Famous Entrepreneurs Information

As a freshman at the University of St. Thomas, Joseph Keeley connected with an area family and served as a big brother and role model to their two young boys and one girl.

He then took his experience and formulated the idea for College Nannies & Tutors, a student- and child-development company designed to provide parents with the child-care and family-support services their kids need.

The idea won Keeley the Global Student Entrepreneur Award and an accompanying $20,000 in cash and prizes. Keeley's success attracted the attention of Peter Lytle, an angel investor who helped the young entrepreneur develop his "business in a box" model.

For $52,000 to $115,000, an individual can start his or her own franchise, with all training, support, and marketing materials provided.

Now, College Nannies & Tutors has spread to five franchise locations -- four in the Twin Cities and one in Phoenix -- with many more in the pipeline.

Lesson learned:

"As a young entrepreneur, the risk is relatively low. If you have a well-thought-out plan, don't be afraid to execute it. The risk only gets higher as you get older."

Browse Famous Entrepreneurs

Labels: entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, famous, famous entrepreneurs, joseph keeley

With only a small-business loan to help her, Joanna Alberti has taken her folder of doodles and quotable quotes and turned it into a successful greeting-card business revolving around a fictional woman named Sophie.

"She's a whimsical character who women can relate to," says Alberti, who left her full-time advertising job in October, 2004, to start the business.

She officially launched her company at the 2005 National Stationery Show in New York City, though she admits feeling intimidated by the likes of Hallmark and other greeting-card heavyweights.

Alberti says that, on a good day, she can churn out about 500 cards, which retail in area boutiques for $4.50 to $5.25.

Like most young entrepreneurs, Alberti has plans to expand her operations. She hopes to license Sophie's trademark designs for use in a variety of paper products.

Lesson learned:

"If something doesn't feel right, then I just shouldn't do it. I follow my gut."

Browse Famous Entrepreneurs

Labels: entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, famous, famous entrepreneurs, joanna alberti

Hauser and Taghaddos, already on the fourth startup venture between them, got the idea for GotVMail because they were frustrated with the phone-system options for small businesses.

GotVMail gives mom-and-pops a way to sound just like big corporations. They can get the usual voice-mail boxes and also set up preferences like routing calls to a cell phone or getting messages by e-mail in the form of MP3 files -- all for as little as $10 a month.

The company obtained seed money from friends and began turning a profit in its second month of operation. Now it generates about $5 million in revenue per year.

Lesson learned:

Taghaddos: "For a young entrepreneur, having good personal credit is one of the most important things. We wouldn't have gotten all the help from American Express or Bank of America without it."

Hauser: "To be involved in the entrepreneurial community and give back, talking to students is very important."

Labels: david hauser, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, famous, famous entrepreneurs, siamak taghaddos

A Mexican native educated at the University of Pennsylvania, Portnoy left a job as a business analyst with Deloitte Consulting to launch BuenaChamba.com, also known as LatinoHire.com.

The site aims to advertise jobs in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey.

The young entrepreneur also publishes a weekly newspaper with the ads and circulates it to churches and community centers.

"As with all businesses that cater to a niche demographic, you have to take into account some limitations, and one of the more pronounced ones is a lack of Internet access, so the Web site feeds into the publication," says Portnoy.

Job ads submitted to the site in English can be automatically translated into Spanish. Only four months old, the venture is averaging 500 to 1,500 unique visitors per day, 50 calls per job advertised, and a circulation of 30,000 for the printed version.

Lesson learned:

"If the basic concept of your business is to help people, the business will succeed."

Browse Famous Entrepreneurs

Labels: eli portnoy, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, famous, famous entrepreneurs, mexican

Nuwere's company provides security for the growing voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone business.

He raised the startup capital by consulting, but now he focuses on developing security products for large companies looking to deploy VoIP calling to save money on telephone service.

SecurityLab's first product will be a box that a company can install on its internal network.

Over time, Nuwere hopes to evolve his business into a hosted Web service. The first trial is already underway with a financial services company in New York City.

Lesson learned:

"Opportunity is everywhere, if you're only willing to see it."

Browse Famous Entrepreneurs

Labels: ejovi nuwere, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, famous, famous entrepreneurs