Yash Narayan, the son of two entrepreneurs, went to his first hackathon when he was 10 years old and started two companies by the time he was 14. Now, at age 18, Narayan has just sold one of his businesses — SchoolHacks.
SchoolHacks was born out of Narayan's hackathon experience. At his first hackathon — an event where people convene to participate in collaborative computer programming — he was one of just two kids among 500 adult engineers.
Noticing the dearth of middle- and high-school students in that and other hackathons he took part in, Narayan launched SchoolHacks to try to draw in younger people. Young inventors can submit projects for consideration; those that are selected take part in the virtual program.
To run the company and to fund prizes for the hackathons, Narayan solicited donations from prominent Silicon Valley founders, investors and organizations.
He ran SchoolHacks out of parent's house while he attended The Nueva School, a private school for gifted students in San Mateo. Over the last five years — while simultaneously attending school — Narayan grew his company's program to the point where hundreds of students from more than 40 countries were taking part in it.
As he explored ways to keep growing his company, Narayan saw parallels with what JetLearn, one of SchoolHack's sponsors, was doing. Based in Amsterdam, JetLearn is an online school that offers children training in coding, robotics and Web3 skills.
On Dec. 8, JetLearn announced it was acquiring SchoolHacks for an undisclosed amount. As part of the acquisition, Narayan agreed to stay and serve as a strategic advisor for at least two years.
"But I hope to stay even longer term with JetLearn, as it continues to scale," he said. "We both care about creating a great experience for kids to learn programming and recognize the importance of building a supportive, inclusive community to do that."
The teenage entrepreneur said the decision to sell his company was made partly out of practicality.
"I wanted to continue to scale SchoolHacks, but I knew that would be hard once starting college," Narayan said. "I also didn't want to have to leave school to work on it full-time, and JetLearn understood that."
Following in his parents' footsteps
Narayan, who grew up on the Peninsula, is now a freshman at Stanford University. He's looking to study computer science, with a focus on addressing climate change.
His interest in business can be traced to his parents, both of whom are CEOs of companies they started. His mom, Ritu Narayan, is the founder of Zūm Services Inc., which works with school districts to provide school bus services. His dad, Amit Narayan, founded Autogrid Systems Inc., a provider of software for managing utility-scale solar systems that was acquired by Schneider Electric SE in May.
Narayan has always been "a very curious kid with a strong desire to observe and solve problems around him," his mom, Ritu, said.
Besides SchoolHacks, Narayan also started a company called DeepWaste. He began that project in 2018 after "being blown away" by the amount of waste that could have been composted or recycled but was ending up in landfills instead, he said.
His goal with DeepWaste is to help people sort their waste accurately. The company offers an app that, using artificial intelligence and a phone camera, can immediately tell users whether an item is recyclable, compostable or trash.
Narayan isn't planning on launching any new companies in the near future, even ones tap into his passion about climate change. Instead, he's focused on getting the most out of Stanford, intellectually and socially.
"Right now, there is a lot of interest in climate change, but it's a really complicated problem that requires changing ingrained human behavior to solve," he said.
Balancing school and entrepreneurship can be tough, he admitted. Besides his business and college endeavors, he is trying to make time for the normal social experiences of a college freshman.
"It's definitely been a hard balance, but I think you find the time for anything you prioritize," he said.
