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23 Year Old First Time Entrepreneur Making Millions

First time entrepreneur working with over 40,000 brands, and over 1M in revenue in one year. This 23 year old originally aspired to be a politician, Hollywood actor, to now being the CEO of Tint. Glappitnova unites entrepreneurs, creatives, and influencers  through  8 days of eclectic special events in Chicago. Here is the story of influencer Tim Sae Koo, and don’t forget to subscribe to Glappitnova. Our community is filled with talented diverse people like yourself.

What is Tint?

Tint helps brands aggregate, curate, and display any social media feeds anywhere they want. Our vision is to help brands drive deeper relationships with their audiences through social media.

First Time Entrepreneur Tim Sae Koo, CEO of Tint:

I like to solve problems in efficient ways. When I was younger, I thought being a politician would help achieve my goals in making the world a better place, but little did I know how much red tape there was after working in the political industry. I knew there had to be a better way to solve the problems around us, and I wanted to take things in my own hands, without any unnecessary hindrance from “rules.”

It is a constant roller coaster every day. One day you see revenue increase by 100%, the next day you doubt if you’ll be able to make it to the end of this year. I do consistently struggle with balancing how much work I put in and how much time I give myself for my personal life. When there are so many employees and so many moving parts to the business constantly needing your attention, you see time fly right past you. The only way to strike a balance is optimizing on ways to work smarter with more focus.

People believing in me is what keeps me going. Aside from my passion in the business and personal satisfaction I get when making contributions to others around me, I don’t like disappointing those who trust and believe in me. My parents, my siblings, my friends, my co-founders, and my employees all mean the world to me since they have supported my dreams in transforming an idea to a 1M+ revenue business. They look to me to lead them through this journey and that sense of trust inspires me keep driving forward.  Want to 29 ways to stay creative?

History of Tint:

  • Founded by 3 USC alums

  • Started as hypemarks.com (similar technology to Tint, but in the consumer space)

  • Raised a modest $350k seed round

  • Try to grow userbase, but increased competition created difficulty

  • Pivoted to the B2B space and packaged the product in a different pitch

  • Launched tintup.com in Jan. 2013

  • Partnered with distribution channels like wix.com

  • Started charging customers in Feb. 2013, risking raising money at low valuations

  • Had 4 months of runway before running out of cash

  • Failed to raise money from VCs

  • 10x prices on our pricing to stay alive

  • Hit profitability in May 2013 (hit $400/month, and in April 2014, we hit $290k/month)

  • Stepped into event industry

  • Built product features for the retail industry

  • Grew to 4 people at end of the 2013 year at $100k/month

  • Expanding to hotel, automobile, e-commerce, and display ad unit industry

  • Moved into own office space in March 2014

  • Scaling team to ~16 people by end of 2014

Background Bio:

Tim Sae Koo is the CEO of Tint, a platform that helps over 40,000 brands today aggregate, curate, and display any social media feeds anywhere they want. Aspiring to be a politician at first to trying Hollywood as a commercial actor, to now being a 23 year old first-time entrepreneur, Tim finds joy in solving tough problems with smart people today than being in the spotlight. With his favorite quote being “Ask for forgiveness rather than for permission,” he sees every mistake and failure he’s made in his entrepreneurial journey as a learning opportunity, which has helped him take his first startup to a multi-million dollar business in less than 1 year. When Tim is not working, he enjoys playing volleyball, watching TV comedies, and singing with the guitar.

Websites To Rock Your Browser:

Tint: http://www.tintup.com
Glappitnova: https://www.glappitnova.com

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  1. […] Not only was Admiral William McRaven’s commencement speech better than Oprah, and Steve Jobs, he digs deep and explains how to change the world. So who’s going to save the world tonight? If you thought that was great check out how this 23 year old first time entrepreneur making millions. […]