Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Random Thoughts About The World’s Youngest Billionaires


I happened upon this recent list of the “World’s Youngest Billionaires” (yes, there are 29 under the age of 40, 11 of whom are from the US) in Forbes Magazine.  It made me contemplate what an incredible world we live in where young “hoodie-wearing” tech entrepreneurs can (at least on paper) be worth more than a BILLION dollars—or, in the case of Zuckerberg, $13.3 BILLION, but who’s counting?

I didn’t bother scouring the list to see if I was on it—after all, I am a few years over 40. However, I had remembered during a recent Las Vegas journey to sample the fine cuisine at In-N-Out Burger (without even ordering off the "secret" menu), that (at least according to The New York Daily News and Huffington Post) Lynsi Torres, the heiress to the chain who is only 30 years old, was a billionaire . But she isn’t on the list. 

Turns out that, according to this other recent Forbes article, she’s probably only worth about a half a billion dollars. That’s because she doesn’t yet own the entire company under some trust arrangements. The complicated case surrounding the ownership and related family intrigue detailed in the article is something I’ll challenge my fellow entreVIEW author, Anne Bjerken, to analyze for readers in a future post.

Once I stopped daydreaming about all the things I would do if I had a billion dollars (not to be confused with the Barenaked Ladies classic song about a sum with three fewer zeroes), it was time for me to attend Tuesday evening’s “Entrepreneurs Rally,” an event put on by the local chapter of EO, an organization for entrepreneurs. I had agreed (along with a few colleagues, two of whom are fellow entreVIEW authors) to serve as a mentor at the event, which is structured like “speed dating.” A group of 2-3 mentors and 7-8 entrepreneurs are paired up for 30 minutes to discuss issues and try to offer insights, ideas, and contacts to help the entrepreneurs with pressing issues.

As with the event last year, I was struck by how varied and vibrant the participating entrepreneurs (and mentors) were. Whether it was the guy “pedaling” kits for turning regular bikes into recumbent ones or the woman looking to “sew up” SEO for her online embroidery business, you can imagine the energy in the room with over 200 driven and engaged entrepreneurs talking about their business plans. 

Wouldn’t it be great if a couple of the attendees ended up on the Forbes list in a year or two? There should be room for a couple more because Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google each worth about $23 billion, will be turning 40 soon….

4 comments :

  1. Good job with the whole post. I like the whole concept behind the write-up. Thank you so much for sharing.

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  2. Tyler, Thanks for the positive feedback! It's funny how the stars sometimes align on these posts. I was writing a post about the Forbes article but want to give a "shout out" to the terrific Entrepreneur's Rally event, so I smashed them together...

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  3. Awesome and insightful post!

    I loved the jokes that were worked in. It made big, sometimes intimidating thoughts and concepts seem light hearted and approachable.

    Thank you Mr. Tenenbaum. Keep up the great work!

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  4. Sunkhneet, Glad you found the post insightful. I work to try and keep the content both informative and entertaining and appreciate the feedback that this post managed to accomplish that.

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