| Barefootsies |
08-20-2012 07:39 AM |
Tweens who built supersuccessful firms
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Jon Koon
Started business when he was 16
Business: Auto parts, fashion
From a very young age, Chinese-American Jon Koon was already a mogul-in-the-making. He saw huge discrepancies between American and Japanese automobiles in terms of innovation and design, and used the $5,000 he’d saved up from red “lai see” packets to make aggressive moves into the auto market.
He started purchasing car parts from international supply chains, teamed up with a local mechanic and worked his magic to give tons of cars spiffy, high-end finishes and fancy engines with top-notch speakers — all of which gave rise to the blinged-out car craze that was MTV’s “Pimp My Ride” show.
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Connor Zwick
Started business when he was 16
Business: Education
During his junior year of high school, Connor Zwick quickly grew disenchanted with the education system. He saw a deep disconnect between that system and the process by which students learned new things, and wanted to explore that dynamic further.
After looking to different governmental policy changes for a solution, he soon realized that the only true way to improve the system was by innovating through technology. "Flashcards+ was my initial attempt at disrupting the education system, by targeting the way individual students learn, and optimizing it," he said.
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Ritik Malhotra
Started business when he was 12
Business: Gaming, webhosting, education, etc.
Always on the hunt for new ideas, Ritik Malhotra began programming when he was just 8. Four years later, he started a website that let viewers read comics online, and after reading up on useful SEO tactics, he managed to attract 250,000 visitors in one year. He eventually mastered the art of making websites — starting a gaming site and then a popular web forum that attracted 6.5 million viewers in a single year.
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Sean Belnick
Started business when he was 14
Business: Belnick
Before office retailers like Staples started bringing their businesses online, Sean Belnick saw a huge, untapped market for furniture back in 2001. At age 14, he aimed to simplify the process consumers faced of buying furniture by founding BizChair.com. He started small, initially selling only office chairs. By selling goods directly to buyers, Sean managed to rake in revenues of $42 million by 2008.
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Ray Land
Started when he was 17
Business: Coach, car and limousine service
When Ray Land was in eighth grade, he was already a natural-born coordinator. He planned his first trip — a trip for his classmates and him to venture to Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. — and unearthed a passion for planning, traveling and meeting new people. It wasn’t long before he became known as the resident travel planner in his school, and other classmates would ask him to plan tours for them in cities like New York and Washington, D.C.
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