How many pennies can you stick up your nose? Is it more than 17?
How about Ding-Dongs? Can you eat two of them in less than 44 seconds?
What about push-ups? Think you can do more in a minute than anyone else?
Well, a new Kent-based Internet business is now giving you a chance to post or beat any record or challenge you can think of.
“From how fast can you eat jalapeno peppers to how many quarters you can put on your elbow,” said co-founder Jeff Huffman from the startup’s second-floor office building.
“Anything,” agreed co-founder Jesse Prohn. “As long as it’s something that challenges another person.”
The Web site is called breakthisrecord.com and the guys have big hopes that their site and its videos will be the next, big viral video thing.
“We’re getting videos from all over the world right now,” said Huffman.
The idea grew out of a challenge for Prohn to balance and catch poker chips off his elbow. Prohn and his son were looking to prove that they were the best at this particular trick, but realized there was nowhere for such highly specialized and sublimely ridiculous talent to be showcased.
“I thought, ‘What about a Web site that hosts these kinds of things, hosts challenges?’” said Prohn.
He suggested the idea to Huffman while the pair were working construction and ideas began to form.
“Nobody else was doing it,” Huffman said. “We brainstormed for a day and decided to go for it.”
Along with investors Randy Goodwin and Mike Chauffer, the pair began to design the new Web Site and company and talk to lawyers about making it official.
The two were not new to the world of business, especially Huffman, who owned a drywall company in Kent for 19 years, but readily admit there was a learning curve in their new field.
“In the computer world, we were pretty new to it,” Prohn said.
But after hours and hours of research, viewing sites and formats and types the pair had a design and the site officially launched January, though they admit it didn’t really look very good. A redesign or two later and now the guys are following a social networking model in hopes of going “viral.”
“We’re really hitting it hard on Facebook and Myspace right now,” Huffman said, adding that the pair made it a point to study the beginnings of Youtube.com, the wildly successful video hosting site.
The site is open to any and all challenges or records, from eating, to sports to skateboards to, well, pennies up the nose, which they admit is one of the oddest on the site.
Each video is viewed by one of the five-member staff, usually ending up in the office staff trying to reach the mark themselves.
“A lot of these records we try,” Prohn said.
“I can beat most of these guys,” adds Huffman.
ON THE WEB
If you’ve got a record or a challenge for someone else to try and beat, visit www.breakthisrecord.com
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