Young BU entrepreneur turns talents to writing

With a 7-Eleven Big Gulp Slurpie at his side and a laptop filled with instant messages, School of Management sophomore Ben Cathers appears to be an average college student relaxing in his room on a Sunday afternoon.

But at age 19, Cathers is quite the opposite he has already written a book, hosted a nationally syndicated talk radio show and started an internet advertising company.

Cathers’ success has been, to an extent, self-created. He grew up in a middle-class family on Long Island with parents who had no business experience and little capital to put behind his dreams.

‘Nobody in my family has run a business,’ he said. ‘My whole family is either academics or civil servants. I wanted to escape the need for that life.’

In 1993, when Cathers made his first online business deal selling advertising for $12, he didn’t even consider that he had no backing from rich parents or anyone who knew about international trade.

‘I always wanted an office job, but when you’re 12 years old and can’t be legally employed, I had to create my own opportunity basically,’ he said.

Cathers solved his employment problem by using the internet, and before turning 13 he successfully designed and marketed his first website, www.phatgames.com.

‘It became very popular and I began making $15 to $20, which is a lot when you’re 12,’ he said. ‘It kept moving on and the website started crashing because it became so popular. So, I started meeting up with people and emailing potential business partners when I was 14 and got a partner and he decided to invest in it.’

The resulting company, Phatstart LSC, designed websites and media products geared toward teenagers and sold advertising on its sites almost 300,000,000 ads each month. Cathers was suddenly one of a few outlandishly successful teen businessmen, and people took notice.

‘He received a tremendous amount of media attention,’ said his mother, Patti Cathers. ‘And the flurry of attention as a young entrepreneur was very amazing. We flew to Texas to do a television interview … and the first time we heard him on the radio it was exciting.’

But when the dot-com sector went belly-up in 2000, Cathers’ advertisers, primarily other dot-com sites, couldn’t pay for their ads.

‘Like everyone else on the internet, we got screwed,’ he said.

But the financial hardships did not discourage Cathers he started a radio show devoted to teen entrepreneurs called ‘Teen America.’ Before going off the air in early 2003, ‘Teen America’ broadcast to more than 50 countries and was run almost entirely by Cathers and his friends.

‘We had a lot of fun with the show,’ said Mike Calcagni, a close friend of Cathers. ‘Ben called me one day in late 2001 and said, ‘Let’s do a radio show … I’ll meet you at the studio in an hour.’ We had a lot of fun with it, and it was a fantastic experience.’

Right before getting a mid-morning spot at CBS Detroit, the radio show ended after one of the major investors died in a car crash.

‘That screwed everything up because he had the capital,’ he said. ‘And the one thing I haven’t been able to do is get the capital I need. That’s been my luck so far.’

With the radio show off the air and the website well in the past, Cathers turned his efforts to writing.

‘I spent about half a day researching all the ways to get published and I found an independent publisher,’ he said. ‘I had the book in my head and every day this summer I would come home and just write the book.’

In the 70-page book, ‘Conversations with Teen Entrepreneurs,’ Cathers describes his experiences and interviews other successful teens, one of whom started his own computer company.

‘I thought I’d write about the lessons I’ve learned along the way, covering my own experiences about a variety of issues, ranging from marketing issues to human resources issues,’ Cathers wrote in the book’s introduction. ‘If nothing else, I hope the book provides a unique perspective into how the age barrier is changing dramatically in business.’

Cathers’ mother, who both edited the book and advised her son, said watching his accomplishments this summer was thrilling, especially because he was interning in Manhattan and taking a class while writing the book.

‘I thought he was taking on an awful lot,’ she said. ‘But he got it done successfully.’

With ‘Conversations’ finished and on sale on websites including Amazon.com, Cathers now focuses primarily on his 18-credit courseload.

But when Cathers does get time for socializing, Calcagni said he excels at that too.

‘He has the ‘double A’ type personality,’ Calcagni said. ‘When he works, he’s very diligent. But when he’s hanging out, he is energetic and has a good time. He’s the life of the party.’