Start-up Competition

This is me at 11 years old, pitching a product to 3 investors at the Microsoft headquarters. I am sure you are wondering, how in the world did he get there? Well, I was in middle school, really enjoying some of the coding camps I was taking, and looking for new things to do based around technology. I came across an “Entrepreneurship summer camp and competition” and asked my parents about it. It turns out, you needed to be at least 13 to join.

I don’t know how, but somehow I convinced my parents to register me as a 13 year old! It took many days of pleading. The camp was a few weeks and it included many entrepreneurial minded kids all over the world between ages of 13-18. I was clearly the youngest one. I picked the role of defining the product, Chief Innovation Officer. In my team we designed a Virtual Reality device for gaming. Working with this group to create a product made me realize all the intricacies of product design. It was one of the best times of my life, and I felt like I found my true passion.

After we designed our product, we presented our work in front of real angel investors! Now when I look at this video, I am baffled by my confidence on the outside. I was extremely nervous inside! This was the first time I had ever spoken in front of this many people. While our team didn’t win the competition itself, I would not exchange the experience for anything.

I was addicted. In the following years, I joined the same competition to design and present a Fitness tracker and other products. These experiences really helped me educate myself around product design and go to market strategies. In the end, I invented a product, a sensor based door lock for teenagers, and filed a patent! I never could have imagined that I would get this far.