PrintWhere normal kids hear 'baseball' and 'girls', Anshul Samar, now a high school sophomore in Cupertino, California, grew up hearing 'VC, 'funding' and such other Silicon Valley words while yet in elementary school.
"Growing up with Apple, Google and Oracle a few miles away from me, and with the start-up spirit floating around everywhere, I thought I should try entrepreneurship," Anshul said. "The joy of creating something new has always fascinated me."
The 15-year-old, who last week won a $25,000 in scholarship from Davidson Institute, seeks to make learning a side effect of fun with his project 'Igniting Interest in Chemistry with Elementeo Chemistry Card Game.'
In Elementeo, players battle with their element army, activate reactions, create compounds, and conquer opponents using black holes and slippery bases. Anshul hopes that if young people are introduced to chemistry in a fun and interactive manner, they will discover a passion for science and pursue it throughout their lives.
Starting with a $500 grant from the California Association for the Gifted, Anshul worked for two and a half years to create a chemistry board/card game, developing the game play and element personalities.
He hired artists, negotiated with manufacturers, talked to lawyers, filed a patent application, gave numerous interviews, and presented at conferences around the country - all of which has culminated in his current position as CEO of Alchemist Empire, Ine, under which banner he has commercially released the patent-pending Elementeo game.
"I never wanted to wait until college to start my own company," Anshul says. "I also thought that chemistry was one of the most reactive, explosive, and outright 'cool' sciences around. Earth and life is all chemistry," he said.
"I then realized that the fighting that happens between elements, the power of reactions, and the process of creating compounds can even occur on a game-board and without knowing it, amidst the competition and excitement, we can all become fans of chemistry," Anshul said.
'This young inventor has stumbled upon something that will stimulate minds and make people more interested in science,' said Dr Tom Lane, president of the American Chemical Society, on Anshul's invention. The young businessman also received encouragement from The Indus Entrepreneurs CEOs, who mentored him in the process.
Anshul believes his core idea of 'injecting fun into education' can be applied to a host of different subjects, and his short-term goal is to make learning a side effect of having fun. "I want to get kids/students excited about science, chemistry and learning and, instead of just playing a game, to be able to love and understand the electron and reaction game happening around them," he said.
Another medium term goal is to eventually create an Alchemist Grant' that would motivate other kids to start their own businesses and create their own products and concoctions, whether in area of chemistry, physics, biology, art or literature.
"In some senses," he says, "my dad inspired me to start my business." He credits his mother, without whom he would never have developed the urge to explore.
His roots, says Anshul who has just returned from a family holiday in Udaipur, Rajasthan, are in India, though he was born and raised in Silicon Valley. "I love watching Hindi movies, eating chaat, dancing to songs, and playing Hindi songs on my guitar."
So what does he want to be when he grows up - entrepreneur or scientist? "I don't think anyone has a choice scientists are entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs are scientists. Both create products, combat obstacles, and conquer the world. They both explore and experiment and make the world interesting. I want to be both."
- Suman Guha Mozumder
