A 13-year old’s startup
There’s a great story on Techcrunch UK about a 13-year old in Scotland that’s created his own social network/blogging network. First, I think I should congratulate Scott - Congratulations, Scott, that’s amazing!
Now, I have to take a couple shots at Mike Butcher’s article… While many older people may not have the know to find out who writes about startups, send them press releases, and get on CrunchBase, when I was 13, the average older person couldn’t program the time on their VCR either. Personally, I was consumed with computers - but there was no Internet, no startups, no blogs to contact. I was on many-a-BBS, I created artwork in the what was then known as ANSi (wtf?), I had helped network the computers in our house to play Warcraft on no less than 3 computers (not quite WoW, but hey, it was early 90’s!). While living in Vancouver may have limited possibilities, I had a cousin who developed games and lived in Palo Alto and even made national TV, and the barriers for achieving success were no different for him.
In the age of the Internet, there’s an obvious advantage, but let’s not compare my time with his, because that’s not what the article was about. So, how was it possible for Scott to do so well? Okay, not to knock Scotland, but I have to suggest that North America is probably a bit further ahead than Scotland on the tech front; Scott would have been 9ish when MySpace was exploding on the North American scene. Livejournal, blogger, and others came to be around that time, too. Another point to consider is that what did you do when you were 13? I’m pretty sure most of us would have had a few hours a day that we could use for our hobbies, but as you get older, it’s harder to give time to hobbies or ’side projects’.
Okay, so if you were going to do a real startup, it shouldn’t be a side project, but again, compare this to setting the time on your VCR. Lots of older people could use them, but probably not every feature. Scott’s grown up with the Internet, blogs, social networks, Digg, etc. Even 5 years ago, many of these didn’t really exist, so it would be difficult to have a firm grasp on them all.
I think the real point of the article is summed up near the end and is fairly true: if a 13 year-old can launch a startup then the barrier to entry may be a lot lower than we thought. I have to agree. However, for companies looking to break in to the Internet game, whether as a startup or expanding as an established business, you simply can’t find a substitute for someone who lives and breathes and understands the beast that the Internet is - I’m sure Scott has a pretty good idea. Bottom line, anyone can hop on the Internet Superhighway, but it’s really easy to get lost.