Newsmaker: The secrets of a teen's Internet success

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What was it like when you first raised money for MyYearbook? Did you go to those meetings?
Cook: Geoff, because he is the CEO, he went to those meetings. Even though I thought of the company I still had to graduate high school. We had a PowerPoint I put together with the business plan. It's almost a blur because it was so stressful and time-consuming. Seriously, I seldom got three hours of sleep per night, but when we finally presented, it was a relief.

How many days did you miss from school, and did your parents support you with writing notes?
Cook: My mom did yell at me every time I got a note from the school saying that if I miss one more class I would lose credit. So I kept having to go into my vice principal's office and argue that it should be an excused absence, every time I was absent. So that was kind of annoying because I did almost lose credit. But my mom was very supportive. All she really cared about was that I graduated high school.

I don't think in my freshman year I could've ever seen myself owning such a giant company by my senior year.

So I wrote this story that teens aren't using e-mail anymore, and you were the lone person in the story who still used e-mail. Do you think e-mail will die out in favor of text messaging and other modes of communication?
Cook: Personally, I don't think so. One of the reasons e-mail could never fully die out is just because it is a lot easier when you're crunched for time to write e-mail rather than to make a phone call, or even sending text messages can get really expensive and e-mail is free. I send so many e-mails to my friends and all of them send e-mails back, so I know I'm not crazy.

The only thing that's definitely dying is snail mail. When I was doing my college admissions, I couldn't even remember how to address an envelope. I had to look it up. I couldn't remember where the ZIP code went.

But weren't your college applications online?
Cook: I did all my applications online except for Georgetown, which didn't offer it to be done online. But I always had to mail my high school transcripts and SAT scores.

Apart from MyYearbook, what other sites do you visit? And what do you do for fun?
Cook: I really like Gamehouse.com. I like the little gaming sites that are all over. Other than that I do have a Facebook (page) because I like to check what all the Georgetown people are doing. And I'm into blogs. I read Mashable, TechCrunch and GigaOm.

Also I love the Scooby-Doo PSP games, and I'm pretty good at ultimate Frisbee, soccer, gymnastics. I like to basically do any sport.

So here's the classic college admission question: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Cook: I don't know. I can actually see myself working in a different country, so that's why (I'm majoring in) international business. I don't think in my freshman year I could've ever seen myself owning such a giant company by my senior year, so it's really hard to say.  

More Newsmakers

[cocobongo04]

All fake

You'd think CNET would do a little research before they write an article like this. Here is an article with a more realistic angle

http://mashable.com/2007/07/12/myyearbook/

[Frewgle]

Good Catch

Way to go cocobongo.

maybe they should have googled first...

[kromaethius007]

CNET Screws the Pooch!

Wow, a serious SNAFU on Cnet's journalism. Gosh, someone didn't do their research at all here. I found out more about the truth of the matter with this so called teen startup company through simply Googling the news for the facts.

Say do you all (the readers here) suppose CNET maybe in bed with Yearbook.com?

[enigma.live]

$250k from brother for start-up

Give me $250k, and I'll go to India and have a social network that becomes worth a few billion. So the girl is a high school student and becomes so successful as an entrepreneur, that shouldn't be the story, that's not the truth. The truth is little girl hits lucky jackpot from brother willing to dump $250,000 on using her as a spokesmodel to start another social network no brainer idea, using cheap labor in India that will design a website and do code for about $1000 USD. I doubt the brother INITIALLY put up $250k, however they need to say that to start putting up the idea that there's barriers to entry. Give most any highschool kid that has just an ounce of entrepreneurial spirit $10k-$25k and he or she will make something huge out of it, notice I didn't say all high school kids..the others would just blow it on one huge party. But, I ask is it just me getting tired of the news making these social network founders out to be some kind of brilliant entrepreneurs that had a genius idea?

[georgescott]

It is not the site it is the marketing

Anyone can create these features; driving them into the mainstream is the difference between success and obscurity.

I don't believe if you give any high school kid $10k-$25k they would be able to have great success out of it. You might create a competition for the $10k to $25k to bring out the best ideas which would get you more bang for your buck.

[itango]

And not only the $250K, but

"big brother" was also the one that supplied the contacts to the software developers in India, whom he manages, as well as the marketing smarts for the concept. Tell me, what did this little girl really do to "develop" this company?

[dice1981]

EXACTLY RIGHT! I searched for the article just so I could comment on it but you already spoke for me. What's so genius about starting a website that becomes successful when you have 250k to launch it?? See, There's always a catch behind this. MONEY MAKES MONEY. Now find me someone that started from Nothing,...scratch and I will applaud them.

[dmm]

My lazy, no-good older brother...

didn't have $250K to give me, so I never made much of myself. He's such a jerk.

Plus, my friends didn't give me great ideas so I could make money. What a bunch of losers.

If only I had a better brother and better friends!

[nmcphers]

Lets not forget...

That brother didn't make millions before developing his own website so he could show you the ropes and help you hire programmers in India.

[sadchild]

big bro geoff = alchohol buyer? what kind of message is that?

right on their web page, under catherine's bio....

Geoff, 27, is our older brother / investor / alcohol buyer.

http://www.myyearbook.com/our_story.php

yeah great, thanks. what kind of site are you underage drinkers trying to push on our kids? what next? cigarette ads?

[Tomcat Adam]

Get over it.

Drinking is something that teens will do whether you push it on them or not. Merely mentioning it is just an attention grabber, and nothing more.

[enigma.live]

Better Friends and Better Brothers Yellow Pages

Does anyone know where I can find a guide or yellow pages to look up how to find a better brother and better friends?

I know my older brother is a loser that's not going to give me $250k, and I know my friends are losers that are not going to give me great ideas, so now I'm getting off my lazy butt to take the initiative to seek out the top Big Brothers who give out $250k or more and Better Friends who give out great ideas.

Maybe why I'm at it I need to find a better network of reporters and bloggers who will promote me and my made up story of success to generate a buzz.

Oh wait, I have a call, it's my parents, not the better parents I need, the real ones, oh their saying I need to stick to school and stop dreaming.

[wildchild_plasma_gyro]

large social networking based company take over bids.

If you we're part of a large wiki community that collected funds and organised workforce that wanted to take over a company for investment and development purposes.
What company would you choose.
I vote SKYPE
what would be your choice?
Answer below!

[dornbear]

Guess You Don't Have Any American IT friends

Guess you don't have any American IT friend if you're shipping your IT work out to India. What a shame, do you know how many recent computer science graduates cannot find work because its all being shipped to India? Either that, or outsourced to Indian firms in the US? Maybe your career will be next, what are you studying in college?

[mgee99]

Reading is Fundamental to Success

Article says the lady will be studying International Business... !

[karlgee]

Wow... All I can say is wow.

A great idea turned into reality by a young girl and her brothers $$$. We wish you all the best of luck and the big $$$! Its great to see new sites that actually make a splash - as we have seen so many others that hit a brick wall and go SPLAT!

Thanks and Good Luck from http://www.askTheAdmin.com

[arkboynko]

Support a non-teen startup!

Seems like everyone is launching a networking site. Check out http://www.reciperate.com to find one for people interested in networking around food and sharing recipes.

[Maccess]

Cool. Not icky.

These are the kinds of 17-year olds we'd rather see on cNet. Visionaries and future entrepreneurs.

[bts845]

Shame on Cnet

This story is completely wrong. Just as others have referenced in their comments, the teen has little if any involvement in the company. This is all a PR ploy with the young girl being the puppet. This information is easily available on the internet and the writer of this article sure dropped the ball with regards to research. Shame on Cnet for allowing this garbage to be published.

[iconvanity]

MyYearbook is actually lying to people. I have been with that site for nealy 4 months now and what I noticed is, it is basically being run by credit card companies, since everything from VIP status to all the advertisement on that site, one needs a credit card. The site also entices people to purchase "Lunch Money" using a credit card.

The site also claims to write a check at the end of the year to certain "Causes" such as Save The Amazon Rainforest Org. and AIDS research to name a couple. Yet, ask anyone that is associated with those organizations, they will all tell you they never received any chekc whatsoever.

MyYearbook wants people to think they get at least 15,000+ new members per day, yet, what they aren't telling you is, most if not all of those "new" people are people that are already members that are creating more accounts and calling it "back up accounts" for "battles".

Again, MyYearbook does not write a check at the end of the year as they claim, since, if this was the case, the checks would have millions of dollars on them and this would make this site well known, especially with the news media, but it hasn't. I know the check would've been in the millions, since, at 4 months, and with the amount of "friends" I have on my list, they already have donated billions of their Lunch Money to these Causes. Now times that 4 months to 3.

The Cook siblings are probably props in the game of Credit Cards duping people out of their money. I challenge anyone to produce paper trails of these mysterious checks that the Cook siblings claim to write at the end of the year.

Go to MyYearbook's site and see all the advertisements all going back to using credit cards in order to purchase. High school teens with credit cards? Very small percentage there.

[smke9]

Thank you for your traffic secret success. I love social networking and think it brings everyone as a community together and gets everyone involved.
http://the-traffic-secrets-101.blogspot.com/