William E. Pearson is the co-founder of mental floss

Mental floss

Mental Floss is a bi-monthly American magazine, launched in 2001 in Birmingham, Alabama, that presents facts and trivia in a humorous way...

, a bi-monthly magazine, which he started with Mangesh Hattikudur

Mangesh Hattikudur

Mangesh Hattikudur is the co-founder of the American humor magazine mental floss, which he started with Will Pearson when both were students at Duke University. Hattikudur graduated from Duke in 2001, with a Bachelor of Arts degree...

 when both were students at Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

. Pearson graduated from Duke in 2001, with a Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree.Describing himself, Pearson noted his penchant for eating two M&M's

M&M's

M&M's are dragée-like "colorful button-shaped candies" produced by Mars, Incorporated...

 at the same time, on different sides of the mouth, "making both sides of the mouth equally happy". Will Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur met as freshmen at Duke University and in their senior year parlayed their cafeteria conversations into the first issue of mental_floss magazine. In addition to the magazine, a board game

Board game

A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

, a weekly CNN Headline News

CNN Headline News

HLN, formerly known as CNN Headline News and CNN2, is a cable television news channel based in the United States and a spinoff of the cable news television channel, CNN. Initially airing tightly-formatted 30-minute newscasts around the clock, since 2005, the channel has increasingly aired long-form...

 segment and a daily updated website, the two have collaborated on seven mental_floss books. Pearson and Hattikidur were named one of thirty promising 2007 entrepreneurs in business magazine Inc.

Inc. (magazine)

Inc. magazine, founded in 1979 and based in New York City, is a monthly publication focused on growing companies. The magazine publishes an annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., the "Inc...

.