Monday, October 13, 2014
We all know that some entrepreneurs get rich quick, but still others do it even while they're young. Quite a few of them are making their first million before they're even of legal drinking age. While most teens spend their youth honing work skills in entry-level jobs, whether that's slinging fast food or working retail, others get that spark to succeed at an early age. There's no shortage of useful advice out there to help even the very young make strong business decisions. There is also no minimum age to become a millionaire, as these "kids" know first hand. From playing the stock market to starting up their own company, check out these 50 teens who made millions before turning 20.
It's hard not to feel a bit competitive after reading about all these young entrepreneurs. However, try and take away at least this one important lesson from the list. It's never too late--or early--to chase your dreams. Anything can happen with a great idea, hard work and creativity. These teens are living proof.
1. Ashley Qualls
The founder of WhateverLife.com got her ingenious idea back in 2004 when she was just 14. Meant to showcase her design skills, when she started doling out freebie MySpace layouts, that's when the site really took off. An anonymous buyer offered her $1.5 million and the car of her choice, but she declined.
2. Julieth Brindak
She began creating sketched characters at age 10, then developed a complementary social media platform at age 16. Her "Miss O & Friends" company is now worth an estimated $15 million, though she gets most of her revenue from ad revenue.
3. Sean Belnick
With just $600, Belnik started an e-tail shop at age 16, beginning with small items like trading cards. He then moved on to furniture, founding BizChair.com and proving a knack for the market. By the time he was 20, he was worth $24 million.
4. Adam Horwitz
Adam Horwitz
When he was just 15, Horowitz challenged himself to make his first million by his 21st birthday. He's the developer of Mobile Monopoly, which is a tutorial for learning mobile marketing. He reached his goal and earns an anonymous "six-figure income."
5. Jon Koon
Koon was only 16 when he kickstarted New York's inaugural auto parts business, Extreme Performance Motorsports. He scored a deal with MTV providing products for reality shows, then used his connection to team up with Young Jeezy for a fashion line. He's already worth $40 million and by all estimates will soon be a billionaire.
6. Cameron Johnson
By the time he was 11, Johnson's knack for creating greeting cards has earned him thousands and leverage to start his own business. SurfingPrizes.com was his investment strategy, which is a toolbar service that rakes in about $350,000 per month. When he was a high school senior, he was worth at least one million.
7. David and Catherine Cook
This brother and sister team got rich by creating MyYearbook.com, which remains a player in the social media realm. Their older brother invested $250,000 in their digital yearbook idea, and today the site is worth about $100 million.
8. Nick D'Aloisio
At 17, this entrepreneur had designed an app worth $30 million according to Yahoo. He started coding at 12, which led to the development of a news app. He credits an eye for spotting market disparities as his catalyst.
9. Tyler Dikman
By eighth grade, Dikman was charging $15 per hour to fix computers. His skills caught the eye of Merrill Lynch executives, then he was hired by Taaffe at age 15. He soon started his own business, Cooltronics, repairing computers--making millions and scoring him a spot on Businessweek's Top 25 Under 25 list.
10. Fraser Doherty
Only 14 when this Scottish entrepreneur began making homemade jams via his grandmother's recipe, his SuperJam business was booming by the time he turned 16. When a major UK supermarket asked to stock his products, he took out a $9,000 loan and became a millionaire. His recipe books can also be found on Amazon.
11. Captain Sparklez
This pro gamer began his career by posting how-to videos on YouTube, then expanded into a channel offering detailed gaming instruction. One of the highest earning YouTubers today, he's worth over $8 million.
12. Mark Zuckerberg
Many people forget that when Facebook's founder started swimming in wealth, he was a young college student. Almost everyone knows the story of Facebook, and he's now one of the wealthiest people in the world at around $20 billion, regardless of age.
13. Michael Dunlop
Michael Dunlop
This high school student dropped out after his dyslexia had teachers telling him he'd never be successful. He founded Incomediary.com, which today boasts a 12,000 rating on Alexa and earns him a hefty six-figure income. While his blogs aren't flawless grammatically, his business advice is spot on.
14. Andrew Fashion
Andrew Fashion
Not all teenage millionaire stories have happy endings. Fashion designed mini rocket launchers, was worth over $2 million by the time he was 20, then blew it all on women and gambling by the time he turned 22.
15. John Magennis
Starting a web design business at 14, Magennis is totally self-taught. He started by charging just $15 per site, but today can demand upwards of $30,000 per site. He earned his first million by his sixteenth birthday.
16. Tim Sykes
The famous and young stock investor used his bar mitzvah cash for his first investment. He started with penny stocks and was worth over $1.5 million by his 21stbirthday. Today he's also an inspirational speaker and teachers others how to get rich with penny trading.
17. Maddie Bradshaw
Featured on "Shark Tank," Bradshaw (along with her younger sister and mom) started by designing locker decorations via soda bottle tops because she couldn't find anything similar she liked on the market. She earned $1.6 million in her first year, and by the time she was 16 she lured an astonishing three "sharks" as investors and partners.
18. Kiowa Kavovit
The youngest entrepreneur on "Shark Tank" to date, she was just six years old when she pitched Boo Boo Goo to the sharks. Scoring a $100,000 investment, this tiny and newly minted (in 2014) millionaire slings a paint-on bandage designed for kids--of course.
19. Diane Keng
This 18-year-old entrepreneur is working on her third business, but first hit paydirt with MyWEBoo, which helps teens manage their online reputations. She's also founded a t-shirt company and a business that helps companies market to teens.
20. Chris Phillips
Phillips at 17 was already the founder of dot5hosting, making his first million by offering web hosting and domain name registration. At 19, the British techie was making 10 million every single year with no sign of slowing down.
21. Farrah Gray
What began as a gig selling body lotion at age six became founding a business at the age of 13. Gray is the owner of Farr-Out Food, raking in orders worth $1.5 million by the time he turned 14.
22. Brian Wong
In charge of Digg's business development strategy at just 19 years old, Wong has since headed up Kiip--a leading mobile rewards company. Already he's earned $15 million in a capital investment campaign alone for Kiip, which is said to be a game changer.
23. Madison Robinson
A 15-year-old Robinson created Fish Flops, originally only selling flip flops with teen-centric designs. She soon branched out to include other apparel and even a complementary app. Earning $1 million in sales before she could drive, she epitomizes "entrepreneur."
24. Justin Bieber
The only "celebrity" to grace this list, Bieber's success is worth noting because of his humble YouTube beginnings. Although media coverage suggests otherwise, he's actually proven himself to be a pretty savvy entrepreneur, branching out into apparel, fragrances and the like to capitalize on his A-list status.
25. Elise MacMillan
The 14-year-old teamed up with her grandmother to make candy ever since she was a toddler. Now at age 17, she works with her brother in a commercial chocolatier and founded The Chocolate Farm. She's earned top spots on lists by Ernst & Young and several other accolades.
26. Athina Onassis Roussel
While there are many millionaire heir and heiresses in the world, Roussel is worth noting because she's one of the richest, and comes from a particularly well-known lineage. She is the only surviving descendant of Aristotle Onassis, who was once famously married to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
27. Robert Nay
A self-taught coder, when Nay was just 14 he drummed up 4,000 lines of code to create the Bubble Ball game. He made it free to download on Apple and in two weeks more than one million people had downloaded it. He earned $2 million in those two weeks.
28. Julianne Goldmark and Emily Matson
This duo created hair ties, getting inspiration in eighth grade when they envied celebrity high-end ties but couldn't afford them. By their senior year of high school, the friends cashed in on one of their mom's connections with Jennifer Anniston and now make about $10 million per year.
29. Connor Zwick
He started toying with Javascript in middle school, and by 19 was making some of the most in-demand tutorials in the industry. The builder of the Flashcards+ app, Zwick eventually dropped out of Harvard to study under PayPal's founder.
30. Scott and Stacey Ferreira
The brother-sister duo launched MySocialCloud.com when Scott was in college and Stacey was still in high school. However, their entrepreneurial spirit was sparked as young children watching their father work at IBM and Google. A $1 million investment for the cloud-driven social media platform has already been secured.
31. Dominic McVey
When this Londoner was 13, he started importing scooters from the US (much cheaper given the dollar to pound ratio) then selling them locally. He was a millionaire by the time he turned 15. He happened into a partnership with Viza when he was Googling "Visa" and now is worth around $10 million.
32. Gary Martin
This Irish early entrepreneur began running his own nightclub at the tender age of 15 (the drinking ages in the UK are vastly lower than the US). By the time he was 17, he moved onto property management. By 18, he was worth $20 million and counting.
33. Michael Furdyk
He founded TakingITGlobal at 17, and now Furdyk spends his time growing his business in over 200 countries. He's also a public speaker, consultant, and a regular guest on some of the most popular talk shows in the country.
34. Abbey Fleck
The inventor of "Makin' Bacon" designed the first microwave bacon cooking technology when she was just eight. A favorite on the infomercial circuit, she's been featured on numerous talk shows.
35. Mike McDonald
This Canadian with a knack for gambling started toying with online poker at the age of 15. He was feeling pressured to get a job by his parents, but didn't want to do the usual teen gig. He was a millionaire as a teen and today is worth over $5 million.
36. Carl Churchill
The British entrepreneur started his first web design business at age 12. Today he's worth around $10 million, but made his first at the age of 19. Dubbed the British Bill Gates, he's also a philanthropist and venture capitalist.
37. Andrew Gower
Another teen millionaire from across the pond, Gower is a game developer and founder of Jagex Game Studio. He started developing at age eight. He's now the 46th richest entrepreneur in the UK and is now worth almost $200 million, even though he made his first windfall as a teen.
38. Patrick Collison
Another Irish teen millionaire, Collison began winning numerous young scientist prizes at the age of 14. He founded "Shuppa" with his brother, moved to California, and made his first million by the time he was 19--bringing his brother along with him for the lucrative ride.
39. James Murray Wells
When the young college student in Britain realized there wasn't an online e-tailer for eyeglasses, he quickly filled that need. Using his student loans as capital, he earned $4 million his first year in what he called a "recession-proof business."
40. Matt Wegrzyn
Buying and selling domain names is what made this entrepreneur so wealthy. Starting at the age of 17, some of his best deals go for six-figures.
