For the first time, Forbes is bringing together 1,000+ members of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list with some of the globe’s top leaders and mentors to create partnerships that will change the world over the next 50 years. The Under 30 Summit will take place in Philadelphia from Oct. 19 – 22.
At age 29, Pete Cashmore hardly fits the mold of a media mogul, but his social-networking news site has 19 million social media followers and logs 35 million unique visitors each month. Its popularity has propelled Cashmore, a native of Scotland, to notoriety and estimated millions. He can trace his success back to an unlikely source: an appendectomy.
When Cashmore was 13, he went underwent the routine surgery and struggled to recover from complications. He missed a lot of school over the next few years and took to his computer to pass the time. Cashmore discovered an emerging new medium: blogs.
He subscribed to as many blogs as he could, and began to supplant the experience of a physical classroom with an online education. To hone his writing skills he used an alias to submit pieces to well-known publications. After years of surveying the field, the 19-year-old, who was still living with his parents, founded Mashable in 2005.
“[The name] Mashable comes from the mashups trend,” Cashmore told FORBES’ Executive Editor Michael Noer in December 2011. “People were combining different websites, so people would take Google Maps and Flickr and map all [their] photos on flicker.”
Initially, Cashmore worked 18-hour days, penning upwards of ten articles that covered social media and technology. He chronicled the rises of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Though he was thousands of miles from Silicon Valley, he followed the scene closely from his Aberdeenshire bedroom. He even began to keep American hours, sometimes sleeping from early morning to mid-afternoon to account for the time zone differences.
His parents didn’t quite know what their son was up to, reportedly having just a vague idea that he was trying to make money on the internet. The site continued to pick up speed. Cashmore would check the analytics constantly and see that more people were visiting every day. His parents discovered the extent of Cashmore’s success when a Daily Mail reporter knocked on the family’s door, hoping for a scoop on the guy behind Mashable.
Billed as a “leading source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation,” according to its website, Mashable not only records the latest tech advancements, but also explains how they will impact readers and how they can be harnessed to achieve social goals.
“It’s all about utility,” Cashmore said. “It’s all about thinking about the reader first and ‘what are they going to get out of this?’”
In 2012, rumors circulated that CNN would purchase the site for $200 million. No such deal occurred, and Cashmore continues to serve as CEO. Last March, the company announced it had completed its first round of outside funding, raising $14 million.
No stranger to venture capital, Cashmore will interview acclaimed VC, hedge fund manager and entrepreneur Peter Thiel at FORBES’ Under 30 Summit. Thiel has backed some of the companies Cashmore got his start covering (giants like eBay, Facebook and LinkedIn). The two will explore how to build the next great startup by eschewing competition in favor of a wholly new idea.
Additionally, he will moderate a roundtable discussion about the costs and benefits of dropping out college. The panel includes Thiel and two recipients of his Thiel Fellowship, which grants young entrepreneurs $100,000 to drop out of school to pursue their business ideas. Cashmore will also join Scribd’s Trip Adler, Contently’s Shane Snow and Thrillist Media Group’s Ben Lerer to discuss the ins and outs of making and breaking the news in the constantly-shifting modern media world.
