Jon Brelig, Kunal Das
Through college I've met very few people who have made much money through entrepreneurial ventures. Even in many entrepreneurial clubs there still few people who have actually done much.
I like to observe people who I think "have it in them" in order to learn a way to improve my own chances of success. So far I've seen two people I KNOW will be successful in the future:
Jon Brelig:
Strengths: Intricate computer programming knowledge.
It's very rare to meet someone so good at programming who also has a keen business sense and extroverted personality. Jon's current claim to fame is SkiReport.com, one of the largest ski-condition websites in America.
Prior to SkiReport, Jon had a web solutions company which did tons of business in the Colorado area. He was a step above all the other high school kids who designed a few websites and claimed they had a 'web solutions' company (like me).
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Kunal Das:
Strengths: Networking skills, leadership and persistence.
This guy knows pretty much every person in the world. His network is extremely large, and he knows how to meet new people. He is a natural born leader and manager and has started several businesses with many employees to show. His current project is Grade-A-Books.
I like to observe people who I think "have it in them" in order to learn a way to improve my own chances of success. So far I've seen two people I KNOW will be successful in the future:
Jon Brelig:
Strengths: Intricate computer programming knowledge.
It's very rare to meet someone so good at programming who also has a keen business sense and extroverted personality. Jon's current claim to fame is SkiReport.com, one of the largest ski-condition websites in America.
Prior to SkiReport, Jon had a web solutions company which did tons of business in the Colorado area. He was a step above all the other high school kids who designed a few websites and claimed they had a 'web solutions' company (like me).
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Kunal Das:
Strengths: Networking skills, leadership and persistence.
This guy knows pretty much every person in the world. His network is extremely large, and he knows how to meet new people. He is a natural born leader and manager and has started several businesses with many employees to show. His current project is Grade-A-Books.
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One thing I've picked up from Jon's SkiReport is to automate everything. He has spent considerable time and frustration creating a phenomenal backend system, and it allows him to get things done extremely quick with little effort. Kunal demonstrates the need for being a great leader. His current and past businesses have helped him develop great leadership skills which are crucial for running a business.
"Surround yourself with those smarter than you"
posted by Neville @ 2:15 AM
20 comments
20 Comments:
www.jackedtunes.com
www.howtobepoor.com
To respond to the previous post, good programming skills will only get you so far. Programmers are a dime a dozen. If you don't have the entrepeneur mentality, management skills, and most importantly the IDEAS, you're sitting dead in the water if you're trying to start something yourself.
I suspect this is only the start of a growing 'small business' market that puts new meaning to low-overhead while maintaining competitive, quality-focused services.
So to all you liberal tree-huggers, I beg you to answer your own concerns of big business and offshore labor because I'm sick and tired of the liberal idealism plaguing this city with their naive thought.
The smart local guys are competing (and winning), why can't you?
As a computer science degree holder, I can personally attest there are some people with business skills, but not many.
Perhaps this shows the importance of programmers to have business minded partners.
Great post, you seem to really keep a solid network of entrepreneurial people.
It's also has a neat kind of leverage. As you build up your own systems and tools you spend less and less hours to do the same amount of work. I also started my software business while I was in College (about 7 years ago). It has been a lot of hard work, but well worth it.
I've had data aggregation ideas in the past, but Terms of Use notices and copyrights prohibit the data mining of virtually everything on the web for commercial purpose. For example: I recently got in trouble with Google for creating software that retrieved news headlines from Google News and displayed it on a webpage. The compiled information--albeit merely headlines--was intellectual property of Google.
Could someone explain how sites like SkiReport.com work please? I'd really like to know how sites like these work.
The thing about data aggregation sites like SkiReport is that you need to reach a critical mass. Once there are enough ski locations and users using it, other resorts are clammering to get on it. If you have the site that everyone goes to, companies will be even willing to pay you to be listed. You now have the bargaining chip to set demands for them because you're basically providing THEM a service: advertising. In lieu of payment, he could also setup exclusive contracts with these resorts so that he pretty much locks out the competitors.
I'm sure this guy set up a system where the different resorts update the reports through his web interface. OR, if he's even more advanced, he gets an XML feed from them.
This is a pure example from the book "Tipping Point." All the major websites started out the same way. Once it got to a critical mass, people must and have to be on that site. See EBay, Amazon, Yahoo, and especially GMail.
One of my friend, who is an avid skier was telling me about that website last year and how it is the best site to find out ski conditions. That's why I found it great that Nev reported on this guy. And even better to find out that he's just "some guy" instead of a large corporation that put the site together.
Another company/website along this line of started by college students that are picking up steam are:
SeamlessWeb - Allows you to order food online started by two law school students. Basically they targetted large companies and set up deals with them. In a lot of companies, if people stay late, the company gives them a stipend of $30 or more for dinner. Since the employees aren't spending their own money, they buy more expensive dinners. Which allows SeamlessWeb to make a huge commission on the profit.
We receive our ski reports hourly via XML from Sno Country Mountain reports (www.snocountry.com). We pay them a seasonal fee for the service, however it is well worth it. Sno Country and Mountain News Corp are the only 2 aggregators of ski reports worldwide. Basically all resorts report to them, and they provide data to sites like SkiReport.com.
We get our weather reports from Weather.com's FREE xml feed. For the cams, I simply have a script that caches them on our server every 10 minutes. I'm currently working my tail off to integrate lodging reservations via a Travelocity XML feed - it's done through a subsidiary called World Choice Travel (wctravel.com).
Site is doing good, bringing in around 30k page views per day and the season is just starting. Planning on taking the spring semester off to ski bum in Steamboat and promote the biz so if anyone's up there shoot me an email (jon@skireport.com).
When I saw SkiReport.com it looked very....simple. However I quickly realized that it was extremely simple yet extremely functional.
It seems you make all your money from advertising, is this right? Who do you use for advertising (Google, Chitika etc.) and who gives you the best payout?
Also, what made you start this website? Did you one day wake up and decide to become an online authority of ski conditions?
Sorry for all the questions, but I find your whole operation to be pretty cool...and you're still a student.
Any feedback qould be appreciated!
Thanks for chiming in and clearly defining how you've put together such a great site. Congratulations on the success. I don't have to tell you that you've earned it.
What made me start the site? Well, back in high school (when I lived in CO and was able to ski 30 days/season), I simply went to 'skireport.com' to attempt to check the ski conditions. The guy had a message up 'Sorry, I had to take the site down - the server can not handle it's bandwidth.' It was obvious the domain brought in some traffic. I negoitated with the guy for a few months, but didn't have the capital and left it hanging. About a year and half later, I got some capital from my brother (in exchange for equity) and started the biz.
I regret sitting on the idea for so long and honestly I was VERY lucky I was still able to get the domain. If you have any idea, act on it. Today.
I am about to start my retirement investing, since I am almost out of debt. Which brokerage do you use for your Roth?
ncnblog.com
I use Ameritrade for my ROTH and my regular trading account.
I am about to max out my 2005 contributions before Dec. 31st (max $4,000).
I've NEVER had a problem with Ameritrade, but I've also never had experience with any other broker!
-Nev
Where are you meeting other business minded people? Clubs? Randomly?
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