Young business leaders share success stories

Two young entrepreneurs who found success as teenagers related their stories Tuesday night as part of Louisiana Entrepreneurship Day at LSU. Catherine Cook, co-founder of MyYearbook.com, and Daniel Gomez Iniguez, founder of the SOLBEN green-energy firm, also offered business advice. “If you have a good idea and you’re searching to get funding, you will get funded,” Cook says. “It’s exhausting, but you’ll get it done.” Cook, 22, and her brother began their website when she was 15. The site found immediate success through a T-shirt promotion and word of mouth. Her work on it even threatened Cook’s schoolwork at times. “I actually almost lost credit in one of my science classes, because apparently it’s not an excused absence to go pitch venture capitalists,” she says. Today, MyYearbook.com boasts 33 million members. She keeps the site relevant by focusing on its strengths rather than by imitating the trends of its competitors. “You’re not going to grow as a company if you’re continuously staring at the other guy,” Cook says. Gomez Iniguez, 21, who started his energy company at 19, says he learned his work ethic through athletics. “If I fall down from my bike and I want to continue the next day, I should get up. It doesn’t matter if I have blood all around my body.” He says a strong idea will overcome any age or financial issue. “What matters is, what’s your idea, and how could you convince people of your idea?” He also dismisses the idea of failure, saying, “We call everything a result. Results might be good or bad, but if everything is a result, you’ll always learn. The day you stop learning is the day you die.” —Ian McGibboney