March 31 2008 / by Marisa Vitols
Category: Business & Work Year: General Rating: 9
John (17) and Patrick (19) Collison of Limerick, Ireland are the
latest in a growing number of millionaire teens. Launched just last
summer, their web software company Auctomatic.com sold for about $5
million,
reported The Irish Times. Their venture “provides web-based
software for heavy users of the eBay auction site which enables
them to manage inventory more efficiently” and was made possible
through funding from Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator.
To inform this new generation of go-getters, Greg Muller of
The Age explains that “Citizen 2.0 is today’s teenager, born in
a connected world, accustomed to rapid change and possessing unique
information-age skills. Citizen 2.0 will challenge any organisation
selling products, services or ideas in the future.”
(cont.)
ABC News recently compiled a nice
compilation of 10
Overachievers Under 21, which includes teen millionaires like
Ashley Qualls
of Whateverlife.com and George Hotz,
the kid who unlocked Apple’s iPhone last summer, and reinforces the
trend we’re seeing of young entrepreneurs.
As explained in this Future Blogger
post, kids have increasingly more access to resources and
understand new technologies often much better than their older
business counterparts.
“The biggest challenge I’ve had is my age being a big factor in
anything and everything I do,” says
Ashley. “It sometimes can be difficult to have business owners
take a 17-year-old seriously. I’m glad I’m finally legally turning
18 this year.”
As the web and technology gets more complicated, opening more
revenue opportunities to youthful trailblazers like Ashley, John
and Patrick, and at the same time evolves the capacity to better
tap and monetize the creativity of teens through MMOGs like
Spore and virtual
worlds like Second Life, it’s looking like a
safe bet that the number of teenage millionaires will continue to
rise… and maybe even explode.
Photos above courtesy of Auctomatic.com.
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