A 13 - year - old boy became a CEO, created a unicorn company at 22. A group of teenagers dropped out of school and gathered in Silicon Valley to start businesses.

A group of young people in their early 20s have sparked a wave of AI startup storms in Silicon Valley.

They cast aside the glory of prestigious universities and even dropped out of school directly, charging into the now-booming AI track with dreams and passion.

In an in-depth article in the NYT, from a unique perspective, young CEOs who grew up with AI were brought into the spotlight.

Among them, some dropped out of MIT, Stanford University, and Georgetown University, while others simply gave up their degrees.

In their view, "AI never waits for anyone. A step late might mean missing the wave."

Post-00s drop out to start their own businesses, not wanting to miss out on AI

In 2023, after finishing his sophomore year at Georgetown University, Brendan Foody resolutely dropped out and rushed to San Francisco to start an AI startup.

In the same year, Karun Kaushik, who was studying at MIT, developed an AI tool in his dormitory and then dropped out of school and moved to California to continue chasing his dreams.

Another person, Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, who gave up college, traveled around the world after high school. In 2022, he had a flash of inspiration and decided to engage in AI.

From left to right: Brendan Foody, CEO of Mercor; Karun Kaushik, CEO of Delve; Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, CEO of Artisan

Now, 22-year-old Foody, 21-year-old Kaushik, and 23-year-old Carmichael-Jack, these three "rising stars" are all running their own AI startups in San Francisco. The distance between their offices is just a half-hour walk away.

They have not only secured millions of dollars in financing but also recruited dozens of employees, with the dream of making a splash.

What kind of companies have these three post-00s CEOs founded?

Earning $50 million a year, the AI interviewer joins OpenAI

In 2023, 22-year-old Foody founded Mercor together with two high school friends, Surya Midha and Adarsh Hiremath.

This is a company that provides services such as automatic resume screening and AI interview services. Its business model is to charge intermediary fees from AI companies that hire its candidates.

Generally, after a job seeker completes an AI interview in 20 minutes, the platform will independently evaluate their skills and create a personal profile.

Subsequently, Mercor will match them with relevant full-time, part-time, or hourly-paid positions.

In February this year, they successfully secured $100 million in financing, with the total financing amount exceeding $132 million. The investors include General Catalyst and Benchmark.

Now, the company is valued at $2 billion, and an AI unicorn has been born.

Currently, Mercor has hired a total of 150 employees in San Francisco and India and is developing very rapidly.

Its annualized revenue has reached $50 million, and the monthly growth rate remains at 40%. According to a source, OpenAI is one of Mercor's biggest customers.

As the company expands, Mercor is planning to move into a larger office.

Another co-founder, Midha, said that there is an "extreme sense of urgency" and a "survival anxiety" among his peers, so they all believe that now is the best time to start an AI company.

Coincidentally, Mercor's success has inspired more young entrepreneurs.

22-year-old Rithika Kacham, who majored in computer science and product design, dropped out of her senior year at Stanford University in 2024 and joined Mercor as Foody's administrative assistant.

Just a few months later, in May this year, she founded her own company, Verita AI, and hired professionals to train AI models to more accurately identify images.

Kacham recalled, "It felt like an inflection point for AI. At Stanford, almost everyone I knew was dropping out to start a business."

AI replaces human advertising and becomes famous overnight

Maybe you haven't heard of the company Artisan, but you must have seen this advertisement.

Last year, the billboards all over San Francisco were plastered with an advertisement that read, "Stop hiring humans, hire the AI sales agent Ava," which sparked a heated discussion online.

This company was founded by 23-year-old Carmichael-Jack, who didn't go to college.

A successful marketing campaign made this company famous overnight.

Carmichael-Jack said that people were shocked because this statement deeply stimulated people's fear of AI replacing humans.

When ChatGPT came out, I was very clear that this was definitely a major paradigm shift, and I knew I had to be a part of it.

Meanwhile, Artisan has successfully attracted the attention of venture capital tycoons. Now, its AI sales assistant has helped the company raise over $35 million in funds.

An extracurricular project secures tens of millions in financing

There is an even more legendary startup story.

In 2023, two 21-year-old students majoring in artificial intelligence at MIT, Kaushik and Selin Kocalar, developed an AI tool called Delve.

Initially, they only developed it as an extracurricular project and had no intention of starting a business at all.

However, a trip to San Francisco completely changed their plans. The two dropped out of school and founded Delve.

This is a startup that provides automated compliance services for companies dealing with sensitive data.

Now, Delve currently has 20 employees and has raised $35.3 million in financing.

Recently, Kaushik and COO Kocalar co-hosted an event for entrepreneurs in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco.

Kocalar said, "I don't consider age. In this day and age, with the help of AI, the threshold for entering the industry is very low."

A 13-year-old becomes a CEO, age is no limit

If post-00s starting businesses isn't shocking enough, what about post-10s?

Recently, the venture capital firm Founders held a summer program for high school and college students to nurture their startup ideas.

18-year-old Mizan Rupan-Tompkins was one of them. He is about to enter his sophomore year at San Jose State University, majoring in computer science.

However, he also plans to take a gap year next year to develop an AI-driven device to help unattended air traffic control towers safely guide planes to land.

His personally founded Stratus AI has just received an investment from Founders, with the amount ranging from $100,000 to $250,000.

Rupan-Tompkins said excitedly, "Technology is developing too fast. I can't wait until I graduate in 2028 to start a business. It's better to start earlier to avoid missing this wave."

Some time ago, a 13-year-old "kid" starting a business went viral online.

While his peers are still thinking about how to have fun, Michael Goldstein from Toronto has already become the founder of the AI agent startup FloweAI.

He has recruited a top-notch team of college students, such as Vincent Adler from the Technical University of Munich.

What's even more shocking is that he has set a small goal for himself - to generate $10,000 in revenue per month.

The original intention of FloweAI was to design a general AI agent that allows people to complete various tasks through natural language.

In June this year, FloweAI was officially launched, attracting the attention of many industry insiders.

In February this year, a BBC report uncovered another young startup prodigy from London, UK.

16-year-old Toby Brown gave up his GCSE exams and headed straight to Silicon Valley to fully immerse himself in developing his AI platform, Beem.

Now, this startup has received an investment of $1 million.

Internally, Beem is called an "AI-native computer" that can handle all kinds of tedious tasks, such as finding files, managing calendars or emails, and even operating online.

It is built on "active context awareness," which means that the AI can learn an individual's behavior habits and preferences and remind them to complete specific tasks in a timely manner.

Toby said that the inspiration for Beem came from ChatGPT, but its uniqueness lies in its ability to provide personalized assistance through continuous learning.

It's worth mentioning that Toby has been curious about the physical world since childhood and often disassembled mobile phones and cameras to explore their internal structures.

He started learning programming at the age of 7 and made a multiplication table math game; at the age of 10, he assembled his first computer; at the age of 13, he joined the global teenage hacker community "Hack Club" and became the youngest member of the organization.

These three teenagers, aged 13, 16, and 18, have all proven one thing with their actions:

When creating the next future of AI, age has never been a limitation.

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