Sorry Daniel Brusilovsky, teenage charm isn’t here to stay
Written on August 5, 2008 – 11:11 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
The press loves entrepreneurial kids. Every time a young kid pulls something special off, a newspaper is eager enough to give the lad an wide-spread page. The new press, bloggers et al, seem to have the same habit. Teenage entrepreneurs like Jessica Mah (who was a speaker at The Next Web Conference) and Zooomr founder Kristopher Tate have been receiving a fair amount of attention, partly thanks to their age. And now there’s a new kid on the block. His name? Daniel Brusilovsky. His age? 15 years.
Daniel has just launched Teens in Tech, a publication platform for kids who fancy new media, in private alpha mode. Basically, it’s a Wordpress multi-user installation with a fancy layer - really cool logo - and a forum.
Daniel Brusilovsky at Supernova
As TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid notes, Daniel seems to know everybody. His board of advisers includes web influentials like Loic Le Meur, Robert Scoble (old enough to be Brusilovsky’s father) and some folks at TechCrunch and Apple. When we - meaning The Next Web team - visited the Valley in June, we met Daniel at Seemics’ HQ and Supernova.
Loic Le Meur told us he expects the young entrepreneur to create value by creating a community of young folks engaged in new media and tech and that is a great platform for companies (like Seesmic) to plug their service. The old marketing formula still works: teenagers have plenty of money to spend and they’re the future. A 1000 teenagers armed with webcams would be a welcome crowd to the Seesmic community.
Le Meur and others also know that young lads like Brusilovsky still attract enough media attention to create a hype. A young entrepreneur is just plain charming - so the group of web influentials happily welcome him in their circle of Internet fame and fortune.
The question is though whether the public thinks the same. Kincaid’s post got 159 visitors to comment and most of them were angry. Like Zack Meyerson:
I can’t respect this kid, or his company. As Luke said, its a complete joke. I have no intentions at even visiting Teens in Tech. Also, watch your acronym, people may think its a naughty site.
This post has also lowered the journalistic quality on TechCrunch.
Daniel Brusilwhatever has only been featured because of his connections. Shame on TC.
We experienced the same when we posted the announcement about Jessica Mah coming to Amsterdam:
She is 17, ok, and made high school with 15 years. 600 people read her blog, and dices will be thrown to see if someone will be talking about her in 2 years time. She is not a great speaker! (Drivingsouth)
Although some people support Mah and Brusilovsky - “I wish I was that productive back then”, the general opinion seems to be that the young entrepreneur must really have something special to offer. They get the attention, but then they have to prove they’re worth it. I’m sorry Brusilovsky, but the teenage charm factor isn’t here to stay.
I hope you like that post!
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
By George Tziralis on Aug 5, 2008
What’s more, I don’t think they can stand as a paradigm to be copied, but rather the other way around. At 15 or 16 you should focus on your school and education, not making money.
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By drivingsouth on Aug 5, 2008
UAU, I was quoted in the best Web blog in Europe :)
Agree with you on this post and understand that news is not when a dog bites someone but when someone bites a dog, so some kinds may take a hype.
There is loads of kids nowadays with a completely different attitude from that generation 10 years ago. Some know more people than others apparently though. Kawasaki made some experiments with kids and technology that actually reveal the most important: they are early-adopters in loads of technologies and use it in different ways. That’s a very valuable knowledge when building a new very early-stage concept IMHO
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By Ben on Aug 5, 2008
You’re just jealous EJ ;-)
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By Nicolas Mertens on Aug 5, 2008
I have to agree with Drivingsouth, how many of the used to be promising to we still hear off now?
At that age your brain is in full developement and sometimes there are youngster who attract attention… however, their brain needs to “cool down”, get back into balance before they can actually bring a good idea (only 1%/process) to a succes!
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By Edo van Royen on Aug 5, 2008
I don’t like that with such a service Daniel emphasizes the age difference, when most teenage entrepeneurs struggle to have people look at them as if there is none.
Apart from that, spirit like this should always be encouraged, no matter what the result is. The website and concept need some work, but if he keeps trying he’ll end up with something nice that doesn’t require the age-card to be played.
Edo - 19 ( Still a teen damnit ! )
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By monty on Aug 6, 2008
The reason I don’t support someone like Daniel is that at the end of the day they are simply showing off that they are so young, and not focussing on other more important things. Frankly I don’t care if he is 12 or 15 as long as he doesn’t shove it down my throat, but he does. I was watching a Qik video where he asked a question to Kevin Rose and the first thing he said was “I’m an employee at Qik, yeah thats right, me!” (I paraphrase of course but that’s how it sounded to me)
Kids that young have no class about the whole scenario, ultimately they are just searching for money because then they can show off to their friends. They aren’t trying to make a living or anything so everything they do is skewed IMO towards greed.
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By Edo van Royen on Aug 7, 2008
Monty, don’t generalize too much. There’s a thing called fun too, and for some it’s more important then money or fame.
When I started my webdesign firm at age 13 ( http://www.xs4all.nl/~edolo/) or my hosting firm at 15 I never intended to make wealth or fame. Just a heap of fun out of the challenge in trying to be one of the big boys.
Now I agree with you on the fact that it’s lame to play the age-card in these situations, but I feel inclined to strongly oppose your generalization of teen entrepeneurs on being merely skewed towards greed.
Edo
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By Jessica Mah on Aug 7, 2008
Hey Ernst,
Great post! I agree with what you said — even if these teenagers (myself included) get press, it by no means insures their future success.
As many people have noticed, I’ve stepped out of the limelight. Or at least, I’ve tried very hard to. I don’t want credit for being a teenage entrepreneur. I don’t want credit for being a female entrepreneur. Both do absolutely no good for me in the long run.
A year ago, when I was more popular like Daniel, I came to realize that the hype was distracting me from growing as both an engineer and as a potential entrepreneurial success. It made people think I was successful, and enlarged my ego beyond my own desires.
So why do get so much popularity? Well, I’m no longer under 18, so that’s less exciting. But a few years back, I could definitely see why the press was all over me. (and now, Daniel.)
It’ll be an on-going trend because it makes for good news, but in the end, it doesn’t help anyone but the wannabe-entrepreneur’s ego.
Cheers,
Jessica Mah
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By genieyclo on Dec 5, 2008
Here’s the thing about TiT, just forget about how simple it is, and how anyone could do this-his target audience will not use this. He’s aiming at teens who are in tech to use this…but those teens already blog on better platforms, that have better user bases, and have their own sites and things going for them. A noble cause, yes, but badly executed and little foresight put through. Back to the drawing board, Daniel.
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