Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

      Okay we all know the story (or have at least seen the movie) about how Mark Zuckerberg, recently named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year, created the multi-billion dollar global phenomenon that is Facebook right from his dorm room. We then saw Zuckerberg (at least via the movie) bang a bunch of women in bathroom stalls of San Francisco nightclubs due to the success of his dorm room creation.

      But that was years ago. Who are the new Mark Zuckerbergs on the horizon? In this DIY age of technology, who are the next crop of young entrepreneurs running multimillion dollar companies from their dorm rooms or creating the next big sensation that will be scooped up by the likes of Google?

      Here are five contenders for the title of “The Next Mark Zuckerberg.”

Brent Skoda

      Brent SkodaCollegeFitness.com is Brent’s fourth entrepreneurial venture. (The over-achieving bastard.) He launched the fitness social network site during his sophomore year in college. Now a 22-year-old senior, Skoda’s company is worth $2.4 million and has cemented partnerships with Google and the University of Oklahoma and has raised $3.5 million from investors.

      With that said, the chances of anything fitness related catching on at the same level as Facebook are slim to none. This is the United States, fitness isn’t really our bag. If it was, well, Facebook probably wouldn’t be as popular as it is. It’s not like playing Farmville for six hours at a time is burning any calories, you know?

Dave and Catherine Cook

      This brother and sister team started MyYearbook.com back in 2005. Both are now university seniors and in charge of a $20 million company that boasts 80 employees. Pretty good for basically creating a Facebook for tweens.

      But it’s not like some sort of Facebook knock off is going to pose any kind of threat, right? Try telling that to MySpace, if you can still find it. It’s not like Facebook invented the idea of setting up a profile where your friends can see what you’re up to, they just perfected it. At least so far they have.

Matti Niebelschütz

      This law student at Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin in Germany created a company called MyParfeum which makes it possible for customers to design and order their own custom perfumes online. Keep an eye out for The Smoking Jacket’s Tangy Ranch Dressing Scent for Men in 2011!

Ben McKean and Dan Leahy

      The former Georgetown roommates concocted an idea for a service that would help fill the tables at high-end New York restaurants with their startup, VillageVines.com. Kind of like Priceline, but for posh eateries, their service has 500,000 subscribers, $500,000 in angel investments and is about to spread to other large cities around the country.

      Wait, you have to pay for reservations now? Looks like we’re going to stay single for awhile (as if it was up to us anyway).

Hassan Hamdan

      Palestine native Hassan Hamdan, an engineering student at Modern Science and Art University in Saudi Arabia, is the mastermind behind Optimal Technology Solutions, a mobile messaging, e-marketing and business solutions provider. From his dorm room, Hamdan runs operations in five Middle Eastern countries. Feel free to throw some investment cash his way. It’s probably a sound investment and we’re at least 16% certain it won’t result in you being wrongly added to “No-Fly” lists the world over.

Source from The Smoking Jacket