
17 years old, 11 startups - acqq
http://markbao.com/about
======
markbao
Oh cool, I'm on here :D

18 now, and I've stopped calling them startups... a lot of them are just
webapps :) (also no longer in high school, was going to update it two days ago
until threewords.me came along, now at 1.8 million pageviews...) the new
startup is <http://supportbreeze.com> !

Would like to note that my bhag (big hairy audacious goal) is to donate almost
all my money into positive philanthropy (see below) and startup investments
<http://iam.markbao.com>

~~~
edw519
_18 now_

Good. The honeymoon is over.

Now you can vote, join the army, get laid without legal worries, and most
importantly, be considered a true peer here without the gratuitous "17 year
old" prefix on everything said about you.

I have admired your progress and even enjoyed using some of your software over
the past several years, usually thinking, "This guy is great. I wonder what
kinds of cool things he'll be doing once he grows up." The wait is over. Full
steam ahead and best wishes!

~~~
apgwoz
> get laid without legal worries

Not entirely true. Now he's gotta be careful not to become a statutory rapist.

~~~
krainboltgreene
Most states allow for a 2-3 year difference at the age of 18.

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enra
I really woudn't like to critize but I would make the disctintion building
startups or businesses and building apps. The former usually have customers,
employees, payrolls, revenues etc.

But anyway it's great that you're building things.

~~~
markbao
Thanks for the feedback :) Yeah, I came to my senses eventually. Check it
out... TickrTalk: [x] incorporated [ ] paying customers [ ] employees [ ]
payroll [ ] revenue. Nope.

Just so much old literature on the internet that I haven't bothered to update.
Too busy hacking ruby and python to care.

~~~
ilovecomputers
Well I had a similar mentality at that age: ambitious with a naive sense of
the world. It was a time before reality seemed more clear, so you had all
these ideas that you believed would enrich the world. Only difference here is
that you actually went out there and made stuff. Like a grown citizen of
society, but you weren't even old enough to vote. You are one focused dude,
unlike me, and for that I...oh look a ladybug!

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jasonlbaptiste
I know Mark well and we even worked together on Genevine for a bit. He's one
of the brightest people I know. Seriously, he gets things done fast and
understands business along with tech. They're mostly projects, he knows the
distinction as shown below in a comment. It's great to build things and
tinker. Eventually one of them makes sense to you, takes off a bit, a bigger
vision presents itself, and you turn it into a startup. Some of the comments
here gave him crap for his track record. That scares me because it might
prevent people from building things. On the other hand, I think the
entrepreneurship community needs to do a better job distinguishing from
projects=> startups. Startups involve customers depending on you, peoples well
being via salary/career as employees, possible investor's returns, and a lot
of other serious responsibility. We need to emphasize the responsibility that
comes with it. In closing though, keep in mind facebook started as a fun
project. Zuck had built a ton of things by 19. Eventually there was a point
where it turned into a startup. Maybe it's fair to say the turning point of
when a project becomes a startup is when the livelihood of others depends upon
said "project". Really curious to hear others' thoughts. (Sorry for long rant
mode. I'm on my way to the airport on my iPhone. Will probably make some of
this subject matter one of my first articles for 2011 after getting some
comments here)

~~~
markbao
Really appreciate the kind words, Jason. Thanks :)

Some thoughts: one pretty important metric for determining whether it's a
startup or not is ramen profitability. Not when the project owners' livelihood
depends on the project, but when it _can_ depend on the project if needed.
However, the caveat is when it isn't profitable at all but still considered a
startup (like when a lot of time and money is put in but it hasn't entered
that stage), in which case the determination is more murky. Thoughts?

~~~
jeromec
I upvoted you, but I'd simplify that point even further. I'd call it a startup
when it has _traction_. Technically speaking Twitter has never been ramen
profitable. However, their obvious traction and growth brought in tons of
investment, enough to allay any monetary concerns.

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stretchwithme
Awesome.

One suggestion I have is to select either the first or third person and use
the same voice for both the title and the article. I think its ok to write
your own bio, but to show that you are writing and then appear to pretend that
you are not is a bit annoying.

I don't mean to imply any actual pretense, of course, because there is nothing
wrong with using the third person. I just don't think it works here as a
literary device. Not that I am any expert.

And I'd consider the first person. You have achieved a lot and there's nothing
wrong with saying so yourself.

~~~
markbao
Hey, thanks! I wrote that bio when I was 16 and just added on when I started
something new, so it's basically like an exquisite corpse except by only one
person (but just as much as a hodgepodge.) So it's a mess. But thank you for
the suggestion. My new page is a lot better (though still very much in
progress: <http://cl.ly/2o0g3f3e2d1f022S3d2X>)

~~~
stretchwithme
and when I have a clue what I'm clicking on, I'll gladly check it out :-)

good luck.

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ximeng
Interested to know the detailed plans for the life goals
(<http://markbao.com/lifegoals>), particularly this one:

$5+ billion net worth

~~~
markbao
Actually now $10 billion (not that it matters :p), but the big plan is to put
90% of that into medical/cancer research grants, life extension, political
action, humanitarian action, space exploration, and other positive action, and
5% into startup investments

more here: <http://iam.markbao.com/>

edit: oh! detailed plan is to eventually put complete focus towards the main
project, Avecora... what we're basically trying to do is build a new,
integrated, but open communication platform for data (between applications,
appliances, and users.)

~~~
tomerico
I think the parent poster meant is - how would you achieve that, not how you
would spend it :)

~~~
nate
Ha, I love that part about it though. Maybe making the 10 million is already
predestined in his head. The hard part now is figuring out how to spend it.
Probably something Napoleon Hill would be proud of.

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naithemilkman
When I was 17, all I wanted to do was get laid and play video games.

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gsivil
He posted that yesterday

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2051288>

about his last app

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iag
Not to hate on Mark because I think he is likely a brilliant person, but I
fail to see why it is intriguing that someone young started 11 startups.

Let's be honest, starting a company is not hard, anyone with $300 could file a
C-corp in delaware. But how many people have actually built just one business
with a few million in revenue, how many sold for even more? Sure starting a
company is glorious, but I expected people on this board to value building a
successful business more. =\

Mark, if you're reading this, any plans to stick around in one company for a
while and build the next Baidu/Taobao/Youku in the US?

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artmageddon
You're living a life that most of us could've only dreamed about... well, ok I
speak for myself in that regard, but you're clearly doing awesome things! :) I
can only say take a break every once in awhile and remember to play and do all
the stupid stuff that you can get away with in your youth. Being irresponsible
is frowned upon as an adult(and I mean that in your mid/late 20's and beyond).
Ok enough grown-up talk - you're seriously awesome.

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abhishektwr
Although I am very much impressed by Mark's work, his dedication and
particularly the way he is trying to be different from other teens in the same
age group is really appreciable. But I am not inspired with his philosophy of
11 startups, my advice please start thinking big (I mean what is that
threewords.me thing anyway), you can certainly do better things if you try to
keep the larger picture in mind.

~~~
markbao
thank you very much! big is <http://avecora.com> \- I've been told it's too
big.

threewords.me was an MVP I built in three hours (two of them being design)
that just randomly took off. never really meant it to be anything huge.

~~~
hcmag
Could someone tell me what MVP means? I see that term used everywhere on HN,
but I don't know what it stands for.

~~~
pronoiac
MVP: Minimum Viable Product.

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yuvipanda
I'm 19 and got nothing more than a Google Summer of Code and some halfdecent
apps. Makes me feel insecure :(

~~~
neilk
Yes, you've only had your work accepted to a program run by the company with
some of the best software engineers on the planet, that rejects at least 98%
of those who even apply.

What could you possibly do to surpass the kid who bought 11 domain names, some
of which have apps attached to them?

No offense to Mark Bao, by the way. I greatly admire that he's put together so
many projects and is trying to interact at an adult level. I was not enamored
of being a businessperson at his age but I produced projects at about the same
rate. However, I didn't know the value of what I was doing, and Bao does. He
also knows how to market himself.

But I just get deeply angry when I see people discounting their own
achievements in favor of people who've put a lot of effort into personal
marketing.

~~~
markbao
Agreed 100%.

yuvipanda, seriously, the last thing I want to do is make other (young or old)
people feel like they're inadequate... some of these that I used to call
'startups' are basically half-baked MVPs with marketing on top. Don't sell
yourself short dude.

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jefforsen
Firstly, congratulations. You're a very impressive person. I hope to see many
great things from you in the future.

I second that, you should definitely apply for the Thiel Fellowship. At first
i was skeptical of it, but now i understand. The entire program is structured
for individuals such as yourself.

Ok, I know this is completely inappropriate, and i'm sorry about that, but i
have to ask. Having founded 18 companies, sold more than a few of them, been
featured in alot of very popular publications like techcrunch, mashable etc.
Most startup founders won't achieve anywhere near what you have.

So my question is, are you rich yet? Rich being defined as a millionaire? (By
that i don't mean valuation, i mean physical finances).

~~~
markbao
> Thiel

Applied :)

> Rich

Physical finances, nope. I wouldn't say so. Investing a lot of money into
building some stuff (namely Avecora).

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vishaaall
Excellent, I really admire such young prodigies and all. Points that come to
my mind upon reading it, [x] The likes of Bill Gates,Steve jobs,Larry
Page,Warren Buffett and all did like 1 startup. You can easily achieve 25 by
age what 40. [x] I never saw any webpage created by them advertising there
personality.

But again you are only 17.

~~~
gnosis
...their personality.

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plbth
Seems like a pretty awful track record.

~~~
sjtgraham
Sitting on your ass and playing games consoles would be a particularly bad
track record from someone of Bao's age, yet many of his peers do it. He is one
motivated kid, so don't knock him for it.

~~~
pclark
Sitting on your ass playing games consoles for someone Bao's age is _perfectly
fine_! I understand your sentiment, but the startup world of "rush rush rush"
really pains me. It does no harm to just bum about.

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ortatherox
That's dedication.

~~~
shashank261
Doesn't Mark Bao miss riding dirt bikes, chasing gals, playing baseball.

~~~
lachyg
Who says he doesn't do all of that? And also, where riding dirt bikes and
playing basketball is your idea of fun, his may be programming, running
startups and doing bizdev.

~~~
axod
I'd say that you can start companies at any stage of life. You can start a
company age 50, and probably have far more chance at success based on your
extra knowledge.

However, you can't really go to night clubs, chase girls, play dirt bikes etc
age 50.

~~~
psaintla
Richard Branson agrees completely, going to clubs, chasing girls, and dirt
biking is too immature at 50. Girls chase him to go to his private island and
do this:

[http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/20/article-1171739-04...](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/20/article-1171739-04888F37000005DC-717_470x419.jpg)

~~~
axod
I think Branson may not typify the average human ;)

