Archive for Websites – Page 7

It’s Really Quite Pinteresting

Co-founded in 2010, Pinterest is a relatively new company that revolutionized the discovery aspect of social media. With 176 million registered users, it’s clear that millennial founders Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp, and Paul Sciarra (aka Cold Brew Labs) had a stellar idea in the concept of Pinterest.

Pinterest is a visually-driven website that allows users to collect and sort ideas, articles, pictures, and other inspirations. Every “pin” is a photo, and if you like what you see, you can double click to see the pin’s origin or click the repin button to save it to one of your boards. It’s like a virtual scrapbook or file folder- but beautifully designed and much simpler. Additionally, users can add their own content to the site to share their own ideas and work.

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This wildly successful site was the phoenix that rose out of the founder’s previous app failure, Tote. Part of the reason Tote failed was people hadn’t really begun shopping through apps yet; the main way people used the app was to send product images to themselves. They were image collecting. The recognition of this behavioral trend was the key for Cold Brew Labs’ next innovation. They took this new insight and transferred it over to the web to avoid one of the big potholes Tote had, and voila, Pinterest was born. Its monstrous success is a testament to what can happen when failure is looked at as a learning experience rather than defeat.

Although some have call Pinterest’s CEO somewhat “socially awkward,” it’s clear that his creation is a work of social genius.

[Read more about Pinterest’s origins on Business Insider!]

Olan Rogers

Olan Rogers is best known for his personality. Because, quite simply, personality what he conveys most through all that he does. While Olan Rogers was  best known for his comedic stories he tells on his YouTube channel, his personality shines through all the many other projects he has started.

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Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Olan rogers started his video blog series back in 2010 after graduating from the University of Memphis with Bachelor’s in Communication and Visual Arts. Since, starting his youtube channel, it has accumulated quite a subscriber base in the past six years. This is mostly due to his charming and hilarious story-telling videos that have gone viral multiple times. However, this is not all that his YouTube channel provides. In addition to stories and short, comedic sketches, his channel also hosts his feature length indie professional films recognized by IMDB.com such as Pop Rocket and New Prime.

Additionally, Rogers has launched his own clothing supply store where he sells merchandise related to his video content as well as apparel displaying art or clever sayings. Since launching his online clothing store, Rogers also opened The Soda Parlor, a store that provides a welcoming and chill atmosphere, selling apparel, artisan sodas, and floats. The Soda Parlor is located in Nashville and a second location will be opening later this Fall.

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Beginning in 2017, Olan Rogers will be starting production on three more film projects under his newest project, Battle Bear Productions LLC. Under Battle Bear, Olan will provide animated tv shows as well as continuations of other film projects that he has started on his YouTube channel.

Feel free to check out his content below!

https://www.youtube.com/user/OlanRogers

http://olanrogerssupply.com/

https://www.facebook.com/olanrogersofficial

The Hype Machine

Music is one of the centerpieces of pop-culture today.  It’s also a huge part of each of our daily lives.  And with our current technology we can music downloaded to our devices with the press of button.  But how do we discover music?  How can we share our discoveries and favorite songs with other music lovers.  Leave that to the Hype Machine.  In 2005, Anthony Volodkin created Hype Machine.  A music website and community (now with an app), that allows users to post blogs, share music, discuss music, and buy songs and even concert tickets.

Anthony’s vision for Hype Machine was to create a community that brought all music lovers and their thoughts and opinions together.  For 2005 this was revolutionary, as many music and artist “reviews” were only featured in select magazines or on radio stations.  Anthony set out to make a social platform for music to fix this problem in his eyes , and Hype Machine was a success.

Hype Machine is based in New York City and along with it’s website, it uses Facebook and Twitter as its other platforms.  Hype Machine has steadily grown since 2005.  Hype machine has gained revenue through ads, linking songs the music retailers, and by partnering with other platforms such as Soundcloud.  Anthony Volodkin created the Facebook of the music industry and has bridged the gap between customer, artist, and producer relations.  Hype Machine has all of the music hype!

Mashable

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Mashable is a top 10 multi million dollar blog that reaches audiences of all sorts; from the tech world to sports, to news stories with hot and relevant information on the top new products and info in the market. In 2005 it’s founder Pete Cashmore started this revolutionary data generator at the tender age of 19. His clever blog design, quick tips, tech advice, and social cultural aspects have attracted over 29 million followers on the many social media platforms he posts on. Cashmore grew his business from the ground up by adding sites for consumer contact and departments in the company itself to expand the empire. On the site itself found here, http://mashable.com/, you will find a variety of posts on a variety of topics for a variety of viewers. Its humorous takes on noteworthy company failures, quick views on sports games and reviews of new tech products and software are what make the blog so successful. By 2012 Cashmore was ranked in Time Magazines Top 100 Most Influential People for his great work in the social media world. Along with Mashable’s commitment to excellence and accuracy in their posts, Cashmore has also committed it to give back to the community by finding job opportunities in the career realms of “technology and social media, marketing and business, and design and development.” It also promises to attribute to a concept of “Social Good” to “make the world a better place.” In all these senses of this company I believe Mashable and its founder are both the stuff of the future we need to continue to push us into the future.

Who is Amanda Owens?

Amanda Owens is a classic American entrepreneur with a 21st century idea. While still in college, Amanda founded Future Female Leaders (originally Future First Lady). She initially went to Twitter in 2012 to express her concerns and opinions about current events and the political climate of our nation as well as the whirlwind that is the life of the young, conservative woman.

In the past four years, Amanda’s social media presence has grown tremendously through her organization. Through social media she has built a an energetic community of hundreds of thousands of women ready to make a difference in their country. Once she found her niche, Amanda started designing conservative themed apparel and gifts. She then began to process and package orders for her merchandise out of her apartment.

Now, Future Female Leaders is America’s leading social movement for young, conservative women. Their website now boasts a FFL store where all of Amanda’s apparel and gifts are sold. The Future Female Leaders website also contains a blog (one of the best!) and links to some of Amanda’s favorite websites as well as books she recommends. The organization not only supports young women in their conservative beliefs, it offers them leadership positions through its cabinet and contributor programs. The key to Amanda’s success has been her and the organization’s presence on social media and the inspiration and support they offer to young, conservative women.

To visit the Future Female Leaders website, click here.

 

Scholly: Opportunity for All

How much would you sacrifice to have a college education? If you’re a college student, you have probably been there. Considering how you’re going to pay for college and what means to do so. Scholarships? Loans? Parents?

When Christopher Gray was a junior in high school, he realized his family would not have the means to send him to college, but he believed a college education was a necessity. He started to apply for scholarships. After a tedious 7 months, he accumulated over $1.3 million dollars in scholarships (including some entrepreneurial scholarships…hint hint). Gray described the process as a lot of unnecessary work, but now he was essentially an expert at the scholarship system. He knew something had to change. Something to make college students’ lives just a little easier. In 2015, Gray launched an app/website that creates an easier process to connect aspiring college students to scholarships.

Accompanied by his co-founders Nick Pirollo (26) and Bryson Alef (24), Christopher Gray (24) created Scholly.

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Scholly has generated over 600,000 users (which continues to grow) and is estimated to have facilitated $50 million in scholarships. Gray was also featured on Shark Tank which helped his idea get big.

I personally think the mission of Scholly is amazing, and though I haven’t used the app…I believe the testimony and experience of Christopher Gray is enough to support his idea. Gray’s college education paid off (quite literally)! He saw a problem: that being an outdated system in a technologically advanced world. It is encouraging to see how Gray took a personal struggle and turned it into a success, and I’m sure the college student community is very grateful for his work. Since Scholly was just so recently introduced, I am  certain the success will continue to grow.

Entrepreneur of the Year

For anyone who might be interested in scholarship opportunities, here’s a link to get you hooked up with a Scholly account.

RegisterForSchollyHere

 

The Rise of Pewdiepie

Imagine doing what you love, earning nearly six million dollars annually, and never even having to leave the house.

I know what you’re thinking, sounds like some kind of overused and obvious internet scam, right? Well, not exactly…

Felix Kjellberg, known by his subscription base as “Pewdiepie,” is a Swedish YouTuber with a passion for gaming. Now you might be questioning the legitimacy of a YouTube career, or the idea of a YouTube entrepreneur, but hear me out.

Humble Beginning 

After realizing how much happier he could be making YouTube videos and working a hot dog stand, Felix dropped out of Chalmers University of Technology in order to pursue his early 2011 YouTube career. During this period, Pewdiepie videos quickly caught on and spread like wild fire. Many would argue that a mix of hilarious horror game “jump scares,” his Swedish accent and a seemingly never ending stream of jokes and references were to blame for the viral explosion.

The Statistics Are There

Impressive statistics show that Felix has ranked as the most subscribed channel on the money making machine for three years running now, only behind YouTube’s top four video categories, even beating out the ‘News’.

Clocking in at 41,040,281 Subscriptions and over ten billion views, most would ask the question, why?

ICM Master

This man is an Internet Content Marketing master, that’s why. He puts out an immense amount of content curated for his audience, rolling with the punches in order to keep up with the times, and never let his channel grow old. One way Felix accomplishes this is by reviewing both popular and ‘underground’ games in order to offer the informative, yet still rather unpredictable comedic flare his audience loves him for.

Many games owe their success to his “Let’s play” videos, such and the infamous Slender horror game. This makes him a valuable asset in the indie gaming market, gaining nearly two and a half million hits on average per video. That’s a lot of viewers!

His humor can be both crude and explicit, however, if you so choose, check out his YouTube channel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arjun Rai: Teen Battling Google

When we hear the word “Google” most people think of the monopoly that runs the internet. In a lot of cases this is true, they have complete dominance in the industry of web browsing and most of the advertising. Who would think that an 18 year might combat this multi-billion dollar company? Well, Arjun Rai did just that. After working with and becoming the COO of an online advertising company, Arjun had gained enough experience to start his own online advertising company. This business venture led him to create a company named odysseyAds. OdysseyAds is an online network with a focus on catering to 21st century marketer needs. As a young entrepreneur myself I find this story to be very inspiring just because of the fact that we do have people out there who aren’t afraid of these market dominating companies.

13-Year-Old Bow Tie Connoisseur

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(Image from mosbowsmemphis.com)

I’ve loved Moziah Bridges ever since I saw him on Shark Tanka few years ago. He’s thirteen and he has his own bow tie company. He started it when he was nine under the supervision of his mom, Tramica. The thing I love most about his company is how cool the brand is. Everything about it, from the story to the bow tie designs to the way his website is set up, seems to flow together to form one coherent brand that is totally his own. He’s been successful, too. This year alone, he’s projected to make $250,000 in revenue. He sells mainly through his online store but has branched out into shops and boutiques across the United States, too.

I think his story is inspiring because he’s a perfect example that all you need to start a great company is a vision and a support system. He had no experience with the fashion industry when he got into it at nine years old, just a dream and a helpful mom. It’s grown into something huge, just because he had the courage to start.

Moziah still has a lot of dreams he’s chasing after. His goal is to be in college with his own clothing line by the time he’s 20. He also wants to get more involved with charities. Right now, he’s donating money from his business to help his local community center in Memphis.

I think Moziah’s story is fantastic. It’s a simple and classic example of what can happen when you have good intentions and a vision for where you want to go. We can all learn a lot from him.
 

Syed Balkhi

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We all know the importance of story, well, Syed has a story worth reading. Everything he needed to develop his entrepreneurial skills simply fell into place. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Syed started his first business making greeting cards for a Muslim holiday at the age of 7. With the funds coming from his mom, he was able to triple her investment within the first month. Loving this, Syed began selling flags for Pakistan’s Independence Day celebration- also, profitable. However, he was not satisfied with selling just seasonal products. At the age of 9 he opens his own snack shop with his neighbor gaining extremely high profits. When he turns 12, his life is flipped upside down- his family immigrates to the United States.

With a whole new culture, language, and home, Syed found it extremely difficult making friends. In his spare time, he began gaming. During lunch when all the other kids were socializing, Syed would sit in the library playing games. But, because school is prison, the firewalls blocked majority of his favorite websites. He began toying around with codes and sketchy back doors to avoid the security walls. The other kids started to notice Syed playing all the popularly blocked games and he saw the opportunity. His web directories spread like wildfire as he began to develop his own web development business.

Skip a few awkward years, Syed attends the University of Florida. During his 4 years there he realizes he could not keep up with the demands of his online business. So, he migrates all his clients to WordPress sites. Next thing he knows, people are asking him about how to maneuver WordPress. To answer all the questions, he creates WPBeginner- the largest free WP resource site.

After college he continues innovating in the online world. List25, OptinMonster, Themelab, and Envira Gallery- to name a few. Looking at the big picture, if Syed had not moved to the states he would have never had issues with making friends, he would have never sat in the library during lunch, and he would have never become the web developer he is today. The story itself is inspiring, but the components of the story are what make Syed’s life special. We may not all be born entrepreneurs, but we

can remember that for every challenge we face, there is always an opportunity.

To hear his web wisdom: