Archive for Technology – Page 7

Upstart – You’re More Than Your Credit Score

According to a 2019 survey by Bankrate, 58% of millennials were denied at least one type of financial product due to their credit score.  A lot of young Americans are being denied the financial support they need because of a bad credit score.  While a credit score may be important, they are often not a fair and accurate indicator of an individual’s ability to pay back credit.  Previously, one’s credit score is a make or break in the world of loans.  28-year-old entrepreneur Paul Gu is trying to change that with his company, Upstart.

Upstart is an online lender that aims to help people erase credit card debt.  However, they do more than a traditional lending firm.  Upstarts underwrites loans with quite unconventional data.  For example, while a traditional lender may heavily weight credit score and income, Upstart factors data such as SAT scores, college majors, and college grades into the underwriting process.  With this model, Upstart approves 27% more applicants than a traditional model, according to a CFPB study.  Upstart analyzes this data using machine-learning.  There has been a rise of the use of artificial intelligence by financial institutions, as seen in online approvals, robo-advisors, and technologies such as Ocrolus.  Upstart’s loans also feature next-day funding and no prepayment penalty.

Paul Gu’s untraditional new method may significantly change the way loans are written in the future.  If people flock to a more lenient approval system, other lenders may have to lower their approval thresholds by lowering standards or factoring in other customer data, like Upstart.  Paul Gu’s forward-thinking actions have created an interesting and potentially revolutionary new method for approaching consumer loans.  With his creation, many more honest people with bad credit scores will be able to pay off their credit card debt.  Time will tell if his method will stick and other lenders will follow suit.  Regardless, it will be interesting to see what Gu does next.

 

Daniel Fine

Daniel Fine shows that no age is too young to start a business as he created four different companies by the time that he was in college. As a senior in college, Fine has been recognized for his great entrepreneurship by many outlets, including Forbes, TIME Magazine, The New York Times, and even the President of the United States by earning the President’s Volunteer Service Award. While Daniel Fine has made many impressive accomplishments in his young career, he continues to give back to the community in a way that he enjoys.

Daniel Fine started his professional career at seven years old when his brother Jake was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Daniel realized that he could help to give back to the diabetes community by launching Team Brotherly Love, his first business. To this day, Team Brotherly Love has been very successful and has raised over two million dollars towards Type 1 diabetes research.

Fine later launched another company called Match Tutors in an attempt to provide innovation in the tutoring industry. He noticed that when a tutor and student had similar interest, the session usually yielded better results. He decided to create Match Tutors so that any student would be able to find their ideal tutor to “increase engagement and achieve greater results.”

Glass-U, one of Fine’s successful businesses, seeks to market fully foldable sunglasses in a unique way. Daniel Fine took a new perspective on the sunglass industry and created sunglasses that are fully foldable to be even more easily stored. Glass-U’s marketing technique is unique because it appeals to college students. Glass-U is licensed by many different colleges and universities and even extends to fraternities and sororities to make customized sunglasses. Glass-U has been featured in the Rose Bowl, Lalapalooza, and the FIFA World Cup.

Along with Team Brotherly Love, Daniel Fine also decided to give back to the diabetes community by creating his company Dosed. Dosed is a smartphone app that tracks the insulin dosage taken by a Type 1 diabetic. According to the Dosed website “Dosed improves patient compliance by providing direct access to data that can facilitate behavioral modification.”

Sources:

http://www.getdosed.com/

http://www.danielfine.com/

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/business/smallbusiness/daniel-fine-of-glass-u-decides-that-the-degree-matters.html

Kyle Doerksen-Future Motion Inc.

Future Motion, Inc.

Kyle Doerksen started his career in entrepreneurship and innovation by competing in the Canadian Science fair, where he won an award for his invention of ground-penetrating radar. After getting his masters in mechanical engineering, Doerksen worked at a company called IDEO Palo alto. There, he managed projects and developed electromagnetic systems for kid’s toys. This was when Doerken started tinkering with the concept of OneWheel. It took 8 years of tinkering for Kyle to produce his prototype for OneWheel in 2013. Once he had succeeded, Kyle quit his job and decided to create his company Future Motion Inc. Kyle had created a riding experience like no other on a product that can be described as a recreational personal transporter. In 2014, just a year later, Kyle had already started distributing his first product, the OneWheel. What Kyle had created was a product that offered an experience like none other. A OneWheel is an electric board that is made up of one wheel with a deck surrounding it. Inside the wheel is an electric motor and a computer programmed to balance the rider and make thousands of calculations to keep the riding experience smooth while traveling at speeds of almost 20Mph. Most riders would compare the riding experience to a snowboard or surfboard, allowing riders to make maneuvers like carving easily.

My Thoughts

I am currently an owner of an OneWheel Pint (a compact and cheaper version of the OneWheel), and I absolutely love it. I have put hundreds of miles on my board, and I am always looking for an excuse to go out and ride it. One of my favorite aspects of the board is its ability to off-road. Unlike other electric skateboards, the OneWheel can travel across almost any terrain or surface, making it super fun to take on walking and bike trails. What Kyle Doerksen has created is a truly astounding product that has found its way into recreational communities. Kyle’s story is truly a story of innovation and entrepreneurship because he was brave enough to take the plunge of quitting his job to pursue his vision for the innovation of OneWheel.

 

 

Garrett Gee Snapchat Guru

Garrett Gee, now 30 years old, sold his snap business to Snapchat for $54 million. When Gee was younger he had a smartphone and used a scan app which scanned UPC barcodes used to purchase retail products. Gee hated the app however, and decided to delete it. Gee searched for a better scan app that was more user friendly but couldn’t find one. Gee decided then at the Brigham Young University that he was going to make his own app that scanned Mobile QR and Barcode scanners called, “Scan.”

After a massive success with the app he decided to make a company with his classmate called Scan Inc. In two years they raised $8 million and upgraded the apps features and adapted it to customer requests. By 2012 Scan had been downloaded over 25 million times and generating $60,000 per month. In 2014 they decided to sell the Scan app for $54 million to Snapchat.

Gee has a very creative personality and loves to explore, these traits played a key role in him being able to solve a problem that a lot of people didn’t see. Almost everything on his list of things starts with the word, “creating,” I believe he succeeded the way he did because of this personality. Today Gee is traveling the world with his wife and three kids, while still not touching the $54 million in their bank account.

How did you Blog today

Ever notice when going to post on this blog, “Millennial Entrepreneurs” for assignments, what you log in through. Well it is WordPress, founded by Matthew Mullenweg when he was in college in 2005. Today it is used as one of leading, and most successful websites to upload and create blogs worldwide. How ironic that the cite we use to talk about all the entrepreneur’s in the world, is one created by a millennial entrepreneur.

Like most college kids, Matt was struggling keeping up with his grades. He also didn’t feel he was in the right spot, and college wasn’t his thing.  So he wanted to vent those feelings to kids in the similar situation, but noticed there was no way to connect and do that. He did however, realize the World Wide Web was on the rise and the new place to be, so why not there. He created WordPress to connect with kids who didn’t “fit in/like” college and started a blog. Little did he know it would take off and blow up how it did. Today, there are about 60 million blogs on WordPress alone, one of which is ours. He saw a way to take venting and expressing his feelings to the next level. He knew, the only way to do it before was write it down, and save it and share with friend if you were brave enough. He wondered about making it better and in real time by allowing blogging to happen at your finger tips, and be published when you want.

WordPress and millennial entrepreneur is one thing I never expected them to go together. I never saw us talking about entrepreneurs and writing about their success and what they did, on their platform. It is a small word to say the least, and very ironic that it comes together how it does.

 

Kang Sisters – Coffee Meets Bagel

Dawoon, Arum, and Soo Kang are changing the way online dating works for women with their app called Coffee Meets Bagel. The sisters grew up in an entrepreneurial family and all had ample experience in the business world. Dawoon worked in investment banking, Arum received her MBA from Harvard University, and Soo was a successful graphic designer in the fashion industry. They decided to combine their expertise and solve a pain they saw in the online dating market. Many of their friends felt that dating apps were oversaturated with men and geared toward the way men want to date online. They created Coffee Meets Bagel as a way to connect online through meaningful conversation. The app is unique from Tinder and Bumble because it specifically selects up to 6 bagels (or matches) for women every day through their algorithm that matches couples based on multiple similar interests so they only see matches that are highly relevant. Essentially, Coffee Meets Bagel connects people through similarities, not location or looks. To date, there are more than 70,000 couples who met on Coffee Meets Bagel and that number continues to grow.

 

One of the most impressive things about these entrepreneurs is that they were offered $30 million dollars by Mark Cuban when they pitched their idea on Shark Tank, yet they declined the offer. The Kang sisters used this offer as a confirmation that their idea was good and it had a huge potential for success, but they do not regret turning the offer down. They wanted to be in control of the app themselves. Being female tech entrepreneurs in this day and age has had challenges, but the Kang sisters have demonstrated that knowledge, expertise, and the ability to identify and fix pains in a market can have a huge impact and payoff and they wanted to develop this app on their own. They were able to raise over $11 million dollars in venture funding which enabled them to start and continue to grow their app.

Learn more about Coffee Meets Bagel here. 

Easton LaChappelle: Unlimited Tomorrow

TrueLimb - Next-Generation Prosthetic Arm

Easton LaChappelle had an interest in robotics in high school, but he found a mission when he met a young girl at a science fair who had an expensive and limited prosthetic device.  He set to work developing innovative prosthetic limbs with a focus on the impact they would have on his customers.  Unlimited Tomorrow tries to optimize the customer experience by providing an inexpensive, custom prosthetic, and the customer never has to leave their house.  They do this by shipping a 3D scanner to the customer that creates a model of the customer’s full arm which is then used to make a model for the prosthetic.  Unlimited Tomorrow uses 3D printing to easily make custom prosthetics.  After modeling the part, Unlimited Tomorrow sends several sockets to the customer to ensure the best possible fit for the prosthetic.  The prosthetic uses sensors to collect muscle data, and it then uses this to control the movement of the prosthetic.  The prosthetic costs about $8000 which is an eighth of the cost of traditional prosthetics, and if the customer outgrows their prosthetic, Unlimited Tomorrow will sell them a new one at half price.  Unlimited Tomorrow’s prosthetics are some of the most realistic available since they are modeled off of the customer’s full arm, provide natural movement, and even customize the color to match the customer’s skin tone.  The prosthetics are also intuitive to learn how to operate and lightweight to improve their functionality.  Unlimited Tomorrow uses crowdfunding and partnerships to be able to keep their costs low and stay true to their mission of putting their customers first through the development of innovative technology.

 

Mous- from Indiegogo to your Pocket

Since the dawn of cell phones, cell phone cases have been a high-demand accessory. They offer the opportunity to customize, protect, and in some cases add utility to a device you’re carrying in your pocket anyway. Because of this, the market for phone cases and accessories has been saturated by high-quality and low-quality products alike. Finding a good one can be so easy it becomes difficult to decide. The founders of Mous started out with a simple mission: “pushing the boundaries in design and engineering to create products that last for the tech people use everyday”.

Founders James Griffith and Josh Shires found that there were really two types of phone cases: the ones that felt nice on the phone because of their sleek design but weren’t sufficiently protective and trustworthy and didn’t last long, and the ones that were protective and durable enough to be trustworthy but added uncomfortable weight and bulk. In 2014, they founded Mous to do something about that problem, and brought on James Day, Will Mullen, and Lacy Hutchinson.

To learn more about the design of existing phone cases and find how to innovate, some of the team spent time in China before finally setting up shop in London and expanding the company to over 60 members. Once they tested and demonstrated their first self-developed phone case material, Mous raised over $2,500,000 in crowdfunding to continue the project.

By 2020, Mous has sold over 1 million products and expanded into other accessories such as wallet-cases, case attachments using patented magnetic design (ie a slim, removable cash/card holder that clings to the back of the phone case), case-compatible mounts, chargers, screen protectors, and cases for AirPods.

The lesson to be taken away from Mous is that even in a saturated market there is room for innovation. Often times, a heavily flooded market is lacking in the right type of product (hence there are so many different things- there isn’t one a lot of people like). This is not always the case, but in this case, the perfect case had yet to be designed.

You can see Mous test drops and learn more about the company here:

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Cameron Johnson: An Entrepreneur Since Nine

When Cameron Johnson was 9 years old, he started making invitation cards for family celebrations. Cameron then realized that people really liked his cards, so he decided to start selling them. His little business was surprisingly profitable. At 12, he used his money to buy Beanie Babies, which he then sold online at higher prices. This venture was much more successful, making $50,000 dollars in under a year. Just a reminder, he was only 12 years old! Cameron then came up with My EZ Mail, an online service that would forward e-mails to a specific account without showing the recipients’ information. In just a few years, it was making $3,000 dollars monthly in advertising revenue. Another business of his was giving him $300,000 a month. In total, Cameron Johnson started twelve successful businesses before he graduated from High School, . When he was 15, he became the youngest American to join the board of a company in Tokyo. After graduation, Cameron went to Virginia Tech, but he soon realized that business was his true passion. So, he left after less than a semester to pursue a new company, CertificateSwap.com,  with his friend. This business sold gift certificates for lower prices than those on eBay. He and his partner eventually sold the business for a six-digit account. While he has sold all of his internet businesses by this point, Cameron still invests in many other start-ups, and he now gives lectures on entrepreneurship.

One thing that really impressed me about Cameron Johnson was his ability to adapt to the internet, which was still in its early years when he started working. Him choosing to be an entrepreneur instead of going to college also taught me that you should follow your passions. But personally, I think he was most impressive at coming up with products and ideas that people would want by considering their perspectives.

Ocrolus: Financial Image Recognition Technology

Sam Bobley was 22 when he started Ocrolus in his parent’s kitchen.  Now, the company has expanded to four offices and over one thousand employees.  His company is streamlining data collection processes across the financial world.  Ocrolus uses machine learning technology to read and extract desired data from paper documents, with a heavy focus on the lending.

How It Works

Ocrolus takes initial documents, such as bank statements, pay stubs, tax documents, mortgage forms, etc., and analyzes them to produce a clear, organized output of financial information.  The best part?  Ocrolus is accurate over 99% of the time.  The accuracy is largely due to a “human-in-the-loop” validation engine, which involves human action to verify the data.  Since Ocrolus is “machine learning”, it gets smarter every time it processes data.

Impact

Bobley’s ingenious business has impacted users of financial data worldwide.  His image recognition software is used by banks, accounting firms, law firms, online lenders, and government entities.  Ocrolus is completely changing the loan underwriting process.  In the past, lenders had to forgo accuracy and thoroughness in order to save time.  Now, with the new technology, it is possible to retrieve all the data from a financial document faster than ever before.  Creditworthiness is now calculated with more factors, which allows lenders to better understand their clients and create credit models that are more representative of said clients.

Future Plans

Bobley has big plans for the future of the company.  He recently authored a patent application for the technology.  In an interview, Bobley states that Ocrolus is “beginning to pursue new opportunities more aggressively”.  This includes going into the realm of online account openings for financial institutions or gambling centers.  He also talks about setting up Robotic Process Automation, a process in which the current technology handling inputs would “hand off” the outputs to robots who could read and understand them.  Sam Bobley’s entrepreneurial actions have propelled his company to the top of its field.  If he continues to show such exemplary leadership characteristics, he will continue to succeed in his ventures.