Nadav Ossendryver is no ordinary teenager. 16 years old and currently in Grade 11, he has a full-time employee who runs the website he created, Latestsightings.com, while he’s at school, he has a business that generates a profit, and he’s doing his bit tracking South Africa’s endangered animals.
But where did it all begin?
Rewind to December 2011, and Nadav is a kid in the Kruger Park with his parents; just another tourist frustrated that there isn’t a better way for visitors to the park to share their experiences and sightings. “I drove my parents crazy. I made them stop every car we passed and ask them what they’d seen.”
But here’s the difference.
A clear entrepreneur in the making, Nadav decided to do something about his frustrations, and so he created a blog on blogger.com for free — and received 70 hits in his first day. He knew he was on to something, and decided to see where he could take it.
“I had the whole of the December holidays to teach myself WordPress, and I invested money I had saved into a domain name ($10 a year) and a proper hosting site ($100 a year). I knew that hosting was important — I needed the site to be fast and user-friendly.”
People soon flocked to the site, and revenue generation followed.
“I started a YouTube channel and uploaded Kruger videos. This attracted people to the website. We have close to 60 000 users across our channels, including over 20 000 Facebook likes, and over 20 000 app downloads.”
As a YouTube partner, revenue is generated through ads on the videos, as well as adverts on the website. The apps however can be downloaded for free. Nadav borrowed a friend’s Apple Mac to develop the iTunes app (which took two weeks of barely any sleep while he learnt to code the app), but the Google and Android apps have been outsourced.
“The apps and website will always be free. We’ve created a community and that’s what’s important,” says Nadav. The site has become so busy (with enough revenue generated) that a full time employee has been hired to manage it while Nadav’s at school, although all additional profits are pumped back into the business.
Vital Stats
- Player: Nadav Ossendryver
- Company: Latest Sightings
- Est: 2012
- X-Factor: Finding a way to make things happen, and bring ideas to reality.
- Contact: www.latestsightings.com