A London Met graduate who started his Twitter business two years ago whilst studying for his MBA has now sold it for an estimated US$10-15 million.
Plixi is the brainchild of former Business School MBA student Sean Callahan. Sean envisioned a way users of Twitter, Facebook and other social media could share images online from their mobile devices. He turned his original concept into a successful business which has now been sold to social commerce network Lockerz.
Soon after the deal was sealed this January, Sean wrote to Pat Wood, Academic Leader at the LMBS, to thank the school. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you!’ he wrote. Sean started his business with the support from LMBS and the Student Enterprise programme, which has helped to launch another 27 student businesses.
Plixi, originally called TweetPhoto, is one of the top 250 websites in the world, attracting 27.5 million users a month, including a host of celebrities.
Paris Hilton is a regular Plixi user, recently uploading a family snap of her and Nicky as little girls. ‘This pic is so 80s- ha, I love it!’ she wrote.
While Plixi offers a standalone web and iPhone app, more than 300 developers have integrated Plixi’s photo sharing technology.
Sean, who lives in San Diego, California, came to London at the start of 2009 to study his MBA at London Met.
‘I decided on London Met because I liked the small class sizes and the teachers seemed very knowledgeable.’
Sue O’Hare, Associate Director of Enterprise at London Met said: ‘We are very proud of all that Sean has achieved. We work hard with students and graduates to help get their business ideas running. London Met has strong academic expertise in the digital media area and strong links to business through our business incubator Accelerator.’