Cooper Weiss
Cooper Weiss
Cooper Weiss (born April 20, 1999), is an American entrepreneur based in New York City. He is the co-founder of Fidget360, which was the first company to mass produce the fidget spinner. [9] In addition, Cooper has been involved in a number of startups including Internet Made Inc., Magnet Mount, Drone Delux, and more. [3] [11] [18]
Early Life and Education
Cooper is originally from Armonk, New York, a suburb outside of New York City. [5] Growing up, Cooper has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and would do anything from buying and selling sneakers to setting up gift shops at family events. [18] After graduating from Byram Hills High School, Cooper became a student at the University of Michigan where he currently attends. [5]
Entrepreneurship
Fidget 360
In the fall of 2016, Cooper's friend Allan was looking for a way to alleviate his ADHD. [9] Searching online, Allan found that the fidget cube Kickstarter campaign raised millions of dollars. [1] He also found a similar product, the fidget spinner, which many people were 3D printing and selling on Etsy. [9] Instead of waiting weeks for the fidget spinner to be shipped, Allan decided to make one on his own. [1] Teaming up with Cooper, Allan found the blueprints to create his own fidget spinner along with the help of his physics teacher, Eric Savino. They used the 3D printer in the school to print their first product. [7]
Allan was also working with Cooper on a social media venture called Nito; they thought they could apply their experience to mass produce fidget spinners.
[9] They started selling them in their school for $25.99 apiece and making hundreds of dollars within the first few days.
[7] The school administration heard what they were doing with school property and almost suspended them.
Subsequently, Cooper's team relocated to his basement and bought eight 3D printers.
[7] As demand increased, they moved to a Brooklyn factory and then to a production facility in China. [7]
Cooper played an instrumental part in the success of Fidget360.
[7] He was responsible for setting up the company's website, running Fidget360s social media accounts and marketing, and reaching out to influencers and popular accounts to promote fidget spinners.
[18] As of January 2018, the Fidget360 Instagram account had 150,000 followers. In addition, Cooper was in charge of overseeing the supply chain for Fidget360 and directing customer support. [18]
A huge part of Cooper's and Allan's domination of the market was the use of influencer marketing. [8] In November 2016, they met entrepreneur and thought leader Rob Fajardo who would utilize his social media network of 150 million users. Fajardo would show the fidget spinner to Gerard Adams, who sold Elite Daily to the Daily Mail for $50 million. [8] Rob and Gerard both invested in Fidget360 and agreed to introduce Cooper and Allan to their influencer network. [8]
They ran a number of campaigns buying ad space across social media on themed influencer accounts for 6, 12, and 24-hour periods.
[8] For their first Instagram advertisement, they paid $15 and earned $2,000 in a 24-hour period.
[7] The campaigns ended up being a huge success and fidget spinners became an international sensation.
In six months, Fidget360 racked up $350,000 in six months.
[9] As a result, Cooper has been featured in Forbes, CNBC, and Mic. [7] [6] [1]
Other Ventures
After that, he founded Trackr, an app that empowers people to temporarily track their friends at events such as concerts, parties, and other gatherings.
Another one of Cooper's ventures, Drone Delux, is a company that uses drone cinematography for a variety of clients in real estate.
[3] He films and edits virtual property tours, manages the YouTube platform for marketing purposes, and regularly meets with real estate directors to generate new business.
Alongside David Rose, Cooper founded Internet Made Inc., a social media marketing and management firm and uses his knowledge and experience to manage multiple company social media accounts.