16 Young And Successful Entrepreneurs Who Prove That Age Is Nothing but a Number

Self-employment has been blossoming over the past decade. In this age of internet and technology, people are now more confident to try and sell their ideas and hit the road to success. With even the basic skills like knowing how to create a website^[1] or marketing products online, people can reach out to the world and showcase their talent.

A study conducted in the year 2015 revealed that about 14% of the total working population in the U.S. was into running a business of their own and we all know that the numbers have been growing since then.

Each day while we drive, when we shower or go through a boring lecture, our minds come up with some of the most intriguing ideas that can potentially become big business plans, but we tend to ignore them as we are never looking to make anything out of it. Our brains are idea machines, but only a few of us go ahead to make these ideas big.

One of the most common complaints of the people who bloom late and succeed in the later ages of their lives is that they didn’t dare enough to sell their ideas sooner. Ironically, one of the most common excuses among the youth is that they are not old enough to start their own business. It is never too early or late to become successful in your life. You can begin the journey to becoming an achiever at any age, and the young entrepreneurs in the list below will just prove this to you.

1. Mark Zuckerberg: Founder of Facebook

Of course, Mark Zuckerberg must be on the top of this list. Facebook speaks for all the success the man has achieved by launching it when he was only 19 years old. Within few years of its launch, Facebook became one of the most used social media platforms across the world. Today, Facebook continues to grow and employ thousands of people. An inspiration to a countless number of people, Zuckerberg ^[2] is estimated to be worth 61.7 billion USD today and continues to progress as an entrepreneur.

2. Matthew Mullenweg: Founder of the WordPress

In the year 2005, Matthew founded the company Automattic which later proved instrumental in the creation of the WordPress before he was even twenty. WordPress is one of the leading Content Management Systems out there in the market making it the most used platform for blogging. Who would have thought that a college dropout will take the world by the storm with a simple idea of hosting a blogging platform? The net worth of Matthew Mullenweg today is 40 Million USD.

3. Catherine Cook: Creator of MyYearBook.com

At the age of 15, when people are learning how to write an essay properly^[3] for their college applications, Catherine and her brother Dave came up with an idea of digitizing high school yearbooks and putting it online. With the investments of their elder brother, Geoff Cook, Catherine and Dave went on to launch MyYearbook.com which became famous in no time. Catherine and Dave became one of the youngest millionaires around in the prime days of the MyYearbook.

4. David Karp: Founder of Tumblr

The year 2007 saw the onset of Tumblr. The micro-blogging website which is now owned by Yahoo was founded by David Karp after he turned 21 years old, whose net worth now is $200 million. Even after all these years of its launch and facing some serious competition from other websites, Tumblr stands its position among the social media platforms.

5. Varun Agarwal: Author of How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded a Million Dollar Company

The author of the book, ‘How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded a Million Dollar Company,’ Varun Agarwal is also an entrepreneur and a film-maker. Coming from a time in India where parents would force their kids to become future engineers and doctors, Varun also went through the painful drag of completing his engineering. Despite the pressure of the parents and society to follow the crowd and get a job, Varun came up with an idea of selling school merchandise throughout the country and ended up featuring among the top entrepreneurs in the nation. Varun has also worked as a film-maker with the Oscar winner A.R. Rehman at the age of 21 years only.

6. Pete Cashmore: CEO of Mashable

The CEO and founder of the top blog Mashable, Pete Cashmore has a net worth of $95 million. The website was found in the year 2005 when Pete was 20 Years old and is popular among people for all the daily news and gossips related to the entertainment world. The popularity of the company can be seen by the 8.82 Million followers of its Twitter account.

7. Jon Wheatley: Creator of the DailyBooth

At the age of 22, Jon Wheatley introduced a photo blogging website called the DailyBooth to the internet world in the year 2009. The site allowed the users to upload their everyday pictures and use captions with them. The simple idea of sharing snaps along with a clean user interface of the website made it famous, and Jon was soon worth a net worth of $1 million.

8. Blake Ross: Creator of Mozilla Firefox

You might not know him by the name, but you surely know him by his work, Mozilla Firefox. At a time when people used to stick with the stock browser of their Operating Systems or go for Google Chrome, Firefox made its client-base with its dedicated users. Firefox is now among the preferred web browsers across different platforms like Windows, Linux, and Android. Firefox was launched when Blake was only 19 years old.

9. Richard Ludlow: Founder of Academic Earth

Richard Ludlow saw the potential of the internet becoming a learning place, and he managed to achieve it through his website called Acedemicearth.org. The non-profit website aimed at bringing quality education among students and that too free of cost. He rejected an offer of a full-time job and admission in an MBA course to come up with the idea of Academic Earth at the age of 22. Richard certainly proved that entrepreneurship is not all about the money and some good cause too.

10. Fraser Doherty: Founder of the Super Jam

Fraser Doherty is another brilliant entrepreneur who went on to become a millionaire starting to work at the age of 14. Using his skill of making Jam, that he learned from his grandmother, Fraser started selling his self-made Jam to the Waitrose stores as a teenager. He named his company as the Super Jam and is currently a net worth of 2 million dollars.

11. Sean Belnick: Founder of Bizchair

Sean Belnick started selling furniture on his website bizchair.com when he was 14. Since the year it was set up (2004), the company’s sales went on to grow and were generating a revenue of more than 40 million USD at a point in time.

12. Joshua Dziabiak: Founder of Media Catch

Born in the year 1987, Joshua made his first million at the age of 18 when he sold his first company Media Catch. He later went on to find few more companies including ShowClix and the Zebra. The current estimated worth of Joshua is said to be more than 9 million USD.

13. Ryan Block: Product Manager of Engadget

With an estimated $30 million worth, Ryan Block is among the most wanted tech experts around. Ryan was an ex-editor of Engadget and became popular when he found a tech community site gdgt when he was 26. He returned to his previous workplace Engadget and worked as the product manager for few years after it.

14. Aaron Levie: Co-founder of Box

At the age of 19, Aaron came up with an idea of providing file storage spaces online to different businesses. He later co-founded the company- Box which is now a premium file storage and content management service for businesses hubs. In the year 2015, Aaron had a worth more than 90 million USD.

15. Alexander Levin: Co-founder of ImageShack

Levin is the co-founder of the world’s largest image hosting website- the ImageShack, which was launched when he was 19. With a net worth of more than 50 million USD, Alexander makes it to our list of the top young and successful entrepreneurs. ImageShack today stands firm among all the image hosting services and has not lost its popularity over the years.

16. Justin Bieber: Singer and Performer

Coming into the music industry from the popularity of the YouTube, Justin Bieber managed to catch the eyes of the world with his talent when he was 15. Bieber became a worldwide sensation at a very young age, and you can find him among the singers in the top music charts almost every time. Capitalizing on this popularity, Bieber has used his earned money into investing in some startups like ‘Shots of Me'^[4] and has a nail polish line of his own called ‘The One Less Lonely Girl.’ The net worth of Justin Bieber last year was $200 Million.

You can succeed too, you really just have to begin to do something.

At a time when the usage of internet and social media is at its peak, it is probably the best of times to be an entrepreneur as it is easier to reach out to the world. Businesses for services like VPN Kodi VPN, TunnelBear etc., SEOs and E-Commerce are budding like never before. People are coming up with all sorts of ideas into the market, and we never know what idea might go on to become a trend. It seems everyone has a business idea.

The entrepreneurs in our list had the vision in them to make these ideas succeed. Do you have it in you?