They see him rollin’
Highlander of the Issue
Entrepreneurial freshman Ben Karimian glides into hot hoverboard market Liam Zeya Editor-in-Chief hey’re everywhere. Famous athletes and celebrities have them. TV shows and music videos are full of them. More and more kids are getting them. Since late 2015, the phenomenon of two-wheeled self-balancing scooters, more often known as “hoverboards,” has taken international popular culture by storm. This past fall, entrepreneurial freshman Ben Karimian took advantage of this opportunity by starting a business with the principal objective of selling these hot items.
Karimian’s first hoverboard purchase was for himself late last summer. “I met a guy that was the CEO of NEXTBoard, which is a pretty well-known company in California, and I thought they were really cool, so when I went home, I ordered one for my birthday,” Karimian said. “I got my first hoverboard online from some generic brand for a good amount, but after two weeks, it stopped working.” After his brother, McLean sophomore Mateen Karimian, had another lousy experience ordering a hoverboard that took over six weeks to arrive, Ben decided to change his approach to buying with the help of his father. “All the factories are in China,” Ben said. “So you have to first find them. [In] a lot of these factories, not only do they make their own hoverboards, but they also put in their own tweaks—they make different models and such.” After contacting some factories, Ben realized that he could reframe his purchasing mindset to bulk-buying. “I didn’t think I was going to buy as many as I did. I got a good price,” Ben said. The first moderate mass purchase led to more bulk-buying later on. “After he bought the first few, he bought a set of 50, then 300,” Mateen said. Ben bought the hoverboards in a variety of models and colors. “We sell two different models—the Mercedes Benz and Lamborghini Model, and nine color combinations for each,” Ben said. “I came up with the colors.” Soon, with the help of his father, Ben launched a website—ridequickboard.com —to advertise and sell his merchandise. “Mostly, we sell in person, but we’re getting professionals to work on our website we’ve had. That’s a whole other challenge, how much money needs to go into the website,” he Wheels Spinning—Freshman Ben Karimian said. rides one of his hoverboards down a Still, Ben has had some sidewalk with an advertisement for his tremendous success getting website on his T-shirt. The site has over 18 different designs of self-balancing scooters athlete testimonials for the for sale. (Photo courtesy of Ben Karimian)
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website. His website features videos of former Redskins star Clinton Portis and current Wizards player Dejuan Blair. Both of the athletes are riding Ben’s hoverboards, and he’s in each video. Ben met Portis at his gym. “The one I was riding [when I met Portis] was the Lamborghini one. It’s graffitied, so it gets attention,” Ben said. “He asked, oh, where’d you get that, I was looking for one of those. I said, I sell them, they’re this price, and then he wanted to get two for his kids.” “[Ben] is comfortable talking to people about anything related to business,” Mateen said. “That’s his strength. He likes selling stuff and he’s good at it.” The hoverboard craze that Karimian was able to tap into began as a pop-culture craze in 2015. According to Wired Magazine, famous athletes and musicians like J.R. Smith, Karim Benzema, Wiz Khalifa, Nicki Minaj and Skrillex were sighted on the devices during the year. Justin Bieber made them famous by posting videos of himself on the gadgets on his Instagram page, which to date has almost 60 million followers. In a widely publicized story in December, Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) had to go to an emergency room after injuring his arm riding a hoverboard he gave his daughter for Christmas. Ben’s business success so far while still in his first year of high school is certainly rare. He said his age was both a blessing and a curse in this venture. “[Some buyers] say, you’re so young and you’re selling them, and they buy,” he said. “But there’s also that factor where they think, since you’re a kid, your items are not as professional as a big [company’s].” Ben doesn’t know if he’ll stay in this particular business for long. Many fads like the hoverboard roll out of fashion just as quickly as they came in. “I’m thinking about something with smartwatches or phones,” he said. “These [Chinese] factories, they sell all kinds of electronics.” Page design by Liam Zeya
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