19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia

The start-up scene is, in a way, kind of sad.<p>The tech media and mainstream press routinely salivate over stories of 13... 15... 17... and 19 year old whiz kid entrepreneurs.<p>Yet there was a time when teenagers and young adults wrote software and tinkered with hardware, sharing their creations with friends and peers, on a journey of computing discovery.<p>There was a time when 'Demo Day' literally meant getting a group of friends together, travelling to a new city, and showing off your coding and artistic skills. The prizes were prestige and peer recognition. <a href="http://archive.assembly.org/1992" rel="nofollow">http://archive.assembly.org/1992</a><p>Now, kids and teenagers are being schooled to hustle and score big money. Where is the pure joy of discovery? Something has been lost.<p>EDIT: Just wanted to add, it's amazing what you can do in just 4kb (4096 byte executable, no external data files). This should inspire programmers of all ages.<p>2012 Fireflies: <a href="http://archive.assembly.org/2012/4k-intro/fireflies-by-blobtrox" rel="nofollow">http://archive.assembly.org/2012/4k-intro/fireflies-by-blobt...</a><p>2009 Muon Baryon: <a href="http://archive.assembly.org/2009/4k-intro/muon-baryon-by-youth-uprising" rel="nofollow">http://archive.assembly.org/2009/4k-intro/muon-baryon-by-you...</a>

His name is Emil Hajric. A few years back, when Joel Spolsky's "Business of Software" discussion forum was at its peak, he used whois records to find the phone numbers of some of the most frequent contributors and to call us personally.<p>I found this rather creepy.

Very interesting and cool story. But that article was dreadfully written. Just because you're writing about a teenager doesn't mean you have to write like a teenager.

&#62; But, not all young entrepreneurs are like Nick D’Aloisio and Andrew Hsu. Some of these whipper snappers are the REAL deal.<p>This sounds very insulting to Nick and Andrew. I don't see any evidence that they're anything but earnest entrepreneurs. In the case of Nick, he succeeded (the reason is debatable), and as for Andrew, he simply hasn't succeeded (yet), but it's no reason to say he isn't genuinely trying. Older investors may be trying to take advantage of their youth, but it's not a discredit to these young people.

<p><pre><code> href="/Users/camz/Desktop/airylabs.com" </code></pre> Is proofreading dead?

I'm just eager to see how long will it take him to fail in Bosnia (not because he's not capable but the Bosnian legislature is shit for anyone not doing illegal work, same goes for Serbia, Croatia and maybe even Kosovo.)

I completely get your point, and Emil is a great role model for all (not just young) entrepreneurs faced with failure.<p>What I don't understand is all the animosity towards Nick D’Aloisio. What makes him not a "real" entrepreneur? Whatever the means, he still took a company from inception to acquisition, which fits any definition of entrepreneurship.<p>There are lessons we can learn from Emil, and also lessons that we can learn from Nick. They've both had valuable experiences that I'm sure many of us would love to hear about.

The "19 yo did this and that" headlines are on the same plane as "single mom discovered one awesome trick" advertising.<p>It boggles the mind that people keep clicking on either. And yet, here we are.

&#60;a href="<a href="http://www.helpjuice.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.helpjuice.com/</a> target="_blank"&#62;knowledge base software&#60;/a&#62;<p>somewhere, an SEO just earned his wings

Emil- I am glad you're finding success, but please make sure you give back to Bosnia by keeping employees there or doing some community outreach. It would be unfair and kind of crummy to use the country and bail.<p>Not that I am accusing you of doing so, just hoping you keep in mind who was there for you in your time of need!

I was intrigued by the postscriptum:<p>&#62; Edit: Please note, that I unfortunately used a photo that was unwise due to my lack of knowledge and understanding of Bosnian history! I removed the image out of respect and I apologize! Thanks!<p>I didn't see the photo, could someone explain?

Isn't 19 too old to be considered a "wunderkind," per the article title? It's hard to consider someone to be a child prodigy when they're legally an adult.<p>EDIT: Not criticizing the article, I'm just confused with the language.

Having personally spoken with Emil a number of times, and being a user of Helpjuice, I think Emil is going to turn it into a great SaaS company. Nice work man.

Anyone who holds up Nick D’Aloisio and Andrew Hsu as examples of people who are <i>not</i> the real deal is going to look very very silly in a few years.

Being born in Bosnia this makes me proud. Go Emil! :-)