Bensonhurst’s Millionaire Party Kid Profiled By Business Insider
The last time we wrote about Alexander “Xander” Shlaferman, it was for ending up in cuffs for throwing a huge hipster party on the Manhattan Bridge, shutting it down to traffic in 2013. Now, the millionaire wunderkind says he’s done with the parties, and focusing on the Chinese factory he just bought for his budding business empire.
“I used to think partying was so fun and crazy. Not so fun and crazy any more,” he told Business Insider, which profiled the 20-year-old entrepreneur this weekend. Instead, he’s using the revenues from his $10 million company to buy his parents a new house, having built his business in their Bensonhurst home on their dime.
“A few years ago, I was 16 and running my company out of my bedroom, using my parents’ credit cards. My first year in business I filed taxes for $110,000. Before we knew it, we hit $1 million and then $3 million. We’ve been growing by 300-400% every year,” he says. Last year, revenue was about $5 million but if he hits his hoped-for 2014 holiday sales, “We expect $10 million in sales this Christmas.”
The company’s “big thing” at the moment is Wallet Ninja, a Swiss army knife-styled tool that’s the size and shape of a credit card. To produce the merchandise, he’s purchased a factory in China and employs nearly 50 people.
Wallet Ninja comes after previous successes slinging a boomerang toy airplane called the Super Looper at age 16, and, his first start-up product, a DVD that teaches buyers how to levitate, which he made at age 11.
“I made a DVD that taught you how to levitate. I found a guy on Craigslist to film in my room with a bed sheet. Just me and this guy from Craigslist. I can only imagine if my parents came home, what their reaction would have been,” he told BI.
His next monied magic trick? Apparently he’s in discussions for his own reality show.
“I was really opposed to it in the beginning. I don’t want some drama-filled” show, he says. But the network (which he wouldn’t name) has him convinced it will be a real show about his real life, which between work, China, and training is crazy enough.