Evan Carmichael founded a software company at 19 and initially hid his age in emails, fearing bias. He learned that product value matters far more than age. His advice: build skills, network at industry events, find partners with connections, and pitch to larger companies.
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Will companies take you seriously if you're a teenager? So I got a great question from one of my YouTube viewers, love you guys, Radioactive Plum, who wrote in to say, Evan, I'm a teenager and I have a really crazy app idea in the energy sustainable field. I could learn app development, I'm good with computers, however I'm lost as to how to execute the idea. Being a teen, I don't know who to approach, but I do know that my idea would really kick ass. I don't want someone else to think it after me and be able to execute it. Would a big company take me seriously if my idea is good and I'm willing to work straight out of school? So this is a great question and one that I struggled with personally when I was younger and in school. My first company, my first real company, was when I was 19. I had a software company and I was afraid that I was too young. You know, my two business partners were both older than me. By a couple years, 4 years and 5 years. And my role was, was the business development. I was supposed to be out there bringing in deals and closing partnerships and getting in the media. And I was selling to researchers and scientists who were sometimes 3 times my age and had PhDs. And here I am, this 19-year-old kid, you know. And at the start I was afraid. And I remember I didn't want to meet anybody face to face. I didn't want to do phone calls because I felt like they would be able to tell how young I was from my voice. And so I tried to do everything by email at the start, just to, you know, you don't know how old somebody is on email. But I grew more confident, and I realized that what I have can help them, right? My product can help their lives be better. And that gave me the courage and the confidence to start engaging with them more and to start talking to people on the phone and start meeting people. And I realized that they didn't really care so much how old I was. It was more, do I have something that can help them? The age bias is, is so small and little compared to what I thought it would be. It was my fear, my confidence that was holding me back. And when I realized that I could help them, That gave me the courage and confidence to continue, and I did. And that was how many years ago? I'm 34 years old now, right? So that's been a while. You know, in those 15 years, it's only been easier for young people to start a business and only been more acceptable for young people to be in app development and have crazy new creative ideas. So don't let the age thing hold you back. Companies will take you seriously if you have something that works and can help them. That's the big gift. That's all they care about. Can you help my business? If you can, they're going to take you seriously. Now one thing I'd think of that may help you ramp this up faster is get really involved in the industry and start making some contacts. So, you know, if there's a show at a university that talks about energy, go there. If there's trade shows or conferences or anything happening in the city around you, go there and start talking to people and start making connections because you want people to talk about this app when it comes out or when it is out and using it and help refer you into the right place. And, and you may end up landing your, your big deal with this big company through a contact who has connections into these companies, right? I'm assuming you don't know anybody yet, but that has to change. So on top of just doing the app development Start hanging out with people in the industry and keep your eye out for somebody who might be able to join you as a partner in the company to help connect you to the right companies and eventually sell this thing off. But the thing that's holding you back is not going to be your age. It's just going to be your fear of how people perceive your age. Belief. Those of you watching, I'd love to hear if you've had to overcome an age bias, what your views are on it. Leave it in the comments below. I really want to hear from you. Give it a thumbs up if you liked the video. Click on my face, subscribe to the channel. Thank you so much. I'll see you soon.
