{"id":40619,"date":"2011-12-06T12:41:41","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T18:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/?p=40619"},"modified":"2020-09-21T13:33:42","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T17:33:42","slug":"the-worlds-5-youngest-ceos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/the-worlds-5-youngest-ceos\/","title":{"rendered":"The World\u2019s 5 Youngest CEOs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/the-world%e2%80%99s-5-youngest-ceos\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/montage2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"montage\" width=\"500\" height=\"700\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40624 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/montage2.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/montage2-214x300.jpg 214w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/700;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding: 0px 0px 0pt 0pt; float: left;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/tools\/diggthis.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 5px 5px 5pt 5pt; float: left;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Share<\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 0px 2px 0pt 0pt; float: left;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>What does it take to be the World\u2019s Youngest CEO? Marbles, apparently. A lot of marbles. At the age of 8, British \u201cMarble King\u201d Harli Jordean has recently been dubbed the World\u2019s Youngest CEO, stripping 14 year-old Indian animation queen Sindhuja Rajaraman of her title. No joke, folks: The two youngest CEOs this year aren\u2019t even old enough to have their driver\u2019s licenses. But all CEOs have their own personal drivers anyway, right? With an almost 10-year gap separating the young guns from the younger guns, the other three entrepreneurs on our Top 5 Youngest CEOs list each come in under the age of 30.<br \/>\n<!--more-->\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Harli Jordean<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/harli.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"harli\" width=\"500\" height=\"358\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40622 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/harli.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/harli-300x214.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/358;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/11\/14\/article-2061280-0ECB99F600000578-53_634x454.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u2028\u00a0<br \/>\n8 year-old Harli Jordean \u201chas been obsessed with marbles ever since he was six,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2011\/11\/18\/harli-jordean-8-year-old-entrepreneur-builds-his-fortune-selling-marbles_n_1101604.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to his mother, Tina<\/a>. Amazingly, this little nugget had a hobby for two years and is now the World\u2019s Youngest CEO. Is anyone else out there starting to rethink career choices? After accruing a notable collection of marbles and later becoming frustrated by the lack of selection online, Harli and his family developed their business \u00a0(which revolves around the whimsical \u201cLand of Marbles, where everybody has Marble MANIA\u201d), and are now selling specialty marbles for up to $1,000 US dollars. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marbleking.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marble King\u2019s website<\/a>, Harli, who is the fedora-clad face of the company, aspires to one day \u201cbecome an active co-owner and to actively take his throne, to take the leadership in running the business.\u201d So essentially, this kid gets to live large by playing with marbles all day until he\u2019s old enough to start balancing the books. Or old enough to hire someone to do that for him.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Sindhuja Rajaraman<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Sindhuja-Rajaraman.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Sindhuja-Rajaraman\" width=\"500\" height=\"381\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40625 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Sindhuja-Rajaraman.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Sindhuja-Rajaraman-300x228.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/381;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/asiabizz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Sindhuja-Rajaraman.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\nComing in at a close second is 14 year-old Sindhuja Rajaraman, who is the CEO of Seppan, a successful animation company in Chennai, India. Despite being bumped from the top spot on this list earlier this year by Harli Jordean, Sindhuja still remains the youngest CEO recognized by the National Association of Software and Service Companies. And all of Seppan\u2019s success has stemmed from yet another child with a hobby. \u201cIt all started five years back when I wanted to take my mind off studies and do something new,\u201d she says. She credits her father, a cartoonist, as her inspiration \u2013 He taught her the art of animation that has propelled her into short-film creation. Yet despite spending the majority of her day in the Seppan offices, <a href=\"http:\/\/articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com\/2011-03-10\/news\/28675551_1_animation-film-nasscom-chennai-based-animation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sindhuja claims to be raking in a smaller salary<\/a> than any of the other 10 employees. Perhaps the only CEO who is paid less than the employees, she notes. But don\u2019t get it twisted: she still wants to play with friends and go to film school and stuff. She just has to prioritize a little (a lot) differently than the average teenage girl.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Adam Goldstein<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/adam.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"adam\" width=\"500\" height=\"297\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40620 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/adam.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/adam-300x178.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/297;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/files.posterous.com\/temp-2010-10-08\/EqAebiaacgcznmoGbgidHyIHDdjxljgmtomFlCxvrysaDuJwpHaoGefEjycH\/Letterbox-Adam.jpg.scaled500.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJFZAE65UYRT34AOQ&#038;Expires=1323193181&#038;Signature=V3uqdsCRAeaW%2BZ47OeB%2Fb1odZHY%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\nWith nearly a decade between the ages of numbers two and three on our list, Adam Goldstein is still far from old (and just as close to the possibility of retirement) at the ripe old age of 23.\u00a0 As the CEO of Hipmunk, a travel start-up with an adorable and aeronautically adorned chipmunk mascot, Goldstein and co. are giving better-known travel search engines like Kayak and Orbitz a run for their money.\u00a0 Hipmunk \u201ctakes the agony out of flight search,\u201d and shows users their best bet via one of the most visually appealing timeline interfaces on the web. They rank flights not only based on lowest price, <a href=\"http:\/\/thenextweb.com\/insider\/2011\/02\/04\/hipmunks-adam-goldstein-talks-travel-the-future-and-that-2-4-million-in-funding\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> but on the overall \u201cagony\u201d of the trip<\/a>, which includes travel time and total stops. It also supports both city names and airport codes, and inserts train travel options, which are often time the cheapest (albeit longest) way to go \u2013 You know, for those of us who just can\u2019t seem to plan ahead.\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Jared Hecht<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/jared.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"jared\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40623 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/jared.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/jared-300x225.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/375;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/static8.businessinsider.com\/image\/4e8ca5c36bb3f78165000015-400-300\/2-steve-martocci-and-jared-hecht.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\nGroupMe\u2019s Jared Hecht slides in at number four, hot on the heels of Goldstein at age 24. \u00a0Hecht\u2019s company, which was recently acquired by Skype (for $85 million a year, no less), is, at the most basic level, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inc.com\/30under30\/2011\/profile-jared-hecht-steve-martocci-founders-groupme.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">seamless group text messaging<\/a>. When faced with the difficultly of rallying the troops at the ever-cellularly-elusive music festival, Hecht and his partner Steve Martocci conceived a text service akin to group email chains. Every group receives a unique phone number upon sign-up, and each text sent by a member of said group is broadcasted to everyone on the chain. Thanks to GroupMe, at least one of your friends is bound to meet you at the port-a-pottys after the Cut Copy set.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>David Karp<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/DavidKarp07.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"DavidKarp07\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40621 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/DavidKarp07.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/DavidKarp07-300x199.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/333;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_lk30lfownp1qdos08.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\nTumblr\u2019s David Karp brings up the rear of our list at 25 years old, barely edging out\u00a0 Globals Incs.\u2019s Suhas Gopinath, who took the top spot last year. According to the NY Observer, \u201cMr. Karp is tall and skinny, with unflinching blue eyes and a mop of brown hair. He speaks incredibly fast and in complete paragraphs.\u201d But sorry ladies, he\u2019s got a girlfriend that pretty much meets this same description. Karp started Tumblr, a short-form blogging platform, to create something \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2011\/02\/21\/founder-stories-why-david-karp-started-tumblr-blogs-dont-work-for-most-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cmuch more free-free, much less verbose\u201d<\/a> than typical blogs. Basically, if you don\u2019t like to write but still want to create a home for our online personality (that isn\u2019t the increasingly-invasive FaceBook), Tumblr makes it easy for you. High expression, low commitment. Just how we like \u2018em these days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Share What does it take to be the World\u2019s Youngest CEO? Marbles, apparently. A lot of marbles. At the age of 8, British \u201cMarble King\u201d Harli Jordean has recently been dubbed the World\u2019s Youngest CEO, stripping 14 year-old Indian animation queen Sindhuja Rajaraman of her title. No joke, folks: The two youngest CEOs this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":40624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[3620,7135,3955,195,5305],"class_list":{"0":"post-40619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ceo","9":"tag-children","10":"tag-entrepreneurs","11":"tag-kids","12":"tag-toparticles"},"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72022,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40619\/revisions\/72022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}