20 Year Old on Starting Businesses
How does a 20 year old go from losing several thousand to asking for $3-4 million?
Neerav recent founder of Best Giraffe, and just a normal college student shares how it happened.
For him, starting a business is perfect do while you're young, and he believes anyone can do it with hard work and motivation.
What is the idea, exactly?
Simply, it's a YouTube for ads. Users create ads and advertisers buy them. It's great for everyone because users get more exposure than they would otherwise, and advertisers save money. They also get to choose the best ads from a wider pool than they would otherwise.
How did you get inspired?
Initially it was just for an elevator pitch contest and we came in second. We were thinking of pursuing the idea sometime in the future.
But one of our advisors took us aside...said waiting would be stupid. By the time we acted, someone else would have done it.
You're only 20 years old.
Well, this is basically the best time to start a company. You have more free time than you ever will, especially during vacation, and you can only succeed. Even if you fail, it'll be good in the long run, and it's a lot of fun.
What was the worst moment for you?
Legally incorporating was very scary. We didn't want to expose ourself legally at all. And coordinating the web designer and everyone was also very hard.
At one point, we had one week left. One week before we left back for school, and if we didn't get things organized then, it wouldn't work. We had already invested several thousand dollars, and it was very scary.
You clearly got past that problem.
My family helped a lot. [...] it's essential to get support from someone who can guide you through such problems.
What do you say to other young students?
Anyone thinking of starting a business should absolutely go for it. If you have a good idea, and you can implement, investors will give you money. And even if you fail you'll have more experience when you apply for jobs.
You need to have a good idea and be very motivated.
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