Many entrepreneurs view the show from the perspective of the business owners, but have you ever wanted to sit in the seats of the Dragons and Sharks instead? What if you could make a steady flow of income that way.

Offering an alternative to investments like the stock market is Uinvest.

As we make our way through today’s review, we’ll have a look at how Uinvest is structured, how you can invest in a wide range of businesses, and whether or not you can turn a signficant profit by helping these companies along.

What Is Uinvest?

The main idea behind Uinvest is that you are provided with a platform where you can invest in a range of businesses and, in exchange for your capital investment, you get a share of the profits that the company is then able to generate.

This is a simple way to invest money online, because it only takes a few minutes to create your account and then you can fund it, allocating the money to investment projects that pique your interest. To confirm your ownership of the shares, you will receive shares certificates through regular postal mail. The certificate is protected by a hologram sticker and sealed by the Uinvest director.

How Does It Work?

The best way to understand Uinvest is to watch the video presentation that they have posted on the site.

In short, you browse through the businesses on the site that are offering shares, have a look at the current price of a share, and gauge the monthly return on each share to see if you’d like to invest in that business. After you choose to buy your shares, you start earning a portion of the profits.

When you have earned back the amount of your original principal, that’s when you start turning a profit on your investment. It is only at this point that Uinvest takes a 10% commission on the profits that you earn; they don’t take a cut until you’ve earned back your original investment.

What Businesses Are for Sale?

You can learn more about the businesses after you’ve created an account, but in the meantime, you can see that there are various projects that are seeking funding from investors like you.

By and large, the projects are for infrastructure or brick-and-mortar type businesses, including a chocolate factory, a hotel and entertainment complex, a motor plant, a pasta factory, a restaurant, a casino, a fish cannery, and even gas stations. The price per share ranges considerably, getting as low as about $27 per share and as high as $4,200 per share. The monthly earnings per share is correspondingly higher, of course.

You’ll also notice that each offering has a limited number of shares available. If you can’t decide where you want to invest your money, there is also the Global Uinvest Network, which is currently priced at $1,750 per share.

Why Ukraine?

You may have noticed that Uinvest has a Ukraine-based TLD. While it may have been more desirable to get the simpler and more universal .com domain, Uinvest was created to help people invest in Ukraine and Europe. They feel it is an “opportunity to benefit from a dynamic region with vast natural resources, a friendly business environment and rich intellectual capital.”

Do You Want to Make Money?

As with all other kinds of investments, investing your money in Uinvest projects is going to carry a certain level of risk. It’s quite possible that you’re going to lose money in these transactions, but you could just as easily earn a steady flow of profit through these ventures too. Uinvest says that it carefully reviews each prospective business, screening them for legitimacy and profitability. That pre-screening helps, but the investment decision ultimately lies with you.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR UINVEST

În timp ce milioane de oameni au stins sâmbătă lumina timp de o oră, în întreaga lume, pentru a marca “Ora pământului”, în România, inclusiv în Capitală, consumul de electricitate a crescut, în loc să scadă, informează Realitatea TV.

Sâmbătă seară, contoarele românilor s-au învârtit chiar mai mult, în comparaţie cu acelaşi interval orar din week-end-ul trecut, semn că nu prea ne pasă de campaniile ecologice, fie ele şi internaţionale.

În timp ce milioane de oameni au stins sâmbătă lumina timp de o oră, în întreaga lume, pentru a trage un semnal de alarmă cu privire la consumul foarte mare de energie electrică, în România evenimentul a cam trecut neobservat.

Chiar dacă multe instituţii publice s-au alăturat campaniei, românul de rând a consumat chiar mai mult curent electric decât în mod normal.

Paradoxal, vârful de consum naţional pentru întreaga zi a fost înregistrat chiar la mijlocul evenimentului, la ora 20 şi 50 de minute. Şi de parca nu ar fi fost destul, românii au consumat cu aproape 100 de megawati mai mult fata de acelasi interval orar din week-end-ul trecut. 01.51

Creşterea consumului poate fi pusă pe seama fenomenelor meteorologice, susţin reprezentanţii Transelectrica.

War games can involve a battle between different opponents, they represent an adventure for any passionate gamer because they involve various fighting techniques played even in a flight simulator.

In the arcade games category you can find tetris and bubble shooter, the second one involving also shooting, which is a type of game preferred by many players like sniper fans.

Pinball is more like a luck game that involves attention skills also. Many of these games have two modes of playing: single player and multiplayer mode.

The second one is more fun because you can play with your gaming friends and challenge each other. Also if you are a fan of animals you can play funny animal games or, more scary, zombie ones.If you are a sports fan, we invite you to visit our sport games category.

Here you can find any multiplayer sport that you like and play it in a virtual world. Most guys are soccer fans but we have many other entertaining games on our site that involve a ball, like the national United States sport baseball, or the classical basketball a sport loved even by girls.

At bowling and in pool games you have to target carefully a place to shoot at to score many points, so there is a little thinking involved to. Most sport games lovers have a weakness for racing sports and for them we have chosen the best car racing and motorcycle racing for every gamer taste.

We have a special kids games category that contains easy to play and funny ones. Girls develop since childhood their taste for fashion, so we have chosen some cool games especially for them. You can find on our website the coolest dress-up games involving also the appliance of make-up on different barbie models faces, arranging their hair, or nail polishing their finger nails, thus creating them a complete makeover and transforming their look.

Cooking also captivate girls attention so we gathered the best games containing this subject. But these aren’t the only kids games you will find here, because we also give children the opportunity to develop their intelligence by playing educational games.

Board games represent some of the most played games on the internet, so we complete your request by adding some on our website. Most of them involve math and strategic thinking, like chess or backgammon. Sudoku involves numbers, as do the dice. If you are more into puzzles you can choose between mah jong and dominoes. Words games can help you develop your vocabulary so they are useful for children also.

To relax you can play monopoly which is a very fun game. Mind games such as checkers can represent a challenge for any gamer, but if you enjoy playing cards, choose rummy. Enter on our website everyday and choose our board games category if you like to entertain yourself with a board battle.

If you are addicted to play free casino games, you can also choose this category from our website. Real life slot machines transpose themselves in the virtual world through online jackpot and online pachinko. Those of you who enjoy playing video games can choose between video poker and video lottery.

Gambling lovers can choose to play roulette or craps, while bingo fans are warmly invited to play keno. Blackjack is one of the most played of all casino games, but poker doesn’t let itself inferior either, so you will find both of them on our website.

If you are a fan of strategy games you came to the right place. Tower defence is one of the most popular strategy game, played by both children and adults, and you can play it for free on our website.

Civilization games allow you to build your own community that can live by your own rules, and you have to help it survive through time, even in war conditions. Strategy games can help you to develop several skills, such as brain logic or coordination.

No one can make it alone. The most successful leaders are where they are today because they took advice from people they trusted.

We’ve compiled some of the best tips that executives have shared throughout the years, including lessons from tech icons like Bill Gates, empire-builders like Richard Branson and legendary investment gurus like Warren Buffett.

Terry J. Lundgren, CEO, Macy’s

AP

Gene Ross, the man who recruited Lundgren at Bullock, told him:

“You’re not going to do this forever. There’s a finite amount of time you’re going to be doing this. Do this really, really well. And if you do this really, really well, everybody will see that, and they’ll move you onto the next thing. And you do that well, and then you’ll move.”

From a 2009 interview with The New York Times

Richard Branson, founder and chairman, Virgin Group

Hulu

“My mother always taught me never to look back in regret but to move on to the next thing. The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures rather than putting that energy into another project, always amazes me. I have fun running ALL the Virgin businesses — so a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve.”

From an interview with The Good Entrepreneur

Marissa Mayer, VP, Google

Jemal Countess/Getty Images

“My friend Andre said to me, ‘You know, Marissa, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself to pick the right choice, and I’ve gotta be honest: That’s not what I see here. I see a bunch of good choices, and there’s the one that you pick and make great. I think that’s one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten.”

From a 2011 interview with the Social Times

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

His boss at Goldman during the 1980s told him:

“First, it’s good to solicit your people’s opinions before you give them yours. And second, your people will be very influenced by how you carry yourself under stress.”

From a 2009 interview with CNNMoney

Maureen Chiquet, Global CEO, Chanel

AP

Mickey Drexler, CEO of Gap at the time, told Chiquet:

“I’m going to give you some important advice. You’re a terrific merchant. But you’ve gotta learn to listen!”

From a 2008 blog post at Harvard Business Review

Tory Burch, co-founder and creative director, Tory Burch

Wikimedia Commons

“When I started my company, many people said I shouldn’t launch it as a retail concept because it was too big a risk.They told me to launch as a wholesaler to test the waters — because that was the traditional way.

“But Glen Senk, [then] CEO of Urban Outfitters and a mentor of mine … told me to follow my instincts and take the risk. I wanted to create a new way of looking at retail.”

From a 2009 interview with CNN Money

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google

Google via Google+

“Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country, say yes to meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job, and your spouse, and even your kids.”

From Katie Couric’s book “The Best Advice I Ever Got,” excerpted by The Daily Beast

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

Business Insider / Matthew Lynley

When Sandberg was thinking she wouldn’t accept an offer to be Google’s general manager, Eric Schmidt told her, “Stop being an idiot; all that matters is growth.” She says that’s the best advice she ever got.

Source: All Things D

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

The Daily Ticker

Berkshire Hathaway director Thomas Murphy told him:

“Never forget Warren, you can tell a guy to go to hell tomorrow — you don’t give up the right. So just keep your mouth shut today, and see if you feel the same way tomorrow.”

From a 2010 interview with Yahoo!

Larry Page, co-founder, Google

Robert Scoble via Flickr

“In graduate school at Stanford University, I had about ten different ideas of things I wanted to do, and one of them was to look at the link structure of the web. My advisor, Terry Winograd, picked that one out and said, ‘Well, that one seems like a really good idea.’ So I give him credit for that.”

From a 2009 interview with CNN Money

Bill Gates, chairman, Microsoft

World Economic Forum via flickr

“Warren Buffett has taught me a lot of things, but he got me thinking very early on that at some point I’d have the opportunity and responsibility to give the wealth back.

“And so, literally decades before the foundation got started I was reading about philanthropists from the past … what they’d done and how it worked.”

From a 2012 interview with ABC News

Howard Schultz, CEO, Starbucks

AP

“Jim Sinegal, the founder of Costco, gave me fantastic advice because we were going down the wrong track. We brought him in to look at our plan and he said, ‘You know, I don’t want to be rude but this is exactly the wrong thing to do.’ This was my idea, and he was right.

“His advice was the cost of losing your core customers and trying to get them back post-recession would be much greater than trying to find new customers, so we completely shifted.”

From a 2011 interview with The Entrepreneurs’ Organization

Maria Bartiromo, anchor, CNBC

“My mom says, ‘You have to have alligator skin. You can’t believe the good stuff, and you certainly can’t believe the bad stuff’ and that’s something I’ve come to accept.

“So when I see someone say anything nice about me in a magazine or anywhere, I probably won’t read it, because I don’t want to be in a place where I start believing my own press releases.”

From a 2010 interview with Business Insider

Jim Rogers, chairman, Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests

Wikimedia Commons

“Buy low and sell high. When I went to Wall Street. Actually all the old guys used to say ‘Figure out the money and you’ll figure out what’s going on.’”

From a 2012 interview with Business Insider

Richard Parsons, former chairman, Citigroup

AP

Steve Ross, the former CEO of Time Warner, told him:

“Just remember, it’s a small business and a long life. You’re going to see all these people again.”

From the 2008 HACR Roundtable

Jennifer Hyman, CEO and co-founder, Rent The Runway

Screengrab from BusinessOnMain on YouTube

“Just do it. There’s no benefit to saying, ‘I’m just doing this because it will get me to this new place,’ or ‘I’m just going to go into this analyst program because it will prep me for X.’

“If you’re passionate about something, go for it, because people are great at what they love and when they’re the happiest.”

From a 2011 interview with The Huffington Post

Edward Rust Jr., chairman and CEO, State Farm

AP

“[My father] had the uncanny ability with just a couple of little phrases. One: ‘You know better… don’t you,’ and ‘you can do better… can’t you.’”

From the 2008 HACR Roundtable

Joe Uva, former CEO, Univision

HACR

Uva’s boss early on in his career at McCann Erickson told him:

“Always have the courage of your convictions. Always state what’s on your mind. Follow your gut. And observe what other people are doing around you.”

From the 2008 HACR Roundtable

Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and co-chief investment officer, PIMCO

“I remember asking my father, ‘Why do we need four newspapers?’ He said to me, ‘Unless you read different points of view, your mind will eventually close, and you’ll become a prisoner to a certain point of view that you’ll never question.’”

From a 2009 interview with CNN Money

Kenneth Burdick, president and CEO, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Minnesota

HACR

Burdick received this message from various successful people he has met:

“Surround yourself with good people. And part of that is surrounding yourself with people who think differently than you. Surrounding yourself with people who have different experiences than you. In business, it’s all about the team.”

From the 2008 HACR Roundtable

Steve Schwartzman, chairman and CEO, Blackstone Group

BloombergTV

“[My high school] coach, a 50-year-old named Jack Armstrong … would shout, ‘Remember—you’ve got to make your deposits before you can make a withdrawal!’ …

“Coach Armstrong came to mind in one of my first weeks on Wall Street, 35 years ago. I’d stayed up all night building a massive spreadsheet to be ready for a morning meeting. … The partner on the deal, however, took one look at my work, spotted a tiny error, and went ballistic.

“As I sat there while he yelled at me, I realized I was getting the MBA version of Coach Armstrong’s words. Making an effort and meeting the deadline simply weren’t enough.”

From a 2008 blog post at Harvard Business Review

Peter Swinburn, president and CEO, Molson Coors

HACR

“The then-big boss asked me to go and do basically a turnaround job. And he said, ‘I don’t mind what you do, as long as you don’t do what we’ve done before.’”

From the 2008 HACR Roundtable

BONUS: Ben Silberman, co-founder, Pinterest

Justin Hackworth via Alt Design Summit 2012 on Flickr

“Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give — with a few exceptions — generalize whatever they did. …

“Every company carves its own path, and [founders] are under pressure to make their startups look like the last successful company everyone remembers.”

From a panel discussion at SXSW 2012.

Last year, the entire list was valued at close to $100billion, this year we lead off with a young entrepreneur who’s company is valued at $100billion alone.

Each of these founders and CEOs are running incredible ventures that have taken a lot of sacrifice and hard work to get to where they are today.

All of these companies are still private but we found as much financial information and data from 2011 as we could.

Mark Zuckerberg

Company: Facebook

Age: 27

The numbers: $75 -$100billion after IPO

Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook in 2004 at Harvard and since then, the social network has grown to over 800 million users. He is the world’s youngest billionaire with Facebook receiving a valuation of close to $100 billion with it’s upcoming IPO. Zuckerberg has literally changed the way people interact and has broken down social walls faster than ever imagined. Time Magazine named Zuckerberg Person of the Year for 2010 and is going to be the first of this group to build a public company.

Tim O’Shaughnessy

Company: LivingSocial

Age: 29

The numbers: $808million funding

LivingSocial is the social commerce leader behind LivingSocial Deals, a group buying program that invites people and their friends to save up to 90 percent each day at their favorite restaurants, spas, sporting events, hotels and other local attractions in major cities. LivingSocial has an extensive user base of more than 85million and has spent over $353million in acquisitions.

Naveen Selvadural

Company: Foursquare

Age: 29

The numbers: $71.4million in funding

Naveen founded Foursquare with partner Dennis Crowley to simply help he and his friends explore more things in New York City. Today, Foursquare has become a leader in location based networking, helping to spring numerous other startups looking to capture a similar model. The company has a valuation near $600million with 15million+ users.  Naveen and Dennis’ celebrity has even brought them appearances in Gap advertisements.

David Karp

Company: Tumblr

Age: 25

The numbers: $125million in funding

David started Tumblr in 2007 with his own savings from previously held jobs in the software industry. By early 2010, Tumblr was reportedly getting 15,000 new users per day, with over 2 million daily posts being made. Tumblr now has over 85 employees and is ranked as the 39th largest website in the world by Alexa.  As of February 13, 2012, Tumblr had over 44.3 million blogs with 15billion monthly pageviews.

Aaron Levie & Dylan Smith

Company: Box.net

Age: 26 & 25

The numbers: $159million in funding

What started as a college project for their business class exploded into a venture backed startup with millions of users. Box provides more than 8million users with secure cloud content management and collaboration. They say their platform “allows personal and commercial content to be accessible, sharable, and storable in any format from anywhere.” The company employs over 225 people.

Daniel Ek

Company: Spotify

Age: 28

The numbers: $183M funding

Spotify has created a lightweight software application that allows instant listening to specific tracks or albums with virtually no buffering delay. Spotify was launched in the fall of 2008 and had approximately 10 million users by September 2010.  It certainly helps that Spotify has landed Napster Co-founder Shawn Parker on their board.

Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk

Company: AirBnB

Age: 29, 29, 28

The numbers: $120million in funding

Airbnb is an online service that matches people seeking vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations with those with rooms to rent who are generally not professional hoteliers. The site was founded in August 2008 by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia. In July 2011, the company had over 100,000 listings in 16,000 cities and 186 countries.  Not bad for a few guys who started out by renting out an air mattress on their floor to help pay their rent.

Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi

Company: Dropbox

Age: 28, 25

The numbers: $257million in funding

Dropbox was founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi. Frustrated by working from multiple computers, Drew was inspired to create a service that would let people bring all their files anywhere, with no need to email attachments. Drew created a demo of Dropbox and showed it to fellow MIT student Arash Ferdowsi, who dropped out with only one semester left to make Dropbox a reality. Today, they have 25million registered users who save over a million files every five minutes.

Jennifer Carter Fleiss

Company: Rent the Runway

Age: 27

The numbers: $30million funding with 1.5million members

Rent the Runway is a membership-based website that rents high-end designer apparel and accessories on a 4- or 8-day basis. The company was founded by two Harvard Business School graduates, Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Carter Fleiss. Launched in November 2009, the website now offers over 25,000 dresses and accessories from over 165 designers such as Badgley Mischka, Vera Wang and Calvin Klein.

Adam D’Angelo

Company: Quora

Age: 27

The numbers: $11million in funding

Quora was co-founded by two former Facebook employees, Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever. D’Angelo quit his position at Facebook in January 2010 to create Quora and said he was inspired to create Quora because he thought: “Q A is one of those areas on the internet where there are a lot of sites, but no one had come along and built something that was really good yet.” Quora’s base of users grew quickly and even has rumors of a near billion dollar valuation, with only 34 employees.

Cathrine and David Cook

Company: MyYearBook.com

Age: 21 & 23

The numbers: Acquired for $100million

Cathrine and David Cook created one of the most popular teen websites in the world with MyYearBook.com. In 6 years the site grew to 20million users, and generated 1.2billion monthly pageviews. They also raised $17 million in financing before the sale.  Catherine attended Georgetown University while building this company.

Matt Mullenweg

Company: Automattic

Age: 28

The numbers: $30.6million in funding

If you use WordPress to blog you have Matt to thank for that opportunity. Automattic is the software and services company behind popular blog platform WordPress.com. In addition to WordPress.com, Automattic runs several additional Web services, including Akismet, Polldaddy, IntenseDebate, Gravatar, VideoPress, After the Deadline, and WordPress VIP Hosting. Mullenweg started WordPress in 2003 and then started working on it full-time in 2005. WordPress has over 20million blogs run on it.  Mullenweg mainly works from home.

Gurbaksh Chahal

Company: RadiumOne

Age: 29

The numbers: $33.5million in funding

Gurbaksh founded RadiumOne in 2009 as a social media currency platform that went on to raise over $12million later that year. Prior to RadiumOne, Gurbaksh had already sold two previous ad networks, one for $40million and the other for $300 million. Today, he heads up RadiumOne which connects advertisers with over 2billion digital consumers accessing the web on desktop and mobile devices.

Pete Cashmore

Company: Mashable.com

Age: 26

The numbers: 50+million monthly pageviews

Mashable is one of the world’s largest websites and reports on “All thats new on the web”. Cashmore bootstrapped Mashable in 2005 from his home in Scotland to a company with 50 employees today. The site is larger than Techcrunch which sold to AOL for between $25-40million. Revenue is in the millions but that is as much as Cashmore will say about it.

Michael Seibel, Emmett Shear, Justin Kan and Kyle Vogt

Company: Justin.tv

Age: 28, 28, 28, 26

The numbers: 41million+ monthly visitors

Justin.tv allows you to live broadcast anything out over the web. The four founders have created the largest live streaming, life-casting platform that handles over 50 million hours of video streamed each month. Justin.tv has become the most widely used live video system in existence and with a huge fan base and even major artists on board, it shows no signs of slowing.

Matt Mickiewicz

Company: Sitepoint.com, 99designs.com and flippa.com

Age: 28

The numbers: Companies valued at over $100million

Matt launched Sitepoint.com in 1999 to help educate web developers at the age of 14. The site quickly grew into the industry leader and a multi-million dollar company with no outside investment. Since then he founded 99designs which currently sees a new graphic uploaded to the site every 7 seconds and pays out over $1,000,000 to designers every month. Matt then launched Flippa.com in 2009, which currently sells over $2 million worth of website assets per month.

Ben Lerer

Company: Thrillist

Age: 29

The numbers: $50M+ in revenues

Thrillist is a newsletter that caters to men’s lifestyle in 20 cities in the U.S. and U.K. The newsletter has over 3million subscribers and has a revenues around $50M/year. The company employees 160+ people and was founded in 2004 by Ben Lerer and Adam Rich.  In a recent interview, Lerer said his company could hit $100m in revenue this year and does not rule out an IPO in the future.  Lerer also runs the venture firm Lerer Ventures with his father Ken, Co-founder of the Huffington Post.

Trip Adler

Company: Scribd

Age: 27

The numbers: $25.8million in funding

Scribd is a social reading and publishing website with over 40 employees. The company houses tens of millions of written works, including best-selling books, magazines, research reports, recipes, presentations, and more. Recently, Scribd’s document reader has been embedded more than 10million times across the web, on sites like The New York Times, USA Today, Guardian, and TechCrunch.

Eric Koger & Susan Gregg Koger

Company: Modcloth

Age: 27 & 26

The numbers: $19.8million in funding

ModCloth.com is an online clothing, accessories, and decor retailer with a focus on independent and vintage-inspired fashion. Modcloth does alright for itself with $15 million+ in revenue in 2009 and a reported 138 employees.

Hayley Barna & Katia Beauchamp

Company:  Birchbox

Age: 27, 28

The numbers: $11.9million in funding

BirchBox is a monthly subscription service that delivers beauty product samples to users on a monthly basis. The site offers relevant editorial content and a e-commerce site. With $11.9million in funding and over 45,000 users and launched in Sept. 2010.  Birchbox is invested in by Lerer Ventures and Sam Lessin who was featured on last year’s list.

David Gorodyansky and Eugene Malobrodsky

Company: Anchorfree

Age: 29, 29

The numbers: 7.5million monthly users

AnchorFree enables millions of users across the globe to surf the Web freely and securely through Hotspot Shield. Anchor Free is the world’s first and most popular ad-supported, virtual private network. More than 7.5 million monthly users, in 100 countries, rely on Hotspot Shield to secure their Web browsing experience, proliferating freedom of information online and democratizing the Web. It is the only free way to ensure privacy and total anonymity online on desktop computers, laptops and iPhones.

Ryan Allis

Company: iContact

Age: 27

The numbers: $50million in revenues

Ryan started iContact with Aaron Houghton in 2003 to help small businesses better manage their email marketing campaigns. The company started by solely marketing through Google AdWords and has grown to over 70,000 customers and 300 employees today. Ryan is the author of the book Zero to One Million, published by McGraw-Hill, which reached the Wall Street Journal Bestseller list.

Junaid Shams and Ahmed Khattak

Company: GSM Nation

Age: 25, 25

The numbers: $35million+ in revenues

The pitch: Customers get cheaper, contract-free service and save hundreds of dollars each year, says Shams.  This gives GSM Nation an advantage over retailers that sell phones only with expensive, multiyear commitments. With about $150,000 from savings and friends/family, free office space and support from the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, the two launched GSM Nation in March 2010.

Alexa von Tobel

Company: LearnVest

Age: 27

The numbers: $24.5million in funding

Alexa started her career at Morgan Stanley but left the job and invested $75,000 into her company LearnVest. LearnVest quickly recruited advisors like the former CEO of the Huffington Post and former COO of DailyCandy. After securing $1.1million in funding in 2009 the site launched and has signed up over 100,000 members.

LearnVest focuses on helping young women develop good financial habits early on in life. Today, the company has raised over $24.5million in funding and with an experienced team behind it they are poised for growth.

Ben Kaufman

Company: Quirky

Age: 24

The numbers: $23.3million in funding

Quirky is an industrial design company, located in New York City, that uses crowdsourcing to determine which products to design and manufacture. The company solicits ideas for new products via its website; ideas are voted on by readers of the website, as well as by employees of the company. Products that are chosen get designed, manufactured and marketed by Quirky. The inventor and any other contributors then get up to 30% of any resulting revenue.

Matthew Corrin

Company: Freshii

Age: 29

The numbers: $50million in revenues

Freshii was founded by Matthew Corrin in Toronto, in 2005. Originally called “Lettuce Eatery”, the store opened to large queues and ran out of food on the first day before the end of lunch. Corrin’s vision of fast, fresh food, custom-built, inspired Freshii’s reputation for healthy, environmentally sustainable meals and snacks served quickly in a cool, clean setting for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Today, they have over 500 employees, in 35 stores, across 4 countries.

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger

Company: Instagram

Age: 25, 27

The numbers: $7.5million in funding

Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows users to take a photo, apply a digital filter, then share it a variety of social networking services including Instagram’s own. A distinctive feature confines photos into a square shape, in homage to both the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras. The application had over 12 million users in Oct. 2011, 1 year after launch, with hundreds of millions of photos uploaded.

Jeremy Johnson

Company: 2tor

Age: 28

The numbers: $64.8million in funding

In 2008, at 24, Jeremy co-founded 2tor with John Katzman, founder of the Princeton Review, to explore the final frontier of online higher education. 2tor supplies universities with the tools, expertise, capital, and global recruiting needed to compete in a space currently dominated by mediocre programs. 2tor has partnered with schools like USC, UNC and Georgetown to use their technology and grow their university programs online.

Siamak Taghaddos, David Hauser

Company: Grasshopper

Age: 29, 29

The numbers: $15million in revenues

Founded by two entrepreneurs, Grasshopper has been making it easier to start and grow a small business since 2003. Since then the company has served over 100,000 entrepreneurs and their small businesses. The company has over 45 employees and was formally known as GotVMail.

Nick Friedman & Omar Soliman

Company: College Hunks Hauling Junk

Age: 27, 27

The numbers: $10M+ in revenues (acquired)

Nick and Omar started a franchise of junk collection and removal from a summer business they had started in 2002. A way to earn some summer income during college turned into a company that has over 38 franchises and 654 employees. The company was acquired by full-service waste management and recycling company 1-800-Junk-USA in August 2011.  These guys can be seen making appearances on ABC’s Shark Tank and Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker.

When we think about this wonderful accessory, we have in mind the ubiqutous suit jacket. For some reason, we can’t really separate the two.

I’m here to tell you different. Taking chances in style means wearing intriguing yet tasteful combinations. I’ve rediscovered the pocket square and started wearing it on pea coats, vests and even leather jackets. The result: amazing!

When it comes to color matching, you basically don’t need to know anything new. Just color match it the way you would do it with a suit:

• you can repeat the shirt color
• or it can be a bold color that’s not being used anywhere else in your attire

One last thing: try not to wear pocket squares with your shirts. There are a few reasons for this. First off, you should never put anything in your shirt’s pocket (except a pen with business casual attire)

Second, it would be too obvious. For centuries, men have worn the trio shirt-suit jacket-pocket square and they never put the pocket square inside the shirt.

Pocket squares are just one of the many accessories. The fun starts when you try to mix and match several of them. The Be Stylish Package ™ will teach you everyhing you need to know.

One of the most stylish patterns out there is the fishbone. While it may look dull at first glance, it works wonders if you know HOW to match it.

I remember about a year ago I bought my dad a fantastinc fishbone sports jacket. He’s a middle-aged man and loved my gift. I was so excited with the purchase that I went back to that store to get one for myself.

Surprise! They were OUT. That was the *old collection*, they told me. If you ever find a fishbone paterned sports coat or overcoat, here’s what I want you to do. First, try it on! If it’s a little bigger, no problem. Buy it, then take i to the tailor for adjustments.

Second, use my tips for making it the fishbone pattern work. Fishbone consists entirely of grey and black so his means you have to use other colors to stand out. If you’re wearing a fishbone blazer, try a brown turtleneck or a brown V-neck sweater + a white shirt. Another color to try with fishbone is dark-blue. Get a simple turtleneck in his color, then maybe some white chinos and a blue bracelet.

Here’s the thing: white, black and grey are neutral. THis means you can match them with pretty much ANY color you want. For instance, go for a solid yellow V-neck and a white shirt. Finish the look with a grey pair of chinos and a black and white sneaker. Add a white pocket square and you’re THE MAN.

There’s more to style than the fishbone pattern. A LOT more. Try the Be Stylish package ™ and change the way you look. Dress EVERY DAY like a confident man.

Powerball lottery player Cinnamon Reeves-Davis from New Orleans recently went into her local lottery store to buy her usual Powerball tickets, however instead of handing her a newly printed ticket straight out of the lottery machine the store assistant handed her a pre-printed ticket out of a drawer from under the counter.

Well pierce my ears and call me Drafty – if that’s not a new variation of the “here’s one I prepared earlier” ploy – then I don’t know what is!

After a verbal dust-up with the assistant during which Reeves-Davis demands for a freshly printed ticket were refused, she decided to take her business elsewhere.

According to lottery officials a store can sell any valid ticket no matter when it was printed — just so long as it’s not for a previous drawing; however, buyers do have the right to refuse any ticket that they don’t want.

Apparently it’s a short term problem to do with the newly beefed up Powerball draw which came into play on Jan. 15, with some players, still unaware of the Powerball revamp believing that the store is selling them the wrong tickets and subsequently refusing the sale, which then leaves printed and now unsold tickets at the counter which the store then tries to sell on.

The campaign was unveiled in Poland by European Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik and Polish Environment Minister Andrzej Kraszewski.

Its aim is to raise awareness about the need to use scarce natural resources wisely, and to encourage citizens to think about their impact on the planet when making purchasing decisions.

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said: “With our economy in difficulty and our resources dwindling, it’s time to start rethinking some of our habits. Using resources more carefully not only helps protect the environment, but saves money and reduces business costs. It’s about using less to do more. Everyone can do their bit. We just need to wake up!”

Generation awake

The key message is ‘consume differently, and think before you choose’. By making the right choices we can all help preserve natural resources, save money, reduce our impact on the environment and make our future more sustainable.

The main tools are a viral clip, a dedicated website and a Facebook page where visitors are encouraged to join “Generation awake” and accept challenges, like using only public transport for a month or reducing showering time to save water.

The Europe-wide campaign is being launched in Poland, which currently holds the rotating EU Council Presidency. The launch event in Warsaw features a stand where visitors will be given tips on sustainable cooking, fashion, and efficient energy use, and a public debate on “Your choices make a world of difference”, featuring Janez Potočnik, Minister Kraszewski, and representatives of NGOs and the private sector.

Other launch events will also be organised this year in the Czech Republic, Hungary and the United Kingdom.

Background to the campaign: why resource efficiency?

Resource efficiency is about using resources sustainably – doing more with less and minimising impacts on the environment. It is about making the right choices to ensure a good quality of life, not just for now, but for generations to come.

Using natural resources more efficiently is the only way to achieve the health, wealth and well-being we all aspire to within the limitations of the planet. Becoming resource-efficient means changing our way of thinking and patterns of behaviour and taking account of how our choices affect natural resources. It’s not about consuming less – it’s about consuming differently.

Our future depends on how we use resources now. In our eagerness to improve our standard of living, we tend to consume without thinking about the consequences. We forget the impact of our behaviour on natural resources such as water, fertile soils, clean air and biodiversity. And this has a price: as these resources become more scarce, we put our future welfare at risk.

Businesses can use this opportunity to their advantage. Increasing efficiency can save costs. Sustainable products and new services open up new markets. Innovation can increase competitiveness and create new jobs.

What is Halloween without our pets? Aside from babies, they’re the only living things we can dress up as whatever we like, as long as it’s safe.

Plus, all of their costumes are mini, making them adorable. Just look at what we mean below — have you ever seen a Darth Vader costume that cute?

Around the web we’ve seen some pretty hilarious and clever costumes for critters, and now two things are apparent: Pugs make almost any Halloween costume cuter (although those hamsters are a close second) and we need to see more.

We updated our slideshow from last year and are looking for even more funny pet costumes from you, our beloved readers.

So check out more than 150 hilarious pet halloween costumes below and share your own by uploading it or sending to us!

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