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Young Entrepreneurs
Meet the young people who have made their own future
-- and maybe will change yours as well. Then cast your vote
A generation ago, entrepreneurship was considered a career path for those with no other prospects. Michael Dell's huge success did a lot to change that, and so did the Internet.
Today the entrepreneur is the rock star of the business world.
So, last month, BusinessWeek Online set out to find the next generation of Michael
Dells. We asked readers to nominate standout young entrepreneurs. Our editors reviewed the nominations and narrowed the field to this group of 20 finalists. Take a look them and their businesses, and at the end of the slide show, we'll ask you to vote for the small-biz whiz you think shows the most promise. Browse through, cast your vote, and
BusinessWeek Online will report the results.
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Joanna Alberti philoSophie's www.sophiesphilosophies.com
Boston, MA
Founded: 2005
Age: 24
With only a small-business loan to help her, Joanna Alberti has taken her folder of doodles and quotable quotes and turned it into a successful greeting-card business revolving around a fictional woman named Sophie. "She's a whimsical character who women can relate to," says Alberti, who left her full-time advertising job in October,
2004, to start the business.
She officially launched her company at the 2005 National Stationery Show in New York
City, though she admits feeling intimidated by the likes of Hallmark and other greetingcard heavyweights. Alberti says that, on a good day, she can churn out about 500 cards, which retail in area boutiques for $4.50 to $5.25.
Like most young entrepreneurs, Alberti has plans to expand her operations. She hopes to license Sophie's trademark designs for use in a variety of paper products.
Lesson learned:
"If something doesn't feel right, then I just shouldn't do it. I follow my gut."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Ryan Pieter Middleton Allis
Broadwick Corp. www.intellicontact.com
Durham, N.C.
Founded: 2003
Age: 21
Broadwick is the provider of the e-mail marketing software IntelliContact, which allows companies and nonprofits to create, send, and track permission-based e-mail newsletters and surveys through an on-demand Web-based application.
The company boasts more than 3,000 clients, including Super 8 Motel, International
Paper, and Re/Max. Allis has 21 employees and monthly sales of $130,000. The company is adding at least 300 new clients each month. Allis himself has received attention in the press for his work and success at such a young age.
Lesson learned:
"I've learned to have a bias toward action in everything that I do. The second biggest lesson: Always keep your ear to the ground and integrate your customers into your product-development efforts."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Anand Chhatpar
BrainReactions www.brainreactions.com
Madison, Wis.
Founded: 2004
Age: 24
The raw talent available on a university campus is as plentiful as students who need money. So when Anand Chhatpar, a student at University of Wisconsin-Madison, gathered a group of peers for a casual brainstorming session, a business idea soon hatched.
Chhatpar had recently interned at Pitney Bowes' renowned Advanced Concept
Technology Center, where he learned techniques in ethnographic research and prototyping. He recognized that if he could harness the creativity and insight of diverse young minds, he could put them to work solving companies' problems.
The result: BrainReactions, a pool of 200 professional brainstormers who create new product features, crack new market segments, and develop customer-service improvements for clients.
The company's first client, Bank of America, was referred to BrainReactions by
Chhatpar's former Pitney boss and mentor, Thomas Foth. Now the fledgling outfit also counts Intuit, the Peace Corps, and Quantum Learning Network as clients.
Though Chhatpar, who graduated in May, is still the company's only full-time employee, a core group of seven part-timers is fast at work developing the capabilities
BrainReactions will need in order to grow: IT, video, business development, facilitation, and PR.
Lesson learned:
"Think of scalability in everything you do, and leverage smart work. Innovative ideas come from fresh minds and exploring new perspectives, so don't jump to conventional wisdom. And remember Richard Branson's code: 'Oh screw it, let's do it.'"
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
David Hauser and Siamak Taghaddos
GotVMail Communications www.gotvmail.com
Newton, Mass.
Founded: 2003
Ages: 24 and 23, respectively
Hauser and Taghaddos, already on the fourth startup venture between them, got the idea for GotVMail because they were frustrated with the phone-system options for small businesses.
GotVMail gives mom-and-pops a way to sound just like big corporations. They can get the usual voice-mail boxes and also set up preferences like routing calls to a cell phone or getting messages by e-mail in the form of MP3 files -- all for as little as $10 a month.
The company obtained seed money from friends and began turning a profit in its second month of operation. Now it generates about $5 million in revenue per year.
Lesson learned:
Taghaddos: "For a young entrepreneur, having good personal credit is one of the most important things. We wouldn't have gotten all the help from American Express or Bank of America without it."
Hauser: "To be involved in the entrepreneurial community and give back, talking to students is very important."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Ryan Hudson
YouShoot www.youshoot.com
Cambridge, Mass.
Founded: 2003
Age: 25
When Hudson got married two years ago, he and his bride decided against decking out the tables with disposable cameras. People they knew who had wed recently told the couple the photos never turned out well and guests complained taking pictures was a chore. And of course, there's the cost of all that developing without knowing what you're getting.
But after the wedding, Hudson and his wife felt they had missed out on fun casual shots.
So he started YouShoot.com. He sends couples digital cameras, and their guests take pictures and mail the cameras back in prepaid envelopes. Uploaded to a Web site, the photos are available for purchase.
The self-funded company is launching its first national ad campaign in major bridal magazines this year. Hudson wants the company to get big fast -- before a competitor with deep pockets has the same idea.
Lesson learned:
"You just have to do it sometimes, and you'll figure it out later. We have a whole bunch of problems we file under, 'Problems that will be nice to have someday.'"
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Rishi Kacker and Matt Pauker
Voltage Security www.voltage.com
Location: Palo Alto, Calif.
Founded: 2002
Age: Both 24
Voltage makes security software that can encrypt documents, files, and e-mails at the touch of a button. Kacker and Pauker worked on the technology as a summer research project while attending Stanford. They toiled in a basement office in the engineering building for about a year before entering a business-plan competition.
They won the contest. Along with bragging rights came venture-capital interest and a year's free legal advice from the marquee law firm to Silicon Valley startups, Wilson,
Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati. With the help of some seasoned executives, the two have created a thriving security-software business with more than 130 big-business customers and 75 employees. "It's still amazing to me," says Pauker.
Lesson learned:
"No matter how much you think you have it figured out, there's always a new challenge.
But at the end of the day, that's what makes it interesting."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Joseph Keeley
College Nannies & Tutors www.collegenannies.com
Minneapolis, Minn.
Founded: 2001
Age: 25
As a freshman at the University of St. Thomas, Joseph Keeley connected with an area family and served as a big brother and role model to their two young boys and one girl.
He then took his experience and formulated the idea for College Nannies & Tutors, a student- and child-development company designed to provide parents with the child-care and family-support services their kids need.
The idea won Keeley the Global Student Entrepreneur Award and an accompanying
$20,000 in cash and prizes. Keeley's success attracted the attention of Peter Lytle, an angel investor who helped the young entrepreneur develop his "business in a box" model.
For $52,000 to $115,000, an individual can start his or her own franchise, with all training, support, and marketing materials provided.
Now, College Nannies & Tutors has spread to five franchise locations -- four in the Twin
Cities and one in Phoenix -- with many more in the pipeline.
Lesson learned:
"As a young entrepreneur, the risk is relatively low. If you have a well-thought-out plan, don't be afraid to execute it. The risk only gets higher as you get older."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Matt Lautz
Brevient Technologies www.brevient.com
Milwaukee
Founded: 2001
Age: 23
Brevient makes software that manages every point of customer contact -- be it order entry, marketing, or tracking sales leads -- for small businesses. Lautz started the business at the tender age of 18.
It was his second company -- the first time around he couldn't find a good software program to manage his orders and customer-contact information. So he built his own. In just a little over a year, he has some 1,000 small businesses using his software. The milestone was achieved with about $1 million from friends and family.
Lesson learned:
"A business does not grow based on what the CEO does but on what the people you hire do. You need to hire talent who can do everything better than you."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Michael Lefenfeld
SiGNa Chemistry www.signachem.com
New York City
Founded: 2003
Age: 25
By taking on certain R&D work, SiGNa Chemistry helps larger chemical and pharmaceutical companies get results faster. Increasingly, big names are taking notice of the startup. SiGNa already boasts clients like Pfizer and Shell, and it's on the cusp of breaking even. More impressive: Lefenfeld funded the company himself from the beginning.
Lesson learned:
"When you're dealing in a business situation, it's helpful not to be the smartest person on your side of the table."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Matthew Miller and Jeff Watkins
Informera www.informera.com
Dallas, TX
Founded: 2004
Ages: 25 and 24, respectively
While on "the blind date from hell," Miller came up with the idea for a video screen that updates restaurant patrons on how long their wait will be.
He and Watkins, classmates at Brigham Young University, founded the company just a year ago and are now operating in 20 restaurants, with trial runs also in Outback
Steakhouse and Ruby Tuesday.
Their proprietary software lists wait times on flat-screen TVs and also features news updates, trivia, and sports scores. Informera makes its money from third-party advertising displayed on the screens, while the restaurants get a free service for customers that also helps them drive same-store sales, thanks to assorted menu items spotlighted on the screens.
Lesson learned:
"There's no substitute for determination, hard work, and a good idea."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Nancy Montano
Los Angeles Pumping
Mira Loma, Calif.
Founded: 2004
Age: 22
Nancy Montano always dreamed of having her own business -- and so did her father,
Conrad. When she graduated from University of California, Riverside, she partnered with
Dad to launch Los Angeles Pumping, a hazardous-waste transporting company.
Since then, she has returned to school and will get a certificate in hazardous materials and waste management from California State University, Northridge, in December, 2005.
The company's biggest success, says Montano, was climbing out of debt this year. The company expects revenues to reach $150,000 this year. Montano's goal: To grow this family business as big as its million-dollar competitors.
Lesson learned:
"Nothing comes easy. Many times you want to give up because you think it's not going to work and there's so much competition. But eventually you see you're starting to get something out of it, and that motivates you."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Lucas Morea
LatinEdge www.latinedge.com
Santa Monica, Calif.
Founded: 2002 (the U.S. company)
Age: 24
Twenty-four may seem like a young age to be an entrepreneur, but Morea started his company when he was just a 16-year-old boy in Argentina. Frustrated that he couldn't find online content in Spanish, he started a site called Monografias.com, where anyone could post or share content in Spanish. He started selling advertising so he could afford to add servers as the business grew.
Today, he has translated that success into a U.S.-based business, Latin Edge, which consults with U.S. companies that want to advertise on Spanish sites. His company also makes media purchases on their behalf in Latin countries. Morea is relieved that he's finally old enough to drink at business dinners.
Lesson learned:
"Do what you love to do. We spend the majority of our lifetime just working, so it doesn't make sense to do anything just for the money."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Ejovi Nuwere
SecurityLab Technologies www.securitylab.net
New York City
Founded: 2004
Age: 25
Nuwere's company provides security for the growing voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone business. He raised the startup capital by consulting, but now he focuses on developing security products for large companies looking to deploy VoIP calling to save money on telephone service.
SecurityLab's first product will be a box that a company can install on its internal network. Over time, Nuwere hopes to evolve his business into a hosted Web service. The first trial is already underway with a financial services company in New York City.
Lesson learned:
"Opportunity is everywhere, if you're only willing to see it."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Eli Portnoy
Buena Chamba www.buenachamba.com
New York City
Founded: 2005
Age: 24
A Mexican native educated at the University of Pennsylvania, Portnoy left a job as a business analyst with Deloitte Consulting to launch BuenaChamba.com, also known as
LatinoHire.com. The site aims to advertise jobs in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey.
The young entrepreneur also publishes a weekly newspaper with the ads and circulates it to churches and community centers. "As with all businesses that cater to a niche demographic, you have to take into account some limitations, and one of the more pronounced ones is a lack of Internet access, so the Web site feeds into the publication," says Portnoy.
Job ads submitted to the site in English can be automatically translated into Spanish.
Only four months old, the venture is averaging 500 to 1,500 unique visitors per day, 50 calls per job advertised, and a circulation of 30,000 for the printed version.
Lesson learned:
"If the basic concept of your business is to help people, the business will succeed."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Keith Schacht
Startup: Inventables www.inventables.com
Chicago
Founded: 2002
Age: 25
Inventables provides a resource -- a journal subscription and materials -- that help
Fortune 500 companies come up with new consumer-product ideas. The biggest indicator that things are going well for this company is the 100-strong client roster that includes
Nike, Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola, and Fisher Price.
"There are so many more companies we can help and so many other ways we can help them," says Schacht. For now, nine people work out of the startup's Chicago headquarters and a string of freelancers elsewhere identify new technology that Inventables can provide to its clients. But the company is hiring.
For Schacht, the biggest measure of success is that customers are paying for the product.
Officials from Inventables have been asked to speak at many conferences, too.
Lesson learned:
"Do something that you're passionate about. There are a lot of people who start companies about stuff that doesn't personally interest them.... It makes all the difference in the world to be doing something you're passionate about."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier
Young Entrepreneurs

Michael Schneider
Fluidesign www.fluidesign.com
Los Angeles, Calif.
Founded: 1998
Age: 24
Founded when Schneider was just 15, Fluidesign bridges the gap between the online and analog worlds -- handling Web design, search-engine optimization, and hosting as well as branding, logos, and more-traditional marketing outreach for companies small and large.
Schneider describes his growth strategy as "very organic." He has never taken on debt, which explains why the company scaled back -- rather than crashing -- during the dotcom bust.
With 12 employees and a client list that includes General Motors and Technicolor,
Schneider predicts last year's $1 million in revenue will jump 50% this year.
Lesson learned:
"The nature of entrepreneurship is that you never sit back and say, 'O.K., I can take it easy.' You're always pushing forward."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Luke Skurman
College Prowler www.collegeprowler.com
Pittsburgh
Founded: 2002
Age: 25
As a high-school student in Marin County, Calif., Luke Skurman wanted to attend college in the East but was disappointed by the lack of information available in university brochures, college guidebooks, and magazine articles.
While a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon, he launched a book-publishing venture to offer the inside scoop on everything from cafeteria ratings to fraternity parties -- all the info missing from traditional guides -- at 200 campuses around the U.S.
On the College Prowler Web site, students vote and rank schools, offering an alternative to the U.S. News & World Report lists. Consumers can also order directly from the site, which offers excerpts.
Skurman raised $130,000 in capital through four angel investors within the first two years of operation. Today, he has a team of eight full-time employees and 214 student-authors nationwide. Skurman says 2005 revenues from book sales have grown tenfold since
2004.
Lesson learned:
"I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have a solid team. It's the only way a company achieves success."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier
Young Entrepreneurs

Nathaniel Stevens
Natpal.com www.natpal.com
Philadelphia
Founded: 2004
Age: 22
Nathaniel Stevens, a Wharton undergrad, is working to utilize search portals like Yahoo!,
Google, MSN, and Superpages, to allow local businesses to connect with local consumers.
His company, Natpal.com, has a motto: "Just cause the Web is worldwide doesn't mean your client isn't next door." Companies pay the small Internet-based search-engine advertiser on a "per conversion" basis, based on how many phone calls and e-mails they receive from Stevens' efforts.
Stevens says many small companies, like hair salons and dentists, don't have the time or resources to do effective cyberspace advertising. He plans to build Natpal.com into a nationwide operation, but before he can go for a big round of seed funding, he's working to demonstrate his technique's effectiveness locally.
Lesson learned:
"To get people on board, you have to believe in your idea and have the desire to really do it. Use any resources you can find to make it happen. Take previous experiences, find what you like, and then use that experience to help others."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
A.J. Yager
Long Beach Magazine and longbeachmagazine.com www.longbeachmagazine.com
Long Beach, Calif.
Founded: 2004
Age: 24
A.J. Yager, 24, always wanted to be in the magazines business. His earlier entrepreneurial ventures were a bit of a detour -- a computer business and book publishing.
But then he fell in love with the city of Long Beach two years ago and found a way to combine his two passions. "This was a case of the right person, right place, right time," he says of Long Beach Magazine 's genesis.
The fifth-largest city in the state, Long Beach had no dedicated magazine. "I saw it was a growing market, and the research indicated that a magazine made sense," he says. His goal: to be in 12 beach cities by the end of 2007.
Lesson learned:
"The power of positive partnership. I'd always been a solo entrepreneur before, and now I have two partners. We all get so much from each other."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier

Young Entrepreneurs
Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook www.facebook.com
Palo Alto, Calif.
Founded: 2004
Age: 21
In the spring of 2004, Zuckerberg didn't know he was hatching a hot social-networking startup. He just thought Harvard should have an online directory of students. His first attempt landed him in hot water with the administration -- he ranked all students' ID photos based on attractiveness. His second try made him a Silicon Valley wheeler and dealer.
Selling banner ads to make money, the Facebook connects students with one another.
Originally, Zuckerberg fretted over the $85 a month it cost to run. Today, Facebook has raised more than $13 million from Silicon Valley names like PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Accel Partners.
Zuckerberg needn't worry about getting brushed aside in favor of seasoned management -
- the gutsy Harvard dropout negotiated a contract with investors that left him in control as long as he wants.
Lesson learned:
"Do what you think is right, not what other people tell you is right. People have strong opinions about the way to do stuff. It's really good to listen and learn from the world, but when you're making something, it's coming from you."
Read The Story: The Startup Bug Strikes Earlier