A 14-year-old CEO reveals the truth. Silicon Valley lauds the “child prodigy,” but won't invest a single cent.

At just 14 years old, he has bravely ventured into Y Combinator (YC).

This genius teenager is named Alby Churven, hailing from Wollongong, Australia. He is a typical member of the post - 2010 generation.

Recently, one of Churven's YC application videos suddenly went viral across the internet, garnering countless likes and shares.

He himself stated, "I'm both surprised and a bit overwhelmed."

After all, at this age, most people are still worried about homework and exams, while Churven has unexpectedly become an "internet - famous entrepreneur."

Nowadays, he has founded a front - end "ambient programming" company called Clovr and a gamified learning platform for teenagers called Finkel.

All of this starts with his own entrepreneurial journey.

Entrepreneurship at 14, YC Application Goes Viral

In an exclusive interview with Business Insider (BI), Alby Churven shared his entrepreneurial experiences and true feelings in a self - narrative way.

At around 12 years old, Churven attempted his first entrepreneurial project —

An e - commerce project called Alpha Grips, which mainly sold football anti - slip socks.

At that time, he knew nothing about business, and the project ultimately failed. However, it was this failure that sparked his strong interest in entrepreneurship.

Churven said that the first projects of many kids of the same age are related to e - commerce, such as dropshipping and clothing brands.

Social media always instills the idea of "getting rich quickly" in us. Although 90% of them are scams, it does ignite young people's enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.

At a younger age, Churven also participated in a programming camp, so he has always been interested in technology.

Later, seeing so many people on X publicly building companies and sharing brand stories, he was also deeply influenced.

He said, "Social media brought me into this world."

After that, he founded a gamified education platform called Finkel, which is also the project he used to apply for YC.

In his personal profile introduction, he said that in school, many truly important real - world skills are often overlooked, such as entrepreneurship, content creation, AI, finance, and so on. The list is endless...

So I want to create a platform where teenagers can really learn those key skills that will help them succeed in life, work, and the future.

Finkel integrates game mechanics into the learning process, making learning as fun and rewarding as playing a game.

Its goal is to help learners master "real - world skills not taught in traditional schools," including business, technology, content creation, life skills, etc..

Churven sent a cold email to local well - known entrepreneur Frank Greeff and received the advice of "building in public."

So there came the process of building the product while sharing on social media.

The Greatest Advantage: Plenty of Time, Zero Pressure

Churven said that as a young teenage entrepreneur, his greatest advantage is time.

Moreover, his current personal goal is very simple: to do as many projects as possible, learn as much as possible, and take it one step at a time.

In his opinion, many people may not start thinking about what they want to do until they are 16 or 18 years old.

But I'm already very clear — I want to enter the startup and technology industries.

A huge benefit of starting a business at a young age is that you don't have much financial pressure, so you can focus on creating things.

All of this is essentially learning.

The way of thinking of the younger generation is a bit different from before. Some older people may not even know how to use AI.

However, entrepreneurship has both advantages and disadvantages.

Many people think it's "really crazy" to see a 14 - year - old kid running a startup. This has made it easier for Churven to build many connections.

But at the same time, his age has weakened his "credibility." Some people don't take him seriously, especially when he wants to do things seriously.

Just like in the comment section, someone questioned, "You don't even know what the real world is like. How can you teach others real - world skills?"

Moreover, all his projects are currently self - funded because it's almost impossible for him to raise funds at such a young age.

For example, Clovr, another startup of Churven that focuses on ambient programming, got an interview after applying for YC but was ultimately rejected.

On social media, Churven often shares his daily life on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, X, LinkedIn...

Moreover, he has basically received relatively good exposure.

At 15, Two Projects Have Been Hatched

Coincidentally, another teenager, Bilal Bakr, who is almost the same age as Alby Churven, has already launched two projects at 15.

In his personal introduction, Bakr is currently in high school and is also the co - founder of Calendaty, an AI - powered scheduling tool.

In July this year, Bakr released Calendaty, the world's first AI - powered scheduling software.

According to the introduction, its functions are similar to those of a salesperson (persuading customers to make reservations), a support team (answering customers' questions and providing guidance), and an AI - driven reservation system (making direct meeting reservations through AI integration).

Quitting Games, Getting "Addicted" to Coding

A few months ago, in a podcast, Bilal Bakr shared why he likes programming and the reasons for starting a business.

For him, coding is like playing a game, and he's really addicted to it. On the other hand, having his own project means he doesn't have to work a 9 - to - 5 job.

It has to be said that his personal awareness is really high.

He started learning programming at 8 years old, began publicly starting a business on X at 14, and at 15, he and his partner launched a revenue - generating product and got real paying customers.

This is not a fictional success story or a genius myth.

On the contrary, his story contains the underlying logic that ordinary people can replicate.

Bakr repeatedly emphasizes one thing: I code not for money but because I really like it.

In his eyes, programming is not a learning task but a "game with instant feedback." There is a sentence on his personal account banner: Just ship it (launch it first).

This is the experience he has gained from practice — if you wait for the perfect day, it will never come.

He only creates the minimum viable product (MVP). Even if there are bugs, he will launch it first and then decide what to do next based on user feedback.

In the process of building Calendaty, they have overturned many "self - assumed correct" functional ideas.

Additionally, in Bakr's view, in this era, having ideas has almost no threshold, and execution is the real moat.

A few days ago, he made a wonderful and fulfilling summary of the past year.

As his favorite saying goes — Just do it. Just ship it.

Don't wait until you're ready, don't wait for perfection, don't wait until you're not afraid. Do it first, and then talk.

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