How Catherine Cook Started multimillion Internet Business called MyYearbook.com at Age 15.

At 15, Catherine Cook and her brother Dave, 17, were flipping through their high school yearbook and came up with the idea to develop a free interactive version online. In 2005, the two convinced their older brother Geoff, a budding Web entrepreneur himself, to invest $250,000 and his time to help them launch MyYearbook.com, a social-networking site, based in Skillman, N.J.

Soon after, the Cooks merged with Zenhex.com, an ad-supported site where users post a variety of homemade quizzes, more than doubling the number of eyeballs taking in their site. But when they tried to expand even further, they hit some snags. Potential investors wanted to move the company’s headquarters to New York (the Cooks wanted to stay put); they also wanted to have ads appear on users’ personal profile pages (the Cooks didn’t).

Good thing the Cooks stuck to their vision. By 2006, MyYearbook had raised $4.1 million from the likes of U.S. Venture Partners and First Round Capital. That same year, Nielsen NetRatings ranked MyYearbook.com one of the top sites for kids between 12 and 17. Also in 2006, MyYearbook.com signed a contract with CliffsNotes to begin providing the study guide aids free for all members.

The business, now with 45 employees, has attracted advertisers such as Neutrogena, Disney and ABC; has grown to 3 million members worldwide; and rakes in annual sales in the “seven figures,” says Catherine. How to compete in an industry dominated by MySpace and Facebook? Mine a niche. “[Our site is] specifically for high school students, and we really listen to the suggestions of our members,” she says.

While the Cooks decline to discuss the value of their stake in the business, one MyYearbook investor (who agreed to speak only if unidentified) claims the Cooks’ chunk is worth “well over $1 million.”

Reported in February 2008.
Source: Forbes

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10 Influential Nigerian Bloggers Making Good Money Online

These bloggers are making good money online by doing what they love to do best. Check them out:

1.  Linda Ikeji; owner of lindaikeji.blogspot.com

2.  Omoyele Sowore; owner of Saharareporters.com

3.  Uche Eze; owner of  Bellanaija.com

4.  Chude Jideonwo' owner of YNaija.com

5.  Loy Okezie; owner of Techloy.com

6.  Mola Ogundele; owner of Notjustok.com,

7.  Bamidele Onibalusi; owner of Writersincharge.com

8.  Jide Ogunsanya; owner of Ogbongeblog.com

9.  Don Caprio; owner of Doncaprio.com

10.  Oladunni Liadi; owner of ladunliadi.blogspot.com.

Maybe you should consider starting yours today...

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Check out how facebook.com really started

... Zuckerberg wrote a program called Facemash on October 28, 2003 while attending Harvard as a sophomore. According to The Harvard Crimson, the site was comparable to Hot or Not and "used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the 'hotter' person"

To accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into protected areas of Harvard's computer network and copied private dormitory ID images. Harvard did not have a student "Facebook" (a directory with photos and basic information) at the time, although individual houses had been issuing their own paper facebooks since the mid-1980s. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online.

The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers,[clarification needed] but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped. Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final. He uploaded 500 Augustan images to a website, and each image was featured with a corresponding comments section. He shared the site with his classmates and people started sharing notes.

The following semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website in January 2004. He said he was inspired by an editorial about the Facemash incident in The Harvard Crimson. On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.

Six days after the site launched, three Harvard seniors (Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra) accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. They claimed he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product. The three complained to The Harvard Crimson and the newspaper began an investigation. They later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling in 2008 for 1.2 million shares (worth $300 million at Facebook's IPO).

Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College; within the first month, more than half the undergraduates at Harvard were registered on the service. Eduardo Saverin (business aspects), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), Andrew McCollum (graphic artist), and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help promote the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to the universities of Columbia, Stanford, and Yale. It later opened to all Ivy League colleges, Boston University, New York University, MIT, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States.

In mid-2004, entrepreneur Sean Parker (an informal advisor to Zuckerberg) became the company's president. In June 2004, Facebook moved its operations base to Palo Alto, California. It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. In 2005, the company dropped the from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com for US$200,000.

In May 2005, Accel partners invested $12.7 million in Facebook, and Jim Breyer added $1 million of his own money. A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users. Entertainment Weekly included the site on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?"

A high-school version of the site was launched in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step. (At the time, high-school networks required an invitation to join.) Facebook also expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft...

Culled from Wikipedia, to read more visit Wikipedia.

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Mark proves to be humble...

Someone posted this picture:

on Mark Zuckerberg's page (the owner of Facebook.com) and wrote: "Great job Mark  you deserve to be remembered in the history books, side by side with fighters for humanity". One would expect Mark to say thank you and perhaps share the comment with his friends as a step forward, but he did did the abnormal by replying him as follow: "I definitely do not deserve this comparison."

How humble are you?

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Starting a company at age 14? No sweat!

VENTURES AFRICA – “I’ve learnt to listen to my intuition. And it has helped me make better decisions around managing people and my business.”

Ugandan Noah Walakira was just 14 when he started Namirembe Sweater Makers, a community-based organisation that started off by manufacturing knitted jerseys for schools in Kampala. It was a skill his grandmother taught him during school holidays, and while no longer around today, Walakira knows she’d be proud to see what he’s done with the skill.

Today Namirembe Sweater Makers employs around 20 people in his community and has diversified its offering to manufacturing various uniforms – from sportswear to ties – for over 45 schools in Uganda, as well as for other organisations such as security companies. On an average month, the company can produce around 500 sweaters, with each costing a school about $7. And Walakira, now 23, has managed to put himself and other young employees through school with the earnings.

His success had not gone unnoticed, with the Anzisha Prize – a pan-African organisation which celebrates young entrepreneurs between 15 and 22 – naming Walakira a finalist for its annual award last year.

Furthermore, his company has provided many youths in his community with vocational skills and employment. Uganda has the largest percentage of people under the age of 30 in the world, which has translated into high numbers of youth unemployment. This is something he hopes to continue tackling.

Being a young employer

Having run a small factory from the age of 14, Walakira has learnt a number of business lessons, including how to manage employees double his age.

“I try to make sure that they have it in their minds that they are not just being employed by a 14 or 23 year old, but rather the company,” he says, adding he never wants his age to affect an older employee’s ambition within the organisation.

He has also learnt how to better communicate with authorities and comply with business regulations after his factory was shut down once due to a misunderstanding around operating licences. But most importantly, he says he has also grown to realise he has the potential to make a difference in his community as well as grow a national – even pan-African – company.

“In five years I see more branches opening and helping out jobless people in different areas. There are so many who are suffering [from unemployment], especially in the North-West,” he continues.

“I am already thinking of how to expand this initiative and work with these communities to solve some of the problems around poverty.”

Guided by intuition

“Let your vision and passion drive you,” advises Walakira, adding that without these two elements, young entrepreneurs will not be able to persist when facing the overwhelming number of challenges.

“If you do not love what you are doing, then go back to the drawing board and find something you do love,” he adds.

“Follow that small voice that is talking to you inside of your heart, and listen to it with your mind, but critically. It will help you make the right decisions.”

Source: Venture Africa

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How Jumia.com was founded

JUMIA is a Nigerian online shopping site for a wide range of electronics, fashion, home appliances and kid’s items. The business was founded in 2012 by a team that included Jeremy Hodara, Sacha Poignonnec, Tunde Kehinde, Raphael Afaedor, and Leonard Stiegeler, with funding from Rocket Internet. As of 2015, Jumia has warehouses in eight other countries, including: Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, Uganda, Ghana, Cameroon and the United Kingdom.

JUMIA is an e-commerce startup with an aim to mimic Amazon’s success by delivering a wide range of items, from toys to generators across the African continent. Shortly after the startup of the business in Nigeria, JUMIA launched warehouses in four other growing countries which include: Egypt, Morocco, Kenya and Cote d'Ivoire. In 2013, the business received $35 million in Series B funding from Millicom to contribute towards its expansion in its domestic market and the move into a new 90,000 square foot warehouse located in Lagos. JUMIA finished a great year in 2013 by winning the title of the Best New Retail Launch. In 2014, Jumia extended its services to Uganda enabling people to shop online and have products delivered to this region. In October 2012, JUMIA Egypt announced its partnership with Mobinil, an Egyptian telecommunication company. The partnership agreement consists of four main rules which include: Mobinil providing JUMIA offices and staff with the latest mobile technology solutions specifically tailored for their business needs, JUMIA's provision of Mobinil with products and services to each of the 140 retail stores spread all across Egypt, JUMIA offering products of Mobinil to their customers, and JUMIA offering special rewards for Mobinil customers through the use of a loyalty program. On 26 August 2013, JUMIA launched a mobile application that enables customers to make purchases on the online store from anywhere. The mobile application offers a selection of 50,000 products. Jumia's most notable competitors are Konga in Nigeria and Souq in Egypt. In both countries, all three online retailers compete for online shoppers through competitive prices and targeted marketing. This has partly led to the launch of price aggregators such as Yaoota.com to guide users through the increasing number of online products.

Source: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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How Konga.com was founded

Konga was founded in July 2012 by Sim Shagaya, with 20 staff. Shortly after launching in 2012, Konga raised a $3.5 million seed round from Investment AB Kinnevik. The site initially functioned as a Lagos-only online retailer focused on merchandise in the Baby, Beauty, and Personal Care categories, but broadened its scope to all of Nigeria in December 2012 and gradually expanded merchandise categories through 2012 and 2013.

In early 2013, Konga raised a $10 million Series A round from Investment AB Kinnevik and Naspers. In Q2 2013, Konga beta-tested 'Konga Mall,' opening up the Konga platform to third-party retailers and moving away from a pure first-party online retail model.In late 2013, Konga finalized a $25 million Series B round from previous investors, Investment AB Kinnevik and Naspers, the largest single round raised by a single African startup at the time. On November 29, 2013, Konga.com crashed and remained offline for 45 minutes as a result of unprecedented traffic stemming from its Black Friday promotion. Konga sold more during the first six hours of the promotion than it did in the prior month.

Konga officially launched its third-party retail platform in the first half of 2014, rebranding it as 'Marketplace' from 'Konga Mall'; by the end of 2014, Konga's Marketplace featured 8,000 merchants, beating internal targets of 1,000 merchants eight-fold. Konga received USD $3.5 million worth of orders during its 2014 Black Friday promotion, compared to USD $300,000 during the promotion in the previous year. Konga reportedly grew 2014 revenue 450% from 2013. In late 2014, Konga finalized a $40 million Series C round from Investment AB Kinnevik and Naspers, the largest single round raised by a single African startup to date. Despite reports that Naspers acquired 50% of Konga in 2013, publicly-traded Naspers disclosed that its stake in Konga after the October 2014 Series C investment was 40.22%. Konga was reportedly valued at approximately $200 million as of the Series C.

In January 2015, Konga was ranked as the most visited Nigerian website by Alexa Internet. According to CEO Sim Shagaya, Konga "leads the field in Nigeria today [early 2015] in Gross Merchandise Value," a metric measuring the total value of merchandise sold through a particular marketplace.

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Meet Ashley Qualls (born June 4, 1990)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ashley Qualls (born June 4, 1990) is an American entrepreneur from Detroit, Michigan. Originally as a hobby, in 2004 at age 14, she started a website called whateverlife.com, designed to provide free Myspace layouts and HTML tutorials for people in her age demographic, and supported entirely by advertising revenue. The basement of her home is her office. In addition to employing her mother, she employs friends from school. The website receives several times more traffic than circulations for popular teen magazines Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and CosmoGirl! combined.

Qualls has turned down numerous offers to acquire her company including an offer for 1.5 million dollars and her choice of any car. In September 2006 she paid cash for a $250,000 home in a fenced-off subdivision in the community of Southgate. She lives there with her mother Linda LaBreque and younger sister Shelby. At the age of 17, she obtained legal emancipation, giving her the same legal status as an adult.

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Check Out These Top 10 Bloggers in the World...

1. Michael Arrington: $500,000 – $800,000 per month
2.Pete Cashmore:$560,000 – $600,000 per month
3. Mario Lavanderia, ‘Perez Hilton': $200,000 – $400,000 per month
4.Vitaly Friedman: $150,000 – $190,000 per month
5.Timothy Sykes: Monthly Income: $150,000 – $180,000 per month
6. Jake Dobki:$80,000 – $110,000 per month
7. Collis Ta’eed: $55,000 – $120,000 per month
8. Gina Trapani: circa $110,000 per month
9. Matt Marshall: $50,000 – $100,000 per month
10. Ewdison Then, ‘Slash Gear': $60,000 – $80,000 per month

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Gladys got me here...

You think you know?

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Meet the Youngest Billionaire - Evan Thomas Spiegel

Evan Thomas Spiegel (born June 4, 1990) is an American Internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of the mobile application Snapchat. Evan was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Melissa Ann Thomas and John W. Spiegel, who are lawyers.Spiegel grew up in Pacific Palisades, California. He was raised attending an Episcopalian church. He was educated at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, and attended Stanford University.Spiegel took design classes at the Otis College of Art and Design while still in high school and at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena the summer before entering Stanford.He also had an unpaid internship in sales at Red Bull.While a student, he worked as a paid intern for a biomedical company, as a careers instructor in Cape Town, South Africa, and at Intuit on the TxtWeb project.

Visit Wikipedia to read more. 

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30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs In Africa 2015 by Forbes

“Young entrepreneurs and those they inspire are the  lifeblood of Africa’s rise.” – Tony O. Elumelu, Founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation

Africa’s growing crop of young entrepreneurs will transform the continent and rewrite its future. And they are taking charge of that destiny now. Today, a growing number of Africans are building innovative technologies and businesses that are solving critical socio-economic problems, while creating job opportunities for Africans. It’s in entrepreneurial boom. The young folks are taking the lead – and are making fortunes for themselves in the process. As they should, because what good is entrepreneurship if it doesn’t create wealth?

Read more at here

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