He's picked out some of the rising stars that could soon be household names.
Jamal Edwards, founder, SB.TV
From a teenager on a London council estate to a self-made millionaire media mogul, Jamal Edwards’s tale is one of the greatest stories of this digital age. He got into filming after his parents gave him a basic video camera at the age of 15 and went on to film rap videos and upload them on his YouTube account. Starting with amateur footage of several British artists, SB.TV – also called SmokeyBarz – began to incorporate lifestyle interviews and event coverage after attracting millions of fans.
Easton LaChappelle
Using free online resources and the surging inexpensive 3D printers market, a 17-year-old high school student from Colorado successfully developed a functional prosthetic arm and hand last year.A self-taught prosthetician, LaChappelle made his first mechanical hand out of Lego, fishing wire and surgical tubing at the age of 14, and then kept improving the design with 3D-printed parts. He is now working at Nasa.
Arnold du Toit, founder and president, Rolley
In his final year of university, when his friend complained about a full round of 18 holes taking too long to play, Arnold du Toit came up with the idea of a hop-on battery-powered golf trolley.The concept of a ride-on golf trolley has been around for a long time, but what Arnold designed was a product that combined his passion for engineering, technology and golf. The British invention has won several accolades not only for its design, but also for its use of social media to build the brand.
Quinn Hu, founder and CEO, Distractify
Quinn Hu was 20 years old when he launched a media company to distribute original ‘shareable’ content to social and mobile platforms last October. It earned 21m unique views in its first 30 days, with more than 110m visitors since. Quinn recently acquired Trendolizer, which automatically detects potentially popular stories and videos to find which ones are currently trending.
This feature was first published as part of The Drum’s 25 June issue, available for purchase in The Drum store or for subscribers to download here.
