TechWadi

“Student’s homework site nets him $1.25M” …

 
Silicon Valley is famous for tales of young technology entrepreneurs finding success in their field. Many entrepreneurs in our community are no strangers to such success at a young age. So we weren’t surprised when recently, we came accross the story of Adil Lalani, from Waterloo Canada, who developed an educational web-based solution right out of high school which was acquired by a larger company in 2005.

Like his Silicon Valley colleagues, Adil didn’t just rest on his laurels after that successful exit … No, he got together with another Arab entrepreneur, Mohammad Al Adham and they started another technology startup, EatLime.com, focused on web-based large file transfers.

This is exactly the kind of activity that TechWadi wants to encourage within our community … Our Dec. 8 event, for example, aims to teach budding entrepreneurs like Adil and Mohammad, all of the tricks of creating a technology startup. Similarly, our Jan. 15 event, aims to reach out to technology entrepreneurs in the Arab World and give them a hand to break out in the US market.

Come and support the spirit of entrepreneurship at those two events. And in the mean time, enjoy this article on Adil and his prior company:

Adil Lalani was still in high school when he conceived the idea for SurfYourWork.com, a free, web-based school management system that lets teachers and administrators post assignments and other documents online for students and parents to view and download. Now, little more than a year later, a New York-based educational software provider has purchased the product, prompting schools across the country to take a serious look at this one-time classroom project—while reportedly making Lalani, 19, a millionaire in the process.

The company—Jasmine Technologies Inc.—reportedly offered Lalani, who currently is enrolled at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, $1.25 million in cash and stock for his fledgling, one-man technology outfit. Jasmine, which helps U.S. schools meet the demands of the No Child Left Behind Act with technological solutions designed to increase student-teacher interaction and include more parents in their children’s education, also took Lalani on as full-time employee, promising him a place to continue his pursuit of a career in computer engineering when he graduates.

The rest of the story is here …