Getting a new business started is not easy. Here at Fiverr®, we’re always thinking up new and creative ways for small business owners and startups to build their businesses and help them grow. One way we find helpful is to draw inspiration from other successful business owners.
Below are five small business entrepreneurs you can follow on Twitter to see what they’re up to, get their tips, and find out what and who they are following.
Tim Westergren (@timwestergren)
Despite facing competition from other sites such as Slacker and Apple’s own iTunes Radio in 2013, Pandora radio ruled the streaming music market for a number of years. Pandora Radio was founded by Tim Westergren and several other co-founders in 2000, and has since become one of the go-to options for streaming music.
Westergren also worked to create the Music Genome Project, which uses a mathematical formula to categorize music. Westergren and company are a group of people that every small business owner should take pointers from, as they grew Pandora Radio from a team of 3 people in 2000 to a multi-million dollar public company with over 250 million active users. Go ahead and click that Follow button.
Jeffrey Raider (@jeffreyraider)
Jeffrey Raider is further down on the list because of his recent entrance into the entrepreneurship game, albeit a successful recent entrance. Raider is the definition of what it means to start a company with the sole purpose of providing quality products at low prices. He is the co-founder of prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses brand, Warby Parker and shaving products company, Harry’s.
Warby Parker was initially funded by $2,500 worth of seed money that was provided by a venture program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where Raider studied. It goes to show that a successful company doesn’t equate to how much money it generates initially.
Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki)
Kawasaki is really a do-it-yourself kind of guy and set off on his own path after his start at Apple as the company’s chief evangelist. Kawasaki utilized some of his own ideas that he created to implement new standards and co-founded venture capitalist firm Garage Technology Ventures, which invested in a number of successful businesses, including Pandora. Kawasaki is currently chief evangelist at Canva and is truly a trailblazer who once worked with the likes of Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive. Give him a follow; there is a lot to be gained.
Travis Kalanick (@travisk)
Travis Kalanick is a small business entrepreneur but there is nothing small about him. As a matter of fact, he is a huge risk taker, co-founding peer-to-peer file sharing network, Red Swoosh and ridesharing service, Uber. When Kalanick launched Uber, livery and taxi commissions protested against it, citing concerns that it is taking away money from other taxi and limousine services.
Despite these protests, Uber continues to dominate cities such as New York City and Los Angeles. Kalanick’s risk-taking and persistent demeanor is something that would be incredibly useful to all small business entrepreneurs and startups.
Pete Cashmore (@mashable)
Pete Cashmore is likely the first to top any list, because of the popularity of his blog, Mashable. Cashmore started the company at age 19 and has turned it into something of a pop culture staple. Mashable grew quickly following the introduction of the iPhone as well as the rise of social media sites such as Twitter and was even listed by TIME magazine as the top 25 best blogs in 2009.
Though a lot of us probably won’t be launching an incredibly successful website from our homes at the age of 19 anytime soon, we can take some of Cashmore’s thoughts and ideas to fuel the success of our own small businesses.
Who are you following on Twitter?
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