Four years ago, after the first big snow of the season, second-year College student Justin Dubois broke his leg after deciding to go sledding on the biggest hill he could find. Unable to participate in any physical activity for eight months, Dubois started what would become a four-year programming project: PearlSquirrel.com.
Today, PearlSquirrel is a free, music streaming website which hosts 35 million songs. Aiming to rival the likes of Spotify and GrooveShark, Dubois’ website is rapidly expanding, and he is currently working on replacing the YouTube videos on his site with audio files.
For Dubois, the site is not just a hobby — it is something of a full-time job.
“If I could drop out of school and continue with [PearSquirrel] as a full-time job, I’d totally do that,” Dubois said. “But we’re not at the point where I could actually do that.”
The project is a large time commitment for Dubois, but the effort he puts in is well worth it, said David Lourd, Dubois’ long-time friend, PearlSquirrel co-founder and student at Northeastern University
“He’ll stay up all night if he gets an idea,” Loud said. “The success of the site really just comes from his dedication and his passion for it.”
Dubois’ programming knowledge is almost entirely self-taught. He learned his skills by watching YouTube videos and coding along with them using a program called Notepad .
“[I started coding because] I wanted to make my mom something for her birthday that I’d never done before and I thought — ‘Wow, a personal website, that’d be kind of cool’,” Dubois said. “She doesn’t actually use it, but that’s okay.”
The first website he created was very basic, featuring a picture of a car and links to other pages. PearlSquirrel recently underwent a design transformation with a revamped user interface, featuring a sleek website that allows users to scan through trending and recently added music, along with the ability to create a queue and watch the accompanying music video with their chosen tracks.
Dubois hopes the new design will increase the site’s popularity among the college student demographic. Currently, the site boasts a large listenership from the University of Michigan and racks up to 5,000 hits in a single day. Dubois has already been offered opportunities to help other companies create websites.
“I spend so much time on [PearlSquirrel] at this point,” Dubois said. “It’s something that I want to be known for.”
Because he has enjoyed the entrepreneurial business aspects of running Pearl Squirrel so much, Dubois applied to the Commerce School this spring and is currently waiting to hear back.
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