The Next Teen Tycoons: Where Are They Now?

[gafimiv406]

Contributing Author
Jul 20 | 4 min read
Earlier this year, we launched the “Next Teen Tycoon” video contest – our search for the country’s future business leaders. We gave away lots of cool prizes, including thousands of dollars in cash and a trip to New York to attend TEDxTeen. We also secured great publicity for the winners, such as press coverage on The Huffington Post, FOX Business, the San Francisco Chronicle and the ABC affiliate KITV-TV evening news – they were all super professional and did great on the phone and in front of the camera!

Four months later, what are they doing now? We sat down (virtually) with two of our winners, Jason Li of iReTron and Jack Uesugi of a1000x, and asked them to update us on what they’ve been up to and how the contest helped their budding companies.



Grand-prize winner Jason Li, founder of iReTron



Li’s company, iReTron, encourages people to turn in their old cellphones and other electronic devices for cash; the devices are then sold abroad, where there is still a demand.

How has the company changed/grown since you won the contest?

Jason: We have grown so much since April and a huge factor was the contest. vietnam whatsapp number database Not only did it provide us with seed money to expand our financial bases, more media noticed us and published articles about iReTron.

We have come to be an official corporation, featured on world-renowned publications including Inc. and The Huffington Post, invited to more events and expos to speak such as the National CleanTech Conference Expo, and much more. We were even approached by ABC Television to be featured on a show.

Team iReTron and I are preparing for the SAGE Global International championships at the end of July. A few months ago, iReTron was named the No. 1 social enterprise business in the nation and we are actually going to be representing the U.S. for the competition at the end of July. Since Next Teen Tycoon, we have also won other awards such as first place in the International Young Eco-Hero Championships.

How did you use the contest prize money?

Jason: We used the prize money ($4,000) to improve our website and optimization, attend more events, and pay for basic transaction fees. We have still not paid a single dollar for advertisements and we are very proud of it.

It has been a thrilling adventure these last few months and a huge catalyst would be the Next Teen Tycoon contest. In the near future, we plan on hiring employees, expand advertising and marketing, add new features to the website, and much more.