Archive for Millennial Enrepreneuers – Page 34

Millionaire at 16

Owens was inspired to get into the business world by the former CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs. At age seven Christian Owens received his first computer. Then at the age of ten he taught himself how to web design. By the time Owens was 14 he had created his own companies by the names of Mac Bundle Box and Branchr. Mac Bundle Box was the first venture website Owens had created.

Mac Bundle Box was created to make it cheaper for consumers to buy popular Mac applications. Owens made this possible by selling these applications in a bundle rather than the applications being sold by themselves. This new way to sell apps had great early success by pulling in $700,000 in its first two years.

Owens then used the money earned from Mac Bundle Box to launch another company named Branchr. Branchr is an advertising pay-per-click company that Owens launched only a year after Mac Bundle Box. It works as a stage for owners of websites to sell advertising, and for business owners to buy this advertising. In its first year Branchr brought in a whopping $500,000. Combining this with the success from Mac Bundle Box is what made Owens a millionaire by the age of 16.  Branchr now has over 11,000 clients and sells more than 250 million advertisements a month.

Even with the success of his two businesses Owens does not plan to stop anytime soon. Owens plans to become the top name in mobile advertising and the top name in the internet world.

12 Year Old Starts Tie Business

Today, people don’t dress up as much or appreciate the art of good clothing. At 12 years old, Moziah Bridges realized this problem and found a solution. Moziah loves to dress up but he could never find the right bow tie for his outfit, so he started his own company after learning how to sew from his grandmother. Today Moziah has started up his own bow tie company has sold more than $150,000 worth of bow ties.

moziah bridges

 

 

 

 

 

His ties are priced at about 40$ a piece and come in all kinds of different designs. Talk about a young entrepreneur right? I believe this is the kind of spirit we need to carry with us. He didn’t create this business purely for the money, he just translated a personal passion of his into some need should be fulfilled. He has been featured on the show Shark Tank and in several different magazines. I’m excited to see where he might take this company as he grows up. I love stories such as this because they are real evidence of what a passion for something might produce.

Double Trouble

When I was a little girl, my dad would call my twin sister and me “double trouble.” She and I both were constantly doing things together, especially bad things. I believe many other parents with twins can attest to that title being very accurate for the same reason too. I’m sure the parents of twin boys Ryan and Adam Goldston felt the same way.

I cannot attest to how well behaved they were as children, but both Ryan and Adam as young entrepreneurs seemed to cause some trouble. As mere 28 year olds, they had already created a product that had been banned from the NBA. As you can imagine, that created some interest in their company. So much interest that they sold out of nine months of inventory just 72 hours after their banning was announced.

I guess, you have to ask what an entrepreneur has to do to get his product banned from part of the sports industry. The answer to that would be to design the first pair of sneakers that allows you to jump higher and run faster. They call it “Load ‘N Launch,” and it is the first patented technology of its kind.

This duo got their idea from sports they had played all throughout high school and college. Once they graduated they started tinkering with the possibility of a shoe that could help the user. Eventually, they came up with this technology and the name of their company, Athletic Propulsion Labs or APL. These fancy shoes come in all kinds of colors, styles, and modifications for specific purposes. APL recently launched a clothing line too.

Ryan and Adam, partnered with each other to revolutionize the old industry of sneakers. They bring a new youthful fun flare to what appears to be a stagnant marketplace. It seems to me that they are a force to be reckoned with and already are becoming successful.

For more information, visit the site below

http://www.athleticpropulsionlabs.com/

 

 

 

Catherine Cook- Memories of Money!

Catherine Cook’s life is the perfect story of living the American Dream. She is a true millennial entrepreneur and has made millions in her teens! The beginning stages of her entrepreneurial spirit took place when she at a very young age, she sold books in her homemade library to her parents for a small charge. When she turned 15 years old, she started a business called myYearbook with her brother in New Jersey. She partnered up with her brother David, and they were kick started by her older brother, Geoff, who made an investment to get them up-and-running.

Her business, myYearbook, which was started in 2005 with 400 members that went to school at her local high school. She grew her business immensely through great marketing strategies and a true passion. In 2012 it grew to an astounding 32.7 million users, which is the same year she sold their family business for 150 million dollars…

The success and the money were a byproduct of love and passion. Her brilliance in social networking led her to be on of the youngest self-made millionaires in the world. MyYearbook makes most of their revenue through online advertising. High school and college graduates go on myYearbook to reunite and touch base with old classmates.

Through Catherine, lessons can be taught to all of us, especially young entrepreneurs like ourselves. It starts with a simple idea, and having the ambition and passion to get out there and act on it. At a young age of 15 years old, she saw a problem that could be solved by herself. We are the millennial age and have the strongest position ever in human history. We have so many tools and resources at our disposal. Catherine, herself, proved you are never to young to start a business. Now is our time, let’s go out and conquer the world.

 

Watsi – Radically Transparent

Chase AdamA few years ago, Chase Adam was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when a woman boarded the bus and began asking for donations for her child’s medical treatment.  Because panhandling is so prevalent in that area of the world, Adam was shocked to see all of the natives give the women money for her child.  He realized the natives believed this woman because she had the child’s information and had established a sense of trust with them.  Inspired, Adam returned to the United States with the goal of starting a non-profit to provide healthcare around the world.

However, when Adam returned home, he realized that many non-profits weren’t very efficient and were underfunded.  Adam decided to start a company that was built with an emphasis on impact, efficiency, and transparency.  Watsi, launched in August 2012, is a “global crowdfunding platform for healthcare” – basically a Kickstarter for medical treatments.  People can donate any amount of money to fund medical treatment and care around the world.  Once a patient’s funding goal is met, the patient receives the treatment.  Watsi then updates all of the donors with the patient’s treatment outcome.Watsi Logo

Watsi is different from most non-profits because 100% of the money donated goes directly to people in need.   All of Watsi’s operating expenses are paid for by optional tips or other philanthropists.  Watsi prides itself on being “radically transparent”.  In fact, all of their financial information in public knowledge and can be seen on their Transparency Document on their website (check if out here!).  That way, you can see exactly where your money is going.

After a slow start, Watsi was the first nonprofit to received funding from Y Combinator, a tech company incubator program.  Watsi took off and, within 2 years, raised more than $2 million, all of which went to patients in need.  In 2014, Adam was listed on Forbes list of 30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs.  Inspired by the woman on the bus, Adam was able to take an idea he was passionate about and use it to help thousands of people about the world.

The Beauty of Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter provide tons of help for small businesses in raising capital and getting their name into people heads. However, one idea by a young entrepreneur took this business for a spin when Indiegogo was created in 2008 by Slava Rubin. Being a graduate from Wharton University, Rubin is the Co-founder and CEO of Indiegogo- one of the first and now largest crowdfunding websites on the internet.

The site runs on a rewards-based system, meaning donors, investors, or customers who are willing to help fund a project or product can donate and receive a gift, rather than an equity stake in the company. However, Rubin has stated that the company is interested in moving towards equity funding in the future once laws around it become clearer in the U.S.

In 2014, Indiegogo launched Indiegogo Life, a service that people can use to raise money for emergencies, medical expenses, celebrations, or other life events. Since Indiegogo Life does not charge a platform fee, fundraisers keep more of the money they raise. Indiegogo Life is a great example of forward-thinking from CEO Slava Rubin and really displays the customer-satisfying and personal direction he wants to take his company, which I really admire.

By the end of this year, it is predicted that global crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter will double annual revenues, to $6 billion worldwide. Under Rubin, Indiegogo has become a leader in web-based crowdfunding, having raised $15M in Series A funding from Insight Venture Partners and Kohsla Ventures a year ago. Rubin has played an influential role in working with the White House and helping to finalize the rules and regulations for equity crowdfunding in the United States.

Recapping, Slava Rubin is an extremely inspirational and successful millennial entrepreneur and his company continues to grow larger day after day. I found it very interesting learning more about his story and young business. I also explored Indiegogo and found some crazy product ideas and absolutely loved seeing all of these people who invest and help kickstart other businesses. Check out the link below if you want to do some exploring too!

https://www.indiegogo.com

 

 

Gregory Spencer, The Stove Man

Gregory Spencer is the 29 year old co-founder of The Paradigm Project. They are a non-profit organization that distributes clean, efficient cook stoves to developing countries. If you’re wondering why this is even important, it is because of a few main reasons. First, pneumonia is the biggest killer of children globally, and is often linked to indoor cooking smoke. Four million women and children die from it each year according to Paradigm Project’s website. Developing countries often either have to burn fuels that create a lot of emissions, or use non efficient stoves, or even open fires which create more smoke than a quality stove would. This is not their choice, but what they have to do to survive. Second, the stoves that Paradigm Project distributes make less smoke, so they are better for the environment since they help lower CO2 emissions. Their stoves also use less fuel, which means less trees need cut down. The stoves also save the impoverished families in fuel cost, allowing them to have money for other things.

Spencer is interesting to me since he is not a traditional entrepreneur, but a highly successful social entrepreneur. Social entrepreneurs can’t be ranked by the money they make, but instead by the impact they make on society. The statistics on their webpage of how their efforts are changing the world is very impressive. From the roughly 50,000 stoves provided since 2008, $23 million has been saved by families in reduced fuel bills, about 1.4 million trees have been saved, and an estimated 400,000 tons of CO2 have been offset. From the extra money from donations, they have also invested roughly $7 million into developing countries. His achievements are impressive, and why he was chosen to be in Forbes 30 under 30 social entrepreneurs in 2012. Another impressive thing to me is that as successful as his organization is, he is still highly involved. Management, strategic planning, communications, and being in the field are a few to name. Instead of hiring people to take on some of his responsibilities when his organization made it big, his passion for making the world a better place keeps him working hard, and strongly involved.

Top 5 Coolest Young Entrepreneurs

1. Matthew Mullenweg – estimated wort: $250 million

After dropping out of college, Mullenweg invented Automattic, the brains behind web software such as WordPress, Akismet, Gravatar, VaultPress, IntensePoll Debate, etc. There is no doubt the system is effective for entrepreneurs, mommy blogs, and Grove City Students- WordPress alone powers 22% of the world’s top 10 million websites, netting $160 million.

www.wordpress.com

2. David Schottensteinestimated worth:  $52 million

Starting at age 12, David began innovating with his own cigar business. After being shut down (dads ruin everything) he continued looking for his passions in life while attending a private school in Venice. David noticed his fascination for men’s business ware. He opened Astor & Black, a company selling custom made bespoke clothing- only 21 at the time. Today, his suits are typically $895 and are sold all over the world to corporate executives, famous athletes, and celebrities.

www.Astor & Black.com

3. Sean Belnick – estimated worth: $50 million

Bizchair, an office furniture manufacturing company, began in the 14 year old Sean Belnick’s bedroom. Once graduating college, Sean could take the reins as CEO to expand Bizchair into the fastest growing, privately owned company. Environmentally friendly, it is predicted Bizchair will decrease carbon monoxide emissions by 757.4 tons/year and 3.0 tons/year of sulfur dioxide emissions.

www.bizchair.com

4. Catherine Cook – estimated worth: $20 million

Catherine and her brother, David, played together in their small New Jersey home by setting up pretend libraries and renting out the books to their parents for a small fee. By the time she was 15, Catherine and David had created myyearbook.com, an online, interactive yearbook for high schoolers to meet new people. By 2011 the company grew from 400 active members to 32.7 million. In 2011 Catherine and David sold the site in a merger for $150 million.

www.myyearbook.com

5. Susan Gregg-Koger – estimated worth: $15 million

As a freshman in college, Susan partnered with her now husband Eric to create Modcloth, an online retailer specializing in vintage-inspired and indie clothing, accessories, and decor. Seven years later, Modcloth was the fastest growing retailer in the country and employed 350 people. By 2012 the site had over $100 million in retail sales. In 2014 it was the first clothing retailer to sign an anti-Photoshop, promising to avoid using Photoshop in company advertisements.

www.modcloth.com

Freaky Fast Food

For the last decade, Amazon has claimed the title of king of the online shopping world. With the company seeing 2 billion orders from customers in the past 2014 fiscal year, they dominate the online market. While Amazon continues to announce further upgrades and innovations to their overall experience, the process of implementation and usage has been another matter, and many, smaller, smarter, and ambitious companies are hungry to accommodate customers in light of Amazon’s failures.

Putting a spin on Amazon’s concept, young millennial entrepreneur Max Mullen started Instacart in 2012 to provide customers with a simple and quick option for buying their groceries online. Mullen, who studied entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California in Los Angles, created a startup that partnered with stock grocery warehouses, and a fleet of branded vehicles  to deliver the goods to customers on an order basis. In some cases, the delivery occurred within 12 minutes of the customers order! Investors quickly took notice of Max’s success, as by 2014 he received a 2 billion dollar valuation, and had already expanded to 15 major metropolitan areas.

Grocers are recognizing the power of the application as well, as customers purchase 2.5 times more product when shopping online. The software predicts similar grocery items the shopper may want, and as such has improved impulse buying for all grocery chains involved with the app. Instacart is already looking to innovate, as in April they added Petco to their retail roster. Instacart has realized that they can be so much more than just a grocery service, and is looking to the future in hopes to provide a better and quicker service than many of the larger online shopping companies.

Max Mullen showed the world that innovation doesn’t have to be an idea that nobody else has stumbled upon, on the contrary, he saw the need to improve on something that was already good, but could be made better with some slight tweaking. Just like the grocery market, there are other industries begging to be improved by the right person. Mullen defied those who said his idea would never work, and pushed through until he could claim success.

Adam Horwitz: 18-Years-Old, $1.5 Million, 3 Days

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I love reading about any young entrepreneurs, but I’m especially captivated by extravagant success stories. 18-year-old Adam Horwitz has one of those. In just 3 days, his online course “Mobile Monopoly” made him $1.5 million.

In an interview with Income Diary, Adam explains that he first got interested in digital entrepreneurship when his father took him to a seminar about online marketing one day.  “That kind of opened the doors to me to see that there is potential out there for making money online,” he says.

Before “Mobile Monopoly”, Adam sold a few other online courses, such as his courses “Tycoon Cash Flow” and “Cell Phone Treasure.”  Each made him around $100,000.  “Mobile Monopoly” was his first million dollar program.

His success sounds unreal and unmatchable, but he lives by business principles that are actually pretty simple.  He says that his biggest tip to anyone in the online world is to take their business one step at a time.  “I think a lot of people’s struggle is they set up like eight different campaign [at once].”  Instead, he urges people to start with one and wait until it is successful before they spread their focus out to other projects. “If you just do a bunch of different products… you’re not going to make a sale for any of them.”

His other big tip is just as simple — make your content easy to consume.  People have short attention spans, especially when going through information-intensive courses like the ones Adam makes.  “The best way to do it is through video,” he says. “[People] don’t want to read a lot, they want to watch you talk.” I think this can be applied to anything.  I feel the same way about websites and social media posts — I’d rather see a video or an infographic than lines and lines of dull words.  If it looks like an essay, I’m probably going to click out.  People are busy and they want to hear what they need to hear quickly and easily.

The last point that stood out to me was how Adam views all of his success.  When asked if he likes being his own boss, he said that he doesn’t even think about it like that.  “I don’t think of this as work. This is fun, this is what I’m doing.”

Adam is in college like all of us in Entrepreneurial Mind. His friends have minimum wage jobs while he has made over a million dollars, simply because he had an idea and the drive to do something about it.  I think Adam showcases the possibility and opportunity of entrepreneurship, specifically digital entrepreneurship.  He’s a reminder to me that being successful is always possible, no matter what your age, other commitments, or circumstances.