Hoffman Estates teen is top pick for investor panel
Thirteen-year-old Patrick Schneider of Hoffman Estates created the business pitch that earned first prize at this year's Young Entrepreneurs Academy in Palatine.
Patrick's idea for a company called Streamy LLC consists of an online platform that simplifies the decision of what to watch on streaming services.
"You will be able to go onto a website. There will be a search bar, and you can look for TV shows and movies that you might want to watch, and it will tell you what streaming platforms have it," Patrick said.
He hopes to launch his business website at streamy.land in a couple of weeks, he said.
Patrick, a seventh-grader at Walter R. Sundling Junior High, was among 15 junior high schoolers from Palatine Township Elementary School District 15 who took part in the "shark tank" panel last week at the Palatine Township Senior Citizens Council.
The panel is the final component of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, a national program that is offered locally by the Palatine Area Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with District 15.
Patrick received $1,100 from the panel and will represent District 15 at the national competition June 26 in Rochester, New York.
"I love doing everything technology related," he said, adding this will be his first business.
Getting the top prize at the YEA investor panel was a surprise, he said.
"I was very happy that I got it and I was very surprised that I got $1,100," he said. "I was not thinking that I would get anything above what my startup cost was, which is around $700."
He plans to invest the extra money into advertising and the website.
"I thought the program was great," he said of YEA. "It went thorough everything to start a business, and by the end of class you had a fully running and functional business."
Altogether, the panel disbursed $5,500 to the students entrepreneurs, who had five minutes to make their pitches. The money was donated by local businesses. Each entrepreneur received at least $100.
The other student participants were: Aarav Buddhadev and Tyler Ku, K-6 Tutoring; Vishvesh Karthikeyan, Medicine Well; Sanjay Ketheswaran, Trade Up; Vaishnavi Lakshminarasimhan, UpLearn; Lukas Litchfield, Grow Goal; Saanvi Passi, Pawships; Krishna Patel, Joybox; Madhava Rananan, Packerfect; Aurav Shanmugan, Pesky Pest Solutions; Marisol Silva, Bike Safe; Nathan Szabo, Auto Flipper; Murari Thota, Imagidesk; and Brianna Wang, Canine Care and Treats Service.