Teenage entrepreneurs aren’t a new phenomenon in the valley - 17 year old Kristopher Tate founded Zooomr back in 2006, and Jessica Mah could call herself a serial entrepreneur by age 17. But it’s still pretty rare to see a startup founder get dropped off for work by his mother.
At our August Capital event last week, I met 15 year old Daniel Brusilovsky for the first time. While I had come across a few videos on the web detailing this young man’s enthusiasm and eagerness to succeed in the tech space, I was still taken aback by just how bright the kid is. He seems to know everyone, and a quick glance at his Twitter account shows he gets around too, with recent visits to Twitter, Apple, and the TechCrunch ranch - all without a drivers’ license.
Today Daniel is launching his first startup. The site is Teens In Tech, a community for teenagers interested in producing and sharing new media content in a safe environment. The site launches today in a very limited private alpha, with plans to expand to a public beta by the end of the year.
Brusilovsky says that while there are a number of sites that allow teens to post their content, they don’t make it easy for users to get started. To try to remedy this, Teens In Tech has a simple 3-step signup process, after which users will be given their own subdomain, WordPress blog, and 100MB of storage (the last figure can be easily changed depending on user needs). Users are also given access to a Teens in Tech forum, where they can go to ask questions about new media, or anything else they may have on their mind.
From a technical standpoint Teens In Tech will be fighting an uphill battle. The site is using Dreamhost, a cheap service that most companies wouldn’t go near with a ten foot stick, as its storage provider. And to be perfectly honest, it doesn’t seem like there’s much new code behind Teens in Tech - the backend is a mostly standard Wordpress multi-user install, similar to what runs on the commercial Wordpress.com site. Brusilovsky says that his team has made some adjustments and that the front page will display dynamic member updates, but for the most part, it seems like a few experienced developers could replicate the site in a week or less.
That said, Teens In Tech may appeal to a niche community of tweens and teens who aren’t satisfied by the plethora of other blogging services already available. Brusilovsky has amassed an impressive list of supporters, with a board of advisers that includes Robert Scoble and Loic Le Meur. And the site is still relatively early in development - given enough resources, I wouldn’t be surprised if Daniel manages to pull this thing off.
Definitely the worst post ever on techcrunch.com — this is essentially a free wordpress host, why would I use this instead of wordpress.com exactly?
I bet you were able to do that at age 15? Don’t think so
. Kid had desire to build something. Might not be something for you but it is def. for kids his age.
I’m 15 and could probably re-create that in a day. All it is is a WPMU install effectively.
Anon: Can you build the team that it took us three months to build in a day? Can you build a core user base in a day?
I don’t want to say you can’t, but realize how much effort all of us put into this before basically trashing this.
You don’t need a team to build this, you can just grab a copy of WPMU and let people use it..
Anon: Then how do you plan on getting the news out to sites like TC? How do you plan on getting a user base to use your service?
By finding some lame spin to put on it of course. OMG 15 year old unzips WPMU.zip, uploads to cheap host!!!!!
What’s next on the plan? A web design forum, a couple of proxies and then one of those myspace clone script sites?
Your candor is duly noted.
I have to agree.. how is this special or newsworthy?
I concur it seems like nothing special to be honest.
Yeah, I wish Daniel all the best of luck and all, but to be honest I think this is reflective of the current time’s “it’s who you know not what you know” attitude. He clearly knows Scoble and Le Meur and has learned from their abilities to PR everything. If he was in in Boise, Idaho doing this and knew no one in Silicon Valley, no one would care.
I also have to say, I read this and do feel a little envious - back in 1998 I was 16 and was running an email service provider with 60,000 users. I got very little media attention - no one cared, no one knew - I just got on with it. It’s what I do now that matters.
You know it’s another bubble when 15 year olds are getting into the game and getting reviewed by sites like techcrunch.
All the best to him… I hope you kick Mark Zuckerberg’s butt.
I think this is embarrassing. Teens in Tech looks like a site where teens show off what they want to do with a blog. It’s really sad considering the Teens in Tech (which I will refer to as TiT from now on) “team” took months to get this started? It’s really just WPMU. Please. Teens could do better, faster, with less “team” members.
Sean Quinn, TiT is only getting coverage because Daniel lives in Silicon Valley. He meets these bloggers. He goes to conferences. He meets big names. It’s really unfair to all of the other teens that are doing bigger and (potentially) better things than TiT, without a team, all across the world. You know why they aren’t getting covered on sites like TC? Because they don’t like in the Silicon Valley. It’s really unfair to 99% of the world.
A quick little note to TechCrunch (and other media): Please pay attention to other teens that aren’t located in the Silicon Valley. They can do a lot more than simply install WordPress Multi-User.
That is all.
I absolutely agree with wesley & Anon. This is ridiculous.
seconded that. My appreciation to MA just fall a bit
I don’t know, I think it’s pretty cool doing that at the age of 15.
his logo is a total rip-off of facebook’s. seriously, just turn it upside down and you’ll have an “F” in a blue square. LOL
My dog is launching something like this call dog in tech. I am its co founder, make sure your put me on the front page as well. I think my dog is more impressive than a kid.
MA, please do something better than this. You have a few new interns and don’t let them look down on you.
sd, I want to be the first member of your new site.
This is the most amazing business I have heard of since reading this blog post about a fifteen year old using Dreamhost.
Tech Crunch, is one of your editors this kid’s uncle or aunt?
a 15yr old launching something, not that amazing of a feat…maybe 10 years ago it would be - but not now.
Hey, I’m Sean Quinn, Teens in Tech’s Director of Marketing. I’ll be here taking care of any questions/comments people have.
Thanks for the report, Jason.
Wesley, presuming you’re a teenager, it’s because this is more than just a free host - we’re working on building a community of teen media producers, so as if to lobby for the industry as a whole. Unlike wordpress.com, you can have up to 100MB of upload space for whatever you wish within the Terms of Service and you have a dedicated support network and service on you completely.
We truly believe we need to invest in our user base, which is what we’re doing with this private alpha, so that they feel that they are not just using a free host, but truly joining a community where teen media can be heard.
Hope that answered your question.
This article is an embarrasment. I agree with Anon. There’s a shit load of smart 15 year olds out there interested in tech. Just cause this kid sluts around silicon valley doesnt make him any more special. Take a hike Daniel and Sean. Director of Marketing, hahahahah. you’re so professional, joke.
I couldn’t say it better myself.
Director of Marketing? Shouldn’t you be in school or something, kid?
Yeah, go play Yu-Gi-Oh and watch X-Play.
Lawrence:
Although your sentiments are heard, please realize how much bias still exists against the under-18 community. Daniel is a mastermind at networking and negotiating, when most kids our age (I’m nearing 16 as well) are turned away and looked down on.
I’m not in the Valley like him, but I know from interaction with other officials (politics is my niche) that I get only a fleeting glance when I’m trying to bring a point across.
I like the enthusiasm and of the young boy in Web 2.0. This is an inspiration for others. Keep it up Daniel.
At leapways, we offer services for start-ups. Checkout http://www.leapways.com
Rob
Umm…So this site is on the front page because the kid knows some people? Interesting…
basically
This isn’t true. We’ve all worked hard to get this here — including me, who knows no one and has gone to a total of 0 meetups here in Orlando.
Although Daniel has built up an impressive list of contacts, we’ve sent this to a variety of sources that are easily accessible and not some “secret knowledge”.
quit while you are ahead dude, you can’t win trying to respond to every troll on the internet. except in this case they aren’t trolling. this is just attention-whoring taken to a new level of debasement. frankly if you are fifteen, cracking your math book is going to take you further in life than whoring your ass around to third-rate “thought leaders” (read:dipshits) in SV who can barely pay their own bills.
by time junior gets to college (questionable if he spends all his time screwing around with idiot web gadgets), scoble and the rest will be banging their tin cans on university ave hoping someone needs unskilled labor.
Yep, that’s the only reason why. And why does he know people? He lives in Silicon Valley. I wish the online media would pay more attention to those who are located in other parts of the world and not just to those in Silicon Valley.
Sean,
Can you confirm something I read or heard somewhere a bit back that Teens in Tech will actually cost money to join? It won’t be free, but will have a monthly subscription fee?
Thanks.
Bruce
Is Teens in Tech an impressive product? No. Not in any way, really. Is it impressive that a 15-year-old is behind it? Yes. Extremely impressive.
I think that about sums it up. The ONLY interesting thing here is the age of the founder. Which certainly does count for something.
He is young so let’s encourage the enthusiasm and wish him all the very best…
As a teen he may have a perspective that some of us older folk are missing…
I’m very interested to see how this turns out. I definately agree with Sean’s statement: “Bias still exists agaisnts the under-18 community” as I have been starting businesses and selling on ebay for the past couple years. I myself am 16. I don’t have any websites or links to show what I’ve done, yet.
But just wait about 3 months. I guarantee a much more comprehensive website.
Nathan
Very nice, the enthusiasm is great, the execution is poor. Dreamhost isn’t good for anything.
By the time I was 15 I had been using PHP for 2yrs and ruby for around 6 months. I knew my way around a unix server and could setup a production ready cluster, ready to take a nice amount of traffic.
With a little help from some designer friends (I suck at design), I could have got this up and running, in a few hours.
I didn’t, and maybe thats what I’m missing - his entrepreneurial attitude, but to be honest, the next Digg developed by a 15 year old would have blown my mind, but not a shared blog host, whatever its intentions.
Ashley:
The next Digg would have been amazing, but that’s not what we’re in the market for. I was approached by Daniel to join TITech because we believed that it would be able to help out those who weren’t able to afford monthly hosting or a domain name.
Sure, Dreamhost is not the greatest right now, and the hosting discussion is one we’ve been having internally. But please realize that our mission was to get a community up and running for teens who can actually use it, and it IS a niche community.
For the record, we’re also horrible at design - that’s why we hired Sean Blake (sean-blake.com) to do it for us. I think it looks great, for what it’s worth.
haha, Sean said TIT.
The site is now in the process of being moved to MediaTemple. We’re just waiting for the DNS to be changed. I was hosting it on my Dreamhost virtual server (along with several other sites, which I’m also moving elsewhere), which proved unable to handle the load.
@Yasser: No, this is on the front page because when we launched today, we sent a press release to various organizations, including TechCrunch. Normal operating procedure.
@Bruce K. Cook: From what I understand, Teens in Tech will be 100% free. If there have been any discussions of a subscription fee, I’ve not been privy to them. With that said, I think a subscription fee is almost the opposite of what we want to do with TITech.
@Justin: The problem is the product isn’t fully developed yet. We can’t survive just on the fact “we’re cutesy little teens” alone, we do need a product to market, and that’s what we’re in the process of developing with this private alpha.
@Jollyjo: As much as I appreciate your support for our optimism and enthusiasm, we ARE trying to sell a product here. Right now, it’s bare bones and not 100% developed, hence being in a private alpha, but the community has, just from my own observation, been getting more and more technologically advanced week by week.
@Nathan: Glad to hear it, buddy! If you need to host a blog or a podcast, you know where to look.
(shameless plug, I know.)
You need to stop posting. Your verbosity makes you look way too defensive.
Bias will always exist for teenagers. I was a teenager once and I speak from experience when I say that most teenagers are dumb asses. The sad thing is that many stay that way their entire lives.
Sure, it will. I know that for a fact. I have friends, haha. But why should said bias extend into the way knowledgeable teenagers are treated by adults?
That’s why I don’t want the main issue here to be that Daniel’s 15, but that we’ve got a marketable and usable product for the niche it does serve.
Congratulations to Daniel and all at Teens in Tech, Daniel is a very bright young guy and I am sure teens in tech will be very successful.
Lets give them a break here folks, let them develop and see what comes out the other side.
Thanks, Pat. We do need some time to develop, which is why I emphasize it’s a private alpha — not just so we get 10 users to tell us what’s buggy, but also 10 users to tell us what they don’t like or what they don’t think will be profitable.
Jeez, I gotta get in the shower — but I’ve been enjoying the conversation we’ve been having.
I posted a Town Hall up on Seesmic for all who wish to comment.
http://seesmic.com/video/EQnhDhA8Nh
(btw this is me trying to be helpful, this isn’t a wise-guy crack at you).
Sean - one of the things you’ll learn quickly as a “Director of Marketing” is that you don’t respond to every single point made against you. From a business perspective it demonstrates you’ve not made your point clear initially (in the press release, or whatever). Also, it indicates that you don’t feel the audience/user/customer can make their own judgment based on what was said by both parties… you don’t need to enter into a slanging match.
Sorry, this is totally OT for Techcrunch, but it pains me to watch you rebuttle every point made against you, it’s not how you win at PR and marketing!
Congratulations Daniel and best of luck to you.
I think people in the U.S. greatly underestimate the power of youth to change the world.
I think we should highlight more young people and their ventures. And this effort to build a community seems like a terrific way to do just that.
Michael Dell launched his first business in high school and was employing dozens of people by the time he graduated.
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, Laura.
I am waiting for future balls asslick to post here
More power to you, fellows! You’re really on to something, and who knows what will develop. Keep at it!
Thanks, Nicholas.
Sean, you’re not on youtube.
That kid is as cute as a button and I think anyone willing to take the risk and give it a go on their own is pretty special. Good luck!
Thanks, Jacquelyn.
@ButtHole - You suck
so many of TC readers are full of shit.
congrats to daniel and his team.
Thanks, elvirs.
I would not use TITech that much to shorten Teen In Tech. It looks to much like TIT ech. With you aiming at a younger audience, you might get a lot of people commenting stuff like: “lol, he said TIT, lol”
just a thought.
The problem with the acronym is if we were to go with Teens in Tech as TIT, it becomes a pronunciation (as well as a maturity issue) problem. Is it Tee Aye Tee or Teet or Tit?
Going with TITech (pronounced Tee Eye Tech) is what we think is the best way to go, but we have thought about it before and totally understand what you’re saying. Thanks.
Congratulations to Daniel and the Teens in Tech team. I’m glad that you guys were able to launch.
Sean, I have a few questions:
1. What is the Teens in Tech revenue model? Is it your intent to be profitable or charitable?
2. Is Teens in Tech incorporated?
3. Who else is in the Teens in Tech team?
4. Do you have a timetable for going public?
Good luck,
Chris Farley
I just told another media contact that I’m unsure on revenue at this time. We’ve gone back and forth on it in company meetings and Chris, I’ll let you know immediately when we do.
In regards to incorporation, Daniel has been in talks with a Silicon Valley-based lawyer in regards to incorporating as an LLC.
#3 I’ll answer to you privately. I don’t want their names to be published here if they don’t wish it so. I will say that there is 5-7 of us currently on Team.
Yes, we do, and it’s currently internal and conditional based on the results of the private alpha.
chor
I started fulltime IT work at 16, does that count too?
Good hussle, keep it up.
Sure it does. Thanks, Jonathan.
From a technical perspective the site is fairly simple. This could easily be a first web programming project for any basic teenager, and in fact would be considered to simple a project to be accepted as a final project.
Your article (rightly) points out that what is actually notable is his ability to network. Please tell us who is parents are, and how much they helped him meet this folks.
The reality is that there is no ingenuity or creativity behind the site. When you comment on something done by a person who is extremely young this should be the primary focus. For example, 12 year old Dmitri Gaskin who is a major contributer to the jQuery project.
Being a teen is fantastic, trying to create a company is even more impressive, but do something original and creative. Creating another “niche” social network is a waste of your enthusiasm.
Ponder deeper richer problems and solve them.
Although we’re not contributing to jQuery, we do believe we’re doing something original and unique by helping those who are wanting to become more involved in Web 2.0 technology do so through our site, even if they usually wouldn’t have the means to do so.
im from Argentina, third world country..
im 15… and i have build around 20 website’s and i have my own design and develope studio..
why just a WPMU installation should be great?…
i also use Dreamhost as him, but i dont live in the Valley, im not a natural English Speaker and my country money (Argentinian “Peso”) worth’s nothing…
and im still having greater things.. my idea is not to make a competition, but i think there are much more under 18 kids that really make great things in internet to be clapping Daniel Brusilovsky..
bye
http://www.xiondesigns.com.ar/
http://www.riveresmundial.com.ar/
Sure, I appreciate what you’re doing for the Web, Fran, but why we believe our idea is unique and newsworthy is because we are working hard to provide for teens who wish to get involved in Web 2.0 but otherwise can’t. It’s not just a WPMU installation.
It’s not just WPMU!
It’s WPMU with a slightly different theme!
Congratulations, you know how to use the Design tab of WordPress. That’s only impressive if you’re 5.
Standard Press Release procedure doesn’t work, it’s all about who you know as this article has proven.
I launched my first UK Business Partnership last year at the age of 17, sent out Press Releases to several blogs, newspapers, television stations, magazines etc - but as one would expect, no one could give a crap.
Daniel knows some powerful people in the industry, THAT is why he’s getting the kind of coverage that I never had, or other start ups for that matter.
This article fails to acknowledge that another startup, the Teen Podcasters Network, has been doing this SINCE 2005!
As I said, it’s not what you know, or what you do, but who you know…
Chris: As I’ve just acknowledged to some other media contacts, we consider TPN friendly as even Daniel’s podcast is hosted through them.
We like what they’re doing, but most of the members of TPN/TBN have their own sites on which their podcasts or blogs are hosted and TPN just works to syndicate them.
We want to do more than that.
So the creator and the guy in charge of Teens In Tech doesn’t trust his own start up enough to use his service?
That shows a lot…
Chris: Daniel’s been doing his own podcast for years through TPN and will most likely be making the switch when Teens in Tech goes live.
It doesn’t make much sense to use a service that doesn’t exist yet, does it?
So in that case what’s the point in launching today?
To establish ourselves as a site for future prospective users — although it’s currently in private alpha, we want the message of our site and it’s availability in the future to be known even though it’s not open to the public yet, it is near ready to be open to the public.
So are you guys thinking short term? I mean, people don’t stay teens forever.
Sure, but the way we plan on marketing is through teen through teen through teen. Truly grassroots. I’ll tell my friend who’s involved in tech who’s now going into middle school when I graduate high school to check out the site. That’s how we plan on it. Teens aren’t teens forever, but there will always be some generation of teenagers.
In regards to management staying teenagers, we’re not exactly sure how we’re gonna handle that one right now. We’re just looking in the here and now at the moment, and will develop a management strategy in the coming future in regards to the ages of the Team.
Good luck to the site. I for one am extremely impressed by the professional and articulate way Sean Quinn has responded in the above posts. Much better than a lot of highly paid suited idiots in the industry.
It certainly goes a long way towards showing their passion for the venture, which in itself instils quite a bit of confidence; even if this one doesn’t pan out, i’m sure their future ventures will.
Thank you for your kind remarks.
I think it’s great that Sean has learned to create multiple accounts to defend himself!
good luck Daniel.
You make me feel old to launch my own start-up at 31… Though I wonder what I was doing when I was 15.
Haha, don’t worry about it, I hope your startup does well! Thanks.
Absolutely brilliant putting a kids face as the front man of the operation. Even if doesn’t go the distance, great job on the marketing!
We had no plans to make Daniel our personal Gerber Baby, but if it works like that, hey, I don’t mind.
Haha this is a fucking joke. The idea is shit, the implementation is shit. Its basically a free wordpress host. Dont tell me that you give 100 mb of hosting and because of that you should be special. Thats just bullshit. There are 100’s of free hosts that give way more than 100mb of hosting. And dreamhost.com. Are you serious? Those guys are one of the crappiest hosts in the world (read reviews at webhostingtalk.com).
And the age of the founder? Im 15, and I could do a much better job. Just because he is 15 does not mean anything. It does not impress me at all. He looks like a fucking retard in the picture.
So this guy got a post on TC cause hes 15. Thats it. This isnt even a “startup” (its a fucking free wordpress host), and this guy isnt a fucking “entrepreneur”.
BULLSHIT.
Waiting for Sean Quinn’s reply….
You’re really representing our generation well with your language. Keep it up, why don’t you?
This is much more than just a blog host. It’s a community for teens who wish to get involved in Web 2.0 — it provides them with the basis for networking (which you all have proved is everything is business) and the availability for syndication and hosting, which makes our service the best in regards to getting New Media out as a teen.
Sean — you aren’t being supportive. You have to understand not all teens are mature enough to not post bad language. If you, and the rest of the TiT team don’t accept that fact, then TiT will fail even more than I originally thought it would.
Ok let me put this in another way. There is no innovation in your so called “startup”. You just took a couple of existing open source projects, put them together, and gave it a name. What we can agree on is that there is no innovations and no originality.
Lets see how (un)successful you guys are.
So, what you’re effectively saying is that your site is a lamed-down version of LiveJournal? or Blogger? or Wordpress.com?
The first two have been targeting teens for most of your life, kid.
All TIT’s done is figure out how to install WPMU on Dreamhost. Which, if memory serves me correctly, is the only accomplishment it’s managed.
At least this guy is doing something productive at 15 vs many other 15 yr old kids out there. We were all 15 once, and I know when I was 15 - wasn’t even thinking about being involved with a startup. Best of luck!
Rex