19 year old has earned $1.2 million, and expects well over $2million in revenue

Are you upset that he did what it took to start his business on the right foot?

It was a good idea, and any investor with half their wits would have probably taken that deal too.

Not sure if it motivates me or not. It more gets me thinking... What the He** does he need $250k to start up a website?!?!

Most of us aren't going to pony up $40K to buy a domain name... in cash.

But I suppose premise is good enough...

Dream up an idea and go for it.

He had a vision... did not make excuses and just went for it... What a great lesson this kid taught a lot of people.

Good for him.

I wanna know how his father makes *his* money. LOL.

It's not about "did he make excuses" or his ability to "go for it."

He had an opportunity to receiving funding. Anyone who has the ability to get funding can achieve the same.

The real question is, if he had bootstrapped the entire business, would he be receiving the same results as today. That is highly unlikely, because he would have gone through a different set of growing pains to achieve the same results -- without having initial funding of $250k.

I think that is a amazing story if you have a vision you should make it happen no matter what it takes! We choose our own destiny if you fail at something take it as lesson learned and move forward!

He got help from his dad that's awesome If you have internet you have all the help you need and that's endless knowledge!

Is it fair that he got help?

Fair to whom? You and me? I don't see how we're affected by it. Of course it's fair. He had a father who had the money, believed in his son's ability and was willing to help him and in the end, the investment turned out to be a great one. Sounds like a fair deal!

Now, is it "fair" in the sense that most of us don't have father's like that?

NO!

But that's life, some people get breaks and some people don't. But it's not to say that the boy would not have succeeded on his own!

There are better questions we should be asking. For example, what marketing methods is he using to attract customers.

I mean, you get an idea of a customer base by examining the revenue.
Whereas, the business takes 7.5% of donations and has generated $1.9 million already since March 2011.

Then we can examine what's it costs for him to get customers? Free marketing vs. Paid marketing. That's where we should be looking. Analyzing success to be able to achieve success.

In order for a father to donate that much money to his son, the father himself must be a rather successful businessman. Trump started with that same amount of money way back in the day, seems that wealthy families know how to get their kids started.

Is It Fair?

For the most part, I'm not sure there are too many people willing to give
their kids $250,000 for an idea that they have. As you can see, it was an
investment and it DID turn out to be a good one for the father. There is a
huge difference between thinking and doing. There IS nothing unfair about
business being good for someone who had an idea and acted upon it.

I think what this kid has pulled of is just amazing. The start up of money he had certainly helped him in many ways. However, running a business is not easy whether you have a lot of money or not. So, I'm pretty sure he worked or was very smart about is investments. If you do not have enough money right now, then you just have to look for investors or save your money and invest it wisely.

I personally am not impressed by this at all.

I definitely don't think that "anyone given 250k can succeed" but you have to realize that without the grant his dad gave him, none of this could have happened. He couldn't have afforded to buy the $40k domain name, he couldn't have afforded to hire the designers and programmers for his site, or the marketing, and so on.

The big thing here is the domain name. Without the name Fundraise.com, the site wouldn't be nearly as successful as it is. And guess what? He wouldn't have been able to even buy that domain name had his dad not given him the 250k.

Is it a good idea? Sure it is. But it's nothing impressive in my opinion due to the fact that he was handed everything. It's also something that has been done before so it ain't like he's the first one to have thought of it.

Now if the kid started from nothing, worked his ass off to build up 40k of his own money, then bought the domain name Fundraise.com and started this business, I would have nothing but respect and good things to say about the situation. That's not the way it turned out though, so no I am not impressed.

And I'm not tryin to be a hater at all, I just think that kids given a huge headstart financially from their parents don't deserve as much respect as the kids that start from nothing and become successful.

Just about everything I own or have owned in my life, (since I've been old enough to make my own money) I have paid for myself. I wasn't handed anything as a kid so it feels much more rewarding to me when I accomplish something on my own because I know I worked my ass off to get it.

Inspiring...

It shows that courage is key to be successful.

Thanks for sharing this and the website..

Will check it out next time i do a fund raising.

Cheers,

~Gary

There is a thread in some other section about, "money brings money" i am sure the OP of the thread is correct.
And yes good of him, it doesn't motivate me much however it really is a great idea he came up with.

After having read the article, it's complete BS. It's a publicity stunt that someone obviously paid to have promoted. It says he is expecting venture capital to the tune of 1.2million, far from him "having made 1.2 million". It also states that he expects revenue to be 2million by the end of 2011. Just to clarify, revenue does not mean profit and I'm sure a stunt like this would use exaggerated figures of net revenue. Let's say he does make 7.5% of the 2million(exaggerated) . He's made 150k in the first year and he's still down 100k from his initial investment. Once the glitz and glare of this semi interesting startup runs dry, so will the fundraises/investors.

Now this gets me into thinking, how hard can it be in replicating this...I mean it's not any new idea...so it wouldn't take that long...

maybe with some $50...what u guys think?

You know whats funny? Im 19 and had that same idea last year but i didnt even know about this place. Should have taken action when i could have!

Good for him, it takes risk to start up in such an already saturated niche.

He succeeded by using other peoples skills, and excellent strategy.

Sam

Can't understand all the hatin in this thread, it's a great accomplishment regardless of the money.

99,9% of people who could start with 250k wouldnt be close to those results.

Great story. This guy took a real risk investing so much in a domain name but clearly it worked and it's more than simply paid the bills - its presumably made the world a better place! Also nice to see a young entrepreneur getting rich from a website that is ultimately for a good cause, even though it is skimmed from the funds which are raised!

It always worries me on forums like this where people are supposedly running a "business" and can't even read an article properly, nor understand basic business concepts. There's a big difference between "raising funding" and "revenue" and there's a big difference between "projected" and "actual".

At no point has he "made money". He's just raised some funding. That doesn't mean he's quadrupled his cash... lol.

The idea isn't even proven yet. All he has is projected revenues.

The only thing I've learned from this article is that it's not what you know... it's who you know!

Simple stories like this make it appaer easy - get an idea , buy a site , earn dollars!
Truth is to get a site like that to work well takes vision, good management and intelligent promotion - oh.... and a fair bit of effort
good luck to the lad! - He deserves(worked) for it!

I'm not inspired by this at all. To me it's business as usual. Let's not forget that his father probably has formal and informal business connections. So he got his dad's money, his dad's connections, and didn't spend the money on hot cars and booze. Good for him!

I think most non-idiots could manage to make SOME return on that 250K, even if they just put it in a savings account.

The idea isn't even a new idea.

I have quite strong opinions on this.

So, my controversial opinion (and note only MY opinion, there are others!)

I have no resentment or chip on my shoulder - I am sure he is a great guy and his dad is a great guy. I am just speaking from my own experience of running a business in the trenches with nobody rich to turn to bail me out when I **** up.

Am I bitter? Nah, just not easily impressed. Getting money from Daddy is not a transferable or learnable skill.

There are two skill sets involved here...

• Creating a business (entrepreneur)
• Running a business (managerial)

From an entrepreneurial perspective, you have practically nothing to learn from this person. He is irrelevant, a distraction, a blip in the statistics of creating a business. He has a rich father and the father gave him some money. Big deal.

If I had a rich father, he would do the same. It is not impressive or something I can learn from. He is just a member of the lucky sperm club. Most people struggle to even get a loan from the bank to start a business. This 19 year old is a statistical anomaly.

From an managerial perspective, there might be something to learn. He got his money very easily but what is he doing with it? Great domain, good exposure for a strong idea. Looks good. I could possibly learn something about how he has executed his business once he got the funding. Give him five years and see if the business is still running.

Early on in my business, I sweated just to pay the rent. I nearly puked when I looked at my cashflow at the end of the quarter. But I survived.

After being through this I believe I am a better entrepreneur. This 19 year old did not have to go through the baptism of fire (and it is fire!) to set up his business. I believe I am probably a better entrepreneur than him because of it.

So does he motivate me? No. Does he impress me? Maybe. Managing a business can be hard, let's see how he does.

I am surprised they make so much. Their website's Google PR is only 2 and Alexa Rank is approx 891,000 which means, not many visitors to their site.

Though the idea is good.

This is truly awesome.

I can imagine how the idea came up and he truly did it.

I don't see any reason why it's "unfair". I have the same concept as fellow warrior redicelander here stated that what is "unfair" to that? I mean, he has a father that offers him the amount of $250,000 for him to use in his investment. His father just gave him the amount and it was the kid who conceptualizes and planned on what to do with the money. It is fair, since his father provided the opportunity for him to earn, and he did the action that is for him, a necessary move to invest.
It's just that he has a father that can provide him that amount, doesn't necessary mean it is unfair that he earned that kind of amount. It's like if you are given $250,000, would you do the same to invest your money? Or probably you will just spend that money on purchasing things like iphones, computers or just wanted to have a shopping spree with all that money. For him, he decided to use that money to invest. That is fair enough, since he chooses to use the money for his investment.

I read the article... the company didn't "already earned 1.2 million"... It's getting 1.2 million in funding...

And 7.5% of $2 million projected revenue = gross projected profits of only $150,000

Given that he used $250k to start the company and another 1.2 million to fund the company... a $150k gross profit isn't the best ROI...

Got to applaud his entrepreneurial spirit though =)

It's interesting that on a forum supposedly filled with entrepreneurs there is distinct overtone of distain for what this kid was able to accomplish. Is it fair that he got help? What kind of question is that?

It's not unique... Guess what, there aren't all that many brand new ideas out there. Almost everything we see these days, with few exceptions has already been done. Making old models fresh by adding a new twist is where it's at.

There are plenty more pissy "sour grapes" comments I won't mention cause I think I need to go puke. Some of y'all need to go find jobs.

I was looking at the compete.com data, it it shows that his site hasn't generated more than 600 hits per month between 8/2010 and 5/2011. It sounds like press release hype to me. I do hope the kid succeeds. To talk ANYONE into investing 250k on you is a big accomplishment. He obviously had the trust of his father and the fact that he was motivated enough to try something ambitious is admirable. And boy did he go big

The great ideas, that why he makes money. He do the thing people never do and discover gold mine. This is the same game with Google Adsense sharing revenue site, but it will be have more potential.

Did he cheat anyone? Then why the question about fairness comes ? One thing I found that many remark about his father's initial help ? But the most important thing everyone missed. It was his unique idea and bold initiative that materialised his dream site. Guys, $250k is not a small budget for a 19 years old to invest in any venture. It requires daredevil attitude & he had . So is the result. We must remember that capital is a secondary requirement for any business, what matter most is the attitude and dare to dream. Yes he motivates me a lot.

I want ask him if he is interested to buy my domain in 40k as well

I think this young man is AWESOME!

I suspect the 250k was not only used for the purchase of the domain but also for the programming required for the platform, probably some expenses to abide by some regulatory requirements that none of us know about, and to float the money from donations so they get paid to the charities more expeditiously.

The 250k definitely made the difference here. I don't care what anyone says. Capital is important when starting a business, whether online or not. Can you do it without capital? Sure. It definitely makes it easier when you have money, though.

He very likely would not have been as successful without the 250k. Good or him, though.

his father gave him $250,000 and he made it work. He had a vision and knew what he was doing IMHO. All the success to him

I always find it interesting when you hear in the media about some young kid making it big.

It's become a bit of a cliche, and usually the story follows a similiar pattern ...."overnight success", "only 15 years old", "truly gifted", "the next Branson"

What most fail to recognise is the guidance, support and often financial backing that parents often provide.

Even if it has nothing to do with money, its about being supportive and instilling the right MINDSET.

I bet this kids parents weren't telling him to "get good grades and get a job."

He was able to see the future...............

I think what stands out to me is the failure of those Warriors, who if they read the article in it's entirety, failed to understand what they read. Or perhaps just scrolled through it and threw together their comments in this thread. The lesson from that is we see what we want to see and understand what we want to understand.

Just imagine what we could do if we could grasp what we have learned and then put it to work for us along with the funding.

One thing that stood out to me was the mention of his support for a certain political party and hoped he would be able to help this party in their fund raising during the 2012 election. Sounds to me like a lot of his idea is to capitalize off the future.

So perhaps he is a entrepreneur and with his Dad's, venture capital, contacts and business expertise he is going for more venture capital to kick it into high gear. And face it if you had access to the money you more than likely would take advantage of it too. Then there would be no question if it's fair or not.

Everyone of us would love to have our product/service to go viral and this kid is doing it through publicity/CBS morning news. And I'm with the other guys that have said the lesson is in the marketing.

Ken

The Old Geezer

Lol, it's also nice that 'daddy' gave him $250k to get going.

Wow, not necessarily too much business sense either... According to the article, he feels he got "lucky" because he "only" paid $40,000 (not $40, $400 or even $4,000) -- but paid forty THOUSAND for a domain from a domain squatter? Yeah..... thats nice.

Sounds like his daddy gave him some good media connections. It's nice it seems he may be doing well -- but it isn't the same as someone starting with $100 in their pocket and going from there...

A bit disappointed in this thread. The title made me think he had done it through IM and without a huge investment. Darn.
But good for him, anyhow.

Wow... I can't believe I'm seeing all these warriors trying to justify why this kid was successful. I think it's downright pathetic. Yes, I said it. Pathetic.

It's very obvious to me that half the people here, unless they make a serious attitude change, aren't going to see any level of success as this kid has had at such an early age, let alone make even 1/20th of what this kid has done already.

Who cares that he got 250k from his father for start up capital. That money is not even 5% of what it takes to make a website of that caliber successful.

If any of you here think that all you need to do is spend 250k on a website and it'll be successful, you've got a long LONG way to come.

What if you blow that $250k on traffic and you don't have the right mechanisms in place to regenerate and re-engage your member base?

Who do you get to program it? Where do you find them? You don't just go on elance and post a job for a project like this.

How do you find the people who want to start a fundraiser?

How do you find the people who want to donate to the fundraiser?

How do you make people trust your brand to send you the money in the first place?

How do you set up your merchant accounts properly to handle this type of business?

How do you handle paying out the funds? What about accounting and taxes for such transactions?

How do you handle chargebacks? How do you keep track of all the money - in a database?

What if the database corrupts, what are your fail safes? How do you handle support?

How do you handle credit card information? Which employees do you trust/not trust with it?

Where do you take the site a year from now, 2 years from now, 3 years from now?

Out of the 7.5%, how much goes to credit card processing fees, how much goes to expense, and how much is left over for profit?

Can you sustain your business as it expands and becomes more cumbersome?

Where are all the warrior comments about those challenges, or do most of you here think all you need is 250k and all that will be solved for you?

The fact that this guys site didn't die out 2 months after he spent his 250k speaks volume.
I highly doubt that a lot of the haters here have even an ounce of what it takes to do what he was able to do.

some of you crack me up....especially the ones about his daddy lending him money, that has nothing to do with making it less-good.

I am sorry you have not been able to obtain such funds but, even having the funds does not mean you will succeed.

I know many my age that had been born with a silver spoon, meaning very fortunate to have family money to rely on. Dome are dead from crazy accidents, drugs, suicide, ect...many are totally dependent on the family money and have never been able to accomplish anything at all.

Good for this young man, no matter how he obtained his start up capital. If he can make it happen, he is better than most here will ever be. As I stated above, I think his contacts have been far more valuable than his start up money, WAY more important.

Enterpryzman

I think this is unfair. The company must not be after his name. It must be after his father. HAHA. Well, having that lot of capita will surely help your company. I will not be surprised if he could earn billions of dollars in the near future.

There are so many idiotic lolz in this topic, I don't even know where to begin.

There are a bunch of people who frequent this forum that are better suited to becoming a greeter in Wal-Mart than pretending that they will ever achieve success as a business owner.

it is certainly not UNFAIR this fella got help, it is what you do with the help you get or do not that counts. The point about this venue that he is operating getting 7.5% of the take is not unfair whatsoever. i am basing that on the fact all the big companies that advertise their non-profit status that have million dollar annual salaries for the CEO are only required by law to give 10% of the monies received. i was in new orleans a year after Katrina and they took in billions, and it seemed none of it made it to the city and its repair needs. Americans might have bigger hearts than brains? Dr. Mike

Sounds like a typical example of what $250k start up money can do for almost ANYONE with half a brain. I say good luck to him although obviously he has PURELY his Dad to thank... A million times over!

If his dad had $250k to help his son start a business then it's pretty likely they are a very well off family. Their perception of $250k is probably different then most other people's. You really shouldn't be impressed just because the numbers are big. If I can take $1 and make $4 or take $100 and make $400 then you should be equally impressed.... Maybe even more so. It takes more creativity to take a smaller amount of money and turn it into more. You don't have as many options for turning $1 into $4 as you do turning $250k into $1.2mm.

good job for that kid

$40,000 wow.

He could have bought 20 guru courses for that and still had $60 dollars in change.

He definitely motivates me as this is a class act from his part and he is smart as hell, so great accomplishment for a 19 y.o

Very motivating

No doubt he's done well and fair play!!

My only doubt or perhaps criticism is that the the guy is making money from charity! In my view slightly un-ethical, shouldn't really be making that sort of money from 'fundraising'. who's missing out when he makes such big profits??

how did you do that? who knows - this might be the breakthrough I've always wanted!