Q&A: Meet the 15-year-old who just sold his tech startup | Hacker News Reader

Q&A: Meet the 15-year-old who just sold his tech startup

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My parents always thought I was wasting time on the computer and berated me at every opportunity about it. They still do, even though I make all of my money at this point using one and am 24. Back then they criticized me for not being involved in sports or at least chess club; they didn't give out trophies for computer programming at my school so I never received one. Sure, I played games, but I was learning new skills and programming all the time. When I was injured from skateboarding I made a GBA game in C. The next time I injured myself I learned PHP and started using it to connect to databases on my websites. I just wish I could understand programming then like I do now - the concepts make sense now but I don't have the free time I used to.

I've had a similar experience in that time spent by myself in the "solitary" environment of a computer was very looked-down upon by my parents. I don't think either of them fully understood the amount of mental stimulation and learning that computers can provide. I was able to teach myself C in high school; this provided me with an advantage to other students in University in the introductory programming classes.

They never had any problem if I chose to watch TV socially instead of spend time alone. However, I rarely watch TV simply due to the lack of stimulation and interaction, not to mention the amount of garbage that is broadcast these days, unless it is in a social environment.

I have tried in the past to convince them of the benefits of what I am doing, but they simply refuse to acknowledge "computer time" as independent educational exercise.

> Back then they criticized me for not being involved in sports or at least chess club; they didn't give out trophies for computer programming at my school so I never received one.

This is why programs like the FIRST robotics competition (http://usfirst.org/) are so important: they give engineering/programming some of the competitiveness and glitz traditionally reserved for high school sports.

I drove my high school's robot for 3 years at FIRST competitions around the country -- way more exciting/educational/fun/memorable than playing for my school's soccer team (my other extracurricular).

Oh yeah, I did do that. My team got an award for having the least amount of engineers per students - only one! I was asked to come to the competition for free (the other students had to pay something over $100) because I was the only one who had any idea how to program the robot. I wasted most of my time working on a 3d animation in 3dsMax because I didn't expect to go at first, so our robot only had basic movement controls.

I'm always jealous of people who were introduced to computing early. I'm 19 now and have done well, but I didn't get access to the internet until 14 and never had anyone to show me about things. I feel as if I had been introduced much earlier there were much greater opportunities, 5 years ago this sort of thing would have been unheard of but now it's become more and more common; anyone of any age can start something and be successful. Imagining knowing what I know now when I was 15...

It's awesome and a great change, now age is as insignificant as it should be. Well done Daniil!

Completely agree - I'm on the same exact boat. I started html when I was around 14, I learned how to outsource quickly and I sort of regret that now because I stopped coding. The greatest thing about the web business for me is that age doesn't matter, there is still some age discrimination but its less prevalent than offline per say.

There's always someone who started earlier and always someone later. What matters more is what you do with your time.

Same here. I was born 10 years too early. When I look back at all the stuff I produced as a kid (I still have them in boxes), I have no doubt I would've been able to make the next Facebook if only I was introduced to computers earlier and the internet was more mainstream than it was. Kids have so much free time...

You mean, you would've had the programming chops, or you would've had the desire to make an online network at a time when Myspace existed? I knew plenty of guys at that time who were very good programmers...but none of them were at the right place at the right time.

14 is still really early. I didn't really start with programming until my late 20s. You have your prime years of few responsibilities ahead of you. I WISH I'd been programming since 19. Please, please don't feel old. You are primed to do whatever you want long before you should ever feel your years.

You may feel like you got a late start, but the key is to figure out what you can get an early start on now.

There's always the new new thing.

No need to be jealous - you've got lots of time and there are always new things to start. My grandpa was 80 when he bought a TRS-80 and learned basic, then he upgraded to a PC to organize the seniors in his retirement home.

YOU'RE ONLY 19.

That is still early. You still have 15 years before you reach my age. Nearly double you're current lifetime.

It's all relative kid. :)

I'm pushing 40 and think you're pretty lucky.

i didn't start programming until 22. i'm 27 now with a master's in cs. i'm a senior dev at a company that was just acquired. i thought i was behind, so i worked that much harder to catch up. i'm still catching up every day, but i think it's paid off so far.

I actively hire people that don't have a CS degree. If you can build cool things, that's all I care about.

If the readership of HN is anything like me, you just got a ton of pageviews at your "We're hiring" page.

We should chat.

A lot of the comments seem to talk about missed opportunities. Maybe I'm the odd one here. While I love to program, I wouldn't want to exchange my games-and-books-filled childhood with a programming-filled one. I can spend my lifetime programming, but I couldn't be playing in the streets when I'm 30, and I did love playing.

EDIT: That said, I did make a web page when I was 11 (1999), but could never figure out how to get info from the HTML forms. The kid is awesome.

Couldn't find a link in the story, so here ya' go...

http://www.phenona.com/

ya, the whole read I was wondering what Phenona does/is.

I enjoyed reading the blog and how clearly he talks about his business and sells the benefits (not just features). I know MBAs who are not able to so clearly articulate their pricing and business models http://www.phenona.com/blog/phenona-business-model/

This kid started when he was 7. So not only does he already have 8 YEARS experience, he learned when his mind was most able to absorb the knowledge. He has an immeasurable head start in life and that, combined with this exit on his résumé tells me we haven't heard the last from Mr. Kulchenko.

I read this and immediately started freaking out, until I took the mental steps to calculate that he had 8 years of experience writing Perl. By the time I hit 8 years experience hopefully I'll have an exit in the works as well.

This is an inspirational story and great stuff, but I can't help but have creeping "bubble 2.0" chills creeping down my spine. Maybe it's not actual hysteria on my mind, but the obligatory need to talk about the bubble in every single discussion thread on HN.

Awesome, congrats. My first language was Perl too around 13 an now I'm 25. I work as a professional dev now, but I look at some of my code from back then and sometimes it's better than my code now!

He focused on his idea for 3 full years before selling.

He is the youngest perlmonk I've heard of.

I feel I was born too late, not too early. Funny stuff.

Looks like that kid will be going far :) Congrats to him.

Awesome reading articles like this. A constant reminder that the quickest way to freedom for young people these days is programming and the internet.

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