Teenagers with out-of-the-box ideas tackling problems through start-ups

Shaifali Jain was 19 when she co-foun­ded YourShell, a start-up that sought to solve the problem of dark, dingy pa­y­ing guest accommodations that hund­reds of outstation students coming to Delhi University each year have to contend with.

“I thought it was a problem of discovery; people were not able to find good properties,” she says. So she, along with a bunch of classmates, created a Google Spreadsheet of all the available properties in the area and charged a commission from landlords.

But the idea only grew from there after complaints started pouring in about the shoddy state of the accommodation they had suggested. This is when they founded YourShell. They leased out properties, refurbished them and hired a bunch of people to cook and clean for the students.

The idea was a hit, and before Jain graduated, YourShell was acquired by Stanza Living in a multi-million-dollar deal. Now 24, Jain has just raised pre-seed money for her next venture, Crib, a SaaS-based marketplace for co-living, where she plans to steer clear of all the pitfalls of the first venture.

Hers is among a growing number of businesses started by teenagers — thanks to supportive parents, youthful idealism and a start-up ecosystem that is encouraging of their ideas.

These young entrepreneurs are dispelling the myths associated with founders — that one has to be an engineer. Jain is a commerce graduate, and Crib is focused on building a Saas-based tech platform. She navigates the engineer-non-engineer divide by just being open to learning.

At the entrepreneurship programme of Delhi government schools, where students aged 16-18 are currently pitching their start-ups to inves­t­ors, many of the most pressing ideas that require knowledge of science have surprisingly come from hum­a­nities students. 

Age of business

• Nearly 85% students in grade seven to 12 in India want to learn entrepreneurship, according to a re­c­ent study by edtech Callido Learning
• Although the ambition ran higher among metro students at 60%, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities were not far behind with 40% of respondents open to the idea

Aman Kum­ar is one example. The 16-year-old Class 11 humanities student is the co-founder of Safe Kitchen, which makes gas leak detection alarms. The idea came about because he’d routinely read about fire due to gas leakage in Ambedkar Nagar, a cong­es­ted neighbourhood in Delhi where he lives, and decided to do something about it. A CSIR (Council of Scientific and Indust­rial Res­earch) magazine in his school library had the image of one such alarm, and looking at the picture, he thought it was something he could make. Aided by research from YouTube, his first prototype was ready in four days — and now he has just received in­vestments from Gil Con­nections founder Ravi Gupta and Momz­joy Co-founder Divya Gupta to make a more advanced prototype that will immediately make a call to the owner upon detecting gas leakage.

While such alarms are available in the market, they cost between Rs 1,500 and Rs 8,000 that lower middle-income families cannot afford, says Kumar. His alarm is priced at Rs 700.

Rehman, 17, a Class 11 student from the humanities stream at Acharya Tulsi Sarvo­daya Bal Vidyalaya in Chattarpur, Delhi, is the founder of LED Crafts, which has also received funding from the founders of Gil Connections and Momzjoy to expand production of battery-operated bulbs. Irked by frequent load-shedding in his native village in Uttar Pradesh whenever he went home, he decided to make a cheap bulb that could solve the problem. In his case, too, YouTube provided the initial research — and his first prototype was ready in four days.

In many ways, young people today can see their ideas through even if they have lit­tle or no experience. Till the time Jain had moved to Delhi from Meerut for college, she had no idea of start-ups. But once expo­s­ed to it in college, she could soon tap into a supportive network of students, teachers, and investors, with the initial funding from the government's Standup India initiative.

There is support coming from other corners, too.

Clever Harvey, a start-up founded in 2020, has an incubation centre for children wanting to develop their ideas into a business plan. It also offers a junior MBA programme where one learns about sales, marketing, and finance.

While the MBA programme costs Rs 10,000, the incubation programme is free. The start-up is also exploring tie-ups with un­iversities to give students with entre­pre­neurial abilities an edge in admission with the idea being that marks alone do not truly reflect one’s talent. So far OP Jindal, DY Pa­t­il University, Pune, and Plaksha University in Mohali have come on board, says Madhu Agrawal, co-founder, Clever Harvey.

Many believe school is the right age to take the plunge into entrepreneurship. Neeraj Gulati, an advisor to Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is mentoring some of the founders from Delhi government schools, says children are unencumbered by the fear of failure.

The range of ideas that have emerged from these students cover the gamut from solar-powered power banks to low-cost motorised wheel-chairs and fashion access­ories that can also receive and make calls. How many of these will grow into full-fledged business is another matter.