My story

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

As COVID was winding down, my dad opened a Fidelity Youth Account for me. My first stocks were Upstart and Apple.

By sophomore year, I was spending more time following the market. Over a few months, my account grew from about $7,000 to $10,000. I started looking for a way to learn from people who traded for a living.

SOPHOMORE YEAR

Looking for an internship

I spent four months sending cold emails and LinkedIn messages about internships. I also kept asking people at school whether they knew anyone at a hedge fund.

The introduction came from PE. A classmate overheard me talking about stocks and put me in touch with his dad, who introduced me to Theodore Rosenthal at TMR Capital.

THE SUMMER AFTER SOPHOMORE YEAR

A summer at TMR Capital

I spent the summer after sophomore year interning remotely with Theodore Rosenthal at TMR Capital, a hedge fund.

I was also trading on my own, often waking up at 4 a.m. to watch the premarket. By the end of the summer, my account was around $30,000, including both profits and money I’d added.

JUNIOR YEAR · AUGUST TO EARLY NOVEMBER

Trading in junior year

From August to early November, I made about $100,000 in trading profit. The BYND short squeeze and OKLO were my biggest wins.

I then took a few large losses and cut back on trading. I shifted toward long-term investing. By late November, I was using my early mornings to learn about AI.

AFTER SCHOOL, IN SAN FRANCISCO

Taking BART after school

I found startup events in San Francisco on Luma and started going after school. School ended at 3:15, events usually started at 5, and BART took about an hour. I’d go home, change, and head to the station.

At my fourth event, I met Paul from Glam AI. He was preparing for a Series A fundraise and needed help representing the company at events while he was abroad.

FIVE MONTHS AT GLAM AI

Working with Glam AI

I spent five months helping Glam AI with its Series A fundraising and representing the company at private industry events.

I pitched at demo days, including Llama Lounge, and attended events from Alibaba and ByteDance. I was doing this alongside high school. After Glam, I wanted to try building a company with my friends.

THE FOLLOWING SUMMER · WARDIS

Starting Wardis

I started Wardis with three friends over the summer. We’re building AI for existing security cameras, and we raised a small pre-seed round from a VC firm.

We’re now working on finding customers. It’s been hard to convince businesses to trust a team of high school students with their security cameras.

TODAY · 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’m now working on Konvergence, a mental wellness platform offering counseling, assessments, and workshops. I’m also continuing with Wardis while finishing high school.

LOOKING BACK

Learning from other people

When someone my age is good at something, I want to understand how they learned it. I ask questions and see what I can learn from them.

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.