Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches On the Internet, No One Knows You’re A Dog - Or A 17 Year Old Girl!
Published September 20th, 2007 in Daily PostNo rich relatives? No professional mentors? No problem. Ashley Qualls, 17, has built a million-dollar web site. She’s LOL all the way to the bank. 
Read all about her at the following link:
17 Responses to “On the Internet, No One Knows You’re A Dog - Or A 17 Year Old Girl!”
- 1 Trackback on Oct 8th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
- 2 Trackback on Oct 9th, 2007 at 1:37 am
This girl’s story is pretty remarkable. A 17 year old with that type of business savvy just amazes me. When I was 17 years old, I was thinking about girls and driving around in my car with my friends. Although most of the guys I knew at that age were probably thinking about the same thing, nobody, especially me, had the ambition to make a website that addressed the common interests of our peers. Perhaps the reason that my friends and I never started an internet business is because the internet was not quite as developed when I was 17 as it is now. Maybe if MySpace was around back then, I would have thought of something equally impactful. Yeah right! This story shows me that as long as you have a vision in a venture, you can make it happen with hard work and creative thinking.
Though I am struck by the prowess of this woman, I still think she should have finished high school. Maybe I’m just old school but it seems to me that it’s worth finishing just in case her site goes bust at any point…and with the way things are…sites are in and out of vogue monthly, so I’m just not sure I’m convinced that this will be a long-term cash cow, not because of the site, but because of the nature of the internet.
Wow! That seems to be all I can say right now. After reading this article it goes to show you that anything can happen with just a good idea. If I was her I wouldnt have wanted to drop out of high school but at the same time its understandable as to why she did. The thing is she is evntually going to out grow the market of this age and she’s going to have to hire individuals that are in that age range so that her business doesnt crash. I think that her turning down the guys offer was really a good move though on her part because it is a matter that this company is only going to continue to grow. At some point though she will want out but at that time the company will probably be worth more! It just goes to show you that with the right idea at the right time you can be a successful business person. I commend her to the max!
I feel that this girl is ready to take full control of the reigns of her company, and move away from her family and their problems. She is obviously capable of handling her own assets since she has but a million dollar company, bought her own house, and made the decision to drop-out to build her flourishing business. This girl has made sacrifices and taken several risks and deserves to be in control her finances. I applaud her for being able to “flip the switch” between entrepreneur and teen.
Lucky…..I wish I had an oppourtunity to leave all the losers in my high school and make millions…I am going to foward this to my mother and say “see you should have let me quit…we would have been loaded by now” I thought i was the only one that thought high school was holding me down and limiting my creativity. American school should take a lesson from this, people who don’t want to be normal aren’t going to be failures their difference is their sucess…Right on 17 year old millionaire….
I’m actually not sure what to think about this. One part of me wants to congratulate her on her early success, but the other part of me wants to know what exactly she was thinking. At one point in the article it says that she’s is getting the first hand perspective of the layout world because she is her target market. My question to Ashley is: What are you going to do about the decrease in ‘myspacers’ with the highly competitive facebook in the field? and also, what is she going to do when she grows out of her demographics? Everyone is moving on, maturing, and going off to college, and she’s stuck without a GED! But then again, I am older than her, and she’s making a lot more money than I am. I have been told a few things about education that I take to heart. One is that an education is the one thing no one can take away from you, and the second is if you want to be in the business world, no one will take you seriously unless you have a MBA. I will applaud her on already having a successful business model and first hand experience in the entrepreneurial world. So I say Ashley, keep on doing what you’re doing because you’re obviously the perfect person for the job.
This girl is making a fortune right now. Good for her. I think had I been in her situation I would start charging $.99 for a webpage design. Think about it. if you were buying a really cool design for your webpage, wouldn’t you spend only $.99. Hell we pay that for one song on Itunes.
Ashley hit the nail on the head. It doesn’t matter what the product is. Just give the people want they want. It seems to me that people are losing there minds over the ability to personalize their own stuff. We noticed this first with the croks, now we are seeing it on websites. There is definitly a pattern here. The question is.. What else can we find to peronalize and make money from it? What about an idea for a hat company, that is similar to build a bear? How many times have you had an idea in mind for a hat that you were looking for that seemed relatively simple, but you couldn’t find it. What if a business existed that allowed people to pick out any style, color, and design for baseball caps. I think guys would jump on that idea.
I just find it sad that she dropped out high school, true she’s in a online high school, but can she actually get into college with that? Look, right now she’s very successful but what if it all backfires? What if her (future) competitors gain competitive advantages over her company and make her company go bankrupt. I mean, it could happen, remember what Hank said about that company who made the first laptop and was then destroyed by IBM, Compaq,HP,…
Now Ashley is thinking about improving the service she’s delivering, but again anything can happen. Like Eric said, what if she moves out of her target demography and loses touch with that demography, what if even better competitors appear, what if (although this is a very what if) social networking, like myspace die out, what if facebook makes myspace go bankrupt?
What is she going to do then, with an online high school degree and a failed company as her extracurricular activity. True she’ll have tons of money to life off by then, what I doubt someone like Ashley wants to do that, after all she’s been through, she’ll probably want to do something exciting like her current company.
But anyway that’s just the pessimistic side of me. Even though I strongly feel it’s a stupid decision to drop out of high school (even though she’s doing online high school courses), she’s still done a remarkable job and as the too long blog said sh’s learning from previous mistakes and she’s becoming a better and better entrepreneur and businesswoman.
I’m wondering how she knew how to start-up and operate whateverlife. I’m guessing she probably didn’t learn how to do all of this in a high school classroom or she might have decided to finish. I wonder if later on she will regret not finishing high school. She’s only 17 and I would be concerned that her social life might be slacking. But I guess if I were in her position I would quit high school also and devote all of my time to the website.
I am thoroughly impressed by this young girl’s tenacity. It is incredible to me that she taught herself not only how to use HTML, but discovered how to do it well enough to launch a successful company. All of the quotes in the article from Ashley are very telling of her youth. I think that it was extremely important that she cannot only understand her target market, but she is a part of it. It was kind of like what you were saying about Tello in class today, Hank. The creators of Tello just assumed that the people using there product needed it, but they were so out of touch with that market, that there was no way they could have really known what they wanted or needed.
I think I would be a fool to not be impressed by her natural ability to make things happen and her business savey, but I can see where being a rich minor can be a struggle. At what point, once she gains full control of her money, does she cut off her family? I think it is a problem often seen in young child stars, where does it stop? Hopefully, this will not be the case with Ashley.
Basically, it takes a lot to impress me and I must say that Ashley has definitely done so in a big way. I couldn’t imagine already being that successful at the age that I am now. It’s funny how she was voted most likely to succeed in high school, her peers must have known her very well. What really got my attention was her knowledge and how she was utilizing it in her company. She is one person that I would actually like to sit down to ask questions not only about her business but also about her family life.
I’m pretty sure everyone has thought, “what would I do in her shoes” go through their mind at least once. I hope she continues to be innovative and everything works out with her financial situation so that this huge opportunity doesn’t become an even bigger failure.
I’m a little surprised at the negativity in some of the responses. Ashley amazes me. I can only wish that I had her initiative. Some people have expressed their opinion that she shouldn’t have dropped out of high school (which is totally fine, because that’s their opinion), but I wonder if the business would have done as well if she had to spend 30 hours a week in a classroom instead of learning how to grow her business by experiencing. She isn’t set on one idea; she knows that if she sets the cruise control, the world will eventually pass her by and forget about her. She’s not afraid to learn from her mistakes (like not being specific about employee expectations, for example) and implement a change because of that lesson. She may be stubborn (which helps when talking with advertising reps, I’m sure), but she also listens to those more experienced than her (Lippitt). Ashley is aware of the fact that while she is growing older, her target audience hasn’t changed and she’s already thinking about steps to help her bridge the gap. I don’t have a MySpace page, so I can’t say for sure if the product is 10x better than anything out there, but it sure seems to me that the CEO is heads and shoulders above the competition.
i spent a lot of time reading this whole thing thinking you spent a lot of time typing it only to see you just adapted it
anyway, this was interesting. i wish something like this would have happened to me… but now i can learn from others successes and create something of my own. she was smart for not taking the offers. if she had many people would never of known about her and her career would be over but now shes making her company better and making a name for herself.
P.S. i should prolly get on here more seeing as how this blog was way down the page but the blogs aren’t interesting enough to get on everyday. i do however read them all when i do get on, even if i don’t have anything to comment about them. sorry Hank
“I created this from nothing, and I want to see how far I can take it.”
I think that line sums up most of this article.
I like the idea of simply living my life and the challenge of having a business which will support my lifestyle.
I think this girl and I have similar goals where you’re not really after a great deal of money, just a challenge and happiness.