Identify an entrepreneur that you admire. Outline what it is that you admire about them and why.
Alex Tew – Million-Dollar Homepage
The entrepreneur I have chosen is Alex Tew. Alex is responsible for the website www.milliondollarhomepage.com, a website that sold a million pixels in 10x10 blocks to company’s for advertising space. In this blog article Id like to show you what Alex did to turn a ‘bedroom idea’ into a million dollar success and what I admire most about him and the idea.
In August 2005, Alex was lying on his bed thinking of ways to raise money for his tuition fees. He was an average 21 year old from Wiltshire who had planned to go to university to study business management but didn’t want to come out the other side with mountains of debt. It was that night he came up with million dollar homepage.
The best thing about this website is how simple it was. Advertising Space. Million pixels. $1 per Pixel. Open to anyone who wanted to purchase pixels in the 10x10 blocks. In replacement of the pixels you had bought you could place your logo or a picture that then linked to your website. Simplicity in ideas is something I admire most. I remember my Grandad telling me this story. To start with I had no respect for Alex and what he had done and said to my Grandad
“Why should he make money? I COULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT!”
It was then my whole outlook on Creativity changed as my Grandad turned to me and said
“Yeh but YOU DIDN’T”
Alex showed that this idea, crossbred between Novelty and simplicity would be a massive success. Simplicity allowed the purchase of the advertising space to be so easy and accessible and the novelty generated the websites interest and purchases. From this it inspired me to believe that just because an idea is easy to do doesn’t make it rubbish and just because it’s simple doesn’t make it easy to come up with.
I also admire how Alex capitalised on the remainder of the pixels by selling them on ebay. A Swindon newspaper reported that the remaining pixels fetched $38,000. He as also set up other websites to make more money. www.sockandawe.com, a flash website involving throwing a shoe at George Bush was later sold on ebay for $7,818.
A few of Alex’s later websites have been slated in the media. Popjam was reported to have lost investors 6 figure investments. Despite all of this Alex has maintained a positive approach. He’s quoted being ‘cheery’ and a smarta.com writes ‘He seems positive, though: ah well, he shrugs. Maybe next time’
In my opinion Alex Tew is successful entrepreneur. His interviews portray him as a modest, switched on character with determination and drive. He kept up to date with his Milliondollarhomepage Blog, informing all interested what he was up to and apologizing in future posts when he was unable. His future project www.onemillionpeople.com aims to capture a generation of people and he aims to produce a real ‘face book’ when it is complete. So check it out!
Tew, Alex. 2005. Million Dollar Homepage. Available at: www.milliondollarhomepage.com [accessed 02 December 2010].
The kid done good. 2009. Swindon Web. Available at: http://www.swindonweb.com/office/index.asp?m=1054&s=1059&ss=0&c=5417 [accessed 02 December 2010].
If only more entrepreneurs failed as gracefully as Alex Tew. 2010. Smarta. Available at: http://www.smarta.com/blog/2010/1/if-only-more-entrepreneurs-failed-as-gracefully-as-alex-tew [accessed 02 December 2010].
