Ashley Qualls' (ASHBO) Got Girl Power!
A Look at Whateverlife.com's Teen CEO
Like any other parent, I was just excited that my kid and her friends were learning about and moving into the technology. I was excited that they were talking codes and layouts because hey, I've even called on them from time to time to help me out with some of my "technically challenged"questions.
Then I read the article about Ashley Qualls in the recent issue of FAST COMPANY. Man, does this girl rock! She is the owner and founder of whateverlife.com. She started her budding career as company CEO 2 years ago simply building web layouts with a "Girly" appeal. So when you visit her site, you'll find only layouts that scream, "sugar, spice and everything nice" because after all this is all about GIRL POWER.
Ashley started building codes for friends because she got so good at it and slowly found that to keep up with the demand, she needed to create a web hub where friends could come and dowload the codes quickly to enhance their pages. Well, the $8 investment to set-up the site has blossomed into a $1 Million business in just about 2 years time. Let's just say that according to the article, ASHBO has Seventeen, Teen Vogue and Cosmogirl magazines all beat. Google analytics say that she gets 7 million individual hits and 60 million page views a month. What's more, she even beats Oprah.com, at 349 ranking out of 20 million sites...Oprah's at 469!
I am truly floored by the sheer business savvy of this young entrepreneur and to think she is only 17! This brings us to her current quandary. At her less than legal age, the courts have now ruled that they are better managers of her assets than she is....GO FIGURE. So, she is having to hire a $200 consultant and other "experts" to help take her business to the next level, and also emancipate her. I'd say that her ingenuity has been able to support her, her mom and sister (parents are divorced) thus far on $70,000 per month so what gives?
If the young lady could parlay a small initial investment from her mom into a million dollar enterprise, manage consultants in India, hire her friends as employees and purchase a home in which to run a business out of, why does she now need state "support" ? I have a few thoughts on that for the state but I'll just leave with this: "OMG dudes! Just leave my BFF Ashley alone to keep living her life....whatever?!?!
Ashley has created such a demand around her that major firms are contacting her for consultancy opportunities and to advertise on her site for a piece of her captive audience. She on the other hand has her mind focused on what's next for Whateverlife. Hey she's considering hiring younger employees to keep the brand fresh and relevant, just in case she matures beyond her base....now, that's forecasting at its finest.
Note to branders and advertisers: In a poll of 1500 girls, who added Join Team Hillary '08 desktop buttons, they only did it 'cause ASHBO offered it on her site in March.....now, that's POWER....GIRL POWER!
Published by saba,ink
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10 Comments
Post a CommentI definitely agree with Larson's comment. I used to get my layouts elsewhere and had never heard of whateverlife. It was all just luck.
not giving in untll a couple weeks later. Now her home page of her site is overloaded with ads, so now she is getting greedy. This may sound like sour grapes, maybe it is, but she is no business genius. She did not plan this from the start. She is just a VERY lucky girl. I regard her "success" not much different than from the success of being a lottery winner. No one can plan to win the lottery. Like a lottery winner, she got lucky.
previous incarnations of her site through www.archive.org). She was not even thinking of making money, much less millions, this way (before her success, she was talking on her site about getting a job and going to College). She was using the services, the cheapest account they offered, of a hosting company that allotted her only a certain amount of space for her website. When all the hits were coming in, combined with all of the layouts she was creating and uploading, they were eating up her precious bandwith. She was unable to pay for all the extra bandwith, so the hosting company rep suggested to her to put a google adsense advert on her site in order to help her pay for it. She did that, and all those hits was translated into big bucks, much to her shock. Then when Valueclick learned about her site, and the number of hits she was getting, they came along and asked her to advertise on her site. And she turned them down at first (so much for her business savvy), not giving in untll a
"Business savvy"? Oh please. It's called luck of the draw. She got lucky.
From what I've learned about Ashley is that, despite what these puff pieces about her would lead you to believe, her success can be credited to sheer dumb luck. Not to any business acumen. Quite frankly, reading stories treating her like she's some sort of financial business wizard is making me sick.
Yes, she worked hard on her designs, yes they are nice ones too. But it was luck that got her wealth. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of sites out there that have provided myspace layouts for free as well. Out of all of them (many of which are better designed), it was hers that most people chose to gravitate towards, not because she convinced them to, or because her designs are better, but because it just happened that way. Out of all of them, only one was bound to be the most favored one, and Ashley's was it. She lucked out.
This started out as a fun hobby for her (you can see previous incarnations of
Love the article. Something to show my daughter.
That's about my best friend
Amazing story and great article. I'm subscribing..
umm...who?
Good job, Saba. Keep them coming. "The G-man"
Cool. Except for the state part. And Hillary who thinks the government has to make citizens choices for them, because they can not make decisions for themselves. Now if only she had done a Draft Cynthia McKinney for President, I would really be impressed. Thanks for sharing, I had not heard about this wonder girl.