Priyanshu Gupta.
Built. Sold. Funded my own degree.
Currently building BuilderFellows out of Bengaluru.
Sat down with Campus CEOs, Polaris School of Technology's founder series, for episode four — the long version of how I built and sold two companies before college.
17-year-old Founder Who Built, Sold & Funded His Own Education
EP · 04I started my first company at fourteen.
Sold two before I was old enough to vote in most countries.
Dropped a Penn State degree after thirty days to study CS in Bengaluru — because that's where the building is happening.
Today I run dealflow for a university VC, sit in rooms with the founders building India's next decade, and ship products to teenagers who remind me of myself four years ago.
If the future of India is being built by people my age, I want to be in the room when it's wired.
A residency for the next wave of student founders.
Mentorship, team-building, and funding access for builders who refuse to wait until graduation. Curriculum + capital + a real network — the things I needed at 15 and never had.
EdTech for IELTS test prep — built for students who need a 9.
Driving product and GTM. Targeting the segment that current prep platforms underserve: ambitious test-takers aiming for the top band.
Hyperlocal grocery for tier-2 India. Acquired in eight months.
Led growth, customer acquisition, and BD. Closed the acquisition with KiranaPro — the AI-powered quick-commerce platform expanding its retail network across 25+ Indian cities.
Educational organization scaled over three years to acquisition.
Started at fourteen. Built the team, the partnerships, the programs. Operated for three years, then exited cleanly to Cross The Skylimits.
Started building the first thing. Fourteen years old.
Joined as a Management Intern. Promoted twice — Growth Manager, then Core Operations — over 3.5 years.
Competed at India's flagship student-founder bootcamp.
First exit. Three years from founding.
Growth role. Hyperlocal grocery for tier-2 India.
Six months inside enterprise AI. Rooms with Jensen Huang and Aaron Levie.
Second exit, eight months after founding.
Started a BS in Business Admin at Penn State. Dropped out after a month to study CS/AI in Bengaluru — where the building is happening.
Residency for the next wave of student founders.
Running startup relations and VC dealflow for the campus E-Cell.
EdTech. IELTS prep, built for students aiming for a 9.
Selected. $25K credits. Founder network.
Picked by programs that pick founders. Sat in rooms with the people building the next decade.
Startup School India · $25K credits
Selected for YC's India-focused founder program. Working capital and a global founder network.
Business Fellow
Six months inside Perplexity's enterprise GTM. Workshops with Jensen Huang (NVIDIA) and Aaron Levie (Box).
Alumnus
MIT's flagship entrepreneurship accelerator for high-school founders.
Forward 2025
Selected for McKinsey's professional development cohort — strategy, leadership, problem-solving with consultants in the field.
Eureka! Jr. · 2023
Competed at India's premier student-founder bootcamp at IIT Bombay.
Startup Relations & Dealflow
Run dealflow and VC relations for the campus entrepreneurship cell. Connect student founders with investors and mentors.
Fellowships, pitch nights, hackathons, team rooms.
Inspired by Derek Sivers' /now page. Updated when something meaningful changes.
Running dealflow for Polaris E-Cell — connecting student founders to VCs.
Scaling BuilderFellows from cohort one to a programmatic residency.
Building Band9Prep's first product — early access opening soon.
Studying CS/AI at Polaris. Index-funding my own attention.
Reading every YC SUS reading list and most of Paul Graham's essays.
Best for: introductions, collaboration, fellowship questions, or just to say hi.