Alex is one of the UK’s youngest and most successful entrepreneurs. He’s the guy behind the original Million Dollar Homepage – a true piece of internet history. Basically, Alex decided that student life was expensive. What, he thought, could he do to make a million dollars quickly? The answer was the Million Dollar Homepage – a single web page in which companies could buy single pixels (dots on the screen). The total for all the dots was a million dollars. Take a look and you’ll see how it works.

Alex’s genius is in PR – with the Million Dollar Homepage he conjured up a PR-friendly story that was perfect for TV and radio interest. He got bags of publicity, companies signed up in their droves, and Alex got his cash. If you look at the Page, it’s full to the brim with sponsors.

Alex’s latest project is Popjam – a place to see, share and rate all those fun and funny emails we send each other every day. But how do you promote a new site like Popjam when there are so many other ways for us to while away a few minutes of our time? Again, Alex caught the feeling of the moment and used his instinctive feel for PR to create Sock and Awe – an online game parodying the “shoe attack” on George Bush. The game (imagined, designed and created in under a week) has had – wait for it – over 90,000,000 visitors – more than most websites achieve in a lifetime.

I was reminded of this because last night (during the announcement of the imprisonment of the shoe-hurling journalist) Sock and Awe was even shown on News at Ten. How often does what is effectively an advert for a website end up being promoted on the national news?

Alex is rapidly reaching the top of my list of genius entrepreneurs, and whilst still in his early 20’s has founded more than one successful company without breaking into a sweat. Given that marketing is something we often find tough in a world where we’re competing with so many other messages, perhaps Alex has got it right: put your feet up, think of something original, and let the press do the hard work for you.