Teens Launch ‘Teens In Tech’
Posted by casey on 08-04-2008
Yet another community for teens (Teens In Tech) is launching in alpha mode today. What sets this one apart from the rest is that the founder and CEO is a teen himself, giving him an unbeatable edge because he is part of his own demographic. When Daniel Brusilovsky isn’t in class, the tech entrepreneur is hosting four tech podcasts and covering industry events for mobile vidcasting service Qik.
At this point, there are so many budding bloggers and vloggers out there that a media outlet specifically tailored to these tech-savvy teens bound to be successful. And because there are teen brains – as opposed to adults trying to get into teen brains – behind the project
Teens in Tech is a community for teenagers who produce new media content. Founded by Daniel Brusilovsky in February 2008, the service, currently in private alpha, provides access to a personalized sub-domain, 100 MB of storage, and the Teens in Tech support team.
We spoke to Sean Quinn, Director of Marketing, PR, for the site [also a teen of course], who said that they want to remove the barriers to entry, i.e. paying for web hosting, that prevent some teens from launching their own media. He doesn’t see it as a teen hangout site like Facebook or MyYearbook, although he added that “If someone wants to say I got beat up at school today and someone took my lunch money, we’re not going to turn them away.” Quinn sees the site as a way to get teens into the Web 2.0 world, a stepping stone or introduction to new media. They plan to launch a series of tutorials on podcasting and vidcasting as well.
Like most Web 2.0 companies, they don’t have their revenue model quite figured out yet. Quinn said they’re working on it. The goal is to market the site word of mouth, from teen to teen, member to member. They do have a Board of Advisors that includes Web 2.0 stars like Robert Scoble.
It will be interesting to see how this community evolves…definitely one to watch.
Categorized under: Web, Youth Media
August 4th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I saw this post on TechCrunch earlier and read all the comments (in the comments section). I was disappointed that they were all lashing out at the website because they couldn’t find a differentiator. They said the only reason why it got attention was because of his age.
What do you think?
August 4th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Hey Dan. The comments say a lot about the Tech Crunch community (lots of jealousy about it being featured at all on TC). I think if they are able to create a supportive community and offer real resources to other teen producers, it could work. It’s definitely a niche within the youth niche — teens who are more serious about producing content or want to produce it for an audience vs. just their friends. There are a couple of similar grassroots efforts like: Teen Podcasters Network and Random Shapes, but they are more teen content aggregators than support/community for the teens creating the content.
Sean also mentioned that Daniel is on Teen Podcasters Network as well, so they don’t see each other as competitors.
Do I think it’s going to be a multi-million dollar business? Probably not. Could it be a cool grassroots effort/resource — definitely.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I read the comments on TechCrunch too and I am frankly rather disappointed at the “bitterness” that was coming through. I realize this money-loving capitalist Valley we live in is competitive, but geez, I have had more fun helping out my friends and their bright ideas than bagging on them (much different from the “constructive criticism I provide! ;) ). C’mon Nation – let’s support the good ideas – we need all of them!
August 5th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Wow – after reading the comments it seems that more than just adults are bitter. We were just talking about how low the barrier to entry is for anyone who wants to start a business. The only reason I can see for such angry reactions is the lack of drive they might have to do something themselves. Several of the (apparent) teens who responded seem bitter because they didn’t get the same publicity, but I only read one (from the UK) that stated he tried the mass outreach approach and no one would bite. I had the pleasure of meeting Daniel at Ypulse and found his knowledge of Marketing and general enthusiasm very exciting and contagious. Good for him and sad for the rest who just want to be mean. Thanks for the post Anastasia.