About Me
At the age of 26, Ben Cathers is the co-founder of his fourth startup, InstantSocial. Previously, he is the co-founder of three startups before he was 19 years old and has been featured in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNN, ABC News and other media outlets. He is an advisor to several web startups, an active mentor on entrepreneurship at Boston University’s School of Management, a well known speaker on Social Media and Entrepreneurship issues and also a fierce competitor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and slow-pitch softball (his team has two championships in two years in various Central Park softball leagues).
When he was 12 years old, Ben started a web marketing and advertising firm geared towards teenagers. The firm ultimately grew into a two office enterprise with over 300 million advertisements a month. In the year 2000, when Ben was only 15 years old, the Silicon Alley Reporter named the firm as one of the “Top 12 companies in Silicon Alley to look out for”.
At the age of 17, Ben left the firm to start a syndicated radio show called Teen America. Teen America went live during January 2002. Before its first episode, Teen America was picked up by a national syndicator and received clearance on numerous CBS radio and 50,000 watt stations. The radio show and company were profitable upon inception.
At the age of 19, Ben published his first book “Conversations with Teen Entrepreneurs”. The book, published by iUniverse Inc, is available on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and a slew of other bookstores.
At 19 Ben became Co-founder & COO of Search Rate Technologies LLC. Search Rate Technologies was an enterprise search company focused on improving search for internal users of large corporate databases. Ben also became the executive producer and co-founder of Klick-TV. Klick-TV was a video on demand TV network focusing on college students and young adults. Launched in the fall of 2004, Klick-TV was available in over a million homes.
Today Ben is based in NYC where he is the Co-Founder of his fourth startup, InstantSocial. InstantSocial’s mission is to help companies, influential individuals, and organizations of all sizes and technical experience engage in social media.
Ben is a graduate of the Boston University School of Management. During his sophomore year, Ben helped teach the year long freshman course “Management as a System”. In 2007, Ben received the first annual Peter R Russo Award in Entrepreneurship from Boston University’s Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization.
Born and raised on Long Island, New York, Ben resides in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In his free time, Ben enjoys playing on his Central Park Softball Team, The Weekend Swingers, training and competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and submission fighting tournaments, barbecuing in his backyard and walking around NYC.
Select Media mentions:
Magazines/newspapers:
Wall Street Journal (#Trend: Trading on social media)
Silicon Alley Reporter (My first company was named as one of the top 12 companies to look out for in 2000)
Daily Court Review (front page)
Boston Globe (Young forces to be reckoned with)
Entrepreneur Magazine (Conversations with a teen entrepreneur)
Yahoo! Internet Life (Net millionaires)
Builders and Leaders Magazine
Boston Business Journal
Mass High Tech Magazine
College Bound Teen
Revu Magazine (Holland)
Gas Pedal Ventures
Sunday London Times
Long Island Herald
BU Bridge
The Free Press
Small Business Insider
Teenagers Today: Teen of the Month
Television
Teen Kids News
Fox News (NY)
CNN
The Lou Dobbs Show (Named as a member of “America’s Bright Future”. View transcript here)
ABC News
The Debra Dunkins Show (Houston)
Radio
Megs and Modems Radio Show
Wall Street Journal Radio Show
Teen America (host)
Books
Conversations with Teen Entrepreneurs (author)
Me 2.0 (Page 76)
Prepare to be a teen millionaire (one of the featured young entrepreneurs)
Awards Peter R Russo Award for entrepreneurship (1st annual recipient)
