Fun Facts: Nick D’Aloisio
Nick D’Aloisio, a teenager from London has just become one of the
world’s youngest millionaires after selling his app Summly to Yahoo for
$30 million. Summly is designed to provide quick news stories for a
generation constantly on the the go. Here are the top 10 facts you need
to know about Nick D’Aloisio.
1. He’s the Youngest Person to Get VC Funding
In 2011, Nick D’Aloisio developed a prototype of his app, Summly, which
received close to $300,000 from Horizon Ventures, which is a technology
investment company owned by Li-Ka Shing. This makes Nick D’Aloisio the
youngest person to get VC funding.
2. He Made Another App Called Trimit
Nick D’Aloisio also created Trimit, an early version of Summly
that summarizes long content on the net, and summarizes it into
1,000,500, and 140 character summaries. Trimit was designed to fit onto
mobile devices so you can share content over email, sms, Facebook,
Twitter in .txt form by using a few clicks.
3. Ashton Kutcher and Friends Gave Him a Million Dollars
D’Aloisio investors and advisors include Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher,
Yoko Ono, British Screen celebrity Stephen Fry, and Zynga Co-founder
Mark Pincus. News Corp also works closely with Summly to summarize news
content. Stephen Fry and D’Aloisio also made a promo video together. You
can check it out here.
4. He Got Bullied by Gizmodo
The “app guy” over at Gizmodo made Nick D’Aloisio cry by completely
removing his app from the Gizmodo’s “Best Apps of the Week.” According
to Gizmodo, D’Aloisio had a meltdown. You can check it out here.
5. D’Aloisio Came Up With the Idea for Summly When He Was Doing Homework
While Nick D’Aloisio was doing homework at school he came up with the
idea for Summly. “I was writing for my history labs and I was using
Google and other search engines. The issue was you have all this info
but there’s so much it’s hard to comprehend it, so summaries are
perfect,” D’Aloisio said.
6. He’ll be Working for Yahoo While Going to School
(Photo Credit: Yahoo!)D’ Aloisio said in an interview, “To me, Yahoo is the best
company to be joining right now because it’s one of these classic
Internet companies. With new leadership from Marissa Mayer,
Yahoo has a strong focus on mobile and product, and that’s the perfect
fit for Summly.” While continuing his studies and living at home with
his parents D’Aloisio will work at Yahoo!’s London office.
7. He Won’t Have Access to His Money Because He’s So Young
Because Nick is so young, his parents will be managing his finances.
Nick’s dad is a energy financier, while his mother is a lawyer.
8. Summly Was Voted One of the Best Apps in 2012
Summly, was launched back in November of 2012, within the first two
hours of the its release, Summly took over the ninth slot in the App
Store. Summly was awarded one of Apple’s “Best apps of 2012.”
9. He’s Been Writing Apps Since He Was 12
At the age of 12, D’Aloisio, taught himself how to write software. When
he was just 15, he built the free iPhone app Summly that summarizes news
stories for smaller screens in his bedroom in London.
10. Yahoo! Paid Between 20 million and 40 million Pounds
Yahoo! didn’t disclose the terms with Nick D’ Aloisio, but the London Evening Standard said Yahoo!
would pay anywhere between 20 million and 40 million pounds ($29
million to $58 million). Summly has been downloaded more than 200,000
times.