Teenage entrepreneurs aren’t a new phenomenon in the valley – 17 year old Kristopher Tate founded Zooomr back in 2006, and Jessica Mah could call herself a serial entrepreneur by age 17. But it’s still pretty rare to see a startup founder get dropped off for work by his mother.
At our August Capital event last week, I met 15 year old Daniel Brusilovsky for the first time. While I had come across a few videos on the web detailing this young man’s enthusiasm and eagerness to succeed in the tech space, I was still taken aback by just how bright the kid is. He seems to know everyone, and a quick glance at his Twitter account shows he gets around too, with recent visits to Twitter, Apple, and the TechCrunch ranch – all without a drivers’ license.
Today Daniel is launching his first startup. The site is Teens In Tech, a community for teenagers interested in producing and sharing new media content in a safe environment. The site launches today in a very limited private alpha, with plans to expand to a public beta by the end of the year.
Brusilovsky says that while there are a number of sites that allow teens to post their content, they don’t make it easy for users to get started. To try to remedy this, Teens In Tech has a simple 3-step signup process, after which users will be given their own subdomain, WordPress blog, and 100MB of storage (the last figure can be easily changed depending on user needs). Users are also given access to a Teens in Tech forum, where they can go to ask questions about new media, or anything else they may have on their mind.
From a technical standpoint Teens In Tech will be fighting an uphill battle. The site is using Dreamhost, a cheap service that most companies wouldn’t go near with a ten foot stick, as its storage provider. And to be perfectly honest, it doesn’t seem like there’s much new code behind Teens in Tech – the backend is a mostly standard Wordpress multi-user install, similar to what runs on the commercial Wordpress.com site. Brusilovsky says that his team has made some adjustments and that the front page will display dynamic member updates, but for the most part, it seems like a few experienced developers could replicate the site in a week or less.
That said, Teens In Tech may appeal to a niche community of tweens and teens who aren’t satisfied by the plethora of other blogging services already available. Brusilovsky has amassed an impressive list of supporters, with a board of advisers that includes Robert Scoble and Loic Le Meur. And the site is still relatively early in development – given enough resources, I wouldn’t be surprised if Daniel manages to pull this thing off.
We’re currently switching our servers over to MediaTemple. We appreciate all the attention you’ve given us — thanks a bunch!
Wish I started doing anything like this at 15. My hat is certainly off to you Daniel. Whether people like it or not or whether it succeeds or fails, you got TC to do a story on you. Thats a great accomplishment. There will be naysayers in everything you do but keep pushing and cutting your teeth and learn some lessons the hard way. Its good for you. By the time you’re the age of most of the audience here, you will have far surpassed any of there success.
I know a 10 year old hacker in San Francisco who all the engadget attendees know, and who reads this blog. I’ll ping you as soon as he builds his first company (which I suspect will be soon knowing this kid)
If anything, this article highlights that trolls come out of the woodwork when “teen” and “tech” are mentioned.
I’m impressed they have IRC mentioned on the website.
Hopefully they can come up with a way to harness minds not quite so jaded…
Site loads slow as hell. This kid has ideas, not a skillset. I’m not going to throw my respect towards him just because he is 15.
I was one of those, like the Daniel – the 15 year old kid in the article – who had BIG, big dreams when I was at that age. Hence, Daniel, nice step you took to start things up, and kudos on getting so much press about it.
But, what I want to say is that – true, you’ve got your PR/marketing hype now going, and yes, the whole world knows you’re 15, so take a BIG step next, and plan what to do with this (un)wanted hype.
Sean: You’re the Director of Marketing here, your responsibility would be to ride on this hype, and get yourself invited everywhere, and do *SOMETHING* to make this whole hype worthwhile, or it’s gonna get buried under zillions of other pages. Get your ass off to the drawing board and PLAN something useful instead of defending yourself here. Take a firm stand, and sarcasm is NOT something you should use against people, not in a positive “press”/blog release, whatsoever. Learn to handle people better.
Next, like everyone else, I’m going to take the other stance, and bash your dreams up a little:
Oh, so you’re offering a ready-packed site, with 100MB and all, for teens who’re interested in tech stuff, and can upload files. Cool – for the complete noob who doesn’t know where to start, perhaps. But definitely NOT for a teen who loves tech.
It’s really easy to google “free 100mb web hosting”, or say, “free blog hosting”, and to be honest, my 13 year old younger brother has his own domain name, and runs a chain of online stores. Nothing to see here, really, move along – it’s all about the PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION. Again, please refer to Marketing 101.
There are many other people who have accomplished much more at, or rather, BY that age. At 15, I made my first $50k, pretty much paid for everything (6 laptops, if I recall), built several successful (but regretfully, underground/scene) communities, and could code in many, many languages. By definition, success does not rely on hype – it relies on usability.
I dare you, pull something bigger than this next time, think out of the box, use your age as a leverage, but your age is not the key selling point.
Oh and yes, are you legal for booze? *winks*
They say it takes a couple of crash and burns to get it right. Keeping the right attitude seems to be the plan. So just save this post and bronze it after you flip your first startup for a million or two
I agree with those praising this effort.
I could probably find something to criticize but it would be pointless for the following reasons:
1. Regardless of what it’s built on, it looks very professional. It is heads and tails above the end result produced by some big name entrepreneurs (Guy Kawasaki anyone?) who’ve been featured on TC before.
2. Criticizing his connections as the only reason he got posted is sour grapes. What he’s not supposed to use his connections? That’s why you’re still complaining and he’s building a business.
3. The experience alone is worth it – whether it succeeds or not. He has a much higher chance of succeeding in the future because of this effort.
From Teddy Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Stupid and lame imo.
I agree with Kelvin wholeheartedly. You have an idea here, now you need a methodology and a plan to ride this wave. You need more P.R. — make consistent with your *branding* and *messaging*. If you do not have a proper *brand* or *message* thought up, think it up now. You’ll need it.
There is no need to respond to each and everyone of these people. It is not proving anything.
Go and prove yourself by the work you do via your own means. That is what you are supposed to be doing (see your title). Start planning events, webcasts, recordings of your products, planning your companies direction for the next quarter — year even. That’s what needs to be going on right now. Perhaps even drafting a “response to Dreamhost” to post publicly on your website. Now that’s your job. These comments will see to themselves — they do not take your individual responses to each and every one.
Now — as was already also mentioned, smart teens who know how to code will already have a host, a Virtual Server or hell — even a dedicated server (or a friend with dedicated space) for their shell or project. Why just give them 100MB? You need to give them much more than that. You need to provide much more than just that…
Trust me, teens out there that are “smart with coding abilities,” which you are inferring you are catering to; HOWEVER, your site does not appear to cater to them at all. They will not stick around for long before actually going to a real coding site that caters to their skills. You want to cater to the “tech-y teen crowd.” So figure out ways to do so. That’s going to be a challenge.
Also, what happens when the “teen” is no longer a teen anymore? 20 is not far away for most of you involved in the company. Or for those that even join at 17 or 18. Also, be thinking about those that ARE indeed 17 or 18 that join — those are a totally different social community than the 13 year olds and 15 year olds in the community. You will want to tend to them differently.
Go to it. Use your mind and start brainstorming — you’ll want to have ideas down and be able to be proactive — it’s a lot better to be READY or to be PROACTIVE rather than REACTIVE.
C
The only reason this is getting any coverage is because of the age of this kid, and his apparent reliance on the giants of the tech industry.
Launching a web app at that age is no big feat; half the kids at my school are developing. Plus, it doesn’t even seem that this kid did any of the actual development. He’s got a team bigger than 90% of the tech start ups out there without actually having a user base, or a unique product.
My guess is, this is going no where fast, and will crash a burn. The niche has been filled a million times! Plus, being a teen myself, I can’t identify one person who would seek a ’safe environment’ to blog and swap ideas.
But, there is a shred of good in this in this storm. This post has motivated me to out do this kid by the time I’m his age–which should be totally possible considering he actually isn’t talented.
Congrats, Daniel, on your launch. I applaud your effort and that you’re actually doing something about making your dream happen. I would like to focus on the positive direction you are going and not knock him down or discount his efforts. The idea that he has a vision and is taking steps to realize his dream are no small feat. How many of us have said we wanted to do something but haven’t even taken one step to making that something happen?
The fact that Daniel has also shown his stick-to-it-iveness in producing his Apple Universe podcast is also amazing. Many podcasters fade out, losing interest.
I would like to offer my encouragement to you as a growing, contributing member of society. No. Teens In Tech, on its face, may not be life changing for most of us, but it could be life changing for Daniel or even one other person who he reaches with his show of determination.
Kudos, Daniel.
I just don’t understand why most of the comments here are negative. I mean I understand that the “idea” may not be that unique, the platform “wordpress” may not be awesome, but the unique thing is how those guys are thinking. They are trying to do something, it doesn’t matter if that thing is simple or not. They are trying to build a community of like minded people and in my humble opinion thats great. They are not trying to rival Facebook or Myspace, they just want to have fun doing it.
I’m 20 and I don’t thin that I’m a teen anymore, but I have to say that what you are doing is impressive guys. Just keep it up and don’t let anyone put you down.
“I’m 20 and I don’t thin that I’m a teen anymore”.
You don’t have to think. The word twenty does not end with a ‘teen’.
I wonder, actually, if there is an inherent contradiction in this product. The foremost concern in creating a service for those under 18 is protecting them under the law. It may be “discrimination against the under-18″ but it is also the law that minors cannot enter into contracts and be held accountable for their commitments. I wonder if this very status prevents the operators of T-i-T from truly promising delivering a safe and secure platform?
Put another way: if you were going to entrust your teen to interact with an online service, wouldn’t you want it to be run by someone accountable enough to go to jail? Honestly running a service for teens is not a cake-walk enterprise for anyone and I would probably suggest something else for the plucky teens out there who want to get something off the ground. Go stir up an Adwords trap or two.
Anyway, I have to agree this story is underwhelming. If some minors accomplished something anyone could have done that’s objectively interesting, that would be great. But the main angle on this project is that it’s a bunch of minors capitalizing on THE FACT THAT THEY’RE MINORS. Just being under 18 isn’t a business model.
Oh, and Sean, free advice: stop moderating the thread so closely. It makes you look controlling and defensive.
Daniel is a great entrepreneur. Those bashing are usually seating on a sofa and making stupid comments.
Yes it’s not all about technology but also human relations. And Daniel beats everyone his age on this subject.
I wish Daniel and his team best of luck. Teens in Tech rocks!!
No he doesn’t. I know for a fact that other teens could do “human relations” if they lived in Silicon Valley. It isn’t exactly easy to get ahold of Michael Arrington (or other huge tech personalities) when you aren’t meeting them in person. Especially if you’re a teen.
When I was 8 yrs old, I knew the ARJ command giving out floppy copies of Commander Keen!! WOOHOO TO ME! , I want an article too!
Hahaha…
so the site is giving internal 500 error message already?
Awesome idea, I already planned on starting something like this a few years ago but never was able to find a viable business model. Apart from being a good samaritan what do you intend to gain with TITech ?
Also why emphasize the age difference, when most teenage entrepeneurs struggle to have people look at them as if there is none ?
Good luck! The website and concept needs some work, but I’m happy for the teens that now have, what I never could
.
Edo – 19 ( Still a teen damnit ! )
Let the kid have his chance…
All the people here who had something negative to say are probably the ones who never amounted to anything and are working for SOMEONE… and probably always will.
The kid’s only 15. I say, Good for him. To his detractors above, I say, enjoy the nowheresville cube job. While you still have it.
headline should read: 15 year old entrepreneur launches teens in tech – will never get laid.
Once again Superstar Rajinikanth has cleared that he did not seek apology from anyone in Karnataka for his ‘behaviour’ and statements over the Hogenakkal water project issue.
In a function arranged to distribute cash aids to the workers of his recently released Kuselan, Rajini clearly said, “Some of the people here mislead the people that I had conveyed my apology to Kannada people and some Kannada organisations. It is completely a false one. I just (only) explained what i mean by the speech that I delivered during in that fast. But I have learnt a lot from that incident. It taught me how to speak on such occasions.
There was no intention to hurt Kannadigas in my speech. I condemned those who caused the brutal violence against Tamilians
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damaging public property in Karnataka and the border of Tamil Nadu. I didn’t say anything wrong in my speech. I just explained exactly what I meant in that speech to the people on Karnataka and requested them to help make possible the release of Kuselan in Karnataka.”
K Balachander, the mentor of Rajini and producer of Kuselan ,said that there was no necessity for Rajini to seek an apology from the people of Karnataka. “Most of the people and film personalities have understood his position. That is enough,” he says
http://entertai...aka-040808.html
Not for anything but I was 14-15 when I started my first company and fought with GoDaddy.com to use a free domain reg. promo I found on a Pepsi cap, took me 2 hours but we finally got a domain and online presence free of charge. Free hosting sucks, regardless you need to find a better paid host then Dreamhost, you can do it its not that hard. http://webhostingtalk.com go find one, it will save you a lot of BS in the long run.
I’m 17 and have a stable job, money is not an issue but if I knew more back then don’t use free hosting it blows. Also YES WE CAN DUPLICATE YOUR SITE WITHIN AN HOUR – the exact theme no, but you know what I mean. Dynamic Drive, Wordpress MU, whatever forum your running its not that hard guys. Why you were mentioned on here is out of my range, but seriously I can create something too. Yeah it takes time to find users but still anybody can do that, I NEVER HEARD OF YOU, until TechCruch posted this stuff.
And ditch the corporate titles you guys barley have your balls so why take a big fancy title. If you want to really stand out and be successful you need to diversify and be original, not offer stuff anybody can.
21 year old launches Streetread?
http://www.streetread.com
Haha, can I get a mention??
This is a fucking joke. I wouldnt be at all surprised if “Sean” and “Daniel” are the same person. The fact “revenue” has not even been sorted out yet just goes to show how much of a joke this is. This is just a few kids trying to hit it big with a glorified wordpress install without any sort of business plan whatsoever. If this was digg, id bury it.
*I’M BIAS… I used to work for Teens in Tech*
I wish nothing but the best for Teens in Tech, and applaud Daniel and his team (particularly Sean for dealing with all this Spam!). Good luck, guys!
The site is down… Its showing following message:
“We are moving servers. The site should be up by tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.”
My favorite thing about this post is how TechCrunch is posting lots of other stuff today trying to push it off the frontpage. I do that too, when I write a post on my own blog and then regret it an hour later.
Easier thing to do is just write a bunch of other stuff and bury it.
One more post guys and it’ll slide back to the second page!
That’s pretty impressive! In our place (Philippines), some of our 15 years old teens were very unfortunate that they never ever seen the internet. How lucky his parents are. Me I’m still planning and at my age I’m too old for this stuff.
This fourteen year old will stick with his WordPress blog, hosted on shared hosting (soon to be VPS), with 400mb of space, thank you very much
I met Daniel at the August Capital Event recently- he seemed cool and obviously has the 17 yr old charm going for him. i think this niche website is smart. there is a need for teens and youth to have their own portal that’s run by someone their own age. why not? and if he has the connections to make it happen- get over it! it’s survival of the fittest in life and the tech industry.
The site now isn’t available. In Italy there is a young entrepreneur (17-18yo) that with his blog open a personal business and now he have a company that work on Youbid.it and on some editorial project as a channel on Virgilio.it (one of the famous italian portal). His name is Salvatore Aranzulla: http://www.salv...e-aranzulla.com
sean, if i were you, i’d take bemused’s advice. you don’t have to respond to every critique (or supporting posts, for that matter). the trick is to know when to answer, and when to hold back, and most of the time holding back is a pretty good option. as it is, you have enough buzz already
I think a lot of you are missing the point here – the kid is 15 years of age, and he’s already showing his entrepreneurial skills, targeting the web as an area of growth, and whilst some may deem his age to be a PR stunt in itself – can I ask what you were all doing at the age of 15? Or even 25?
Good luck Daniel, and let’s hope you don’t come across many more idiots like those who commented above me.
Katherine,
That is not a very fair question. The internet was a very different place 8 years ago (when i was 15). Today the opportunities for startups are alot more vast then they were back then due to major advances in software/hardware and networking
praise the Lord! Sean finally stopped replying to each and every comment!
Bah. When I was 15, I already broke commercial software copy protections on the c64 that gave everyone else, including full grown-up programmers, a headache. If I made such a crap, I’d be ashamed of myself back then.
The truth is that TIT isn’t especially creative and is essentially a collection of web 2.0 cliches (FAIL, anyone?). It’s a niche social-network, with very little original code, and zero new functionality to differentiate it from any other community. Additionally, it has no revenue model.
What is extraordinary is the fact that the kid is 15 and he’s able to make these connections and generate this type of coverage for what is (and I’m sure he’d admit this) a subpar product. The truth is that no matter what all you hackers out there think, the people that win in this startup game are the Daniels, not the atrophied compu-nerds with no social skills. Keep your head up, kid.
-An 18 year-old living 3000 miles from Silicon Valley.
that is some interesting well connected type of kid.
15 and already with his won startup that is impressive, makes us the other people look bad
There must be a serious vacuum of good, interesting things for TC to report if this is what made it into my mailbox.
I think being creative from a young age is fantastic, and I definitely hold no bad feelings towards the TiT team for getting this coverage, but I must question the TC team’s judgement for ever allowing this to be sent out to a large audience of people who have so far taken them seriously.
I like that boy
http://onlinelar.blogspot.com
I’m unable to access the site.
I’m 17 at the moment and I’m planning on getting my associates degree in web development soon. I’ve worked in website development since age 15. I was an intern at my current place of employment.
Frankly, we all have to start somewhere. A small community for teenage developers is a good idea. It gives the younger generations a place to start from. By reading some of these comments – it’s a good thing teens are rebellious – I’d hate to have friends who followed the examples some of you old bastards have set for us. Shame on you. At least offer constructive criticism.
Comments telling teeny boppers how much they suck, instead of what they could improve doesn’t help anyone.
Frankly, the fact that you old geezers probably have children disgusts me. Hopefully you’ve at least given them the decency of not knowing where the hell they are today so they don’t have to be ashamed of you.
You old guys need to grow up and stop acting so immature.
-Chad
I introduced him to two VCs a month ago after I met him at a start-up camp. Yeah, I pick up cell #s of entrepreneurs at events cuz I am HUGE talent detector. Anyway, he got meetings booked through my intros…
Fast forward to the week of the TechCrunch Post Party, I was leaving him voicemail like I was a credit collector. Why?! He’s always complaining he can’t go to events. I booked a suite for him to host a video game under 21 room… this story has an unhappy ending cuz Daniel Bru got all hollywood on me and wouldn’t call me back (and my suite was video gameless). True story.
… and “Yes” you trolls… I leave great voicemails that close deals http://gigaom.c...-via-voicemail/
Teens in tech was supposed to come back today on their new server, but they haven’t yet. They have their little splash page up (still) that takes forever to load.
What’s better? The splash page is full of invalid code! Take a look.
I think it’s outstanding that younger folks are getting involved in the web and creating a niche for themselves in the business world.
Having said that, invoking Jessica and Kris doesn’t make sense here. They have a track record of success and have project and products to show for it.
This was WAY WAY too early to write about this group.
Hello,
I have listened to a couple of Daniel’s podcasts and watched a couple of his videos. None of this is clear to me.
He mentions in a lot of his videos that he gets ‘press passes’. He is not a member of the press, just a Californian with a blog, podcast and youtube account.
Wow, isn’t it impressive… Owning a business at 15. I owned my first business at 11. I am now 13 and have launched a blogging site (http://scotblog.net) but with one difference: IT DIDN’T TAKE ME OVER 3 MONTHS TO LAUNCH. It took me around 1 week. I don’t have a team of people, I don’t need my site to be incorporated, I don’t offer my users 100mb of space; I offer them 250mb.
I have spoken to Daniel before and all I can say is that he is an incredibly arrogant and spiteful individual. I asked for a job. He kept me waiting for over 2 months and said ‘no’. He then decided to block me.
Awaiting reply from Sean Quinn.
its pretty gud.im also 15 years old and im doin freelancing since i was 13 nd i own many sites by now but still i haven’t able to pull out any bigger project yet bcuz of the main reason money + resources : but if if some one can fill the closets at this age well then it is is definitely worth mentioning
I don’t know why so many people are making negative comments. I think it’s a little bit of jealousy from some here! Good luck with Teens in Tech! Well done to Daniel and the team for pushing at it and not being discouraged from some negative comments!
Wow…, we are having young profesor now.
After conferring with Daniel, I wish to retract my previous statement.
Thanks,
-Scott.
This is the most ridiculous comments conversation I have ever read. I don’t understand why so many people out there are hating on TeensinTech. I think you guys are great and wish you the best. I can’t wait to see what wonderful things come of you teens! Don’t listen to these “children” who are “hating” on you. -LadyLeeT