Archive for Business::Entrepreneurs – Page 5

Matt Mullenweg: The founder of WordPress

Where it all began

Born and raised in Houston Texas, Matt had a seemingly normal childhood to most. He was introduced to the technological world through his father who was acomputer programmer. Eighteen-year-old Matt loved to blog on a platform called b2/cafelog. This site soon was taken down by the owners and this is where Matt decided to launch his own site with the help of his friend Mike Little. In 2003 he and Mike soon built what we know as WordPress, and it was widely received by the public. Matt was only eighteen at the time of founding WordPress and he was still in high school. Due to his chronic migraines Matt was absent from school and this could have kept him from graduating but he was able to push through. After high school Matt continued his education at The University of Houston and chose to study philosophy and political science. During college Matt still worked on WordPress and grew more and more detached from his schoolwork. This lead Matt to drop out of college in 2004 to focus on WordPress entirely.

At nineteen years old Matt was offered a job at CNET in San Fransico which allowed him to work part time on WordPress. He stayed at CNET for only a year as he wanted to work full time on WordPress. Matt began building his team adding former Yahoo! executive Toni Schneider to join as CEO. Over the years Matt has joined several other ventures such as Automatic, GitLab, Global Multimedia Protocols Group, and helped launch Ping-O-Matic. Ping-O-Matic is a mechanism to help notify search engines about blog updates. These ventures led to Matt having an amazingly successful career with WordPress. WordPress powered about 40% of the internet in 2021 so one can only imagine how much it has grown in just three years. Approximately 400 million people visit WordPress sites each month. Overall, Matt Mullenweg is someone that is forgotten by most but as we can see and use in class WordPress is a very collaborative and easy service to use.

 

 

The Sweetest Devotion: Ashley Hetherington’s Journey as a Christ-Centered Influencer

Struggling to find her footing on a path through a season of worldly pressures and broken relationships, Ashley Hetherington was a young woman on the hunt for meaning and purpose, an unconscious search for her Lord burning from a heart of confusion riddled with footholds. But now, standing on the other side of this mountain of turmoil, is an emboldened 24-year-old woman of God whose radiant passion for Christ shines through her efforts as an influencer, author, and content creator. This renewed relationship with God that grew from one of the darkest periods of Ashley’s life has lit in her a fervor for helping other young women come to terms with fighting their own battles, especially concerning faith.

Hetherington has achieved this through business initiatives that, initially, took a leap of faith to pursue wholeheartedly; graduating from Miami University with a degree in interactive media studies and journalism and thus armed to aid in the growth of other companies, she never thought her own writing and social media presence would grow into anything more than a hobby and college pastime. But keeping God central to the trajectory of her life and career has led to a fruition of and full-time devotion to this mission through many outlets.

Ashley’s simple aim has been to encourage her fellow sisters in Christ, citing Proverbs 16:24: “Kind words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.”  She orchestrates a variety of media to reach her followers, including several bestselling books and eBooks, an online blog called “The Honey Scoop”, social media channel (accessible through Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Facebook), a podcast, and a free email subscription for weekly devotionals called “The Hive.” Additionally, Hetherington has a premium Bible study deemed “The Tree”, which includes a daily Bible reading plan, weekly devotional video, monthly group calls with women from across the globe, and access to recommended worship playlists, podcasts, and book recommendations. Ashley’s content, especially “The Tree”, reaches thousands of women from all over every year, uniting them under the purpose of growing into stronger, faith-filled daughters of Christ.

Notably, amidst this success, Hetherington always offers this glory back to Christ. She stated in an interview with Peer Magazine, “I’ll never forget that in one of the lessons [at Miami University], we were taught we are in the business of effort and God is in the business of result so it’s on us to put in the effort. To put in the work, to do the time, to be consistent, to innovate, to network, to show up every day, but God is in the business of results.” In Zero to One, Peter Theil remarks on “the guiding concepts of business”, among these principles being that “it is better to risk boldness than triviality (p. 20).” Ashley Hetherington is living a life and guiding a mission that testifies to the truth in this notion—whatever the internal struggles and external obstacles someone faces, a heart and business built on the Rock will flourish in His perfect timing for the glory of His kingdom.

College Dropout to Millionaire-Ryan Trahan

A Youtuber and Entrepreneur, Ryan Trahan started at 14 to become an entrepreneur. He started a simple water bottle business that would later help make him into a millionaire. Starting his YouTube channel in 2015, Ryan posted about his daily life at college as a student athlete. However, he quickly gained followers due to his creativity and humor within his videos. Having adopted just 30,000 YouTube followers and juggling his business, Ryan was pressured with his college or his business. His school had set a tight rule with him, as a student athlete, making it so he couldn’t brand himself properly while in college. Because of this, Ryan had to choose between a high-risk endeavor or the college route, and he chose the entrepreneurial side. Ryan had the same mindset Peter Thiel speaks of, saying, “I view creating as entrepreneurial. Creating something from nothing has always been ingrained in me.” Thus, his career rocketed. His small water business became a great part of his revenue. The business, known as Neptune, was built to create sustainable water bottles which would reduce plastic waste. With his social enterprise, Ryan also used his business to support several organizations centered around cancer.

While Ryan had Neptune blooming, he also opened up a clothing line called Hydra Collection, which became his personal merch on his social media accounts, as well as another clothing line, Howdy Howdy, and a candy company, Joyride. Creating innovative videos on YouTube and establishing his businesses across the world has made Ryan Trahan into a wealthy, young entrepreneur. From going on live television to creating television series of his own, Ryan meets every corner around the world to grow and engage with his audience.

Ryan is known for his penny-to-a-house series and simply racing people in airports. Through his creative and entertaining work, he has amassed 17 million followers on YouTube with over 3 billion views worldwide!

Age Is Just a Number

Ava Yuergens (@avayuergens) on Threads

Ava Yuergens

Young entrepreneur Ava Yuergens demonstrates that age is just a number. Ava and her soon to be fiancé acquired 900,000 dollars and residential real estate before she even graduated high school. She is currently 19 years old, married, and has started another business where she helps businesses and entrepreneurs grow and sell on social media. How did she become this successful? The answer is within her daily routine, discipline, and determination. Waking up early in the morning is no problem for her, so she wakes up at 2 am and starts her day. A day in the life of Ava Yuergens is the definition of productivity. You can watch her daily routine here. She works for an average of 15 hours a day and uses the nights to relax and do something fun with her fiancé. Her habits in high school were similar. Before school started, Ava would awake from her slumber at 4 am and read before school started! Ava has a thirst for knowledge, and she lets it consume her. When Ava was in high school, she would read books constantly. She would read about business, marketing, investing, and sales. At age 15 she started a real estate investing company with her boyfriend. The two of them got engaged when they were 16. Ava Yuergens is a fantastic example of where ambition can lead you. Ava’s Instagram profile is packed with business strategies, self-improvement hacks, and hundreds of ideas to help build your business. You can check out her Instagram profile here.  The best part is that Ava isn’t done. She wants to become more successful and read more books. Ava is a model for what young entrepreneurs could be. All you need is discipline, ambition, and determination to prove that anyone of any age can do anything.

Mikey Wren, the 10-year-old Entrepreneur

Mikey Wren’s entrepreneurial spirit came alive to satisfy a very simple and common urge. He wanted snacks. Rather than go to his parents or pantry, Mikey created his own solution, deciding to create his own line of vending machines. He began drawing up business plans and operated a lemonade stand to raise money with which he raised the surprisingly large amount of $1200. His determination to succeed propelled the success of his small business. At the age of 10, Mikey intuitively grasped a key principle of entrepreneurial success: achieving long-term goals requires the disciplined sacrifice of short-term comforts. In addition to working at his lemonade stand, Mikey asked his parents to take his Christmas money and invest it in his ideas rather than buy him presents. After his mother encouraged him to do more research into his ideas, Mikey typed up his own business plan. He printed his own flyers and set up a website called “Mikey Knows Biz” to advertise his growing business. You can visit Mikey’s site here.

Mikey Wren now owns four vending machines in various locations and is a bestselling author of his autobiographical journey to entrepreneurial success. His goal is to encourage his peers to explore and achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. Mikey brings a powerful and inspiring message to the business community: little people can achieve big things too.

Rutger Bruining – “StoryTerrace”

One modern entrepreneur that not many people know about is Rutger Bruining, CEO of the personal biography-writing service StoryTerrace. Bruining launched StoryTerrace in 2015, and it has since scaled massively across both the UK and the US.

StoryTerrace helps people capture and preserve their life stories by writing them into a professional book. The company has worked with over 50,000 customers to date, and its books have been featured in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and BBC Radio.

Bruining is a passionate advocate for the importance of storytelling. He believes that everyone has a unique story to tell and that sharing our stories can help us connect with others on a deeper level. He is also committed to helping people preserve their legacies for future generations.

In addition to his work at StoryTerrace, Bruining is also a public speaker and author. He has given talks on storytelling and entrepreneurship at conferences and events around the world. He is also the author of the book “StoryTerrace: The Secret Power of Your Life Story.”

Bruining is a great example of a modern entrepreneur who is using his skills and creativity to make a positive impact on the world. He is also a reminder that there are many successful entrepreneurs out there who are not household names.

$6 Million…at 13 years old

Alina Morse is an inspiration. Just like the rest of us, she hated it when her parents told her she couldn’t have candy. “It will hurt you teeth!” they would say. Well, 9-year-old Alina had had enough of this and decided to make an alternative. After months of YouTube research, product testing, and sampling, Ms. Morse created the “Zollipop”. These lollipop-style candies are vegan, dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, and actually beneficial to the consumer’s teeth. Fast forward four years and one can find Zollipops in Whole Foods, Kroger, Target, and many other stores. Here in the craziest part: Her business is worth $6 million dollars and she only has seven employees. Alina has gotten an audience with ex-first lady Michelle Obama and been on the Today show. Finally 10% of her company’s earnings go to “One Million Smiles” which is a company geared to fighting the rapidly growing tooth-decay epidemic.

Elon Musk: Modern-Day Model for the Entrepreneur

Elon Musk is a modern-day entrepreneur and visionary. He is the founder and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink. He is also the chairman of SolarCity and OpenAI. Musk is known for his ambitious goals and his innovative approach to solving problems.

Musk’s entrepreneurial journey began in the early 1990s. He co-founded Zip2, a web software company, which was sold to Compaq for $307 million in 1999. Musk then co-founded X.com, an online financial services company, which merged with Confinity to form PayPal. PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company. SpaceX has developed a number of innovative rockets, including the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy. In 2020, SpaceX became the first private company to launch astronauts to the International Space Station.

In 2004, Musk joined Tesla as chairman and product architect. Tesla is an electric vehicle and clean energy company. Tesla has developed a number of popular electric vehicles, including the Model S, the Model 3, and the Model Y. Tesla is also the leading supplier of solar panels and energy storage products.

In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company. Neuralink is developing brain-computer interfaces that could connect the human brain to computers. Neuralink has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with technology and the world around us.

Musk is a visionary entrepreneur who is changing the world with his innovative companies. He is a role model for entrepreneurs everywhere, and he is an inspiration to anyone who dreams of making a difference.

Raelynn Heath-Rae’s Materials

Raelynn Heath is a young girl who started her own business making and designing jewelry. she started making jewelry when she was just 4 years old.

Young Raelynn started making her first jewelry with plastic beads and acrylic. as she got older, she continued to create new things like jewelry out of clay and recycled pieces of soda cans and chip bags, and even her old clothes she grew out of. With her mother’s assistance, she would give donate to members of her community to those specifically lost loved ones. she plans to expand into clothing design as well.

From Raelynn’s amazing product and mission, she made it onto the 1 Million Cups to spread awareness of her product and to explain her story. 1 Million Cups is a Weekly education program that gives experiential learning opportunities to entrepreneurs of today’s world.

I find young Raelynn’s so unique with her recycled jewelry and I’m behind impressed that she made such a popular project at such a young age. I think her story is motivation to us all to commit to our ideas and make them come true.

Andrew Mason: Groupon

Andrew Mason launched Groupon in November of 2008.  Groupon is a global e-commerce marketplace that connects subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods, and services.  Mason’s idea to create Groupon came from his belief that there has to be some way to leverage a large number of people’s collective bargaining power to accomplish a goal.  Mason created what would later become Groupon with a $1 million dollar loan he got from his boss Eric Lefkofsky after Mason shared his business idea with him.  It didn’t take long for Groupon to gain popularity and become, with it only taking a year for Groupon to go from a dozen staff members to over 300 hundred.  Also, it only took 16 months for Groupon to become the fastest company in history to reach a company value of 1 billion.  Sadly, it seems like the company made some mistakes and had to pay out around 940 million to shareholders and investors, losing the company around 86% of its total value.  This payout combined with Mason’s way of managing the company caused him to be dismissed as company CEO in 2013.

Even though he was fired from his own business over its sudden financial collapse, I still think Andrew Mason is an exemplary entrepreneur because he decided to continue to found more companies instead of giving up.