Tumblr is a short-hand blogging platform designed for quick and simple blog posting. While the blogging space already offers many strong players such as WordPress and Blogger, Tumblr took the basic idea of those sites and transformed it into a new simpler form of blogging all the while providing the user with many new features. Similar to how Facebook was able to improve upon Myspace, this entrepreneur was able to do the same with his new blogging service, which continues to attract millions of users. For this and more we take a look at entrepreneur David Karp in the spotlight this week. We’ll look at just how he did it and highlight what lessons any upcoming entrepreneur can learn.
Summary:
Name: David Karp
Age: 23
Location: New York, NY
Claim to fame: Tumblr ( Short-hand blogging platform designed for quick and easy blog posting.)
Initial cost: <$1000
How He Did It:
David Karp grew up in Manhattan where he attended some high school before dropping out to be home schooled. David held an internship in the city with a well known animator for several years before moving on to work as a software consultant for an online parenting forum for a few years. In 2006, David left the software consultant gig to create Tumblr and focus on his new blogging service full time. He launched Tumblr in 2007 at which point nearly 75,000 new users registered within a very short time span of the launch. Since then the site has gone onto to include mobile application access and expand its feature set as the number of users continue to grow. Tumblr is roughly averaging 2,000,000 posts per day with 15,000 new users per day on top of that.
Lessons Learned:
- You don’t have to know how to do it all yourself. David Karp hired a developer to assist with most of the coding and design of the site.
- A half decent idea is all it takes to get the ball rolling so to speak.
- Your idea doesn’t always have to be brand new either – you could instead improve upon existing products or services.
- Anyone can launch a business with very little start-up costs, which means no excuses!
- Use what you know and what you like to create something you will enjoy working on.
Did you miss last weeks spotlight? Check it out here: The Entrepreneur Spotlight: Larry Page.
Be on the lookout for our next entrepreneur spotlight article in this ongoing series. In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think about the success of this week’s entrepreneur and his entrepreneurship characteristics. Also, please let me know if you have an entrepreneur you would like to see featured here in the weeks to come.
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