Torrey Leonard caught the entrepreneurship bug early.
The 24-year-old founder of startup Jeti Inc. was running a lemonade stand syndicate with neighborhood kids when he was in elementary school, then founded a larger revenue-generating business at age 12, when he was in middle school. A world he created for Minecraft and opened up to others grew into the game’s largest multiplayer community at one point.
“Just to paint a picture, I would be on the bus driving home, and my phone would be lighting up with PayPal notifications of people who were paying me,” he said in a December interview.
“One day, somebody saw that, and I didn’t want that to happen because I thought everyone would think I’m a big nerd,” he said. “But then somebody saw it and it’s like, ‘Torrey’s getting paid, Torrey’s getting paid,’ all these people. And that was when I was outed.”
Leonard said his father initially set up the PayPal account “to humor him” with the Minecraft venture, not giving it much more thought until a year later when he was notified by the IRS.
“We had a whole sit-down conversation,” Leonard said, “... because I never paid the taxes. I didn’t know what I was doing. It was just a PayPal account with his name on it.”
The business eventually generated $150,000 in revenue from about half a million users.
“I did not have a normal seventh, eighth and ninth grade year,” he said. “But it was what initially got me into engineering and software development.”
At Ohio State, Leonard majored in communication technology, with an emphasis on human-computer interaction and user experience (HCI + UX). That degree focuses on how people use technology and the social implications of new technologies.
“It’s a really cool degree; really, really cool degree,” Leonard said. “Anybody interested in pursuing product design, that’s 100%my recommendation.”
Outside of the classroom, he contracted with startups to make apps, but didn’t get involved in any of the business-builder student groups on campus, something he said he regrets because he didn’t build up a network of fellow entrepreneurs.
These days, Leonard is running Jeti while simultaneously working as director of product at Pebble, a startup in “stealth” mode that’s looking to disrupt the fintech space, Leonard said. Like most entrepreneurs, he said there are aspects of running a business that he does not enjoy, but working with teams is a highlight.
“Leadership is something I do enjoy,” he said “I like to lead people, but I also like to follow because I think if you can’t do that, then you can’t lead. You can’t lead without following; if you can’t hear people, then you can’t lead them.
“In these two new ventures that I’m working in, I’m directing the product team at Pebble and I’m leading the entire company at Jeti and in both environments we’re all working together. And I enjoy the cooperativeness of that, more than more than like dictating.”
Leonard remains committed to “building products that people love” and he understands the ongoing commitment needed to advance in the industry. He cited Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000-hour rule” from his book Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become elite at any endeavor.
“I always think about it like, how can this thing that I’m doing now will get me into a headspace where I can do something important,” he said. “How can I hit that 10,000-hour mark without sacrificing my health and like passing out? You know, because I’m sitting down coding all day. Those are kinds of things I’m thinking about.
“If I’m not going to take initiative and do something, then nothing will happen,” he said. “I can just hit the status quo. Or I can actually change the world.”
Leonard has come a long way since middle school, when he was nervous that people would think it wasn’t cool to run a business.
“Today, I mean, it definitely has the opposite effect. People think it’s really cool,” he said. “It’s something I love talking about. I love talking about the things I’m working on, the things I have worked on. Once I’m passionate about a project, and I get full in on it, it’s something that I’ll talk to you all day about."
