Nick D’Aloisio is 17 years old and still in high school. He is also the inventor of an algorithm that summarizes long-form news articles into shorter reads for smartphone users.
He recently sold his company, Summly, to Yahoo! for an estimated $30 million. Quick success? I’d say so, and D’Aloisio would agree: “When I founded Summly at 15, I would have never imagined being in this position so suddenly”, says D’Aloisio in a statement posted on summly.com.
Since the sale of Summly, there has been a flurry of articles about D’Aloisio and his success as a teen entrepreneur. But, if you think that Summly is going to become as ubiquitous as Facebook, don’t bother downloading the app just yet. Effectively, Yahoo! will shut down the Summly app. According to Yodel Anecdotal (The Official Yahoo! Blog), the plan in acquiring D’Aloisio’s technology is to incorporate it throughout the Yahoo! mobile experience.
How much this could mean for Yahoo!‘s competitiveness, only time will tell. More certain, though, is D’Aloisio’s position as an inspiration for young people with bright ideas – at least, in my mind. I wonder if our Youth CITIES students find this story encouraging, or do you believe this type of success is only possible in tech or, more specifically, mobile tech fields?