Sanil Chawla was a sophomore in high school when he discovered the legal issues behind minors (those under the age of 18) starting their own businesses.
Chawla’s entrepreneurial undertaking, Hack+, was originally supposed to be a web development startup. However, he wasn’t able to carry it out because, in the process of starting this business, Chawla was faced with legal issues such as signing legal paperwork and starting his own bank account due to the fact that he was a minor at the time.
2 years later, when Chawla was 19 and a sophomore in college, he decided to start Hack+, which helps provide free fiscal sponsorship and guidance to students under legal age in order to help them start their own businesses with the help of Hack+.
In just one year, Hack+ had helped hundreds of students; and it helped launch over 50 student organizations. Today, Hack+’s website states that they’ve helped 732 students, and 65 organizations. To this day, Hack+ is still up and running, and helping students start their entrepreneurial ventures.
Some reasons I think Hack+ is a good idea:
- It is something was an obvious need in the market, and not just something Chawla thought would be successful but wasn’t.
- Chawla was able to create a solution to a problem that he had personally experienced while trying another entrepreneurial venture. It’s almost as if one idea led to another, which is how I feel like entrepreneurial thinking should be.
- It takes something that Chawla is passionate about (development startups) and adds it to a pain in the area of something else he is passionate about (minors not being able to start businesses) to create something entirely new.
For more information check out the following sites:
Meet 16 Teen Founders Who Are Building Big Businesses — and Making Big Money | Entrepreneur
https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/meet-16-teen-founders-who-are-building-big-businesses/337852
Sanil used his personal background to solve a problem he was passionate about. I like how he took his personal failure and struggle to start a business as a minor and made his own business out of it. Hack + has made such a big impact on so many young entrepreneurs in only one year.
I love how Sanil was able to take a problem he faced personally and build a business off of it that would help and encourage other young entrepreneurs to expand in building their own products and companies! Hack+ is brilliant because it stops the age aspect of a person from hindering their capabilities and opportunities as an entrepreneur, which I love because it allows anyone to imagine, innovate, and build real organizations. You shouldn’t have to wait until you’re 18 or older to convert your ideas into real life businesses. Sanil is a great example of how you can innovate in a way that prevents others from going through the same obstacles or struggles that you once went through.
I love this! I think it’s so cool how Sanil Chawla saw the struggle in trying to be a young entrepreneur and therefore created a solution. In the end his problem solving has helped other underaged entrepreneurs create solutions to the pains and problems they are seeing in the world today.