He learned to code computer programs at 12. At 15, he came up with an idea that attracted the attention of Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Fry, Yoko Ono, and Rupert Murdoch. And at 17, still in high school, Nick D’Aloisio is the youngest employee of Yahoo – and a newly minted millionaire.
Earlier this week the tech company bought his app and startup Summly, which summarizes news articles, for about $27 million in cash and about $3 million worth of stock, according to AllThingsD. And he gave Reuters some advice to pass on:
“If you have a good idea, or you think there’s a gap in the market, just go out and launch it because there are investors across the world right now looking for companies to invest in,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview late on Monday.
D’Aloisio’s big idea came while he was studying for a history test. He was frustrated when he couldn’t Google the information he wanted quickly and had to dig through results and multiple websites for specific facts. Prior to Summly, he’d made less practical things like Facemood, which tries to figure out people’s mood on Facebook, and SongStumblr, an app for finding new music.
For now, he’s going to finish up high school while working at Yahoo’s London office. He still plans to go to college and study humanities. He’s getting his parents to help him invest his new-found riches, because he’s legally too young to go through the process alone.
Add a Comment
Our Policy: We welcome relevant and respectful comments in order to foster healthy and informative discussions. All other comments may be removed. Comments with links are automatically held for moderation.