My mom still thinks that school goes first. I'm immature, and I'm still a 16 year old, and that everybody is going to tell me what I want to hear. (im not surprised that a mom would say this) --- but it's a terrible feeling to know that your mom doesn't support your huge vision for success like you would hope.

I'll be sure to write more about this on my blog. (http://jessicamah.com)

And again, feel free to email me and I'll very likely respond.

~ Jessica
mah10538@yahoo.com

jessicam

As for balancing work and school, I can completely relate. I've been doing "adult" work online since I was 16, and I can say with certainty that whenever you're doing something you consider truly important(as running a business is, I imagine) doing homework seems so petty and irrelevant. I'm in college now, and working for a startup, and I still find it difficult to elevate schoolwork above real work. Schoolwork just seems so wasteful in comparison.

Thanks for this great interview- I really look forward to future posts in this series.

Ilya Lichtenstein

Thanks again for the comments! Takes about 30 seconds for me to reply every now and then.

I do wish that I was able to present, but I didn't make the cut and it's alright... No hard feelings. We have plenty of validation when we describe our idea in much *further* depth.

I want to sound semi-professional, yet I want to sound approachable as well. My clients used to be ecstatic about the CEO contacting them personally - and i didnt think it was that big of a deal.

thanks again for the feedback, so greatly appreciated!

jessicam

Many people have good/great/brilliant ideas without the talent to present them in a compelling manner. I think she may have that advantage over the masses.
And I don't think it is due to her age or gender, but that she is an articulate communicator. Her tone may gain some gravity as she matures, but the coherence is there.

flyover

From the school's own literature:

Simon's Rock College of Bard is the nation's only college of the liberal arts and sciences designed expressly for students of high school age. Most students enter Simon's Rock after completing the 10th or 11th grade, and follow programs leading to the Associate in Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees in liberal arts.

So she's not even the poor man's Niniane Wang.

regine

..money wonders why you have so much time to chat..

heymammbo

I regret not mentioning this before or in my interview - I owe a lot to a friend and fellow co-founder, Miriam. She's been really helpful and supportive through the venture and I owe her an apology for not mentioning her before.

jessicam

Nii

Funkalicious

Rick

[to andrewuk] - College degree isnt absolutely necessary by any means. I hope my comment didn't appear as if I agree with that statement.

[to epsilon] - thanks for your honest comments! It may be presented in a train-wreck way... and I did understand the possible implications before being interviewed for this. I have a lot of people telling me that I have plenty of time to do business and that I should sit back and relax time as a kid while I can... and I'm definitely trying to do that while I'm going after my aspirations. It's a tough balance, and I'm sure you understand that it must be. I thankfully don't feel much pressure to rush life. Nobody is rushing me, but myself. I'll be sure to take a breath of air from time to time.

To the others - i didn't mean to have this article presented in a tone where I'm only in business to make the money... that may present itself in a negative way, but my first goal is to make a project that goes far and changes the way people do things. Hope that clears some of this up.

And also... please feel free to email me. I can be found at mah10538@yahoo.com

jessicam

If you aren't savvy enough to realize that your interview will be presented as train-wreck entertainment, you might not be ready to light the business world on fire with your startup.

You seem like a smart kid. There's plenty of life to live - don't rush it.

epsilonsemimoron

I agree that it's good that she's doing something and that it's successful. I'm just not getting the vibe that she's been the one driving the wheel and that defeats the all in, gang busters approach a little for me.

pillsandpez

I applaud your enthusiasm for chasing your dreams and understand your view of education as also-ran when you're eager and busy in the 'real world' . We are not all cut from the same cloth.

However I feel you could avoid a fair amount of backlash by moderating your tone very slightly, both in public communications. Sure, the $1 billion dollars seems a fair goal - you can set whatever goal you want; but I'm pretty open minded and despite reading the article trying my best to think 'Maybe this girl ISNT as stuck up and self centred or arrogant as she sounds' ..The initial reaction to a 16 year old saying she'll have $1b by 25, first makes me think "Jesus, that's shallow" . You're already on the back foot even before I've met you. You may not care; but you should care.

There will be people lining up around the block ready to knock you down, simply out of jealousy for being ambitious, young and successful, without you being a few steps to brash.

Want an example? Richard Branson is no business push over - but he's mastered the art of the slightly nervous in-a-jumper I'm a nice guy delivery. Actually, in his case, I believe he IS a nice guy, I've met him.

I'm not suggesting you grow a beard; just that good publicity is different from notoriety. You simply do not want to be in a position in 2, 4, or 9 years time of having that crazy claim coming back to haunt you.

BTW, I got chucked out of college for not turning up; I have no degree and its not doing me too badly. You sound like you have supportive parents, in which case you're lucky. Just work on getting that same support from the public - its harder than you think and it's more important than you think. Nobody likes a smart arse ;-)

andrewjscott

Why am I having web 1.0 2001 flashbacks?

telebyte

My level of education really matters to my asian parents. They dont care so much where I live or what I do with my life, but they are pushing intellectual curiosity which is why I'm able to go into entrepreneurship.

There's a statistic that 1/10 startups fail. I read on Paul Graham's website (viaweb, ycombinator) that most startups are led by younger people because of their ignorance in the field - they don't realize the small chance of succeeding and the immense work it takes to get there, but at least they give it a try.

Even if the startup goes "tits up" I will hope to look at my experience as something that will help me in whatever else I am to do in my future. I hope other entrepreneurs feel the same way.

My friends have told me that being at Stanford gives you some important connections, and they are right. Once you're in Stanford or Harvard, you have to take advantage of the resources they have. You can't just sit in class and accept the fact that you're a guaranteed success.

Thanks again for your feedbacks! This is a great comment thread.

jessicam

I wish you luck in your attempt to transfer to Stanford. It's a good school that opens the door to lots of opportunities.

In my opinion, education is certainly a plus, although, as you wrote, it is not a guarantee for success, although it is usually a tool that can help.

The people whom I mentioned are certainly not the norm, but all are highly driven individuals. Some had the fortune of being born into privileged situations (Bill Gates, Paul Allen), others had to do more with less (Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison). A little luck helps, but many of the people at the very top of high-tech made it regardless of the pedigree of their diplomas.

Of course, there are others who used their educations to get to the pinnacle (Andy Grove of Intel). Ultimately, it's what you do. In ten years, no one will really care which university you went to and whether or not you got the sheepskin. Well, your mom might care... :)

cv

every young buck wants the $1B payday. i was in the class of early tech where cash was like water from a dorm drinking fountain. take a moment and eliminate the youtube factory and realize just how many $1B valuations are sold down.

shoot for the stars everyone but cmon, really.

heymammbo

Education is valuable, but it doens't guarantee success. I'm currently at Bard College - liberal arts college in the northeast, but I applied to transfer to Stanford and find out in 3 weeks if I get in.

If you'd like to chat further, please feel free to email me! Much thanks to your insightful comments and feedback.

jessicam

Actually Bill Gates' Harvard professors have stated that Bill was a lousy programmer. Paul Allen was the technical guy and did all the legwork; Bill, despite his nerdy appearance, is not the uber-geek.

Steve Jobs dropped out from a liberal arts college. He was not a programmer; Woz did the technical stuff.

Larry Ellison did attend the Urbana-Champaign, but not as a CS major. He didn't discover computer programming until he moved out to Cali.

cv

I met the CEO of odesk.com last week, and I think his team consists of really amazing people. They're not considered competition to us because they concentrate in the tech market only. (programming, design) Craigslist may be considered indirect competition, because it's still the most commonly used method for finding services via internet.

Education can't make an average person an amazing entrepreneur, because there's so much the person needs to be good at from the start. My first business, I don't call a failure because I profited and sold off my clients. If anything, our biggest problem was huge growth that a 13 year old simply couldn't keep up with. It's hard when your teachers and parents are pressuring you to give something so valuable up.

Being in college so young helps the situation. I'm independent, and I'm allowed to explore my interests in business and work more on my next startup. When the growth comes, I'll be ready to take it this time without having anyone stopping me.

jessicam

My COO ran a liquidation business on eBay before being hired by ebay - this business was valued in the millions. He also took part in a few startups, then moved to Microsoft, then eBay, and now he's working on the startup with us.

Our Business strategy person has experience from Goldman Sachs and is soon to finish his education from U.C. Berkeley. He's made finals to numerous business plan competitions.

jessicam

As to the Gates, & other dropouts, and the newest crop, Zukerberg, even Brin, Page (yes they dropped out then returned to finish). Dont use those as examples of dismissing education, look where they dropped out of...Harvard, Stanford, Harvard, Stanford and Stanford....its not like they dropped out of BFE community college of technical expertise in podunk USA. All the dropouts you cite dropped out of the highest strata of CS departments, because of boredom or creativity....now that should tell you something....

Like Business and Law school, some people are successful despite thier education, not because of it, and theyd have been successful without it. But those some people are about .01%. There are another .04% who get lucky.

Now if Mrs Cam is in the 01% good for her, college is likely boring anyhow, but naivety never saved anyone from sharks.

Craig is not your competition, thats misguided, furthermore, hes not going to change CL business model or lose users because of your service, thems the breaks but there are other markets....

"Buyers need a means of finding a service provider - they want to be able to compare reputation and prices on the spot. Service entrepreneurs want a way to market their services, but craigslist and elance make it no easier to do so from our personal experience."

That would be called ODesk. An excellent service.

Good luck, they're already global.

Understand that Entrepenuers are like talented Novelists. The first one is either a flop or wildly successful, the second ones almost always a stinker, you have a chance at a comeback on the third. The root cause of this is believing your own publicity.

Now if you can hit three home runs your in the 01% club. Good luck Mrs. Cam :)

Imakenothing

Exhibit A: Apple iPod was not the first portable MP3 player, but it now owns 70% of the market.

Exhibit B: Internet Explorer. People surfed teh Intarwebs years before Bill Gates acknowledged that the Internet was actually important and over a decade before wags started referring it to "teh Intarwebs".

Exhibit C: Dell. IBM, inventor of the PC, doesn't even sell consumer-grade PCs anymore. A college kid named Michael Dell who sold computer components from his dorm room built one of the largest PC manufacturers in the world and beat Big Blue at its own game.

cv

These other startups don't worry me. Like I said in the interview, I welcome competition.

jessicam

poloplyr

Didn't Google.. that massive search engine come late to the market.. what with Web Crawler, Altavista, and the hundred other search engines in the market place?

Whocares

It might seem that we're late in the market without funding - we have plenty of cash (thanks to our luck from previous businesses) to take this far.

Most people react by saying, "pssh... this girl is just being led by her asian parents" Few asian parents would let their daughter get into risky business and fly out to San Francisco with such great frequency. They support what I do, but they've been telling me to slow down and to enjoy life as a teenager. It's hard to respond to someone who's insistent that I get help from my parents, but maybe that's just your insecurity :)

$1B is a goal.. im not trying to be too greedy by saying 100000 gazillion dollars, but it's just a goal at this point.

Teknogeek, thanks for the kind words!

jessicam

Well, I guess my tongue-in-cheek comment about Gates, Jobs, and Ellison was a little too firm planted in the cheek.

Anyhow, the girl is in college. She's sixteen. What were you doing at age sixteen? She's not anti-education nor am I. It's pretty damned clear that she thought little about the high school education system and I don't blame her.

Just the fact that she could waltz out of a classroom to take a business call and still pull a C average with apparently little effort shows how f*cked up her school system really was.

It sounds like she's more mature at her age, at least in dealing with modern business culture, than most of her peers. Heck, I know plenty of people twice her age, with college and post-graduate degrees, who can't cut in the business world.

cv

teknogeek

I'm sorry Nick but this is a waste of space.

pillsandpez

She's only 16. Talk to me when she's 30.

pillsandpez

http://techfold.com/2007/04/24/domystuffcom-outsource-your...

In it, I compared it to ebay, craigslist, and elance, coincidentally.

I think Jessica's coming late to the market. Good luck to her....

rod / upcomingdiscs.com

SearchGeek

Frankly, it sounds like she was bored by the standard pre-college educational system. Heck, she's sixteen and attending college.

cv

I'm not impressed. You can tell she's being carried by the grown ups, and she doesn't take education seriously. That alone makes her a loser, no matter if she makes one BILLION dollars.

pillsandpez

cfhopkins

I figure, "Hey, even if I'm $100 million short, I won't cry about it." And how many people can actually say that about their goals.

gymclothes