There seems to be a common thread unveiled in the psyche of startup founders very early in life. Maybe its genetic, maybe its environmental, maybe a combination, but it seems to me that founders have an interest in building a business at a very young age. I've heard many a story from startup founders, but the latest might take the grand prize.
On March 19th, Startup Grind Chicago welcomed Justyn Howard, the founder of Sprout Social, a powerful social media management solution. Justyn grew up in a small town in Northern California, where his roots in entrepreneurship sprouted from gathering mistletoe and selling to the locals at age 7. That's right, age 7. Oh, but it doesn't stop there. In his early teens, Justyn taught himself to program and become a young programming gun for hire. He decided to retire at age 15, at least from programming. So go the early years of another, successful startup founder.
Today, Justyn's Sprout Social has grown to nearly 70 employees, along with thousands upon thousands of customers, from SMB's to large organizations, all within three short years. If you are wondering how Justyn went from mistletoe to social media management, it actually all makes perfect sense. Justyn, after retiring from programming, leveraged his sales acumen to launch a successful career in enterprise software sales. Enter LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Justyn needed but couldn't find a social media management tool to support his sales efforts, so he built one. So go the young adult years of another, successful startup founder.