The internet has apparently made bucketloads of clever young people into millionaires. We hope a Rools partnership with a couple of teenage entrepreneurs, Nick Bell and Robbie Hodgekiss at Teenfront.com, will lead them to riches. We can exclusively reveal that Rools has completed an investment in a portal for teenagers that has been developed by Nick and Robbie, both aged 16.
The site was launched in 1998 and for two years acted as a low-key bulletin board, providing links to other sites and cheat information for video games. It is now a fairly comprehensive portal and looks as professional as many sites where large sums of money have been spent on development, offering a range of services from an advice column to product reviews and horoscopes. It has also developed links to leading online services.
Until now, it has not actively pursued revenue streams, but has attracted the attention of several advertisers wishing to target the youth market.
And all this has been achieved on a budget of hundreds of pounds rather than thousands and with relatively limited time. All of the work has been done after school, at weekends or during the holidays. The individuals behind it are impressive - one started his first internet site when he was 12 - and they have a great understanding of the internet and powerful business brains.
The market for online services for teenagers is frenzied, with the launch of a number of big players such as MyKindaPlace, Wowgo and Swizzle. Drawing from the existing business to business and business to consumer abbreviations, the sector has developed its own acronym - B2T for business to teenagers.
The sector is crowded, but lacks a reasonable sized player that is for teenagers by teenagers (T2T perhaps). We came across Teenfront during some market research on teenage portals. The site appeared well designed and well organised, but what attracted us most was the net work of regular teenage contributors. It demonstrates a natural understanding of the teenage market - although we're not convinced that all young people are as keen on Dire Straits as Nick and Robbie are.
The site's closeness to its audience is the most important element of the partnership. Teenfront gives us a direct insight into teenagers and helps us develop a service that is most relevant to them - after all, none of us is as young as we used to be. Nick and Robbie face the challenge of developing the site and translating a serious hobby into a larger enterprise. They plan to continue working on Teenfront while studying for A-levels and, after that, at university. Bill Gates started Microsoft as a university student, so these guys have a head start.
Adam Hamdy and Guy Mallison are the co-founders of Rools.com a service that enables teenagers to buy online without a credit card.
