As a college student and an “entrepreneur” (whatever that means), I’ve experienced first hand the difficulties inherent in building and launching ventures while juggling academic commitments, all without meaningful support.
When Sean Harper needed a credit card processor for his first company, he signed up for the first one he saw. He ended up being swindled into tens of thousands of dollars of charges and paid almost twice the amount they expected to the first year.
That’s when Sean knew there was a problem. And after some initial research, he realized it was a problem he could build a business around. So Sean and his co-founder created FeeFighters.com.
I interviewed Sean to learn how he’s working to solve this problem for small businesses and about the recent rebranding his company went through.
Spencer Hewett is not what one might call an “average” college freshman. At Washington University in St. Louis, Spencer is one among a growing movement of young tech entrepreneurs getting their.
Chicago based credit card processing company Braintree has an impressive roster of customers – 37signals, Airbnb, github, OpenTable, and more. And that’s with a team of under 20 people.
That’s not why I interviewed CEO Bryan Johnson though. I wanted to learn why their company culture is so unique, why he doesn’t hire traditional managers, and why he’s so adamant about hiring rock star e
For this series, I’ve Skyped gawky, venture-capitalized college kids who’re still grappling with acne. It seems as though tech entrepreneurs are getting younger. What explains this trend toward younger people entering the tech-entrepreneurial space, even while still in college? This necessarily leads to a second question: why is it that nearly all of these college-aged entrepreneurs end up dropping out of college to start their ventures?
Craig Ulliott started the Facebook app Where I’ve Been as a side project while he was working as a freelance web developer. In a few days, the app’s use exploded and Craig had a problem. Within a month, Craig had to figure out how support his growing user base of around a million users.
Today, Where I’ve Been is approaching ten million maps created, is one of the most popular travel apps on Facebook, and is partnering with leading companies in the travel industry. I interviewed Craig to learn how he built a wildly successful Facebook app and how starting Where I’ve Been is the “best mistake” Craig ever made.
Ever had a group of friends who wanted to head out for a night on the town, only to discover everyone’s wallets wouldn’t support such an undertaking? Look no further.
Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder, billionaire venture capitalist, hedge fund manager, and early Facebook investor, does not play around when it comes to inspiring young people to build their ideas into companies. His eponymous Thiel Fellowship promises twenty entrepreneurs under twenty years old cash grants of up to $100,000 to do so.
When Jake Nickell started the popular crowdsourced t-shirt design site Threadless 10 years ago, he thought he’d be holding down a job nowadays, with some creative hobbies on the side. After all, Threadless was only a hobby for Jake back then.
Threadless is an overnight success that took 10 years to build. Jake didn’t give himself a salary for 2 years. In the beginning, Jake would go to the post office during his lunch hour to ship out the shirts that people bought. When an employee needed a soundproof booth to start a podcast, Jake suggested they find an Airstream for the office on eBay (and they did).
I interviewed Jake to get some insight into how he built Threadless over the past 10 years into the success it is today, and explore some of the ups and downs along the way.
Lab42 is one of the young, nimble startups carving out a niche in Chicago’s growing tech community. Specifically, Jonathan Pirc and Laura Rokita, the team behind Lab42, are forging ahead to establish an altogether new niche. Lab42 is market research reinvented for the social-media landscape.
