Mark Bao, who graduated from Wellesley High School last year and is now at Bentley College, has developed a hot Internet app called ThreeWords.me that’s exploded on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks over the past couple of weeks.
The app got some nice attention on popular social media website Mashable Monday.
ThreeWords.me’s premise is simple: It lets your friends anonymously describe you in three words. (For example, most people would describe me as Swell, Sweller and Swellest.)
Bao of course is a user of the app himself and has invited all sorts of three-word descriptions of himself, running from the raunchy to nice (A, Cool & Dude, for example). He’s also become a victim of his own success in another way: People accessing the app are doing so in such large numbers that it’s blowing away his computing resources and he’s had to reach out for help from the hacker community to provide more capacity.
Bao is one of those guys who can make just about anyone feel lazy by comparison, having delved into a number of start-ups even though he’s still a teenager. His blog’s tagline is: “I start innovative businesses.”
As for coming up with a business that exploits the Dot Me (.me) Internet domain (in other words, .me instead of the more familiar .com), Bao is on the cutting edge of a trend that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are now pouncing on.
It wouldn’t be the first time Wellesley produced a social media star. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone grew up in Wellesley.
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