Of all the headaches that go with being a chief executive, imagine adding these: getting your dad to co-sign a rental lease, or having your fake ID confiscated at a bar. These scenarios aren't uncommon in Silicon Valley, where teenagers and entrepreneurs in their early 20s are raising venture capital cash and going into business, Reuters reports.
Take Josh Buckley, the 19-year-old "Harry Potter of start-ups" who sold his first company for $5 million and recently raised $1 million for a gaming start-up.
Youthful entrepreneurs like Buckley are inspired by the example of Mark Zuckerberg, who dropped out of Harvard after his sophomore year to focus on Facebook full-time. They've received encouragement, and cash, from people like venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who has doled out $100,000 fellowships to individuals under the age of 20 who skip college and start a business instead.
For VCs, there's less risk in investing in young people, and companies, than there used to be. Jump-starting an Internet company these days can cost as little as $500,000 -- chump change to most venture capitalists. Whereas in the old days up to $20 million was needed to found a semiconductor company, kids these days just need a Wi-Fi connection and an Amazon Web Services account. (Reuters)
Bi-Coastal (AllThingsD)
Lots of tech companies split engineering duties between the East and West Coasts, but the way Foursquare does things is a little unusual. Rather than splitting tasks between the two locales, it has engineers work together through videoconferencing equipment.
Expansion (FINS via WSJ)
Amazon is buying 3 million square feet of commercial real estate in the middle of Seattle for what could be the foundation of the city's largest corporate headquarters. The e-commerce giant more than doubled its head count last year to 56,200 employees.
Cash Out (WSJ)
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt will sell $1.45 billion of Google stock this year. The former chief executive will still own about 2.1% of the company after the sale.
Be the Change (NYT)
Foxconn is raising worker salaries by as much as 25% to $400 a month. But working conditions won't truly improve for its Chinese workers, economists say, unless Western consumers are willing to pay more for the gadgets they produce.
Warning (WSJ)
The government is taking the threat posed by hacking collective Anonymous very seriously. The head of the National Security Agency has told the White House that Anonymous could soon be able to successfully attack the nation's power grid.
Emerald Isle (Bloomberg)
American tech companies including Google, Twitter and Salesforce.com are going hog-wild for commercial Irish real estate. Facebook is aiming to double the size of its Dublin headquarters, which now employs 350 people. It's good news for Ireland, which suffers unemployment of 14.2%.
NOLA Gigs (WWL)
General Electric will begin hiring for 300 new positions at a New Orleans-based IT center in mid-2012. Open positions will include computer engineers, data managers and network services specialists and pay up to $100,000 a year.
Game Changer (PandoDaily)
The venture capital industry gets lots of credit for giving birth to innovative companies like Facebook and Google. But more fundamentally, VCs have upended the economic relationship between talent and capital.
Weird Gigs (KUT News)
The job market for technologists is blossoming in Austin, Texas, with companies from the West Coast opening up shop there to take advantage of its tech ecosystem. Salaries range from $70,000 to $100,000.
Buzz Around the Office
Don't be sacred, he's harmless.
List of the Day: Making Time
Get out of the office as much as you can without losing facetime. That's the key to getting creative ideas.
1. All-nighters aren't as impressive to your colleagues as you think.
2. Be on the lookout for interesting ideas when you're on vacation.
3. Getting a hobby will help you look at things through a new prism.
(Source: The Globe and Mail)
