This is a subscriber-only article.

Save 20% on Entrepreneur+ during our Spring Growth Flash Sale

Use code SPRING20 at checkout.

Subscribe Now

Already have an account?

Sign in
Entrepreneur Plus - Short White
For Subscribers

Meet the 22-Year-Old Serial Entrepreneur Behind a File-Sharing Service With $1 Million in VC A free file-sharing site attracts users with its drag-and-drop simplicity and universal platform

By Joel Holland

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When John Xie began studying business and entrepreneurship at Babson College, he didn't have any of the typical freshman worries about workload or time-management skills. Xie, now 22, entered the Wellesley, Mass., school already accustomed to long hours, high pressure and tight deadlines, thanks to the fact that he founded his first company, the successful web hosting firm CirtexHosting, when he was just 13 years old.

"High school was really challenging, because I didn't have any time. Basically, the schedule was terrible," Xie says. "I really had very little time to work on a business. But I would say that when I entered Babson, it was at a level where the company could run on its own without me having to run the day-to-day operations."

Like any good CEO, he worked even harder to expand Cirtex to the point at which it is hosting more than 100,000 websites internationally and bringing in about $2 million annually. Then, he set his sights on starting another business.