The Story of a Genius Kid You Don't Know About
This kid made $30M at the age of 17. Sold his first startup to Yahoo, and second startup to Twitter. Learn the story of Nick D'Aloisio, who founded Summly, a news reading app when he was only 15 years old.
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This kid made $30M at the age of 17.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
Sold his first startup to Yahoo, and second startup to Twitter.
The story of this genius kid you don't know about 👇 pic.twitter.com/8DcbVQE3xZ -
Nick D'Aloisio founded Summly, a news reading app when he was only 15 years old.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
Summly quickly added 500,000 users in a month and became the number one news app in 28 countries.
In march 2013, Yahoo! paid a whopping $30 million for the app. pic.twitter.com/mrDu1lbhrZ -
It all started when Nick got his first computer, a Mac laptop when he was nine years old.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
By the time he was 12, he had learned how to CODE and begun developing IOS apps.
Because he was too young, he once had to sign up for an Apple developer's license under his father's name. -
when he was 15
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
He became frustrated with Google Search while looking for information during his history exam.
He then came up with an idea for a textual preview that would give a summary of the entire story. -
Nick developed an iOS app called trimit.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
which used to condense text such as emails and blog posts into a summary.
Trimit quickly went viral on Apple's App Store. pic.twitter.com/XVQt9IwZs2 -
It quickly caught the attention of a Hong Kong billionaire, who invested $300,000 in the company at that point.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
During the initial meeting with investors,
They were surprised that the founder is a single kid living in a suburban bedroom who isn't even old enough to drive. -
Nick in previous interactions on email REJECTED this $300,000 investment.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
He thought it was ''DODGY''.
"I'd never had contact from an investor. And now here's an email supposedly from a Hong Kong billionaire. It sounded dodgy. I didn't respond.” he said -
The meeting ended with D'Aloisio receiving a seed investment of $300,000.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023 -
Using this investment, Nick redesigned the program and released Summly in December 2011.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
Summly, which was inspired by Trimit, automatically summarises news articles and other web content for its users.
Summly’s first version received more than 200,000 DOWNLOADS. pic.twitter.com/3p2MbTXiPS -
On Nicks's 17th Birthday, the second edition of Summly was released.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
And in only a few months, it generated more than 90 MILLION summaries.
In the same year, YAHOO! bought the app for $30 MILLION. pic.twitter.com/QwM08qgCiW -
In 2013, The Wall Street Journal awarded Nick "Innovator of the Year" in New York City.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
He was included in Time magazine's Time 100 as one of the world's most influential teenagers
He also appeared in the 30 Under 30, an annual list of top entrepreneurs by Forbes pic.twitter.com/JCiYm44fJI -
BUT WAIT!
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
He wasn't finished yet.
Nick along with with his new cofounder Thomas Halgas founded another company called Sphere after selling his first app to Yahoo. pic.twitter.com/iLiSuWVzyV -
Sphere started as a question and answer app that allowed users to instantly chat with paid experts.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
But soon nick found himself drawn to the community aspect of the app which brought strangers interested in the same topics together. pic.twitter.com/Qr1okD72ad -
As a result, the app slowly pivoted towards focusing on group chats.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
Sphere's features include:
• creating multiple chats for a single group
• sending highlighted announcements so no-one in a group misses anything
• sending notifications to individuals. -
Sphere raised around $30 million from investors like Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky, and Tinder co-founder Sean Rad. pic.twitter.com/iXDDHFYWQe
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023 -
At the end of 2018, almost 500,000 people were using sphere.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
In 2021, Nick sold sphere to Twitter for an undisclosed amount. pic.twitter.com/GR56uMcU49 -
Nick's story serves as an example for those who think that success is in any way related to your age.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
He left his mark on the world through his work.
and demonstrated that IT IS POSSIBLE. pic.twitter.com/HHVUWoBJJM -
Nick Later spent four months at Airbnb as Entrepreneur in Residence.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
He has also studied computer science and philosophy at Oxford University
He is now working as Twitter Communities Product Lead. -
If you found this story interesting, please retweet & pay it forward - and don't forget to follow me.https://t.co/x8IxYDCLzx
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023 -
Thanks for reading
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) March 11, 2023
Follow @tibo_maker for more about audience building and startups as i am building mine to $10m ARR