Meet the Stanford drop-out who launched a company worth millions

Jesse Leimgruber was the first person I met at Stanford.

It was move-in day, and I was unpacking boxes with my dad (ie. he was unpacking and I was on Instagram). Unfortunately, while standing on my desk and attempting to hang something, my father knocked my external hard drive to the ground. Yes, it was 2012 and I was still using an external hard drive.

I think Jesse somehow sensed the demise of my out-of-date storage system from down the hall, because he appeared in my doorway moments later, wearing an orientation lanyard and his signature GIANT smile.

Dressed in an orange Hollister t-shirt and beige cargo shorts, Jesse introduced himself and continued to stand there, smiling. I shook his hand, thinking to myself, “What exactly is this person?”

Jesse looks like the kind of guy who would know about computers, so, naturally, my dad implored, “can you help my daughter fix her external drive?”

Jesse threw back his head and laughed. I could tell this would be a memorable exchange.

He suggested several cloud storage platforms, expounding on each with such expert detail that my father and I were purely dumbstruck. Needless to say, neither of us had ever really heard of cloud platforms before. But we pretended we did, because it seemed like they were important to the ecstatic individual gesturing wildly in the doorway.

Jesse in the room where I broke my foot.

After a lengthy conversation, during which I found out Jesse was from Orlando and liked raves and neon, he bid me and my dad goodbye and told me he’d see me later at the dorm meeting.

After he was gone, my dad turned to me, stunned. “That kid’s in your dorm? I thought he was an RA!”

Jesse and I, freshman year. I am sporting one of his “YOLO” hats.

Long story short, Jesse quickly became one of my best friends. I actually broke my foot in his room in Suites once, and he took me to the hospital and waited with me there the whole day. That’s the kind of person Jesse is.

Jesse is also nothing short of an utter genius. First, he outsmarted Google in high school by deciphering the algorithms that constituted their search engine optimization strategy.

“I was pretty much a kid. I was 16, and I realized that Google sends a ton of sales to companies. Obviously, my thought was ‘how do I get my website at the TOP of Google’. I spent 6 months closely reverse-engineering the algorithm, understanding exactly how companies get ranked, and then doing everything I could to get my website to the top of Google.”

Then, Jesse started his first company, RageHats.com.

“After just a few months, Google was sending over $30k/month in sales to RageHats.

“How did I do it? I learned that Google values links, references to your website, good content and social media links. So, I spent hours messaging bloggers, getting shares and social media, and making my website look super attractive to Google.”

He went on to start an internet marketing company during his sophomore year of college. His company, NeoReach, met such immense success that Jesse decided to drop out of Stanford and run the company full-time. Today, his clients include Walmart, Zappos, Microsoft, NBC, and more. 

Recently, I FaceTimed with Jesse to check in and see how he was doing, and to make sure he wasn’t subsisting on gummy bears and Reese’s Pieces. He informed me he was in London, and would be going to Dublin the next day.

I asked Jesse for advice about how navigate the general job market. This was his answer.

“Most people focus on studies, apply for internships, and go through the traditional job path. By the time they are an adult and interviewing other candidates, they forget what things ACTUALLY matter.

“It’s incredibly obvious, at least from my perspective, that meeting other people and looking for things you’re passionate about are far more meaningful than a high GPA. I’ve hired dozens of people and never once have I asked about their GPA. Maybe my mentality around this will change as I progress through my career. But today, I’m firm that meeting people and getting a breadth of experience is more impactful.”

Soon, we got off-topic, and our conversation ended up taking a weird turn that prompted Jesse to send me an article about a schizophrenic toddler. He says it’s  “the number one article” he’s ever read.

Anyway, I hope this makes you think, “Wow, I really want to learn more about Jesse Leimgruber. He sounds really cool and unique. And I also enjoy Reese’s Pieces and other oddities,” because I am going to sit down with Jesse next week and conduct a full interview.

You’re welcome.