With a bit of financial help from his parents they created the product, ManCans. ManCans is in approximately 150 different stores nationwide, and is very successful. From ManCans he has created other products for the company as well, including SheCans and specialty scented candles that smell and look like apple pie, cherry pie, and more.
Hart Main originally launched his business because he wanted to earn $1,200 for a bike to compete in triathlons. Hart has now surpassed his goal by a great amount. His business has given 100,000 cans of soup and $35,000 to 25 soup kitchens in four states. What is very interesting about this company is that all products are hand handcrafted, and each candle is carefully prepared, packaged and shi
pped by people in their workshop. They guarantee a high quality, long burning candle that pools evenly and delivers fragrance from the first light to last. This company has been surprisingly successful and they only plan to keep growing.
This young man, and his company are very inspiring to young people and he shows that entrepreneurship has no age. This young man started his company at 13 by simply noticing that candles are very femininely scented. Hart then created his product in pursuit of a goal, buying himself a bike. All entrepreneurial ideas start with a problem and I believe this demonstrates that concept perfectly. He noticed there were no manly scented candles, and wanted to do something about it. From that, the Beaver Creek Candle Company was born. As a person this shows that Hart is very goal driven, determined and innovative. Hart Main is also genuinely a great person and this is shown by his efforts to help soup kitchens by giving them soup and a portion of all of his sales. He is a great guy with great intentions and I hope this is an insight to others of what makes great entrepreneurs.
Amanda Thomas is a young entrepreneur who turned her dreams into a reality. In 2005, at the ripe age of 16, she created her own jewelry line called, “Luv Aj”. Jewelry had always been a passion for Amanda. During her teen years, she would return home from school each day and create new designs. One day, she saw an opportunity to turn her after school hobby into a business. By utilizing digital sites like Shopify and Instagram, Thomas was able to not only sell her creations, but also find creative ways to market them.
The unique aspect of Thomas’ business venture was how she capitalized on social media as a marketing tool even before the idea became popular. She was able to see the advantages of using social media as a vehicle to spread her message before most people were able to see them. This was due to her entrepreneurial mindset. Her open and creative mindset allowed her to identify problems before anyone else could and find solutions to those problems that ultimately benefited consumers. Thomas was able to use sites like Instagram to communicate with famous influencers who would then be able to share her products with their already established fan bases. A few of these celebrities included Beyoncé, Gigi Hadid, and Emily Ratajkowski.
Through these well thought out and developed marketing tactics, Thomas was able to expand her jewelry business to boutiques across the nation. She was recently added to Forbes ’30 Under 30’ list at the age of 26.
The most inspiring part about Amanda Thomas’ story is the fact that she was bold enough to act on her idea. She easily could have created her own jewelry line and only have sold it to her friends and family, but she was bolder than that. She not only took the risk of creating a Shopify account, but she also took the risk of reaching out to celebrities. This tactic clearly paid off as her business took off and she created a jewelry empire.
I am sure nowadays everyone either knows or has in some way heard the name Airbnb or personally used the app. This app has completely revolutionized to travel and hotel industry and was created by some of the youngest entrepreneurs. The co-founder of Airbnb is only 37 years old named Brian Chesky .When he first got started with his business he was only 27 years old. I found him and his business interesting because he completely innovated the hotel business with his business. Before his business if you wanted to stay somewhere you had basically three options. You would have to stay in a hotel, motel, or with a friend or family. If you didn’t have any friends or family in the area you were forced to settle with spending the money. Airbnb changed that.
So far, about 44.8 million adults are using Airbnb worldwide. In 2014 their website surpassed 800,000 listings. That means they have surpassed Hilton Worldwide, the InterContinental Hotels Group or any other hotel chain in the world in logging numbers. The business is only getting bigger and bigger each year as well.
When asked about what he credits his success to he said, “childlike curiosity and wonder…[is] probably the most important trait you can have, especially as an entrepreneur.” His promotion of the importance of a young perspective is inspiring because it gives me hope that I could possibly come up with a successful idea just like he did.
I am also inspired to look for the mashups. He saw people who needed places to stay who also didn’t want to pay a ton and placed them with people who were willing to rent out their own property. They found a way for people to make money using things they already own and to satisfy the need for travelers to have a cheaper more homelike stay.
People like Chesky are helping to inspire young thinkers everywhere to believe in their ideas and try to make a difference in the world every day.