You’re probably wondering my reasons for visiting this website so much right? I dont know myself, lets just say its addictive, just as addictive everyone is towards facebook, twitter, myspace and the rest of them.
I can’t remember the last time i checked skysports.com or soccernet.com

On all my days going on the site did i ever pause to think who owned the site, actually i did think about it couple months ago and then it came to my mind last week but i just thought it was some young dude, then after checking out their new logo behold the name of the CEO was mentioned, I couldnt believe it wasn’t some young 18-24 years old.

It just shows that tons of millions are being invested online.

Anyways, I like the new logo though, Goal.com rocks..

16 years old Bilawal Hameed, A young entrepreneur from Machester, thought of his next business idea and decided to build it of the model of Flickr, Wikipedia, and TwitPic, Wikipic is the name of the site he says will be a world stunner in the next 2 years.

Hello, Bilawal. Thank you for joining us today. Before , we get started, please just give a brief intro into your company and yourself?

No problem, it is my deepest pleasure. I am Bilawal Hameed, a 16 year old entrepreneur from Manchester, United Kingdom and I build and maintain online business solutions since 2002. Yes, that’s right, I have been doing this since I was 9 years old and I traded my first business online in 2003 and have been into businesses ever since. To the most recent, I have developed WikiPic, a online image library startup that runs a very intensive and powerful infrastructure to automate the imagery technology of applications, such as my invention, “image checksums”. I’m always developing and experimenting with solutions, if not, you’re most likely to find me working on WikiPic or my new venture, Ferple.

You started at such a young age, how do you think that has helped you to grow as a person? And be able to be successful at your business?

It has helped me grow as a person by the way I think, because doing things like this at a exceptionally young part of your life is extremely amazing because it shows your talent revealed before your eyes. It has helped me divert in a professional person and I stand myself out from everyone else simply because of the professionalism of the atmosphere you want to be around, not what your forced to be around. Success is something that will come to everyone, it is how you react on it to continue your success. After all that trading, you still can’t seem to get some things right, but I believe the best way to be successful is to listen to your community, they use your service, and they will make you successful at the same time.

You have worked with some very big companies, what qualities do you think you possessed which singled you out to work with the companies?

Some companies I have worked with have simply been lucky approaches, but from those experiences I have built out huge ranges of contacts that I can easily use for future ventures. Being responsible for millions of pounds at only 14-15 years old is a pretty hectic experience, but to even realize people are looking for talent no matter how young or old shows transparent diversity in companies – they’re willing to take any twists or turns to make it into the industry. I emphasized interest, and worked extremely hard to approach my identity to the world, and even when you are established you still have to consistently reapproach yourself to the industry as your battling against other entrepreneurs that probably won’t have the qualities that you have but will have the money or contacts to get themselves known with big companies. Just be yourself, and let people see good things about you. They always soon see that they have to look for the best out of the bunch.

Where did the inspiration for wikipic come from?

Good question. WikiPic is built off several other companies, which specifically are: Flickr, Wikipedia, and TwitPic. These companies all had amazing advantages to the world that I wanted to bring into one service. Flickr has flexibility. Wikipedia has knowledge. TwitPic has demands. I tried so much to reinvent the wheel for user-orientated libraries and a large network that could change all the opportunities we have online, and from tons of hours of development and experimentation with my colleagues.. we came up with WikiPic. In specific, it took 2 years to invent this amazing project. From all that time, I have been building on the platform and consistently it is improving day-by-day until we’re ready to let it be a world stunner. I’m more focused on improving the capabilities, and options that our world has rather than working on making money. Money can be made in every possible way you can think of, however making a long lasting impact is something that is a real challenge, and something that nobody can take from you, ever.

How long did it take to set up wikipic? And if there was anything you wished you could have done better whilst setting it up, what would it be?

As answered in the previous question, I have taken 2 years to set it up to get it as amazingly powerful as it is today. If companies like Google invented a company like this, they would have millions of dollars, however I built this amazing project in a sum of $500 and amazing knowledge, and it has been a lot of work, but extremely worth it. At my age, there’s not much you can do in terms of exposure as you don’t really have much contacts, but if I really did have to make an improvement, it probably would of been getting an investment because it would of made the process more smoother and can help me and a possible WikiPic team improve the platform on a day-to-day basis.

Do you feel you are more disadvantaged with regards to age because you are so young, and your
competitors are most likely to be older and more experienced?

Not at all. Even 40 year old startup founders can be even more unexperienced than you, just do your due digilence and you’ll soon realize that you should no way at all be disadvantaged. You’re going to be disadvantaged if you think like that. Self-esteem and confidence are the two main factors in yourself that are necessary in order from you or your businesses from becoming successful.

How do you manage the work/play balance?

At first years of high school, I spent practically all of my time on the computer. My parents at first were extremely skeptical about development online due to inappropriate content being published online, and doing what any other parent would of done. After soon realizing that I have a strong interest in the online business, I was let loose and given time to setup my own business. With a lot of hard work and underpayments for work, I invested my first $50 bucks into a website with some preset code. Time and self-education is what made me what I am today. A lot of things I missed out on, but it does show you love something so much you are willing to give everything up for it. Now, I split everything 50/50 since I’m approached in my first year in College.

Finally, what “wisdom words” would you give to young entrepreneurs of today’ s day and age?

To every other entrepreneur. Always imagine this scenario to yourself, “Imagine a world with full knowledge to anything, and without anyone.” – that kind of help is more valuable than having someone assist you. Everyone who has internet has access to doing business as professional as every other successful entrepreneur out there, and there’s qualities that you WILL have that nobody else does, and you discover them along the road of building your first business to success. It’s a hard, but enjoying experience that you’ll only realize at the end. Listen to your community. Don’t take shortcuts in life. I’ll leave the rest for you to find out, as your adventure will be completely different from mine.

Check out his site
Wikipic

Who said bestfriends can’t make a business work would have to think twice and i guess once in a while you get that perfect story of a start-up business, Ashley and Danielle are two bestfriends after graduating from the university of washington quickly found success and fame after starting their clothing line.

Can you quickly give us some brief background information about yourselves?

Ashley Cook - I grew up in Colorado and graduated from Washington University’s Olin School of Business in 2008 where i double majored in Marketing and Spanish with a minor in Drama. Instantly fell in love with fashion at a very young age. As a little girl i would cut and sew any and every article of clothing i could get her hands on.

Danielle Dankner- I was born and raised in New York and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a major in English Literature and minors in French, Psychology and Modern Dance.

Firstly, how did you both meet?

As fate would have it, the two of us were set up as roommates at Washington University in St. Louis freshman year. We lived together for all four years of college and became best friends. After graduation in May of 2008, we both moved to New York City and soon thereafter started our company, ash&dans.

Did you both have any entrepreneurial background, how did you know that you wanted to start a business together?

Ashley was a business major at Washington University. We knew we loved spending time together and knew we wanted to figure out a way to involve each other in our daily lives.

I hear a lot of people complain about working with friends and family, was that a worry when you decided to go into business together?

Not at all. After living together for four years we knew each other so well, both strengths and weaknesses. We are very different but extremely compatible. We balance each other out well. We are both creative, self-motivated and extremely hard workers; we knew that if we set a goal and put our minds to it, we would do anything and everything to make it happen. And we did.

How have you been able to make it work so far?

Through dedication, perseverance and creativity. Our business has become our number one priority. For right now, we know that to make it work we have to put our heart, soul and time into ash&dans. That’s why it has been so successful thus far.

What would you say has been the best quality you’ve developed so far?

Dedication. We are both extremely dedicated to our business. We have developed a line that we are proud of and have the confidence to put it out there and share it with the fashion world.

What is an average workday like for you?

Varies from day to day. Typically we begin the day at the computer, returning emails and filling orders. We spend a lot of time in the garment district- we get a lot of our materials and inspiration walking around there. Our manufacturer is also in the garment district, so our days are very full and hands on.

What is the most interesting part of your job?

We do everything “in house” right now, so everything from design to marketing to PR to sales to accounting we do together on any given day. Every day is full and interesting because we do it all.

If you were to start again, would you do anything differently?

No, we are very happy with how our business started and how it has grown.

How do you market your products or services?

Our creations are original and easy to wear. We built our collection on the concept of embellished jersey- taking simple jersey in chic bodies and adding unique brooches, chains, lace and other unique pieces to dress it up. Our pieces appeal to a wide range of women and ages.

What has been your most effective marketing tactic or technique?

People love our story- two best friends moving to New York and seeing their dream come true. From the beginning, sewing our own pieces on the bedroom floor to now having our collection professionally manufactured and sold in such renowned stores as Bendels and Harvey Nichols, ours is truly a success story for the ages.

They was a lot of buzz when Leighton Meester decided to wear your brand, how did that happen and how did you find out?

We gifted Leighton the scarf last winter and about a month later one of our friends emailed us saying that she saw a photo of Leighton on one of the websites and she thought that she might be wearing one of our scarves. It turned out to be our “Niki” scarf, the navy wrap scarf with black lace trim.

What else do you girls do outside work?

Ashley- I am a actress and play competitive tennis.
Danielle - I am a dancer and writer; I have performed jazz, West African and modern dance.

What was the most difficult period so far in your entrepreneurial journey and how did you bounce back from that?

Luckily, the most difficult part was simply learning to block out the non-believers. There were people in the beginning who did not believe our business would take off. If we listened to all of the pessimists and gave up on ourselves, the business would not exist today. However, we are both extremely determined and motivated individuals. Once we set a goal for ourselves, we do anything and everything in our power to make it happen, no matter what people say. We knew from the beginning that we had a great concept and the personalities and work ethic to make it happen.

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

First and foremost, perfecting the quality of our product was crucial to our success. Second, developing our website with ecommerce capability was crucial to online sales and reaching the online consumer.

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

We aim to continually create original concepts and designs that are both beautiful and wearable. For now we are known for our accessories, but we plan to expand into women’s apparel. We have a line of embellished jersey tees and cardigans coming out in Spring 2010.

What should we be expecting from you both in the future?

Our hope is that ash&dans will be a recognizable brand and we will have the freedom to expand our line to include any designs that we create. Hopefully we will have a consumer base with brand loyalty that keep wanting more and more ash&dans.

Thanks ladies,To get your hand on one of their collection, check out their website
Ash&Dans