Matt Mickiewicz

Matt Mickiewicz is only 27 years old, but is already making millions online. Started at the of 15, today he is famous for being Co-Founder of SitePoint, world’s 825th most visited website, and 99designs.com. Learn how did he come to the idea of creating SitePoint, does the financial crisis affect his business and what are his advices to all young entrepreneurs, looking forward to starting their own Internet-based business.

Matt is the co-founder of one of the very first online forums I spent some time on, SitePoint.com, which today is a massive web community and information site.

Early life

Matt was born in Krakow, Poland, and currently residing in Vancouver, Canada. Matt created his first website at the age of 14  called Webmaster-Resources.com, which later became SitePoint. At 16, Mickiewicz traveled to Melbourne with his parents and met his soon to be business partner and co-founder, Mark Harbottle. At 16, Matt found himself closing $10,000 advertising deals between classes at high school. Mickiewicz barely finished high school and did not attend college.

Sitepoint

Sitepoint became a near-daily visit for me when I was focusing on buying and selling websites. The Sitepoint forums contained a marketplace which became the leading place to buy and sell websites. This section of the community was recently separated into its own site, Flippa.com, which is by far the premier destination for website flipping and has tons of listings and cool features for those interested in buying or selling websites.

Matt and his team recently launched the innovative 99Designs.com service, which is a fantastic idea, linking people who need design work done, with freelance designers. You can submit a project to 99Designs and in a matter of days have up to as many as a hundred potential designs to choose from. You pick the best design, who “wins” the payment for the job, and you get the design.

All three of these sites are tremendously successful, and as a result Matt has established himself as a leading player in the web development community online.

In this interview Matt takes us back to the very beginning of his online success story, starting with his first website created when he was just 15 years old. Matt found himself on the phone closing $10,000 advertising deals in between classes at school, earning enough to buy himself a new BMW with cash by the time he was just 16.

This is an incredible story of big time online success, yet Matt still works from his home office in Vancouver. His business partner lives in Melbourne, where they have an office and team, and there’s also a smaller office and team in San Francisco.

If you’re thinking big with your online business, this is definitely an interview to listen to. Matt reveals how his sites have grown large, how they test different methods to make money and what today is their largest income stream.

Achievement

Mickiewicz was named a 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur by Forbes and INC in 2011, a Smart Company 30 under 30 in 2012, and frequently speaks at conferences and seminars world-wide