The 8 Hottest Teenage Startup Founders In The World Right Now

Kyle Russell
Delian AsparouhovDelian Asparouhov/Twitter

One of our favourite things about the startup world is how focused it is on talent and potential.

Skip directly to the list of the world’s top teen tech entrepreneurs >

This focus means that those with good ideas and drive can do extremely well for themselves — no matter what age they happen to be.

While many young tech entrepreneurs are fresh college graduates, a number of rising stars in Silicon Valley aren’t even 20.

Considering how difficult it is to succeed with the advantages of a college degree and the connections made in school, it’s even more impressive that teenagers manage to successfully start companies that bring in thousands of users and real revenue.

We’ve ranked the most impressive teen tech entrepreneurs based on both their circumstances and successes. It should be noted that many are Thiel Fellows, which means that they have been given $US100,000 to work on their ideas and receive top-tier mentorship for two years.

8. Sean McElrath is 17 years old and has already launched a startup with the help of venture capital.

Sean is a co-founder of Hallway (the landing page currently goes by 'Kickask').

Aimed at high school students, Hallway 'makes peer-peer collaboration simple, social, and global. On Hallway, students can ask questions, post notes, study with their friends, and collaborate on assignments,' according to its description on the Fortify Ventures portfolio page.

7. Diwank Singh Tomer keeps busy by working on a range of ideas. His site lets you see a selection of his pitches and vote on which ones you think are good ideas.

Click here to see some of Diwank's startup pitches.

You can also check out his portfolio site. While it still has the link, it seems he has changed his Twitter handle from 'meetdagod.'

6. William LeGate began developing apps at 13. Now 19, he's hoping to 'revolutionise the way we discover and use apps' with his new startup, Synapps.

Read more about William on his CrunchBase profile or follow him on Twitter to get a Thiel Fellow's take on trends in the tech industry.

5. Andrew Brackin is 19 and looking to fix parking in San Francisco.

A former Londoner, Andrew has relocated to California to be one of this year's Thiel Fellows. His startup, Spot, aims to make it easier to get parking in San Francisco.

4. Kevin Petrovic dropped out of Princeton to found a company that's taking on traditional rental car companies.

FlightCar lets travellers park their car at the airport and rent it to others while they're away. It's like AirBnb for your car.

Speaking of which, FlightCar has raised $6.1 million in capital from notable investors including a few of the founders of AirBnB and Reddit. It's also backed by Y Combinator.

3. Delian Asparouhov dropped out of MIT to make a service that helps patients and caregivers remember to take/give medications.

Delian created Nightingale, his service for keeping track of medication schedules, while studying at MIT.

He then dropped out upon receiving a Thiel Fellowship.

According to his blog, he's currently working as a developer at Square and serving as a partner at Rough Draft Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests in student tech entrepreneurs in Boston.

2. Ritesh Agarwal is revolutionizing accommodations in emerging economies by providing tech-enabled inns and affordable hotel alternatives.

Amazingly, Ritesh founded both OYO Inns and Oravel when he was only 16 years old. At 19, he's still serving as the CEO of both companies.

1. Nick D'Aloisio sold his company to Yahoo for $US30 million earlier this year.

Nick D'Aloisio made headlines earlier this year when Yahoo acquired his startup, Summly, for $US30 million.

While it turns out that the purchase was to acquire technology that D'Aloisio didn't make himself, he's still contractually required to work at Yahoo until late next year.

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