5 Inspiring Student Startup Stories

5 Inspiring Student Startup Stories

When arriving at college, we all are young, full of ideas, and holding high hopes for a living.

At this point, we are determined to do something great with our lives, but, either due to the lack of courage or due to a hefty academic load and lack of time, many give up on their ideas without even starting to implement them.

But, the truth is that there is never a better place and time to start pursuing your dreams than here and now!

The aforementioned statement is especially true for those who have always dreamt about becoming entrepreneurs. Although college life can be stressful and busy, it is the perfect time for launching a startup.

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While you are a student, you are full of energy and ideas. Thus, it’s just the right moment to leave out all the fears, delegate your academic matters to someone to write my paper for me, and run your own successful enterprise.

To give you the so-needed push, in this article, we will share with you a few inspiring success stories from famous student entrepreneurs that should give you the courage to follow your dreams!

Facebook

Facebook

Probably, the most well-known example of a successful student startup is Facebook – a social network that was introduced in 2004 and soon became one of the most used and trusted platforms in the world.

It all started in a dorm of Harvard University, where a group of friends, including Mark Zuckerberg, wanted to create something that would connect their fellow students online.

Initially, Zuckerberg came up with the idea of an online “hot or not” game. He developed Facemash, which became the prototype for the future web community that we now know as Facebook.

Though the first attempt failed and Facemash was shut down by the school’s administration rather quickly, Zuckerberg never stopped and, now, he is known as one of the most successful entrepreneurs.

Microsoft

Microsoft

Today, we know it as one of the largest leading corporations in the tech industry that produces products used all over the globe. But, of course, it hasn’t always been like that.

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The story of Microsoft began in 1975 when two young but talented friends, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, came across an article about the development of the new PC called Altair 8800.

At that time, Bill and Paul were still students at Harvard, and they developed the BASIC programming language interpreter for the newly introduced PC.

The success came quickly. Already in a month, the friends signed a licensing agreement with this PC manufacturer, allowing them to use BASIC in their software.

In its first year of existence, the Microsoft company, which only consisted of three people, generated a turnover of $16,005, having started a long history of success and innovation.

Instagram

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We bet that you all are spending at least some of your time occasionally scrolling through the Instagram feed.

Today, this social network has huge popularity among users of all ages and from all over the world. But do you know where it all began?

Just like Microsoft or Facebook, the network that caused such a big bang in the world was also created by two young student entrepreneurs Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

Friends figured out that images and videos can become the future of social media content, so they decided to refocus their project called Burbn towards mobile photography.

The final project was launched in 2010 and soon became the world’s most famous image-sharing app.

Snapchat

Snapchat

Another popular app widely used by people in the US and beyond, Snapchat, is also a student startup and another great example of success.

Initially, the concept that lies at the heart of Snapchat as we see it now was presented by Evan Spiegel as a part of his project for the product design class, back when he was a Stanford University student.

A bit later, together with his fellow students Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown, Spiegel developed an app that allows users to communicate using images that can be quickly deleted.

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The app launched in 2011 and quickly found popularity. According to the creator himself, the idea behind Snapchat was to let people communicate without any boundaries of what feels “right, pretty, and perfect.”

Instead, the app enables us to experience and share the full range of emotions, even those that may look awkward. Apparently, this idea came to many users’ liking.

FedEx

FedEx

If you want one more inspiring startup story, here it comes. Today, FedEx is one of the famous and widely used shipping services that actually was one of its kind when it was initially implemented. And guess what? It was also the idea of a student.

The service was founded in 1971 by a student of the Yale University – Frederick W. Smith. Initially, a 28-year-old entrepreneur came up with an idea for a service specializing in overnight shipping and outlined it in his economics class.

However, soon, Smith realized that his business model is pretty great and decided to turn it into an actual startup.

Smith used the inheritance of $4 million from his father and $91 million in venture capital to fund his enterprise. Of course, as it often happens with young companies, Smith has initially lost lots of money.

Yet, gradually, through hard work and persistence, he built one of the top express shipping services of all time.

The Bottom Line

All these success stories are there to teach us a single, the most valuable life lesson – no matter who you are and where you came from, there is always the possibility to live your best life and accomplish your goals. 

We hope that this article will give you the courage and inspiration to follow your dreams. Act, and you will reach the top!

Charlie has been building WordPress themes, reviewing web hosts and utilizing social media since their respective inceptions.

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