So far that's an online community, not a business. Or at least a site to build a community around. It could be monetized by ads, but could this attract tens of thousands of people to actually make money? I'll wait and see.
Starting a site doesn't make you an entrepreneur. But he has made a lot of important friends that are apparently sold on the IDEA of a 15-yr old entrepreneur, therefore making him one.
His intentions may be in the right place but the technology behind the site is uninspiring.
Don't fear the haters, kid. Just do your thing. Most of the people criticizing you are just trying to make themselves feel better about that next game of Mario Cart they're about to play instead of actually, you know, doing anything.
To sum up the criticisms I've seen on TechCrunch - the site is down, it's just a Wordpress install, difficult to monetize, inexperienced team, the company's acronym is TIT, etc. With all that said, he learned a valuable lesson. He learned how to deal with the angriest people from one of the most self-critical industries in the world (IT). I'm no therapist, but many of the comments on Slashdot, Reddit, or TechCrunch seem to come straight from a guide to the DSM IV. If he learns how to deal with criticism like that, then he's set for life and I'd bet on his next venture succeeding.
one big mistake they made was trying to reply to every troll on TC. anyone with a brain knows you go in there, make ONE post answering the obvious intelligent questions (that you can answer without looking like an ass), and bug out. their "exec" reponded to every post on the board and made himself look like a halfwit chasing trolls. basically he got owned by TC posters
Ouch, moving servers or otherwise being completely down when you get TechCrunched, without so much as a "give us your email and we'll tell you when we're back up".
teenager lights up turnkey message board software, knows scoble. YAWN.
okay i am officially a geezer...here is my two cents: have fun playing webmaster but don't put the calc book down just yet. most of your "contacts" (scoble etc) are legends only in their own minds. by time you get to college, everything about today's web will be obsolete. booting up wordpress is not going to get you far in 2014.
but there may be a gem of widsom here. you might find that eating ramen, getting fat, and running up your (or your folks in your case) credit cards to pay your hosting fees isn't as nearly as glamorous as PG and the YCult make it out to be.
kid you may also be missing a very big boat. webtech is becoming an idiot's game. the larry/sergey of your generation will likely be a chemist or physicist. don't get too charmed by the web "business"
Starting a site doesn't make you an entrepreneur. But he has made a lot of important friends that are apparently sold on the IDEA of a 15-yr old entrepreneur, therefore making him one.
His intentions may be in the right place but the technology behind the site is uninspiring.