Bootstrapping a Ad-business at 16
Co-founded an online science magazine at 16, turned a viral Reddit moment into a sustainable advertising business with tens of thousands of subscribers.
Vidyadhar Sharma
Founding Member at Stealth Startup
From their time as
Co-founder and CEO
Science Panorama • 2012 - 2014
Overview
Co-founded Science Panorama at 16 as a science blog. While experimenting with marketing tactics to grow the Facebook following, stumbled into a hack that went viral on Reddit, trending number one on a subreddit. The traffic flood was massive.
The Story
Co-founded Science Panorama at 16 as a science blog. While experimenting with marketing tactics to grow the Facebook following, stumbled into a hack that went viral on Reddit, trending number one on a subreddit. The traffic flood was massive.
Turned the traffic into a business by launching an online science magazine and building a subscriber base of 60,000. Monetized through advertising, selling ad spaces both in the magazine and on the blog. Scaled to 1M+ monthly readers.
The lesson learned at 16 shaped everything that followed: if you build something valuable, people will come regardless of where you're from, how old you are, or what your background is. The internet rewards value. When you create something valuable, the money follows.