The tech media and mainstream press routinely salivate over stories of 13... 15... 17... and 19 year old whiz kid entrepreneurs.
Yet there was a time when teenagers and young adults wrote software and tinkered with hardware, sharing their creations with friends and peers, on a journey of computing discovery.
There was a time when 'Demo Day' literally meant getting a group of friends together, travelling to a new city, and showing off your coding and artistic skills. The prizes were prestige and peer recognition. http://archive.assembly.org/1992
Now, kids and teenagers are being schooled to hustle and score big money. Where is the pure joy of discovery? Something has been lost.
EDIT: Just wanted to add, it's amazing what you can do in just 4kb (4096 byte executable, no external data files). This should inspire programmers of all ages.
2012 Fireflies: http://archive.assembly.org/2012/4k-intro/fireflies-by-blobt...
2009 Muon Baryon: http://archive.assembly.org/2009/4k-intro/muon-baryon-by-you...
If you thought the real world = media coverage, you'd think there would be murders and robberies and assaults happening all around you every hour.
I found this rather creepy.
I do remember those days...and I'm very sorry about the cold call. I figured it was worth at least a shot
Really sorry if I creeped you out there. I'm just a 20 year old kid, that's trying the best he can.
Creepy is showing up unannounced and unintroduced at the front door of an actor or actress you have a crush on. I understand that you may not like to be cold called, but it is not creepy - it's the way much of business is done.
I neglected to mention that the phone call came late in the evening, and on a weekend I think.
I think people can be forgiven for misjudging their cold-calling timing and technique in their mid-teens too.
And grabbing the numbers from WHOIS itself simply shows initiative
It's a cool story but my experience reading it was diminished by the grade school sentence structure and bizarre grammar and punctuation errors. Stray commas in Forbes! Seriously now.
I guess a magazine brand probably isn't worth so much these days.
I'm not defending Forbes though. Like, eww.
This sounds very insulting to Nick and Andrew. I don't see any evidence that they're anything but earnest entrepreneurs. In the case of Nick, he succeeded (the reason is debatable), and as for Andrew, he simply hasn't succeeded (yet), but it's no reason to say he isn't genuinely trying. Older investors may be trying to take advantage of their youth, but it's not a discredit to these young people.
(Note, I will totally admit that it was written to gain attention)
href="/Users/camz/Desktop/airylabs.com"
Doing business in Bosnia might not be as good as you mentioned.
However, the company is based in US, and I'm also a US citizen.
I do hope you do very well, I just can't seem to get over the fact you had to go back to Balkans, sucks for you and your business but I do wish you all the best with your enterprise.
But don't take my comment to negatively either, if nothing food is great and people are full of humor! At least something to make you feel better ;)
What I don't understand is all the animosity towards Nick D’Aloisio. What makes him not a "real" entrepreneur? Whatever the means, he still took a company from inception to acquisition, which fits any definition of entrepreneurship.
There are lessons we can learn from Emil, and also lessons that we can learn from Nick. They've both had valuable experiences that I'm sure many of us would love to hear about.
You are mixing up "entrepreneur" with "wanting to create lasting value." A lot of what I see on HN is not the latter.
Nick is one of the youngest people (if not the youngest) to ever raise venture capital, perhaps to also sell a company for that range aswell.
He's definitely someone we should look up to. I actually find it pretty amazing, what he did. :-)
It boggles the mind that people keep clicking on either. And yet, here we are.
somewhere, an SEO just earned his wings
Not that I am accusing you of doing so, just hoping you keep in mind who was there for you in your time of need!
> Edit: Please note, that I unfortunately used a photo that was unwise due to my lack of knowledge and understanding of Bosnian history! I removed the image out of respect and I apologize! Thanks!
I didn't see the photo, could someone explain?
I initially meant it as just a photo of a guy in Sarajevo waving hello. So, I was ignorant of the sensitive nature behind the photo.
When I was informed of the issue, I took it down immediately out of respect and write the explanation.
EDIT: Not criticizing the article, I'm just confused with the language.
Unfortunately that doesn't pull the contributors up to the magazine's level as much as it pulls the magazine down to the contributors level.
For the curious/lazy, the parent comment roughly translates from Bosnian into English: "Why didn't you stay in Sarajevo?" (Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia)
By the way: I think Internet Startups could be a great chance for this region, because of the independence from infrastructure. Ok, the mentality sucks when it comes to Entrepreneurship, but I see it more as an opportunity. I think that the US has enough companies. The Balkans deserve their own Internet- hub. dreamon :D
I think that's just straight-up weird
How old are you?
I am actually quite surprised that there has been such negative reaction to my comment. When does one age beyond the "wonder years" if not by 19?
Is that a particularly bad thing to not be motivated by large cashouts, and instead by creating a company with long-term value?
You can get rich by buying up real estate and charging rent. All you did is sign paper and make money. "Charging rent" isn't a service. "Allowing you to live in property I purchased." isn't really providing value either.
"Building a house and selling it to a family." <=== that's creating value.
If you find yourself back in Austin, drop me a note. I'll buy the first round of coffee to hear about how things are going. :)
I'll be in Austin in 2 weeks. There's no way I'm letting you buy a first round of coffee. Rakija's on me.
Would you mind emailing me at emil@helpjuice.com ? I'd love to connect with you.
The media are part of the hype machine but they aren't responsible for investing in companies like Summly, holding demo days, running weekend hackathons, acqui-hiring or bringing on board token celebrity investors... are they?
But I can't judge as I haven't been closely following the story. Is there any general consensus on the funding as a good or bad idea?
For the record I really like their promo video. It shows off the product with a bit of witty comedy. I just couldn't find myself using it, and I don't know how it'll fit into Yahoo, but definitely a fun app.
I find nothing wrong with hacakathons and acquihires, personally. As for celebrity investors, if a social media startup feels they need that kind of marketing / media attention, good for them.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5442290