Jenk Oz
iCoolKid Founder
What I do
I’m the Founder and CEO (chief executive officer) of iCoolKid Ltd. It’s a publishing, media, consulting and production company aimed at young people aged 8-15 years old.
We have a website, iCoolKid.com, a collection of social media platforms, a YouTube channel housing original productions, weekly curated music playlists on Spotify, professionally-mixed hour-long music playlists housed on SoundCloud, a full production facility and a filming studio referred to as The Garage. Hopefully soon we will be launching a clothing line called iCoolKidGear.
How I got my job
I started taking some after-school classes, everything from acting to street dance to graffiti painting; even DJing and music production. I shared all my ideas with my friends at school and soon they began joining me on my journey to find all the coolest things to do and see around us. When I was eight years old, I presented the idea at school during show and tell, and three years later iCoolKid was born.
I want iCoolKid to be the home for a new generation of kids who are super curious and really passionate about their favourite interests and hobbies, no matter how weird and wonderful. Everything from the latest science and tech, creative art and design, music across the ages, extreme sports, dance, fun business stories and really cool hangouts all over town and beyond.
What I love about my job
I love working with the team to find all the coolest stories that end up on the website. It’s really hard to decide what is the coolest but it’s fun to chat about them all and vote on the best ones. I also love filming videos for the YouTube channel because we get to visit Comic Con and Insomnia conventions, which are so much fun.
What is difficult about my job
There are three real challenges about the job. First, keeping up with all my schoolwork, which is most important as it really helps me to be better prepared for iCoolKid. Secondly, keeping up on all the latest technology, science etc. It’s a lot of reading! Lastly, getting the word out to young people everywhere.
Social media helps, but you need to think out of the box to reach people in more remote places. You can build the best website in the world, but if no-one knows about it, you will struggle to keep it going.
What skills I need
You need to be creative and have a vision for what the business will look like when you start, then going forward. You need to be pretty techsavvy in order to build the site and keep it growing, with lots of content and new features. You also have to be innovative and entrepreneurial.
