Emil Barr – Step Up Social & Flashpass

Emil Barr is a 22-year-old gen z entrepreneur who immigrated to the United States from Russia.  He attended the Farmer Business School at the University of Miami studying Economics and International Business. In 2021, when Emil was only a freshman in college, he began his first startup called Step Up Social. Step Up Social was a social media marketing agency. His business grew astronomically in only a few years. Reaching 2 million dollars a year in revenue, Emil’s business was later merged with Candid Network. While still in college, Emil founded another company in 2022 called Flashpass. Flashpass was an edtech platform that was meant to help teach skills such as AI, cybersecurity, and digital marketing. Flashpass gained immense success with 1 million dollars in revenue in 2024. Emil is a prime example of a gen z entrepreneur who worked extremely hard to start his business’ and it paid off. He has a very hardworking mentality and philosophy for success. A key part of his success is his main strategy of front-loading success early in his career so that he can relax later in life. Emil’s five strategies that he followed in his rise to success: outsource non-essentials, cut down social commitments, turn school projects into business opportunities, keep a zero-based calendar for social plans, and even pay extra for faster transportation to save time. This mentality of complete focus on his business’ allowed Emil to achieve such rapid success.