13 years ago when alex decided to start his first company i was still super excited using my first computer, typing away on microsoft word(Microsoft word 95 i remember..Oohh them days i cherish), challenging my friends on how i fast i could type without looking at the keyboard, Anyways this shows how long alex has been involved in the internet start-up.

I decided to go down memory lane with alex and ask him:

how he started t35 hosting
How he’s been able to keep up with the new technology and change
What he has learnt in his 13 years in this industry

And many more juice…

Enjoy the interview and dont forget to leave a comment.

Hi Alex, Welcome to YHP, Tell us about your company? What position do you execute in the business?

I am the president and founder of T35 Hosting. Our company provides free and paid hosting services to almost a million members world wide. Our services range from ad-based free hosting, to feature-packed cPanel paid hosting.

Can you give us some background information about yourself?

I have been involved with internet start-up’s since the mid 1990′s and currently have almost a dozen different ones I am working on. T35 Hosting was actually one of the first “projects”, and it is still around and successful to this day.

Alex you’ve definitely been around for a while, what do you think you’ve done to keep up to pace with the new technologies and innovation from 1997 when you launched your first website?

It has definitely been a very busy time over the last 13 years. Technology and user demands change in an almost real-time environment and it has been a real challenge to keep up. A true testament to this is that out of the dozen or so free web hosts that were around when we started, almost none are left today (especially with Geocities closing it’s doors this year). To keep up we have always promoted a policy of close communication with our customers and we try to grow and adjust with their changing needs.

How long would you say you work on average?

Most of T35 Hosting is automated these days, so I only spend about 2-3 hours a day managing it. I also spend another 4-5 hours/day on the other projects I am working on.

What is the most challenging aspect of what you do?

The most challenging part of my job is trying to decide where to take the company to keep up with customer trends and demands. It’s my job to find out which features are important and which are just fads that will come and go.

In your industry, what is the hierarchy like?

Web hosting like most web-based industries are very flexible and differ company from company. There isn’t any standard hierarchy that is set in stone.

I mean you have over a decade in the internet world, what would you say has been the most crucial thing you’ve learnt?

The most important lesson I have learned is that you have to stay on your feet. The internet world moves at the speed of light and if you aren’t keeping up with trends and new developments, you will not succeed.

Do you think there is a difference between your generation and the upcoming generations of
Entrepreneurs?

I think the younger generations are more entrepreneurial then ever before. Kids of all ages are becoming aware of all the opportunities that are out there (especially with the web facilitating many of those). More and more young people are exploring the internet, making websites and making money online. All of them are entrepreneurs and represent a colossal change over how the previous generations thought and acted.

Do you think that a work-life balance – having a successful career and having a successful family life – is realistic?

Yes, having a work-life balance is more attainable today then ever before. With running your own business, you usually have huge flexibility and the ability to make your own hours. But even in corporate culture, telecommuting and working at home a day a week is starting to take hold which creates a huge boost in work-life balance.

Do you think it is possible to be able to devote time to friends and family while trying to be a successful entrepreneur?

Yes, being a successful entrepreneur doesn’t mean dropping everything else in your life. Like any other profession (and perhaps even more so), you can always create a good balance.

What are you looking forward to as the new buzz on the web?

The new buzz online is how we connect and share information with each other. The web is becoming more and more of a tool for sharing ideas, reviews, and everything else. Even major brands are starting to take notice and beginning to monitor and even control their online presence and what people are saying about them online.

Do you have any plans to expand your business in the near future?

Yes, while the US markets are somewhat competitive (especially with hosting now competing with profile sites like facebook and myspace), there is still a lot of opportunities overseas. We plan to continue our expansion into several overseas market including Asia and South America.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on several different start-ups including an image sharing site, free hosting directory and much more.

What’s been the most crucial thing you’ve done to grow your business?

Making our customers happy is what ultimately drives our business. Over half of our customers were referred by other customers.

What motivates you, especially during down-times?

I’m motivated by the fact that our business provides a free service and a free way for people to get their website and ideas online. Almost a million customers and organizations rely on this service and it’s something that always motivates me. We always strive to meet their expectations and help them succeed.

What do you do to relax?

My personal hobby is to travel and to go and explore new places where I haven’t been before. This helps me relax and find new perspective.

What should we be expecting from you in the future?

There are several new start-ups in the work, some that I have mentioned here and some that I am not at liberty to discuss. Watch for the new developments in 2010 though

Do you have any tips for young entrepreneurs out there?

Yes, my greatest advice is to go out there and try and try again and keep trying. Never give up on your ideas or your dreams. The key to entrepreneurship is perseverance.

Good luck Alex and thank you for your time.

T35 Hosting
Alex Melen on Twitter
Check out his LinkedIn Page
His personal Blog

Jon West has shown everyone the perfect example of starting small, he started his company 3tailer with his buddy Chad Ledford with only $500 each and now they both run the multi-million dollar company.

Jon west shares in this interview:

His experience starting 3tailer

How he coped with college work and running 3tailer

His average workday

Enjoy the interview and don’t forget to leave comments

Jon, can you briefly give us some background information about yourself and what you do?

I’m a 25 year-old Co-Founder and CEO of a niche eCommerce company named 3tailer, based out of Charlotte, NC. My buddy Chad Ledford and I started the company during senior year of college at Appalachian State University. My focus in college was Information Systems under the Walker College of Business.

Jon, it’s great to have you on YHP, how is business going so far?

Business is going well. We’ve had a crazy year of growth and all the pains that come with growing. We’re in the process of building a strong foundation so next year we can really blow up.

You said you started your company while at college, how did you cope with studying and setting up a business, i know a lot of students lose focus and drop for the other?

It started during Senior year so my more intense college days were winding down. I was fortunate to have a good amount of free time and on top of that one of our college professors let us build our company during one of his entrepreneurship classes. Students should try to work out a similar deal with a college professor if possible. There should be enough time in the day to attend class, study, and make headway on your business. You’re young, sleep less.

Tell us the story on how 3tailer has become this big and successful, how did it all start?

Chad’s grandfather had been selling socks for over 10 years so Chad decided to see how they’d sell online. Meanwhile I entered ASU’s Pitch Your Idea entrepreneurship contest and went on to win Most Likely to Succeed Online. After the win we decided to form a company to pursue my eCommerce idea and put his existing sock website under the new company. Thus 3tailer was born and the peasants rejoiced!

Is this your first business?

It’s my first established LLC. Growing up as a kid I would build websites for companies but never anything organized.

How did you finance your business?

Chad and I put in $500 each, so $1,000 was our starting capital. We sold our first eCommerce website a little over a year after creating it which gave us enough cash to pursue the company full-time.

What are the revenues of the business?

I don’t like to give specifics but we’re in the millions per year.

How many employees do you have? Full- or part-time?

We have 10-15 employees right now. Most are part-time Customer Service Reps. We also have Data Entry, Copywriting, and Web Developer positions.

What is an average workday like for you?

I really need to move my schedule forward a couple hours but here goes… Wake up around 9ish, check email/Twitter while I’m eating breakfast. Take a shower then get in the office around 10ish. I catch up on all my RSS feeds/news and figure out my to-dos for the day. After lunch I’m my most productive and that lasts until about 6 or so. Most days I’ll grab dinner and then hang out at the office doing some work or playing video games/ping-pong until 10ish.

How has your market changed in the past few years? How has your business changed to keep pace?

eCommerce as a whole is constantly evolving but the larger eCommerce players with huge be-everything-to-everyone sites have to innovate the quickest. Niche eCommerce shops have to evolve but not quite at those break-neck speeds. Our size does allow us to be nimble within our space and we try to be on the forefront as much as possible.

How have sales grown in the last few years?

Year over year sales have grown anywhere from 200% to 600%.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

We’ve built systems that scale and automated repetitive processes. Bootstrapping from our initial $1,000 investment has taught us to be extremely cost-conscious which has served us well over the years. Hiring the right people is extremely important.

What plans do you have now to expand your business further?

We plan to continue increasing our product offering and website catalog while improving our technology.

What systems have you used to automate your business to give you more time for business planning and development?

Google Apps gives us dependable email and allows us to collaborate on spreadsheets, documents, and presentations easily. Oh yeah, it’s free too. Setup buffers between you and minor issues so that you have employees handling more day-to-day items and you can focus on growing the business.

What has been your most effective marketing tactic or technique?

We’ve seen a lot of success from Search Marketing. Aside from that, Social Media marketing is big and only poised to grow.

What advices would you give to young entrepreneurs starting up their business?

Start as early as you can; before you have a mortgage, kids, and more responsibilities. Take calculated risks and don’t do anything too dumb.

Thanks Jon for taking the time to do this interview with us, we wish you the best in the future.

Check out their website: 3tailer

Connect with jon on twitter

His personal Blog

Jon west on LinkedIn

Nick Kenner and Rob Crespi decided to quit their day jobs and jump into the entrepreneurial bandwagon, after quiting their jobs they decided to start their own restaurant that would serve a healthy, fast, and creative alternative after being tired of the options available to them.

So I decided to talk to them about why they decided to quit their job and start their own business, Enjoy the interview and dont forget to leave comments.

Hey Guys, How are you doing?

Enjoying the holidays!

Great, Can you quickly give us some brief background information?

Nick Kenner – I graduated Colgate University in 2003, then worked the next year and a half at Exis Capital where i traded currencies and fixed income for a macro-economic portfolio manager.

Robert Crespi – I graduated the University of Wisconsin in 2004 with a major in finance and is currently working in the equity sales division of Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc. an equity brokerage firm in mid-town Manhattan.

We both grew up in Manhattan and have been friends since eighth grade.

I mean quitting your job to start a business? How confident were you about that decision?

We were both so young that we were too naive to even worry about anything. Our thought process was that we have a good idea and we just need to make it happen.

How did you get finance to start the business?

We approached former co-workers, family, family friends, banks, anyone who would listen to us!

Describe/outline your typical day?

No day is the same. I get into work at 7:45 AM and leave around 7 PM but what happens between those hours is always different. The range is so wide; it could include negotiating with a land lord, reviewing company numbers, going over new marketing materials or my favourite, reviewing employee disputes.

How many hours do you work a day on average?

Usually around 11-12 hours but almost never on weekends!

How did you decide on the location for your business?

We take a location, estimate the amount of revenue this store will do (this estimate is made based on several factors) and then plug the rent for this space with the revenue number into our business model and see what type of projected ROI we will see.

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

We tried serving breakfast starting out and it failed after about 4 months. The product was good and it stayed true to our brand but it failed because we were not ready to fully commit and unless you are willing to fully commit to a product you have business introducing it.

How do you find people to bring into your organization that truly care about the organization the way you do?

I think you just have to have a feel about someone from the interview process. Other then intuition you need to make sure you incentivise people so that it makes sense for them to care about the concept.

How many employees do you have?

170 People!

How have sales grown in the last few years?

We have grown over 100% the last two years.

What plans do you have now to expand your business further?

We are aggressively opening stores in the US while continuing to bring on international partners that can grow the business themselves locally.

How important have good employees been to your success?

It’s everything!

In one word, characterize your lives as entrepreneurs?

Interesting.

What has been your most satisfying moment in business?

Having customers truly happy that we exist and are in there lives is very gratifying. Also knowing that this company supports certain employees and their family puts a burden on us but also makes us feel we are doing something worthwhile.

What qualities have you developed as a result of running your business?

You develop such a vast array of skills that can be taken into any business, the most important of which is the belief that you can tackle any issue and achieve any goal.

In your opinion, what is the most important an entrepreneur should possess?

A very good work ethic.

Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?

Chipotle. They are the gold standard in my industry.

What advice do you guys have for young entrepreneurs looking to start up their business especially in your industry?

Good luck. Make sure you believe in your concept and that you give it 100%.

Thanks for your time Guys and happy holidays.

Check out their website to find out more about what food they serve.

DisQus is a distributive blog comment system that makes your comments more interactive for readers and easier to manage for you — all while connecting your community with other blogs.

Today i did a quick interview with the founder/CEO.

Hey Daniel, How are you today?

I’m very good tonight. It’s a little past 2am here.

Great stuff, Right lets gets started then, Could you give us a bit of background info on you and your business?

Disqus is a web service that builds and connects communities across websites. We do this through a networked comment system, which is, today, used by over quarter million communities.

Our system approaches comments from a social perspective, helping tie together a real community from your site’s audience and the potential audiences scattered around the web.

So, where did your inspiration for Disqus come from?

We started out looking at how engaged web communities can be, especially on message boards and forum communities. The best exchanges and ideas often came from these web societies. I felt that there could be a way to better connect and relate these communities together.

Disqus evolved a bit from there, moving to a focus on conversations found in blog comments, but the core goals has remained the same.

I have to admit, the idea is very innovative, what do those closest to you think of the idea?

My family, long-time friends, and even my girlfriend know a little bit about Disqus, but not too much. I appreciate that they listen and find what I’m doing interesting, but I know they don’t care nearly as much about the internet as I do. And I appreciate that even more.

How have you dealt with setbacks in the past?

We’ve been very fortunate to work with great people along the way who have helped us an incredible number of times. No major setbacks. Not yet.

What are you hobbies outside of Disqus?

I’m still figuring this out, but I imagine that it’ll be something awesome such as fencing or horse riding.

How important do you believe the work/play balance is in life?

It’s very important. Earlier on, this was definitely not work. It was something I wanted to think about all day. Today, I like to mix up my day with other things.
A separation keeps your mind fresh, creative, and ready for more when the time comes.

What would you be doing if you were not doing Disqus?

I’d be working at another web startup. There are so many great areas to explore right now, and you can get into almost anything relatively cheaply and quickly.

What, if any do you think are the disadvantaged of being a young entrepreneur? Do you feel you have missed out on anything in your life that other young people may have accomplished?

I’ve had many amazing opportunities in the last few years. I don’t think I’ve missed anything.

Finally, what “pearls of wisdom would you give to young entrepreneurs… amidst the current unstable economic climate?’’

Learn the importance of tenacity. When you are disadvantaged in every other way, tenacity may be what keeps you in the running. However, don’t use tenacity blindly, remain hungry for ideas and advice and make sure you’re being tenacious for a good goal.

Thank you very much, I appreciate you taking the time to do this quick interview with me.

Connect with daniel on his site
Also check out the DisQus website and learn more about their services.

Elaine Wherry is a Co-founder and VP of Products at Meebo. Originally a classically-trained violinist, Elaine graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Human-Computer Interaction.

After graduating, she became the Manager of Usability and Design at Synaptics and co-founded Meebo.com in 2005 with two good friends, Seth Sternberg and Sandy Jen.

Thanks Elaine for doing this interview with us on YHP

Don’t mention it – thank you for having me.

How are you doing today?

I’m very well and excited to be a part of YHP.

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the meebo story, so what was going through your mind whilst you were coding the program? Did you ever think it would turn out to be this big or even start a company?

I think most of our story is pretty typical – two engineers and a business guy working to solve a problem out of someone’s apartment.

However, what most people don’t know is that we spent over two years prior to Meebo building two other products before launching the third product, the Meebo that people know today. We abandoned both prior ideas for various reasons (too much funding required, concern that our idea might not be too niche). After spending two years of weekends and evenings working on failed concepts, I think all three of us were probably harboring doubts of whether any of our projects would see the light of day.

Where did your organization’s funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?

We funded the original concept from our pockets and credit cards. After we launched, we realized that buying servers to scale the Meebo service was a lot of financial risk for two unemployed engineers and a business school student to take on. We had a few angel investors who helped us out (Marc Andreessen, Jon Callaghan and Scott Epstein among others). A few months later, we took our Series A funding from Sequoia. Later, Draper Fisher Jurvetson funded our Series B and then our Series C was a combination of Time Warner, JAFCO, and KTB.

How many employees do you have? Full- or part-time?

Most of our team is full-time. We have about 70 people in total. There are about 50 of us in Mountain View, California. We have an additional 20 folks in other offices such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a few other places too.

How long do you plan to keep operating this business? Do you have an “exit” strategy for getting out of the company?

We’re committed to seeing the company become a self-sustaining business. I think that’s why we spent 2-3 years testing other ideas before pursuing Meebo. We wanted something that inspired us and that would be long-lasting.

What is your business model?

Our revenue stems from brand advertising. We’re fortunate that Meebo has long engagement times and a very social audience which is an ideal formula for brand advertisers. Brand advertisements typically focus on building meaningful interactions that users will want to share or talk about with friends. We’ve been optimizing this model throughout 2009 and we’re pleased that our advertising product has been so well-received and performed so well.

What would you do if there was no internet?

I’m definitely a product person at heart so I’d most likely be developing interesting user experiences in some other medium like architecture or industrial design.

On those impossible days, what motivates you to keep going? The days when you were tiring to see if the concept of meebo was possible and everywhere you turned it is said to be impossible?

The team. It sounds cliché but when you’re working besides incredibly bright, motivated folks, their enthusiasm is contagious.

Do you have a favourite business tool or resource?

I’m a list-driven person so most of my productivity is organized with a simple text editor (like notepad) or within my MoleSkine journal. When I finish a list or journal, I transcribe all of the written notes and save them online in password-protected files for easy access later. I have nearly four years of notes stored online so far. The system works for me but I’m not sure I’d recommend it to others.

Where do you see in yourself and your business in the next 5 years?

The leader in real-time communication. I’d like Meebo to be powering all of the instant communication throughout the web.

Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?

I have an unexpected favorite outside the technical arena. I have enormous respect for Neal’s Farm Yard Dairy in London. I had an opportunity to meet with the owner, Randolph Hodgson, last year and was inspired by his cheese-making practices. In the Web world, we may test and deploy four or five concepts with A/B testing in a week. If you’re making a cheddar that requires over a year to age, you don’t have the luxury of making nearly as many mistakes and you need a way to remember how something tasted months ago. In addition, he’s built a beautiful business that has withstood time by focusing on his products’ integrity and by maintaining a close relationship with his customers.

What sacrifices did you have to make to be a successful entrepreneur?

I’m sure everyone’s experiences are different. From my founder experience, I am constantly hiring or mentoring someone to fill my current role so I can continue to build the team in other areas. As a result, I have never had a role that didn’t somehow evolve after 3-6 months. One thing that I sometimes miss is the feeling of routine and expertise (i.e. “been there, done that”) that comes when you’ve had a role for a longer duration. As soon as I understand a role well enough, then I am off hiring or mentoring someone into that new opportunity.

What qualities have you developed as a result of running your business?

Hiring and building teams. When we first started Meebo, a VC told me that good founders would spend the majority of their time hiring. At the time, I thought that his portrayal of an entrepreneur’s life sounded very un-sexy. However, he was right and then some. The other day I estimated that I’ve done between 2,000-3,000 interviews since Meebo began.

What has been your most satisfying moment in business?

It happens everyday but I really like seeing team members pull a chair up to another person’s desk to tackle a problem together.

What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture?

When we hire, we evaluate candidates by three metrics: 1) functional skills, 2) team skills, and 3) motivation. Functional is defined by whether you have the skills. If you’re an engineer, this refers to your ability to write JavaScript or C. Team skills refers to your ability to have influence in a team environment. We look for people who can see the team-win and the individual-win, who take initiative to help others, and who are aware of how others perceive them. Motivation refers to showing initiative to take on tasks or owning a project 110%. We’ve had strong hiring practices from day one and because these are the primary metrics we used to hire the team, these areas have also become the three cornerstone values of our culture.

Working with friends is being said to be very dangerous, how have you managed to work with friends and still remain friends with them and have a successful business?

I knew Seth for eight years and Sandy for six years before we launched. In addition, we already had the experience of working on projects for over two years prior to our public announcement. We each have our strengths and weaknesses. However, after working together for so long, we know each other well enough to know how we can be most effective as a team.

How do you find people to bring into your organization that truly care about the organization the way you do?

We hire very slowly, we have calibrated hiring metrics, and we have a culture that is invested in building an amazing team. We also entrust our product and engineering teams with a high degree of creative freedom to shape the products they’re working on. This helps build ownership as well as fueling innovation in the organization.

How important have good employees been to your success?

They are absolutely everything. I can’t emphasize that enough.

What plans do you have now to expand your business further?

Meebo’s overall vision is to help users build connections with the people that matter most to them. We devoted much of 2009 to deploying a new product called the Meebo Bar which takes the real-time technology behind Meebo.com and enables real-time communication and sharing on social and content sites (e.g. CafeMom or Flixster). With the embedded Meebo Bar, our partners enable their users to chat live with their friends from that site and to share site articles or pictures via Twitter, Facebook, IM, or email. We’re excited about this platform and we’re excited to connect users with their friends regardless of whether those friends live in Meebo.com or on partner sites. You can learn more at http://business.meebo.com/.

What systems have you used to automate your business to give you more time for business planning and development?

On the engineering side, we use a bunch of open source projects such as Trac, SVN, and Bugzilla. On a day-to-day basis, I’d be lost without my e-mail filters.

Thanks for your time Elaine and taking the time to speak with me on YHP.

I have another great interview for you guys, I really love this interview as it gives some much in-depth advices for entrepreneurs. especially young entrepreneurs and start-ups. Chris Pund 23 years old, recently graduated college in May 2008.

He shares his views on entrepreneurship
His businesses, why having a business plan is still essential
Startups trying to manage money in this recession and much more...

Don’t forget to leave comments and let me know what you got from the interview and what you think of what chris is doing?

Please kindly give us some background knowledge about you?

Well, I’m a 23 years old, recently graduated college in May 2008 and now work full time but run a few different businesses on the side after “normal” working hours. I’ve always been an entrepreneur and grown up around entrepreneurship, starting my first business while in Middle School and continuing through college to now. My oldest business is my web development company which I’ve been slowly growing after school and after work for the past 8 years. Now I run a multitude of different websites in different niches, have a successful eBay company and also am growing an ecommerce website.

8 Years, thats a long time, Its great that you started at such a young age

What do you think are the key lessons to entrepreneurship?

To be successful as an entrepreneur I think there are a few things that you have to embrace and learn along the way. The first one would be being able to adapt to any situation or circumstance that arises. You just can’t stop because of an issue or problem, you have to be able to adapt your strategy and work through it. Another lesson would be that failure is not a bad thing. Everyone has failures and false starts; you’ll eventually get it right, so just keep working and grinding it out! Finally, you have to be passionate about your business and be sure it is something that you could be in love with doing for many years to come in the future.

Do you think it is still effective to always have a business plan?

Yes, you are always going to want to have a plan; however, you may not need a conventional type of business plan. Your plan could easily be a few pages of notes written out about your business idea, strategies to achieve sales, potential marketing efforts, and your pricing strategy. You should always have a plan, but that doesn’t mean you need a 50+ page document.

Every business is looking to expand? What do you think we every start up company should look for in an investor?

In investors, I think it’s more important to look for and find someone that is truly willing to invest in the business and not just give you money, hoping to make some back. If you’re looking to strictly raise capital, apply for a loan. If you’re looking for someone to invest in your business, they also need to be willing to invest in you as an entrepreneur. They should be interested in helping you succeed by mentoring, sharing ideas, helping grow the business, and anything else they can do to make you successful, which in turn makes them more money!

What are the best ways for businesses especially start-up to manage their finances during tough times especially in this financial downturn?

For a start up, one of the best ways to run your business is by bootstrapping as much as you possibly can. Don’t go out and rack up a lot of bills on a credit card that you can not pay off. Keep a tight eye on your finances, bank account, and credit cards. You should be rethinking every purchase you make before making it, even when money is not tight. There are so many ways to manage your money on the internet or in software packages like Quicken, so try some of them out and see what you like. But no matter what, keep your checkbook balanced! Don’t waste your money on office rent, furniture, etc if you don’t need it.

This is some great advice chris, especially for young entrepreneurs looking to start their business whilst at the university, I can remember get so excited when i first started my first business and really wanted to get an office space and furniture which im glad i never did because i would have been a costly mistake.

Let’s talk about your businesses, when, why did you decided to start up your own business?

In Middle School I started my first business, so probably around the age of 10-12. Have parents who are entrepreneurs, they were very encouraging and willing to allow me to explore the different avenues out there to make money. And at this point, it was purely for the reason to make money so that I could buy the things I wanted (video games, etc). When I got into High School and become more serious about running my businesses, it turned from just wanting to make money, to something that was fun, was keeping me up at nights, and also was setting me up for success in the future. It started to then become about the freedom and ability to have your own schedule, not answer to a “boss” and do what I enjoyed.

Tell us what your business does?

I have two main businesses now which bring in the most income for me. The first is a web development business which I started in High School. It’s a full service firm offering the whole range of services from design to development, deployment, and marketing of websites. I work with many different contractors to get a lot of the work done as well as outsource different portions. This helps to keep my costs low, my prices down, and my profits higher. I also have a maintenance portion of my business which handles general website maintenance for clients, web site hosting, etc.

The second main business right now is an eBay business which sells camping equipment and outdoor gear. I work with many different top name brand manufacturers to purchase their equipment and resell on eBay. From this, I’m also growing a stand alone ecommerce shopping site that is selling the same items. Besides the camping equipment sales, I also sell items for other people who are looking to liquidate their stuff and don’t have the time or knowledge to do it themselves.

Do you think being brought up by entrepreneurs as parents gave you the desire to start your own business?

Definitely! Having parents who are entrepreneurs was a great influence on me and helped me along the way to be to the point that I’m at now. I like to believe that entrepreneurship is 75% hereditary and 25% learned, so having a family history of entrepreneurship definitely made a difference.

What books would you recommend to anyone looking to further their knowledge in entrepreneurship and self development?

There are a few that I recommend hands down, all the time: The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, Rules for Renegades, 7 Secrets of Great Entrepreneurial Masters. To this list I’d also more recently add The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk.

What has been your most satisfying moment in business?

Securing a new client is always a great thrill and it makes all the hard work worth it. Besides signing my first “official” web design client at the age of 16, being given the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for my university on graduation day was a great accomplishment.

What sacrifices did you have to make to be a successful entrepreneur?

There are tons that young entrepreneurs make when starting up a business, and there are more I’m sure that I won’t think of until they come up! I recently wrote a post outlining a few distractions of young entrepreneurs on Dorm Room Biz. Personally I know I’ve sacrificed the relationships that I’ve had with different friends because I wouldn’t do different things or go to events because I needed or wanted to get work done for my business. I’ve also sacrificed the relationship that I had with my fiancé at the time, now Wife. There are always going to be many late nights that you’re up working hard while everyone else is either sleeping or out doing something. There will be days when you just want to relax and hang out but can’t because if you don’t build your business, then no one else will for you. As a young entrepreneur you sacrifice every part of your life at one point or another, whether its relationships, your health, or anything else.

What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?

My hobbies are my businesses. I live and breathe them because I want them to be successful, and without my constant attention and work, then I know they won’t get to that point. However, because my business are my hobbies, there is a lot of overlap with the things that I do in my “non-work time” which include camping, hiking, backpacking, traveling, and enjoying the outdoors. Being a retailer of outdoor gear and equipment comes in handy when I have the chances to test what I’m selling first hand!

What qualities have you developed as a result of running your business?

Time management skills, the ability to rapidly switch focus from one task to another and then back again, communication skills, confidence, and so much more!

In your opinion, what is the most important an entrepreneur should possess?

Hard work, dedication, and passion are the main three things that I think every entrepreneur really needs to have if they want to be successful. While you can be successful without one or all of those, they can aide in your reaching your goals much faster and achieving success.

Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?

There are a lot and many of them are small business just like mine. Startup companies like Tatango.com who are taking the world by storm. Mostly I admire other young entrepreneurs who are well know such as Cameron Johnson, to older entrepreneurs like Sir Richard Branson, to other entrepreneurs who are just crushing it that are not well known names. There are so many young men and a woman out there making so much money in different niches it’s just unbelievable!

On those impossible days, what motivates you to keep going?

Just knowing that the next day can’t be any worse unless I let it be. My success is up to me and I control it, so if I don’t act on achieving it that “down day”, the next will be just as bad. My goals and aspirations are also a major influencer on how hard I work.

Do you have a favourite business tool or resource?

For internet based invoicing, I love GreenerBilling. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have also been great tools for finding business, growing my brand, and expanding my network.

What social network site does the trick? As in generating traffic to your site?

For generating the most traffic to my websites, it’s probably Twitter. But I wouldn’t limit yourself to just one network, you need to take advantage of a handful of the different sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and everything else. I’m finding myself interacting more on LinkedIn recently and hopefully that will pay off in the near future!

What advices would you give to the young entrepreneurs out there?

Follow your passion and start a business around your passion so that what you do is what you love.
Stay focused, work hard, and the rewards of success will come in time.
Don’t let others negativity get you down, to be successful as a young entrepreneur, it’s going to be a lot of work!

Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

With a little bit of luck and success, I’ll be living the dream of working for myself, having my own office set up and having a successful business. 5 years is a long time to nail yourself down to one venture and I don’t want to say that what I’m doing now will be what I will be doing in 5 years.

However, I know I’ll be fully dependant on the income generated through my business rather than being “stuck in the rat race” and working for someone else. On top of that, hopefully we will have purchased our first home, maybe have a baby, and just living a great life.

Thank you Chris, Keep me updated, it is some great tips you’ve shared with us, I’ve already written down a few things to work on for myself, i wish you the best of luck.

Don’t forget to check out Dorm Room Biz and his Blog, He’s got some great contents, tips and advices for young entrepreneurs there.

Don’t forget to leave some comments.

They started from selling lemonade to raking leaves and shovelling snow and now they both run a series of successful business, I guess you would say their twin bond has helped them along the way, whatever the case is, the twins are not stopping, They are currently sitting their finals, Im sure we will be hearing a lot from them in the near future.

In this interview they talked about:

How they got started in business
What else they do out of business
what they are currently working on
Their twin bond
Their favourite company and advices for young entrepreneurs out there

Guys, I’m so glad you are able to make time to join us, welcome to YHP and how are you doing?

We’re doing great thank you!

Can you give us some brief background of yourself?

I am currently a senior studying accountancy and technology & management (engineering). I love business! I have always been fascinated by entrepreneurship and the ability for one to create new technology and innovations to improve the lives of others.

So who is older?

Ashton is older.

How are you guys able to do business and still be cool brothers regardless?

Business and entrepreneurship is our hobby. We love what we do. Working together brings us closer. We are always finding new ways to do something. We enjoy finding solutions to problems and turning these solutions into the successful businesses. As college students we have our own lives. Ryan has his own friends and I have mine as well. At the end of the day we come together and work on our ideas and current businesses.
Our twin bond has helped us greatly in business. We are a great team. I would not change it for the world.

When did you both begin on your entrepreneurship journey?

We began our entrepreneurship journey very early in our lives. As soon as we could mix lemonade as children we were selling it outside our home. At the age of 9 we started raking leaves and shovelling snow. We quickly found out that if we worked hard enough we could make money! This is exactly what we started to do. We had so much business as kids that it was kind of overwhelming at the time. We had a waiting list of clients to serve; the two of us could not handle it ourselves. People would call our house to see when we were available to rake leaves or shovel snow. The demand for our services was greater than what we could supply. This was phenomenal! We were young entrepreneurs. We were Clark Snow and Leaf Removal.

Can you explain to us what your company does and the roles you both play?

Ashton is the President of Dynamik Duo and Ryan is the Vice President. Dynamik Duo is our holding company for some of our internet web ventures. We also wanted something to identify us beyond our names. Dynamik Duo does just this. We are a strong team. In other words we are very Dynamik. We are known as the
Dynamik Duo on campus and when we speak around the United States in regards to entrepreneurship. We are both responsible for working on new business ideas and growing our existing companies.

What inspired you to start business at such a young age? Were you exposed to entrepreneurship from your family?

My mom is a business woman as well as my grandfather. They always encouraged my brother and me to go after our dreams. And this is exactly what we did. Ryan and I worked hard on our businesses ludakicks.com and 247mixtapes.com throughout high school. Everyone has a hobby of some sort. Ours happens to be starting companies and growing them. This is our expertise.

Did being an entrepreneur at such a young age affect your family?

Being an entrepreneur at such a young age had a strong affect on my family. Our family saw our passion and realized that this is our special gift. My mom helped us and watched us to make sure we were on the right track. She also made sure that we were kids first and entrepreneurs second. We played just like any other kid in our neighbourhood. We just did not play as long. We learned how to manage our time and still have fun as kids. We learned time management, and work, life-balance at a young age.

How are you both able to maintain good grades and run multiple companies very successful at the same time? What is your secret or is it a magic word?

Yes, we are phenomenal students. In fact we are at the top of our class. Our secret is that we are students first. I consider school to be a game, some people play it right and others do not. We know the rules of the game and what it takes to be successful. We work hard and study hard to ensure that we make and maintain good grades. In order to achieve this and maintain a successful business we sacrifice sleep. But we make it through and management everything we have to do. Time management is very important to us. It helps us to make sure we take care of the tasks we have at hand.

What are your hobbies?

I love playing the piano. I am a keyboardist/pianist on my campus. I play for various groups and performers on campus and in Chicago. It helps me to relax and overcome the difficulties I face in school and business. If I did not play the piano, I would be stressed out. Being a student entrepreneur is very stressful at times. At the end of the day I have to perform in school and with my business.

How did you get finance to fund your business?

Our businesses are all self funded. Our mom taught us to save our money at an early age. We used this money to start our companies.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy?

Do not spend a great deal of money on internet marketing when you are first starting. This is one reason why most star ups fail. They incur more expenses than revenues and essentiality go out of business because they cannot cover their costs.

We learned to tell others what we are doing. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising. It has worked well for us. If a customer of ours likes our product, they will come back and tell others. This is an example of one successful marketing strategy for us.

What is your business model?

Our business model is simple, bring our creative ideas to fruition and make them profitable.

What is any average workday like for you both?

Our days vary. No day is exactly the same. One day I may work on the programming and design of one of my current websites and the other I may work on our marketing strategy. As an entrepreneur, I handle every single task you could think of: Accounting, marketing, and technology to name a few.

How has your market changed in the past few years? How has your business changed to keep pace?

With the recession that America is in we have had to work harder to find new customers and satisfy our current customer base. We have superior customer service in comparison to our competitors. This is one technique that sets us apart from our competition. We have used our prices with discounts and coupons to encourage new customers to try our service.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

Telling everyone! No matter how much we advertise our company has grown the quickest when our customers tell their friends and family about our services. To stay competitive we work smarter and not harder. This is one of greatest limitations. Because we know this, we work hard to manage our time and use our existing time in ways that will most benefit our current and future companies.

What plans do you have now to expand your business further?

Currently, I am working on our next start up called UTicketIt.com an event registration and Management Company. We are set to launch our company in January. Stay tuned. If you are looking for a way to sell tickets to your event online, UTicketIt.com is the solution for you.

What systems have you used to automate your business to give you more time for business planning and development?

Many of our systems are custom made. We use knowledge bases and FAQ sections on our website to automate common answers to questions our customers have. Since our companies are based online, our websites enable us to automate 90% of our processes. This allows us to focus our time on the 10 of non automated work as well as new ventures.

Apart from your company, what other company do you admire the most and why?

I admire start ups like Google, Meebo, and Vimeo to name a few. Just take a look at them. You can see how innovative they are. They help to set the newest trends on the internet. They are perfect examples of successful internet start-ups. They motivate me to work hard because I want to be just as successful as they are.

I totally agree, I have actually just finished an interview with the co-founder of Meebo, Elaine wherry, she gives us an amazing interview, i would say you should stay updated for that.

Who is your favourite young entrepreneur at this moment?

This is an interesting question. I have to do more thinking regarding this.

What is your favourite business tool?

I like content management systems. They contribute significantly to automate processes within my companies.

What has been your most fulfilling moment so far?

My ability to give back to my community. I like helping others. These are my most fulfilling moments.
What do you do not to get carried away having achieved some much at such young ages?

I understand where I came from. And I will never forget where I came from.

What should be expecting next from you guys?

The release of UTicketIt.com . I hope we can do a news blast on your site when it goes live next month?

SURE! Shoot me an email as soon as it launches

What advices do you have for young entrepreneurs out there?

Continue to go after you dreams. You can do well in school and still be an entrepreneur. The key is to work smarter. As a student, your time is already limited. You should make sure that you are spending your time as wisely as possible. Use your time effectively. I do this on a daily basis. Ask yourself the following question, how can I add the most value to my companies? Just a thought.

Thanks for your time Guys

Check out their website and get in touch to ask them any questions we din’t cover in the interview, Remember they are currently sitting their finals.

Hercules Networks is a manufacturer and distributor of Automated Charging Machines, public charging stations that rapidly charge a variety of devices. Our mission is to set a new trend in digital media advertising – to make the ACM as widespread as the ATM.

Let me explain this better, Paul king’s company is responsible for manufacturing machines that makes it possible for you to charge your mobile phones in public..Cool right?

Don’t forget to leave comments on what you think of paul king and his company..

Paul, Thanks for taking some of your time to be with us here on YHP , How are you doing today?

Every day is a blessing, I’m doing great.

Can you give us some background information about yourself?

I am 25, graduated from Carnegie Mellon summa cum laude. Started a real estate agency when I was 22 with the help of an investor and grew it to 38 agents. Started Hercules Networks at 23 with the help of an investor. I am an avid sports fan, and big believer in positive energy.

Where did your organization’s funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?

The first investor in Hercules was Michael Gold – who is executive chairman of the company today. We then together raised another round of capital from 3 private angel investors. I met Michael through a mutual friend. Michael is a real estate developer in Miami, though he is now fully devoted to Hercules. I met one of the angels when he walked by my office, and said “What is that machine”? I told him it’s a machine that charges cell phones and plays commercials and he said “this is the coolest idea I’ve ever heard of”. He then brought in his 2 friends to invest with him.

Can you tell us what you do in your company?

Whatever is the most important at the time. My job function changes constantly. We are a small company with 12 employees, and we sell our products and services internationally, so everyone has a lot to do all the time. I focus on what is most important to the organization and analyze this at the beginning of every week, then devote my time and energy to that.

Describe/outline your typical day?

Wake up at 7, gym, then office by 8:30. 30 minutes of responding to emails, sending emails. Group meeting at 9, discuss strategy for the day. 10-12:30, focus on what I have decided is most important. 12:30 lunch. 1:00 – walk around and see how everyone is doing on their tasks. Then get back to my focus. Around 5pm I take a break. From 5:30-6:30 everyone has left and I have some time to think abstractly about the business.

Is your company profitable or what is your profit for last year?

We started in April 2008. Our first full year is 2009, and it looks like we are on track for $400,000 in revenue in 2009. We expect to be profitable in 2010, with 1.5 Million in revenue.

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

We manufacture in China, and their quality control doesn’t really exist. They try to make everything as cheaply as possible, and this has led to lots of problems for us. I have been to China 3 times, and we changed manufacturers twice until we finally found a company that was willing to meet our quality control standards.

I make mistakes all the time, but I never make the same mistake twice.

If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?

Nothing. I am very happy and blessed.

What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture?

It is open and free, where everyone has the ability to express their opinions and ideas. At the same time, everyone knows they have to perform and perform well. Everyone is also incentivized by company performance, so if the company makes more money, so do they.

How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?

We have focused more on PR than marketing, or I should say PR as our marketing. It is powerful because it is an unbiased perspective of your business. We have done some pay per lead deals, and are about to set up an adwords marketing plan.

What has been your most satisfying moment in business?

Raising our second round of capital – it proved that we were moving in the right direction.

How important has good employees been to your success?

The idea is nothing without execution, and execution comes from a good team. So, they are everything to our success.

What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs trying to start their business?

Start it. You will learn on the way, and it will make you a better and smarter person. Remember that every rejection is feedback that you can learn from and improve your business, your pitch, whatever it is that people may not be buying into.

What is the best advice you’ve ever being given?

Michael Gold told me that there are two types of people, the idea people, and the people that execute those ideas. He said that I am an idea person, and we need to find people that execute and we will build something special.

Thanks for your time Paul

Check out their website and the cool things they produce

I finally got the chance to do the interview with jesse gossett, who has being a busy man of late or should i say the entrepreneur of the moment, Not only was his company the Winner of BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Under 25 Competition, they were also Invited to the White House .

Hello Jesse, How are you doing today? We appreciate you sharing some of your time with us on YHP

Glad to!

Can you quickly give the Readers some background information about yourself?

I’m from Washington State origionally, grew up in the woods, went to Tufts University and graduated with a double major in Environmental Science and History in 2008.

So what do you do?

I work for Emergent Energy Group, a company I co-founded with some friends from Tufts University.

What inspired you to start a company? How did the idea start?

We travelled the world through a club we were a part of at Tufts. On these trips we would study different energy issues, such as green transmission lines in CA, the carbon cap and trade system in the EU, and the first annual World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

How were you able to manage your time between studies and starting up a business?

I was a liberal arts student. I didn’t do homework…

Is this your first business?

Yes

How did you finance your business?

We sold 2 contracts before we graduated, giving us some cash in the bank so we could hit the ground running. Since then it’s been boot-strapped. We’re currently poking around for some seed funds to help launch our solar development branch here in MA, though.

Who are your target market, how do you market to them and what marketing technique has been the most effective?

Network, network network. This business is all about relationships. And if people like you, they’ll work with you. Our customers are all over the place, from developers to municipalities to businesses.

What outsiders have been most important to your business success?

Mentors. We have a very strong group of mentors that we’ve met around Boston, everyone from fellow entrepreneurs to business partners who’ve been doing this for a long time.

Do you believe business has any obligation to make the world a better place?

Absolutely. We’re very big proponents of the triple bottom line.

How many hours do you work a day on average?

Too many… We love what we do, so we don’t notice. Girlfriends do, though…

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

You’re never going to get it completely right the first time. Be prepared to continually evolve both professionally as a company as well as personally as an employee, manager, and entrepreneur.

On those impossible days, what motivates you to keep going?

I’m an energy nerd, so I truely do enjoy the sector we’re in. Oh, and I have flashbacks to life in a cubicle…

Do you have a favourite business tool or resource?

Google earth. For what we do, it does everything.

Where do you see in yourself and your business in the next 5 years?

I’ll have some grey hairs (figuratively and literally…). Emergent will have transformed the way renewable energy is developed in the North East and will have set its sights nationally and internationally.

Thanks for your time Jesse

Connect with Jesse on Twitter and don’t forget to check out their website, they’re doing some great things, you will be amazed.

Stephen Tells us how it all Started

Stephen Leguillon started his first business at 16, Now he runs his own company which he Co-Founded with two of his friends Steve Barnes and Velin Djidjev, E-resistible.co.uk – An online takeaway website where you can place orders directly to restaurants, rate and review restaurants according to your own experience.

In this interview Stephen talks about:

Starting his first business at 16
Leaving paris and relocating to the UK
How he started E-resistible
The Most difficult part of starting his own business
The Growth of his company
Plans for the future and more…

Enjoy the Interview and don’t forget to leave comments.

What was it like to run your own business at the age of 16?

My first business venture was entirely based on my entertainment, so it wasn’t really to hard to get started as there was really something in it for me. I was organising parties and events for groups of students and taking part in them. I think that having this challenge at a young age was very constructive. Being young I was kind of fearless which in turn helped me to get things done very quickly. I had a lot of support from experienced people, both family and other business owners, and after the first members were signed up and event organised, things started flowing perfectly.

I had to tone down my involvement in this business to pass my Baccalaureate, but luckily there were some other people to pick it up!

Can you give us some background information about yourself?

I am a Co-Founder and Director of E-resistible.co.uk. I moved from Paris to the UK when I was 17 to study a BSc in Management at Warwick Business School from which I graduated last year.

A couple of months into my 1st Year, I came up with the concept of E-resistible – an online takeaway website. It took me a year secure appropriate funding, build a team and find the right people to support the business. With this in place and having asked my two friends, Steve Barnes and Velin Djidjev, to co-found E-resistible, it only took six months for the site was ready. It launched in the Midlands and took off instantly.
I now live in London from where I run E-resistible. I focus on the company’s long-term strategic deals as well as national and international expansion.

Did you feel you missed out parts of your childhood what with the responsibility of owning your own business?

I would say that it brought an additional dimension to my childhood and growing up. Everyone has certain activities and certain things they enjoy when at school and growing up. For me, it was running projects and essentially doing business. I believe it is essential to have fun in anything you do, and I had loads of fun then and do now with E-resistible.

How did it feel leaving your business in Paris and relocating to the UK?

I actually had to reduce my involvement in the business in Paris to focus on my Baccalaureate. After applications for universities were done, I had received an offer from Warwick Business School requiring a certain score at the exam. Moreover, this business was focussed on students who were all in exams then too, so there was less demand for our services. It wasn’t very hard leaving it behind, as this first business venture was pretty much an experience, an adventure. Having made it work was enough for me and I was ready to move on to bigger things. Although when I got to the UK I had already decided I would be setting something up as soon as possible. The second I relocated I was already looking for a venture to get involved in or start up.

How did you come up with the idea of E-resistible? And please give us a little insight into what it is?

E-resistible is an online takeaway website. Established in November 2007, its focus has been to serve the local takeaway market. E-resistible.co.uk enables customers to place orders to their local restaurants directly on the Internet. It serves as an intermediary, transferring orders placed online to restaurants.

From the start, I had a clear vision of E-resistible being a unique market place connecting customers to their local takeaways. The service to the customers has been and will always be free of charge. They have the choice to rate and review restaurants according to their own experiences. Competition between the restaurants will be based solely on what they can offer to the customers – quality of the food, quality of the service and price.

I initially came up with this concept when arriving at Warwick. I believe it is possible to come up with business ideas simply by observing your environment. You often hear about famous entrepreneurs who take time off every now and again to observe people and their habits and see what can be done better. I took that approach. The takeaway market was totally new to me, food delivery is not very popular in France. So when I moved to the UK, I saw this new culture and that there was a lack of information for customers who actually wanted to spend money! They just needed a platform to do it easily.

How long did it take for you to get E-resistible ‘off the ground’?

I started building the idea in the context of a module at Warwick Business School called The Integrative Project, which was a Dragons’ Den style module where all 350 1st year undergraduates are divided into groups of 6 and are told to come up with a business idea to pitch to investors. This involved constructing a business plan and doing some market research.

I recall the pitch going so well that one of the judges asked me “where do I sign”. When I got out of there, I couldn’t have been more motivated. I was not particularly close to the team members in that module and a couple of months later, after having done a little more market research myself, I asked Velin Djidjev and Steve Barnes to have a go at it with me.

The first set was incorporating the business, which was quickly done in November 2007. We took a little more time to get the site up and running with our first partner restaurants around Warwick Campus. Once we launched in May 2008, E-resistible met a real and strong success. All students started ordering and we decided to take it to another level.

E-resistible grew by over 6900% in 2008. It has placed itself as an intermediary between over 400 restaurants and over 14,000 customers in the UK.

What do you feel is the USP of e-resistible- especially in light of your other competitors? How does you website differ?

You will find out that some of our competitors have more restaurants than us – a wider coverage. However, we differentiate ourselves by selecting the outlets on e-resistible very carefully and removing bad performing ones. It takes us longer to expand, partly because we are a younger company, and mainly because we strive to find the right outlets for our users – not just all the outlets in an area. Quality of the user experience is key to us, we don’t just wait for customers to find us – we build loyalty by providing to ultimate on stop shop for we make sure we offer a substantial variety of types of food in areas we cover, some of our competitors have many restaurants in some towns but these turn out to only be kebab shops and pizza outlets.

In terms of usability, E-resistible has a great advantage when it comes to design and speed of the site. As you can see the design of the site is a lot more modern and up to date, matching the needs of the student and young professional market. Similarly, in terms of usability, our menu pages are a lot better as there is no scrolling involved, we have sliding sections, which no other sites have replicated. Another example of this is the real time search function on menus. The second we implemented this feature, it took an average of 30% less time to place an order! Same goes with the customisation of items ordered, with our competitors, there is an additional step to add for example extra toppings, all is done in our options underneath dishes. All these features really enhance the user experience and orders are placed a lot quicker on our site.

An important feature of e-resistible is that we verify through our call centre (owned and managed exclusively by and for e-resistible) that each and every order goes according to plan and the users have a trouble free experience.

Our commitment to user comfort is therefore key and I trust it cannot be found anywhere else.

How did it feel to win the ‘Be your own boss’ competition?

The swings you can get in confidence when running you own start-up are devastating. One day you can be full of energy and the next completely depressed. But I notice today that to real valuable work you do is when you have a positive state of mind. Getting recognition from peers can give you the extra bit of boost you need to get real things moving.

Building the confidence to start E-resistible from scratch depended on the success I had in the pitch at Warwick Business School. But winning the Be your own boss competition was a lot more important – it gave us the strength to give E-resistible a real full-time shot. After the competition we got an article published in The Independent which pushed our business a great deal.

What would you say has been the most difficult part of starting your business and how did you overcome it?
The hardest part I faced with my colleagues came down to the day-to-day issues we hadn’t thought of initially. Moving from a business plan to actually running it is where a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck and the first few decisions can be crucial. I realised that when having to deal with these troubles, the best way around it is to take a snap decision and see where it brings you. For example, when we started off we had problems getting our revenue from restaurant owners who wouldn’t pay up. This strain on the cash flow had turned into something quite dangerous for our success. Something had to be done and we took some snap decisions as to stop working with some restaurants and modifying our revenue collection methods, being a lot more direct with the third parties.

Since inception, how do you feel your business has grown?

E-resistible has grown a tremendous amount – over 6900% in 2008. From our small launch in May 2008, with just 16 restaurants and a few orders from our friends, we have build a network of 400 restaurants, covering over 30 cities connecting over 14,000 users to their local takeaways daily. And we are still growing strong, this growth is just accelerating!

What has been your most memorable moment so far?

The most memorable moment was the first day we launched E-resistible, in May 2008. It had taken a huge amount of work to get to that moment. E-resistible had been started from scratch and none of us really knew what we were doing. We had pitched the concept to the first partner restaurants without even having anything to show them or knowing how it would all work. Naturally we were the first to place an order but seeing the slow trickle of orders enter our administration section was the most gratifying and stressful feeling ever.

What do you do for fun when you’re not thinking of your company?

I’m not sure I can say I spend much time not thinking about E-resistible. It think when you start your own company, as soon as you do anything after that, you start wondering how you could apply it to business. I am now relatively involved with mentoring other student aspiring entrepreneurs. I truly have a passion for all this and believe it can be one of the best experiences anyone can go through in their career and personal development. Last month I was kindly invited to UCL and Aston University to share my experience with their entrepreneur societies and give my bit of advice – I hope to push this side of my activities a little more.
However, I have been known to play my fair share of poker, having been involved in the Warwick Poker Society where there are a lot of very good players

What advices to do you have for other young entrepreneurs also hoping to enter the internet industry?

I believe something which is often underestimated in the internet industry is the importance of the offline activities. Naturally this depends on the company, but in the case of E-resistible it was key to get things done right out in the “real” world. From this, I would say the most important thing is building the right team with enough people to succeed both online and offline. To a certain extent this is the only way these business can thrive and luckily I found the perfect people for E-resistible. There is a gap between what some excellent programmers can do online and the results they would expect. Bringing in some people to push the more business-orientated side of things is crucial.

What should we be expecting from you in the future?

For the time being I am completely committed to E-resistible. We plan to push it nationwide and internationally – as soon as possible. However, as the business grows and more people can get involved, I can take a more overview approach to my day to day activities.

I come up with a lot of business ideas, a lot of them stupider than others but with the team I work with today, there are a lot of things we could do. So you can expect many more businesses and a huge success from E-resistible!

Thanks stepehen for sharing your story and taking time to do this interview, I wish you the very best in the future.

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