At fifteen years old, Catherine Cook and her brother came up with the idea of building a social media website that would build an online version of a yearbook. They launched MyYearbook and later merged with another site that allows users to post and complete online quizzes.
At her young age, she did not know how to program, so she worked with a team of developers to help build the website. This process took a lot of dedication and Catherine and her brother sacrificed many things. While attending high school, they worked on the program and stayed up extremely late chatting with the developers, which truly shows their determination. After a lot of hard work, they were eventually able to launch MyYearbook.
Their website grew very rapidly to over 5 million members. Catherine claims that they were successful because they listened to what their users wanted and implemented the new features and changes. It is important for entrepreneurs to get feedback from the consumers and recognize their needs and desires.
Catherine Cook did eventually decide to sell MyYearbook to focus on other new entrepreneurial ideas and school. Unfortunately, the new owners changed the name to MeetMe and also changed the objective of the site. However, Catherine is a great example of a young entrepreneur, who had an idea, implemented it, and became successful within a few years.
Catherine is a tremendous example of someone who found a need at a young age and knew it needed to be met. My Yearbook was a fantastic idea and it is inspiring to see someone work so hard at their idea while still in high school. It’s sad to see the heart of the idea was lost when it was sold, but hopefully Catherine has money now to pursue a new venture in the future.
Catherine is very innovative for a fifteen year old. It shows real insight to attribute her success to paying attention to the consumers’ needs. It’s unfortunate that the new owners didn’t maintain that integrity, but hopefully Catherine will continue to listen to what customers want and give it to them in her future ideas.
Catherine and her brother are truly great examples of young entrepreneurs. The determination and dedication that they had in order to launch MyYearbook, builds a new level of responsibility that not many teenagers or young adults possess. It is sad to hear that her project is no longer what it used to be, but that is not the message of this blog. The message is that she had a goal and a schedule and the mindset to do it.
It is incredible to see such a young person be so innovative, mostly because at fifteen I was not even close to being so creative. This just shows if you love an idea and you fight for it you can be successful at any age really!