Ali Kabbani (born May 24, 1999), otherwise known as Myth or TSM Myth, is an American Twitch streamer and professional Fortnite Battle Royale player. As of July 2018, he was one of the most popular streamers on Twitch with over 4 million followers and over 50 million views on his account. Myth also has over a staggering 3 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. Being one of the world’s greatest Fortnite players, he has developed quite a reputation for himself. In a way, he has created for himself a small business and begun a well established enterprise. In addition to his fame, he has begun to receive donations and money from his viewers. As of now he currently has made over a million dollars which is amazing that he has done it all from professional video gaming. In a way, he is a young entrepreneur. He saw an opportunity to make a lot of money and took advantage of it. Fortunately for him, his “business” not only gives him fame and money, but it also allows him to enjoy what he does. I would say that Myth loves his job and everything about it.
Archive for Online Companies – Page 5
Alex Becker, a serial entrepreneur who has generated tens of millions throughout his career, began in the air force at the age of 19. He served for four years and got out when he was 23. The way he puts it, “I became an entrepreneur because I truly did not have any other option.” His desire to generate wealth superseded the status quo of working a 9-5 job, which is the path that many veterans pursued after returning home. Becker went on to create Spekter Labs, which deals with human enhancement and Market Hero, which helps businesses grow through streamlined data. He has also gone on to write several best selling books and training programs. Alex is currently running his own YouTube channel, Instagram page, and Facebook account to help boost his personal brand. He is only 30 years old, but has made a name for himself in business and social media by directing his “never give up” mentality that he used in the military into his career and passion.
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.
This is young man is Cory Nieves, he is now 14 years old, and he began his own b
usiness at the age of six.
One day Cory proclaimed that he was tired of riding the bus to school, and that he wanted to buy a car. Like every parent, his mother said to save up for own and buy one on his own. That is what he began to do. He originally started selling hot cocoa around where he lived and Cory’s mother noticed how dedicated and persistent Cory was and encouraged that he should begin raising funds for college. He then expanded his sales to lemonade and cookies.
Cory’s business is Mr. Cory’s Cookie and he has perfected the chocolate chip cookie recipe as well as other classic cookie flavors. He has moved his business online and has reached out to many major establishments such as Bloomingdales and Macy’s for publicity, as well as working with non-profit organizations like Children’s Aid Society.
Cory Nieves is truly a talented young individual with so much potential. He has a goal oriented and dedicated mine that is shown through how he began his career. All Cory wanted was to buy himself a car and if he can make a startup business from a child like wish the possibilities that he will accomplish in the future are grander and closer than Cory knows. We should harness such dedication in order to achieve our goals.
Stanislav Vishnevskiy, co-founder of Discord
There a lot of people that play video games in the world. That number is estimated to be around 2.5 billion and rapidly climbing. That is a lot of people, and those people want to connect with others just them. In comes Discord, a platform for the gamers of the world. Discord was created by Stanislav Vishnevskiy and his business partner Jason Citron. Discord is a cloud-based server farm that allows any of its users to create servers for means of communication between them and any members of the server.
Discord was also built on the foundation that customizability is key. Servers can have scripts and bots written into the servers that can auto-reply, auto-post, all those sorts of things. You think it, odds are a Discord server can take care of it. Granted many of these automatic bots are written by high knowledge programmers, but that also gives them an outlet to experiment in their own time. Discord has heavily disrupted the gaming communication industry. Beforehand many people used services like Skype or TeamSpeak, but with Discord the perfect match of lightweight, user-friendly program meets super reliable communication service. The service really has started to revolutionize the way gamers communicate and get to know others. Some users have even gone as far to say that it is the equivalent of Facebook for gamers, the perfect service that meets all their needs and connects with new people from around the world.
Vishnevskiy and Citron really took advantage of a specific niche. Gamers that wanted to communicate with each other, but did not have a well-put together service that allowed them to do just that. Discord today has over 90 million registered users from just the meager 10 they started out with as a test run. Vishnevskiy and Citron continue to push Discord further than ever and who knows what the service will be able to provide next? Discord has been a true example of a disruptive force upon an industry that seemed to have all its players set in stone.
Spotify, the company with 180 million users worldwide, 83 million of which are paying users, was co-founded by David Ek and Martin Lorentzon. David Ek started his first business at the age of 13 when he began creating websites for his clients from his home. To deal with increased business, Ek recruited his fellow classmates to work on the websites and used video games as compensation for their efforts. By the age of 18, Ek was making around $50,000 per month and managing a team of 25 people. Later in life, Ek was wealthy enough that he decided to retire. Shortly after retirement, Ek realized that money was meaningless if he didn’t have a project he was passionate about to work on. This realization eventually led to the creation of Spotify. After observing the failure of illegal music sharing site Napster, Ek realized that the solution was a music service that was better than piracy but also compensated the music industry. In October 2008, Ek along with Martin Lorentzon launched Spotify as a music streaming service. Now serving as CEO of Spotify, and worth around $2.8 billion, David Ek has been named as the most powerful person in the music industry.
Ek’s entrepreneurial spirit, even at the young age of 13, is truly inspiring. Having the tenacity to eventually earn $50,000 a month by the age of 18 shows that Ek is a highly driven individual with a passion for his areas of operation.
Blake Ross is one fiery topic. From the age of fourteen, he was already making big moves. He joined the likes of Netscape as an apprentice then went onto Stanford. His idea first hit the market in November 2004 when Blake was only nineteen years old. He began his endeavor to help his mother overcome her frustration with Internet Explorer. She was upset with its poor performance and how she could not book mark her favorite sites and it was riddled with pop-up ads. Viruses often plagued Mrs. Blake’s computer as well. Ross then took to learning programming for himself so he could one day fix those problems. At the age of only 10 he made his first website. In 1998, Netscape released its code to open source and allowed anyone to tamper with it. Firefox was then born from the ashes. Less than a year after its initial launch Firefox had been downloaded more than 100 million times and was soon threatening the big fish like Internet Explorer. Because Firefox was open source, thousands of programmers worked together to bring it to life and bring innovation to the website. Although not taking over Internet Explorer, it is still used by a mass audience. StatCounter released data stating that in 2010 32% of internet users around the world used Firefox compared to Internet Explorer’s 49%. Blake Ross has a net worth of 150,000,000 dollars today and is a pristine example of the millennial entrepreneur.
When people think of multi- millionaire estate tycoons, most don’t picture a 19 year old. However, most people aren’t Akshay Ruparelia. This young man has redefined the housing industry, owning the 14th largest estate industry in the UK. His company, Doorsteps.co.uk, makes selling your house easier than selling your car. Furthermore, they take away the steep prices of real-estate agents and help you sell your house from the comfort of your own home.
Ruparelia is the son of two deaf parents and currently is their main caregiver. When he was young, he saw first-hand many business practices that he deemed unfair. He especially saw this in the housing industry. Shocked by the high commissions estate agents charged for such a me
nial task, Ruparelia decided to do something about it. In December of 2016, he launched his online website Doorsteps.co.uk. This site created a network of quality estate agents that could guide customers through the process of selling their house without the steep prices of normal agents. It cuts away the massive overhead pricings, and allows the buyers to be more involved in the process.
Ruparelia found the niche in the stagnant industry by changing the way his company approaches customer service. “Why, oh why, do we give away £20,000 worth of bricks and mortar in our properties to estate agents? For doing what exactly? Putting the house on the internet?” he asked. Instead, he envisioned estate agencies that put their customers first and charged dues that reflected that mindset. Thus, he charges an upfront price and doesn’t get any commission on the actual sale of the house. Ruparelia leads the charge of agents, selling his first house in the middle of his exams, and ensures that customers receive the service he envisioned.
This site is simple to use, and allows people to sell their houses without ever needing to leave their couches. People simply fill out an online survey or call the 24 hour customer service hotline, and they are connected with an experienced, self-employed estate agent. The agent speaks with them and helps them determine the best package that fits their needs. After the package is approved and the listing is official, the agent posts the sale on different online sites. People sit back and watch their dedicated agent sell 
their house, all for less than one hundred pounds. ‘
As the teenager continues to take the industry by storm, he doesn’t forget his goals of a customer centered company. It seems this mindset is paying off, as his company is ranked in the top five for customer service. The press has described his company as the “Uber of the property world.” In an extremely competitive market, Ruparelia’s company has already taken 0.5% of the UK market and is valued at over 12 million pounds. With all of this success, Ruparelia shows no signs of slowing down as he continues to pursue simple selling so his customers can move on.
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.