VENKATA TEJA KALLURI
Hi, I’m Teja.
I’m a high school student in the Bay Area, working on Wardis and Konvergence. I moved here from India at ten and got interested in stocks before I started working with startups.
AGE 10 · FOURTH GRADE
Moving to the Bay Area
I moved from India to the Bay Area when I was ten, in fourth grade. I’ve lived here since.
MY FIRST INVESTMENTS
My first stocks
My dad opened a Fidelity Youth Account for me, and I bought Upstart and Apple. By sophomore year, my account had grown from about $7,000 to $10,000. I wanted to learn more about trading.
SOPHOMORE YEAR
Looking for an internship
I spent four months sending emails and asking about internships. The introduction came from someone in my PE class. His dad connected me with Theodore Rosenthal at TMR Capital.
THE SUMMER AFTER SOPHOMORE YEAR
A summer at TMR Capital
I spent that summer interning remotely at TMR Capital. I was also waking up at 4 a.m. to follow the market. My account reached about $30,000 through a mix of profits and additional deposits.
JUNIOR YEAR · AUGUST TO EARLY NOVEMBER
Trading in junior year
From August to early November, I made about $100,000 in trading profit. BYND and OKLO were my biggest wins. A few large losses followed. I cut back, moved toward long-term investing, and started spending more time learning about AI.
AFTER SCHOOL, IN SAN FRANCISCO
Taking BART after school
School ended at 3:15, events started at 5, and BART took about an hour. I found events on Luma and went after class. At my fourth one, I met Paul from Glam AI.
FIVE MONTHS AT GLAM AI
Working with Glam AI
I spent five months helping Glam AI with its Series A fundraising. I represented the company at private industry events and pitched at demo days, including Llama Lounge. I also attended events from Alibaba and ByteDance.
THE FOLLOWING SUMMER · WARDIS
Starting Wardis
I started Wardis with three friends. We’re building AI for existing security cameras and raised a small pre-seed round. We’re now working on finding customers, which has been difficult as a team still in high school.
About Wardis
WardisTODAY · WARDIS AND KONVERGENCE
Working on Konvergence
Through Wardis, I met Bibhrajit Halder, the founder of SafeAI. He asked me to work on some of his new projects. I now work on Konvergence, a mental wellness platform, alongside Wardis and school.
About Konvergence
LOOKING BACK
Learning from other people
My internship came through a classmate in PE. My work with Glam started with a conversation at an event. Those experiences are why I keep reaching out to people and asking questions.