There's an important point not empathized enough in this article: Supportive Parents

The lack of support from your parents is probably the biggest brake you may have at this age. Fortunately for this kid, thanks to the support of his parents, he managed to succeed in a really short time. Kudos to the entire family.

His parents also had the "lots of money" that allowed him to "replace the wheels every few weeks".

I know that when I was a child, if I had a scooter and the wheels broke, I would never get to own a scooter again. So that's the kind of opportunity I'd have missed out on.

To be fair, that's a direct quote from him - it's possible that he had a job that allowed him to pay for the replacements himself.

On the other hand, I doubt my parents would have lent me $2k when I was 13.

Does it say his parents were supportive? It mentions they leant him money, is that what you meant.

The article notes his parents lent him $2000 (at 13) and his mother helped him build the site for his company.

Sounds like support to me.

They were also likely undersigners on his manufacture deal.

It says his mother helped him make a website to sell the wheels. That's pretty substantial, and surely his parents signed some contracts along the way to get deals done (which means money and time, not to mention the more ethereal "support" that you give someone when you sign a contract for their benefit and your possible detriment).

This is similar to the Jibbitz story of Sheri Schmelzer, the homemaker who one day got this idea. And fast forward a couple of years she earns $10MM by selling her business.

Oh and just by the way, her husband is a seasoned high powered sales guy. What a coincidence.

That's pretty cool. Stories like this make it seem like we're really living in the future.

As a side note, holy crap, did that kid name his dog after an atomic bomb?

Unless his cat is named Fat Man, it's probably not intentional.

Very nice.

Unfortunately there will be Chinese clones of them on ebay within a year, he needs to grow fast.

If he can establish a strong recognizable brand in the relatively niche scooter industry, the Chinese clones won't hurt his business at all.

Smart kid.

Smarter Parentski. ;)