Eleven-year-old entrepreneur inspired by Facebook founder
EDMONTON — The best thing about being an entrepreneur, according to website developer Abhinav Dhillon of Edmonton, is the validation.
“You feel like someone that actually exists because you feel like you made something that can help the world out,” the 11-year-old said.
Dhillon, a soccer-playing computer whiz and straight-A student in Grade 6, is also the brains behind iplayandchat.com, a website for kids who want to share games and talk about sharing games.
The site went live about three weeks ago and averages 2,000 page views per day, he said. The plan is to start selling advertising to other gaming sites as the site grows.
“Right now we’re making it a non-profit,” said Dhillon, who is in business with three friends. “In five or six months, we will put advertising on it. I don’t expect to make a lot of money.”
Dhillon, a self-described normal kid whose goal is to become a rocket scientist, said he was inspired to join the business world after see- ing the onscreen portrayal of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network several months ago.
After spending a month embedding games on the site all by himself, and trying to keep up to date with his studies, Dhillon made an executive decision to double the size of his fledgling company’s workforce. He said he secured the talents of Jaskirat Saggu, “a friend that I trusted.”
They worked together to populate the website with more games, but the workload proved too heavy. So they doubled their personnel again to include twin brothers Mark and Ryan Singh. “I trust them, too,” Dhillon said.
All four are classmates and friends. The website now boasts about 75 games.
“Now that’s our story and here I am, the world’s youngest CEO and the friends that I hired are now the world’s youngest CFOs,” Dhillon said.
He’s not quite the record holder. In 2011, Harli Jordean of London was named youngest CEO in the world when he was eight. He turns 11 later this year. He runs marbleking.co.uk, a marble retailer.