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19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

forbes.com

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Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

#31

Post by randomdata »

pc86 wrote: post #5
minimaxir wrote: post #2

Isn't 19 too old to be considered a "wunderkind," per the article title? It's hard to consider someone to be a child prodigy when they're legally an adult. EDIT: Not criticizing the article, I'm just confused with the language.

One of the less literal definitions is "one who succeeds in a competitive or highly difficult field or profession at an early age"[0] [0] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wunderkind

19 doesn't seem particularly young though. Even some people who explore post-secondary educations after high school will be out in the workforce by that age.

Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

#33

Post by bitcartel »

The start-up scene is, in a way, kind of sad.

The tech media and mainstream press routinely salivate over stories of 13... 15... 17... and 19 year old whiz kid entrepreneurs.

Yet there was a time when teenagers and young adults wrote software and tinkered with hardware, sharing their creations with friends and peers, on a journey of computing discovery.

There was a time when 'Demo Day' literally meant getting a group of friends together, travelling to a new city, and showing off your coding and artistic skills. The prizes were prestige and peer recognition. http://archive.assembly.org/1992

Now, kids and teenagers are being schooled to hustle and score big money. Where is the pure joy of discovery? Something has been lost.

EDIT: Just wanted to add, it's amazing what you can do in just 4kb (4096 byte executable, no external data files). This should inspire programmers of all ages.

2012 Fireflies: http://archive.assembly.org/2012/4k-intro/fireflies-by-blobt...

2009 Muon Baryon: http://archive.assembly.org/2009/4k-intro/muon-baryon-by-you...

Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

#34

Post by CamperBob2 »

minimaxir wrote: post #2

Isn't 19 too old to be considered a "wunderkind," per the article title? It's hard to consider someone to be a child prodigy when they're legally an adult. EDIT: Not criticizing the article, I'm just confused with the language.

Too young to be considered a wunderkind or a failure, I'd say.

Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

#35

Post by got2surf »

I completely get your point, and Emil is a great role model for all (not just young) entrepreneurs faced with failure.

What I don't understand is all the animosity towards Nick D’Aloisio. What makes him not a "real" entrepreneur? Whatever the means, he still took a company from inception to acquisition, which fits any definition of entrepreneurship.

There are lessons we can learn from Emil, and also lessons that we can learn from Nick. They've both had valuable experiences that I'm sure many of us would love to hear about.

Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

#36

Post by caw »

lgray wrote: post #27
rayiner wrote: post #11

Very interesting and cool story. But that article was dreadfully written. Just because you're writing about a teenager doesn't mean you have to write like a teenager.

Agreed. There's a picture of him, and it says it's of him at demo day, but the article doesn't mention anything about Y Combinator. Very confusing.

It's Capital Factory's demo day.

Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

#37

Post by ryguytilidie »

fatjokes wrote: post #3

> But, not all young entrepreneurs are like Nick D’Aloisio and Andrew Hsu. Some of these whipper snappers are the REAL deal. This sounds very insulting to Nick and Andrew. I don't see any evidence that they're anything but earnest entrepreneurs. In the case of Nick, he succeeded (the reason is debatable), and as for Andrew, he simply hasn't succeeded (yet), but it's no reason to say he isn't genuinely trying. Older i…

I think to insinuate that Nick is not "the real deal" seems completely fair. Sure, he "succeeded", but he succeeded in the same way people who were born on third base and think they hit a triple think they succeeded.

Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

#38

Post by hajrice »

got2surf wrote: post #35

I completely get your point, and Emil is a great role model for all (not just young) entrepreneurs faced with failure. What I don't understand is all the animosity towards Nick D’Aloisio. What makes him not a "real" entrepreneur? Whatever the means, he still took a company from inception to acquisition, which fits any definition of entrepreneurship. There are lessons we can learn from Emil, and also lessons that we c…

Thanks for the awesome comment. It's very thoughtful and I completely agree with you there.

Nick is one of the youngest people (if not the youngest) to ever raise venture capital, perhaps to also sell a company for that range aswell.

He's definitely someone we should look up to. I actually find it pretty amazing, what he did. :-)

Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

#39

Post by brightghost »

got2surf wrote: post #35

I completely get your point, and Emil is a great role model for all (not just young) entrepreneurs faced with failure. What I don't understand is all the animosity towards Nick D’Aloisio. What makes him not a "real" entrepreneur? Whatever the means, he still took a company from inception to acquisition, which fits any definition of entrepreneurship. There are lessons we can learn from Emil, and also lessons that we c…

Funny; all this time I thought the goal of entrepreneurship was to build a sustainable business.

Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

#40

Post by hajrice »

caw wrote: post #36
lgray wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. There's a picture of him, and it says it's of him at demo day, but the article doesn't mention anything about Y Combinator. Very confusing.

It's Capital Factory's demo day.

Yep -- absolutely, right, Cody! Thanks for the comment; Hope you're doing well!
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