Community news. A 15-year-old high school student has turned his tech startup into a multi-million-dollar enterprise in just a couple of years – without even taking any time off class.
Jaylen Bledsoe of Hazelwood, Missouri, founded Bledsoe Technologies, an information technology consulting company, when he was just 12 years old.
Since then, Bledsoe Technologies has grown into a global enterprise worth around $3.5 million, KTVI-TV reports.
The startup, which now has about 150 contract employees around the world, helps companies with website design, graphics and other technology consulting services.
At age 15 and considered a millionaire, Bledsoe says the guiding principle to his success is his willingness to take risks.
‘There’s nothing you can do as a minor that will shoot you down for too long,’ he told KTVI-TV. ‘Because you’re young, you can always jump back up and keep going.’
He said his mentor is Scott C. Schnuck, the man who founded the Schnucks grocery store chain.
Bledsoe said he’ll be working with hotels for his next project, creating a mobile app that lets customers check in online and use their phones to unlock their rooms.
He wants to attend undergraduate school at Vanderbilt University and then go to Harvard for his graduate degree. He is currently attending Mary Institute & St. Louis Country Day School, a private school in Missouri.
Bledsoe’s interest in IT was sparked by video editing course he took in third grade.
While on vacation in Florida, he purchased $200 worth of textbooks on hypertext mark-up language (HTML) and hypertext preprocessor (PHP) code to help him expand his knowledge, Patch reported last year.
‘I don’t see many eighth graders do the things that he does but it’s all his doing,’ said Curtis Bledsoe, Jaylen’s father. ‘I’m very proud of him.’
Article courtesy http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
