Silicon Valley’s youngest millionaire, Romanian Sebastian Dobrincu

Meet the youngest Silicon valley’s millionaire, Romanian Sebastian Dobrincu. At age 17 he has founded his own IT company called Storyheap, which is now a very successful social media marketing platform.

How Sebastian took the world by storm

He was only 7 years old when he started to show interest in programming. Born in Botosani and then moved to Bucharest as a child, Sebastian was fascinated by a coding folder that generated a computer game. At age 11 he got his first job as a website developer by contacting the largest yacht company dealer in the US and offering to create a website for them. He only received 150 dollars for it but for him it meant a lot of money. This gave him confidence that there might be an alternative route than going to university and then getting a job. He graduated highschool In Bucharest and then went to New York to study at a university. He soon gave up as he needed to focus on his business.

He started to work with different clients such as Apple and Facebook on software components and this drew attention due to his talent. Mark Zuckerberg invited him to Facebook for a chat and encouraged him to continue his work. Sebastian said

I met Tim Cook, Apple’s boss and it was a great experience the fact that I have managed to interact at my age with these kind of people, they gave me confidence that I can succeed. Since then, I followed my instinct.

Tim Cook tried to convince him to come work for Apple but Sebastian refused and decided to take the independent route. He noted that his success is due to his hard work over the years and to the fact that he worked more than his colleagues outside of school. He noted that when you practice and work hard for a long time, you will excel.

The story of Storyheap

While in New York, Sebastian heard a group of girls on the street complaining that it was hard for them to manage all the posts on the social media platforms. He thought that if users find this difficult, brands and agencies must find it even harder. He then contacted a friend he had at a marketing agency and consulted him about syncronising the social media platforms. He thought it was strange that nobody thought about a solution by then.

One of Storyheap’s largest clients is Universal Studios which manages singers such as Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber and comedian Kevin Hart. After its founding, the company has become profitable in only 3 months and in one year it had one million dollar profit.

At an IT event in Cluj, called Techsylvania, Sebastian noted that he does not believe in talent, he believes in cultivated skills, because programming and entrepreneurship are skills that you can gain in time and that he worked on it step by step.

Sebastian Dobrincu is now planning to move to Los Angeles and open an office there, where the majority of his clients live.