new frontier s e r v i c e s SUCCESS STORIES

new frontier s e r v i c e s INTRODUCTION Following are stories of different people who built their businesses on ideas they believed in with successful outcomes The objective of this presentation is to bring you closer to the idea of creating your own business In order to set up a business you dont have to have a number of years of experience: Anyone can start-up a business You do need a good idea, especially one you believe in

new frontier s e r v i c e s William Kamkwamba This is the story of a self- taught 14-year-old boy from Malawi who created a windmill from whatever material he had access to His dream was to bring electricity and running water to his village Today he has a scholarship in South Africa and his story is known world wide His only interest is to return to Malawi and apply the knowledge he has to bring power to his country

new frontier s e r v i c e s Blake Ross This article tells the story of Blake Ross, cofounder of the Mozilla Firefox browser At the age of 17 this boy posed a commercial threat to Microsofts Internet Explorer, the most used browser at the time Mozilla had 100 million downloads within its first year on the market (October 2004)

new frontier s e r v i c e s Social Entrepreneurship This web page talks about social entrepreneurship You will here the stories of six young entrepreneurs All of these entrepreneurs started their companies before the age of 30 Their business plans are based on the need to provide economic opportunity to low-wealth Americans off-for-yoshiyama-young-entrepreneurs-award-recipients/

new frontier s e r v i c e s Shishir Goenk This is an interview with the founder of Fusion Clothing, Shishir Goenk This entrepreneur successfully managed to blend environmental responsibility with a profitable business activity Fusion Clothing is a clothes make created only with organic materials goenka-founder-fusion-clothing

new frontier s e r v i c e s Ralph Jacobson The story of man who at the age of 22 felt the need to understand how solar energy worked He got an engineering degree in order to start up his own business and sell solar panels Just eight years ago he was confronted with scepticism regarding solar energy By 2007 there was a growing interest and demand for this new energy system

new frontier s e r v i c e s Richard Reeds Richard Reeds describes how he and his friends left their jobs to fulfil their ambition of starting up a company, Innocent Drinks This was so successful that since it was launched it has grown by 20% per year Today its the biggest shareholder (70%) of the smoothie market

new frontier s e r v i c e s Max Levchin Max Levchin is the co-founder of Pay-pal Here he discusses how he started up his company He warns new entrepreneurs not to start a company single handedly, but to have someone you trust working with you

new frontier s e r v i c e s Mark Sholin The story of a PhD student at Arizona State University Degree in chemical engineering and engagement in business activities Created a business in response to the unsustainable way in which todays society operates and in order to pursue his interest in renewable energy Managed to accomplish his goal of starting a company that he believed in making-renewable-energy-idea-reality

new frontier s e r v i c e s America's Fastest-Growing Tech Companies First Solar is ranked 7th on the Fortuness 100 fastest growing companies Biggest supplier of photovoltaic solar panels, growing by 182% each of the past five years (Ray 2010) data-companies-10-fast-tech.html

new frontier s e r v i c e s John LeStarge John LeStarge launched his business, Chicago Electric Bicycles, in 2009 These bicycles reach 20mph and can travel 15 miles consuming only a nickel of electricity They can be built from ordinary bicycles growing-interest-in-sustainable-transportation/

new frontier s e r v i c e s Jeremy Friedman Ryan Hwang Tim Trinidad Three Washington University students created an online social network specifically targeting the education sector Connects students and teachers from 2,400 different schools in the country

14 new frontier s e r v i c e s Legal disclaimer: The sole responsibility for the content of this presentation lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the EACI nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.