We have all heard about technopreneurs — I mean, the media does love this kind of buzzwords, right? So, to make sense of what exactly it means to be a techpreneur, I’m writing this article. It’s a list of candidates for the most inspirational.example of entrepreneurs ever. First, however, let’s see how exactly an technopreneur is defined? What does it mean? After trying to answer that, I’ll go over different technopreneur examples: celebrity technopreneurs, female technopreneurs breaking the tech industry’s ceiling, Canadian technopreneurs, and international examples of technopreneurship.
What is the meaning of Technopreneur?
Technopreneur: A person who is an entrepreneur and is also a technologist.
The concept of a technopreneur was first introduced in the late 1980s, when the term was coined by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Barbara Walters along with Ted Leonsis (Leonsis & Walters 1998). It has since gained traction in popular culture as a term to describe entrepreneurs who are also knowledgeable about technology (Ricciardi & Galimberti 2016).
Technopreneurs are important for the growth of their community. They create jobs and new products, services and technologies. They are the backbone of the economy.
- Technopreneurs are job creators. They create more than 100 million jobs in India every year, which is more than 20% of the total number of people employed in India.
- Technopreneurs create value by coming up with new products or services that help people in their daily lives such as mobile phones, internet connection etc., which is not possible without technopreneurs who can think out-of-the box solutions for problems faced by people on a day-to-day basis.
Technopreneurs are essential for the economic growth of a country. They are people who start new companies or develop new technologies. For example, tech entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg have helped to make the USA one of the most powerful countries in the world.
Technopreneurs are important for two reasons: 1) they create jobs; 2) they usually use technology as part of their business models. For example, people who drive taxis typically need to learn how to use GPS systems so that they can be more efficient in their work and deliver better customer service at lower costs than those who don’t use such systems (for example taxi drivers who don’t know how to use GPS will often get lost while driving).
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs is one of the most famous technopreneurs. His work as a technopreneur started when he co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak. The company’s first product was the Apple I personal computer, which had an 8-bit processor and sold for $666 (the number 666 is often associated with Satan). In 1985, Jobs left Apple and created NeXT Inc., which developed high-end computers that could run Microsoft Windows programs. When NeXT failed to take off commercially, Jobs bought Pixar Animation Studios from Lucasfilm Ltd. in 1986 and made it a subsidiary of his new company NeXT; later on he became CEO of Pixar as well.
In 1996, after returning to Apple Computer Inc., the company released their new line of Macintoshes that included CD drives instead of floppy disks or Zip drives; this allowed users to install applications directly onto their computers without having them shipped separately by companies like Adobe Systems Incorporated or Microsoft Corporation
Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos – Founder of Amazon and multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos is another example of a technopreneur. Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer and has a market capitalization of $1.5 trillion. Bezos is the richest person in the world with a net worth of $150 billion.
Jeff Bezos started working on an early version of the Kindle in 1996, but it wasn’t until 2007 that he launched the first generation Kindle to great success. The e-reader was ranked as one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 inventions years later in 2010, alongside ideas like Facebook and Airbnb which have also been heavily influenced by technological innovation over time!
Mark Zuckerberg
Not exactly a favorable example of technopreneur, he’s undeniably successful in turning tech to money. One of the most famous (or is it infamous?) technopreneurs is Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. This Harvard dropout has created a piece of technology that has changed the way we communicate and interact online. He is also a philanthropist and an inspiration to people across the world.
Mark Zuckerberg’s story is just one example of how a few hours spent tinkering in his dorm room can lead to something bigger than anyone could have imagined.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is perhaps the name that first comes to mind when thinking about an example of technopreneur. A famous billionaire who is the founder and CEO of Tesla, Inc., SpaceX and Neuralink, and co-founder of Zip2 and PayPal, Elon Musk has been a media focus for years.
Elon Musk is one of the most successful technopreneurs in history. He has been named “Visionary Entrepreneur” by Forbes magazine, an “Economic Visionary” by Time magazine’s Person of the Year (2007), ranked 21st on Forbes’ list of The World’s Most Powerful People (2013), named one of Bloomberg’s 50 Most Influential People Who Matter (2014) and was listed among Time 100: The Next Generation Leaders (2006). Elon Musk has also been awarded various honors such as Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Princeton University; Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Technical University Delft; Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Lehigh University; Honorary Doctorates from Humboldt University Berlin & Universidad Central de Venezuela; Honorary Fellow at Imperial College London; Honorary Fellow at National Space Society UK & Royal Aeronautical Society UK.
Need a Better Example of Technopreneurs? Try These 10 Impressive Women Advancing Technopreneurship
As a female technopreneur in Africa, I am used to being the only woman in a room full of men. It can be challenging at times, but it has also given me the opportunity to show women that technology is for everyone: you just need to take your time and learn as much as possible before jumping into it headfirst. We’ve gathered together a list of female technopreneurs from across the continent who are doing great things in technology startup communities around Africa.
Mariam Kamell, the CEO and co-founder of LuvUrSkin.
One such woman is Mariam Kamell, the CEO and co-founder of LuvUrSkin. She’s also the founder of The African Women’s Entrepreneurship Fund and an active social entrepreneur who supports women entrepreneurs across Africa.
Melissa Jun Rowley, the CEO and founder of Your Showoff
Melissa Jun Rowley is a Nigerian-American entrepreneur who founded Your Showoff, a company that helps people plan and execute their events. She also founded The Bizness, which provides business education to women entrepreneurs.
Margarita Arroyo, the CEO and founder of G6 Hospitality
Margarita Arroyo, the CEO and founder of G6 Hospitality
G6 Hospitality is a hospitality management company headquartered in New York City. The company manages hotels in New York City. Margarita Arroyo founded the company after she realized that there were no female-owned firms operating within the hospitality management industry. She has seen her business grow from its initial start as a single boutique hotel to now include over 30 properties across two continents.
Susan Adams, the CEO and founder of Manda Naturals
Susan Adams, CEO and founder of Manda Naturals, is an example of female technopreneurship in action. In 2012, Susan was studying for her MBA when she became interested in beauty products made with natural ingredients. She started working on a business plan for a beauty company that would sell body creams made with coconut oil and other ingredients sourced from local vendors in Kenya. The company has since expanded to include seven different types of products—all containing natural ingredients sourced from local suppliers—and now sells its products across six African countries as well as the United States.
What makes this success story especially exciting is how it’s helping to empower women in Kenya by giving them access to new markets and creating jobs within their communities. In fact, 50% of Manda’s employees are women who live near where they source their ingredients!
Julia Wilkowski, CEO and founder of Omi Brands
Julia Wilkowski is the CEO and founder of Omi Brands, a company that produces health-conscious drinks in Nigeria. She’s also a technopreneur, which means that she uses technology to create new jobs and start new businesses. As a woman, Julia has shown the world what it means to be an entrepreneur—one who owns a business and leads it by making decisions on behalf of others. As a social entrepreneur, she wants to make sure that her company helps people in need by giving back or donating money to charities like Rotary International, Unicef and other organizations focused on improving lives around the world. Her work has been recognized internationally as an example for others looking for inspiration about how hard work can pay off when combined with passion for one’s craft – especially when those crafts happen not only within their own country but also abroad
Jamila Abass, the CEO and founder of Sendy
Jamila Abass is the CEO and founder of Sendy.
The Sendy platform helps e-commerce businesses manage their email marketing campaigns by providing them with a powerful and affordable platform to do so.
Sendy is an email marketing automation app that allows users to send personalized emails through their own domain name and collect user data as well as track the performance of their campaigns using a simple interface.
As you might have guessed from its name, Sendy uses tokens called “SENDY” instead of traditional fiat currency or other cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin or Ethereum).
Due on sale on February 27th at 16:00 UTC (20:00 PST), there will be a total supply of 10 million SENDY tokens available during this initial offering.
Julie Smolyansky, the CEO and president of Lifeway Foods
Julie Smolyansky is the CEO and president of Lifeway Foods, a company focused on producing probiotic-rich kefir. She is also the founder and owner of Spanx, an American brand specializing in body shaping undergarments for women.
In this role, Julie has helped take Lifeway Foods from a family business to one that generates more than $100 million in revenue annually.
As she told Forbes magazine: “We are going to continue to invest in our future by making sure we have the right infrastructure in place so that we can scale up quickly and efficiently when opportunities arise.”
Maria Hale, the CEO and co-founder Launchmetrics.io
Maria Hale is the CEO and co-founder of Launchmetrics.io, a software company that helps businesses simplify their marketing strategy by offering analytics tools for their social media accounts. She’s also the mother of two young children and a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Hale was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2013 to conduct research at Stanford University on “The Impact of Gender Bias on Women Entrepreneurs.” In 2015, Hale won Chicago’s Most Promising Company award by Techweek 100.
Kaushiki Guha Roy, director at Aavishkaar Venture Capital Co. Ltd.
Kaushiki Guha Roy is a director at Aavishkaar Venture Capital Co. Ltd., a venture capital firm that invests in startups and growth companies. She is also an entrepreneur, investor and mentor who co-founded the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) and Women in Tech (WIT).
She has been mentoring at Startup Foundation since 2013, where she helps new entrepreneurs build their business models, create value propositions for customers, define the right strategy for scaling up their company and get access to funding.
Sarah Blakely, the founder and owner of Spanx
Sarah Blakely, the founder and owner of Spanx
Sarah Blakely, the inventor and founder of Spanx is a true example of a successful female tech entrepreneur. She started her career as an accountant at Price Waterhouse in New York City where she worked on Wall Street. After several years working for companies such as Bain & Company and The Walt Disney Company, she decided to launch her own business that would eventually become known as Spanx.
Female technopreneurs are an important part of the tech industry in Africa. They are doing great work, making a difference, and inspiring others.
- This article is a brief overview of some female technopreneurs who have made their mark in technology and entrepreneurship.
- You can read more about these women on African Techies’ website or visit us to learn more about how we can help you be a successful business owner!
15 Inspiring Examples of Technopreneurs from Canada
The term “technopreneur” was first coined by David Tedman in 1992, who used it to describe entrepreneurs who use technology to solve business problems. Since then, the definition has evolved to include companies focused on using technology to create new products, services and markets. In this article, we’re going to explore examples of Canadian technopreneurs and how they are changing the way we do business in Canada, a hotspot of entrepreneurship.
Andrew D’Souza
Andrew D’Souza is the founder of Wealthsimple, an online investment manager. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 2004 with a degree in Computer Science and co-founded Wealthsimple with his father, Michael Katchen, and Mike McCauley (the company’s CEO).
“Wealthsimple was born out of a personal frustration that there was no simple way for busy people like myself to get started investing,” says Andrew D’Souza. “I wanted to make it easy for people to start building wealth through passive investing.”
Angie Chang
Angie Chang is a serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Women 2.0 and mentor at several accelerators. She has been featured in Forbes and TechCrunch, as well as on CNN, ABC World News Now and others. Angie is passionate about empowering women entrepreneurs around the world through her work with organizations like All Raise (formerly Project Include) to promote diversity in Silicon Valley.
In addition to her role at Women 2.0, Angie was named one of “17 Women Changing Technology” by Entrepreneur Magazine in 2015; selected as one of “15 Emerging Tech Leaders You Need To Know About” by Forbes Magazine in 2016; included on Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs for two years running (2016-2017); named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People In Business for 2017; listed as one of Canada’s Top 25 Female Founders You Should Be Watching Right Now by Techvibes; recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 entrepreneurs by Canadian Business Magazine; named among Canada’s top 35 young female leaders who are changing their community for the better by Alliance for Young Artists & Writers Foundation (AYAWF); awarded Woman-to-Watch Award from Digital Hollywood Awards; Global Shaper at World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2015; named an Italian American Chamber Of Commerce Woman Of Honour Award winner 2014, who have made outstanding contributions towards promoting women’s issues globally.; honoured with an invitation to speak before United States Congress Foreign Relations Committee On The Status Of International Women Leaders At Georgetown University along side Ngozi Okonjo Iweala former Finance Minister Nigeria/United Nations Special Envoy For Sustainable Energy For All 2013 – present ; invited guest speaker at Harvard University Kennedy School Of Government Center For Public Leadership 2018 – present . She also has a blog where she shares her expertise on technology entrepreneurship including tips on bootstrapping startups without external funding or grants!
Corey Reid
Corey Reid is the founder and CEO of Vidyard, a video marketing platform that helps businesses to share their stories with customers.
Vidyard was founded in 2010 and has raised $73.5 million in funding so far. The company has over 2,000 customers around the world, including Coca-Cola and Microsoft.
Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble Technology
Eric Migicovsky is a Canadian technopreneur who founded Pebble Technology and created the Pebble smartwatch. The company was based in Palo Alto, California until 2015 when it was acquired by Fitbit for $23 million.
Migicovsky graduated from the University of Waterloo and later worked at Blackberry with Jim Balsillie before starting his own company. He has been recognized with several awards including receiving an Order of Canada and being named one of “Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.” He has also received awards such as the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal along with being recognized by TIME Magazine’s “Top 100 Most Influential People In The World” list in 2014.
David Tedman
David Tedman is the founder of StackAdapt, a company that provides data-driven sales insights for eCommerce retailers. With over $10 million in funding from investors like Real Ventures and OMERS Ventures, StackAdapt has been named one of Canada’s Top 25 Most Influential People in Tech by Canadian Business magazine.
A former co-founder of Shopify and a childhood friend to its CEO Tobi Lutke (who is also on this list), David was instrumental in defining Shopify’s early product vision and growth strategy.
James Tan
James Tan is the founder of Carrot Rewards, a loyalty program for grocery stores. The company’s mobile app and website get customers to make healthier choices by rewarding them with points that can be redeemed for rewards like gift cards or charitable donations.
James Tan is a technopreneur who made his mark in the Canadian tech world by taking advantage of an opportunity he saw in the market: “I realized there was this gap between consumers and retailers,” he says. “Consumers don’t have any incentives to go to stores anymore because they can shop online at competitive prices.”
Jennifer Hollett
Jennifer Hollett is a technopreneur who has co-founded the company that created both the app Meerkat and Periscope.
Meerkat was launched in 2015, while Hollett was the social media editor at Bloomberg. She had been working on a startup idea to create a live streaming platform for TV networks when Twitter bought her startup and released their own version. The release of Periscope followed shortly after this, which allowed anyone to broadcast live video using their smartphone or tablet.
Joel Leetzow
Joel Leetzow is a technopreneur who founded Frictionless Commerce. He’s also a philanthropist and board member of the O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. He was also named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 by Corporate Knights magazine in 2017, which is kind of like being awarded the Nobel Prize for Technopreneurship.
In 2016, Mr. Leetzow served as an advisor to Shopify’s IPO process—a role he took on to help educate other entrepreneurs about how they could apply his business model across industries such as healthcare and food production.
Karen Chiu
Did you know that 25% of all businesses are owned by women? Did you also know that only 2% of venture capital goes to women?
Karen Chiu is fighting the status quo with SheEO, a global platform for female entrepreneurs. With SheEO, she’s changing how female entrepreneurs get access to funding and support.
Komal Ahmad
Komal Ahmad is the founder of Hunger Free America, a non-profit that uses technology to help feed the homeless. She’s also the founder of Samasource (a social enterprise that provides disadvantaged communities with work), Samaschool (a program that trains students for jobs in tech), Samastore (an online marketplace selling goods made by people living in poverty), and Samastories (an app where you can read true stories written by those who were formerly homeless).
You don’t need to be a technopreneur to make an impact on society—but if you are, now you know what it looks like!
Shrad Rao
Shrad Rao is the founder of Clearbanc, a financial technology company that provides business owners with the tools to grow their businesses. The company was founded in 2015 and has raised $67 million in funding. Rao was born in London, Ontario and attended Queen’s University before he dropped out to pursue his dreams of entrepreneurship. He earned his first million dollars by age 25 by founding another company called Influitive Inc., which created software designed to help businesses engage their employees through feedback surveys.
It’s clear that the Canadian tech scene is thriving. We have entrepreneurs like Andrew D’Souza who are redefining how we do business and others like James Tan who are democratizing space exploration with their innovative projects. These technopreneurs are creating opportunities for themselves and the world around them through their innovative ideas and willingness to take risks. There is no doubt that these entrepreneurs will continue to change our lives for the better!
Emmanuel Halleux, co-founder of Redknee
Emmanuel Halleux is a technopreneur who co-founded Redknee in Montreal. The company specializes in data management, with offices in Montreal and San Francisco. It was the first Canadian startup to join Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley accelerator program that helped give rise to Airbnb, Dropbox and Reddit (see below).
Halleux started his career as an engineer at Microsoft in Seattle before launching an internet startup there with his brother Nicolas. They sold their business after two years for $3 million US dollars; this would be worth over $11 million today according to inflation rates (source: Bank of Canada).
When he returned from the United States he worked as an entrepreneur-in-residence at iNovia Capital until 2016 when he founded Redknee along with three others: Jean-François Chollet (CTO), Philippe Séguin (COO) and Simon Beaudry (head of marketing).
Kim Kryzwicka, founder of Fit for the Cure
Kim Kryzwicka is a former professional triathlete and owner of Fit for the Cure. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, she decided to make a difference in the lives of others by creating Fit for the Cure. This non-profit organization raises money for breast cancer research and provides support to women who have been affected by cancer.
Kim also works as a motivational speaker and has spoken internationally about overcoming challenges through fitness and nutrition.
Dan Debow, co-founder and CEO of Rypple
If you’re a business owner, then you know that employee performance is one of the most important aspects of your company. You also know that this can be difficult to measure, especially in a large company. Dan Debow was aware of this issue when he co-founded Rypple in 2009 with Eric Schade and Dave McLaughlin. Rypple is a software platform that helps businesses measure and improves employee performance by giving them ways to give feedback on their employees in a structured way. The platform also enables managers to set goals for their employees and track progress towards those goals over time.
Rypple has since expanded from being an internal tool for businesses into being used by companies around the world through its API (Application Programming Interface). It now has over 200 employees worldwide with offices in Toronto, San Francisco and London!
Karan Aujla, co-founder and CEO of League Inc.
Karan Aujla is the co-founder and CEO of League Inc., a digital platform that helps small businesses grow. Aujla was born in India, grew up in the United States, and attended Brown University where he studied computer science. After graduation, he worked at Google before founding League Inc.
Aujla is considered to be one of the rising stars of technology entrepreneurship—a technopreneur. His success as an entrepreneur has been featured in Forbes magazine and recognized by The Economic Times (India’s second largest English language daily).
Mark Bohannon,
NAI Interactive and NAI Harcourts International Limited are two of the most recognizable names in real estate. In fact, if you live in Australia or New Zealand, you may have heard them before: they’re two of the country’s largest and most successful independent real estate firms.
They were founded by Mark Bohannon, who has been working in the industry for over 25 years. He began his career as an entrepreneur himself when he started buying up properties in Sydney’s western suburbs during the late 1980s and early 1990s to sell off at a profit later on—a move that eventually allowed him to start his own business ventures!
Top 10 International Candidates for the Most Impressive Example of Technopreneur
Maria Ressa
Maria Ressa is the founder of Rappler, a social media-based news platform that has become one of the most popular news sites in the Philippines. She’s also the first Filipino to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism.
Rappler was founded in 2012 as an experiment in digital storytelling and has since grown into a major media platform with more than 4 million followers on Facebook and Twitter combined. The site’s articles are shared widely across social media platforms such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram, making it one of the most influential outlets for news about events happening around Southeast Asia.
Because Rappler’s reporting focuses on stories that may not be covered by mainstream media outlets—particularly those related to corruption within Philippine politics—the website has been targeted by politicians who see it as threatening their power base at home or abroad (such as former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III). In fact, Ressa herself was indicted by Filipino authorities last year over charges of tax evasion related to her ownership stake in Rappler; though she denies any wrongdoing at all levels of her company’s operations, she still faces possible jail time if found guilty when this case goes before trial later this year.”
Travis Kalanick
Uber is a ride-sharing company that was founded by Travis Kalanick in 2009. The company has become one of the most valuable startups in the world, and it is now valued at $62.5 billion. Uber has spread to more than 70 countries around the world, allowing for an international experience for technopreneurs on both sides of its operation (as drivers and riders). Uber operates as a transportation network company (TNC), meaning that it provides rides through other independent contractors who are not employees of Uber itself—rather than owning their own vehicles, these contractors use their private cars to transport people around cities and towns where they live or work. This business model requires an internet connection to facilitate payment between rider and driver; therefore, any country without access to reliable internet cannot utilize Uber’s services at this time (though this may change as technology improves).
Max Levchin
Max Levchin is a Russian-American technologist and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and former CEO of PayPal, and the co-founder and former CEO of Slide.
Max Levchin was born in Ukraine to a Jewish family, but moved with his family to the United States at age 7. His parents are both doctors who immigrated from Russia before he was born. Max attended UC Berkeley where he studied electrical engineering and computer science, graduating with honors in 1995 (UC Berkeley does not have a bachelor’s degree program). He went on to graduate school for applied mathematics at Stanford University where he earned his Ph.D. in 2000 after five years of working on cryptography algorithms as part of the National Science Foundation research project called “New Directions in Cryptography.”
Reid Hoffman
Reid Hoffman is known for his success as a co-founder of the online professional networking service LinkedIn and the chairman of the board of directors of Airbnb. He also co-founded and funded The X Prize Foundation, which awards prizes to teams who come up with solutions to big problems such as space exploration and global public health issues.
Hoffman is known as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and venture capitalist who has founded several notable technology companies over the past 20 years. He currently serves as chairman at Lending Club and OpenGov Technologies Inc., a company with which he invested in May 2019.
Hoffman was born in Palo Alto on August 5th 1964 but grew up in Chappaqua New York where he attended Horace Greeley High School before moving back down south again when he started college at Stanford University where he graduated summa cum laude from their Computer Science program in 1987; this same year he started working at Apple Computers where he would go on help develop one of their first graphical user interfaces (GUI).
Jack Dorsey
Jack Dorsey is the CEO and co-founder of Twitter and Square. He is an American technopreneur with a net worth of $4.2 billion.
Jack Dorsey was born in St. Louis in 1976, grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut and moved to California at age 18 to attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where he majored in film production. He dropped out after just one semester to pursue his dream job as an animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios but left after three years because he wanted more creative control over his work than Disney could offer him.
After leaving Disney, Jack started working on what would eventually become Twitter—a social media platform that allows users to post short messages (tweets) that can be read by anyone who follows them on the site or its mobile app. Since launching Twitter in 2006 it has grown into one of the most popular social networks with over 300 million monthly active users worldwide.*
Akira Hasegawa
Akira Hasegawa is the founder of the Japanese mobile messaging app Line (pronounced “rain”). The app was originally launched in June 2011 and became available on iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. In 2014, Line had over 400 million users worldwide; by 2016 this number had grown to 600 million.
Line has a business-oriented messaging service called Line@ that allows companies to communicate with their customers using a mixture of personal messages and automated notifications. Businesses can also create accounts for themselves or their employees on the service so they can view incoming messages from customers more easily than if they were sent directly to an email address or phone number.
Farhad Mohit
Farhad Mohit is the founder of AppJet, a company that developed the world’s first online app store (the AppStore). He was born in 1975 and graduated with a degree in computer science from MIT. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mohit is considered to be one of the most important technopreneurs of our time, having contributed immensely to wireless technology through his company Jitterbug.
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Sean Rad
Sean Rad is a co-founder of Tinder, a mobile app that connects people to others in their area.
Sean’s net worth is reportedly $1 billion. He founded Tinder in 2012, which has become the top social app for meeting new people. Sean grew up in Los Angeles, California and attended Stanford University where he studied economics and psychology. He currently lives there with his wife Alexa Dell (daughter of Michael Dell), who is also involved with the startup community through her role as co-founder of YourTango – an online dating site geared toward women 18-34 years old.
Eric Lefkofsky
Eric Lefkofsky is a technopreneur. Check out his profile on Crunchbase, and you’ll see that he’s the co-founder of Lightbank and Tempus. He also founded InnerWorkings, though it was later acquired by Gannett Company in 2014.
What makes him a good technopreneur example? Well, Eric Lefkofsky invests in tech companies through his fund, Lightbank; he is passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed, and he likes to help them achieve their goals by providing them with capital or mentorship.
Bob Parsons
Bob Parsons is the founder and CEO of GoDaddy, as well as Parsons Xtreme Golf. He also founded the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, which provides college scholarships to children of Marines who died while serving their country. In addition to these charitable pursuits, he’s also involved in several successful businesses including Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global professional services firm; Parsons Transportation Group; and Parsons Global Services Inc., an international engineering and construction company. His most recent project is called Parson Aviation International LLC—a charter flight brokerage service that aims to connect people with private aircraft across the globe.
Starting Your Own Technopreneurship? Here’s What You Need
You don’t need to have a ton of money or experience to become a technopreneur — just passion and drive. And, as I mentioned before, don’t forget about all the resources available to help get started on the path towards becoming an entrepreneur. If you find an example of technopreneur you find inspiring, that’s because they pulled all the stops and used every resource available to get where they are. You can bet that all of these entrepreneur examples, from the celebrities to world-changing women to the Canadian technopreneurs, have this in common: they made their ideas real by using the right tools the right way. Anything can be a good tool really, from office chairs to actual software — the only issue is picking the best, the one that lets you get on with your technopreneurship in the best way. That means tools that help you save time and money while making it easier to get more things done. RunSensible, for example, is an all-in-one management software platform that exists to bring technopreneurs and entrepreneurs in general, literally all the tools they need in a single place. So, whether you’re just starting down your technopreneurship journey or are already on your way, RunSensible can make achieving your goals easier. We offer an incredible variety of tools, including CRM, Funding Opportunity Manager, time-tracker and task manager, branded invoicing and payment, business phone, and so much more. Try it out for yourself or schedule a demo with our sales team.
FAQ
What is the meaning of technopreneur?
Technopreneurs are basically tech-oriented entrepreneurs — people who create a new business by coming up with new types of technology, usually software.
Is there any successful example of entrepreneur?
More than you’d think. Not only do Elon Musk and Zuckerberg fall under the category of technopreneur, but in this article, you can read about more than 30 other cases where techpreneurs were super-successful.
Does it take a lot of money to become a technopreneur?
Not at all! In fact, you can start your technopreneurship without any money or even experience — that’s how most of these successful examples of entrepreneurs did it.
