Meet the teenage founders of Rising Makers
PhillyMakerFaire makers Yashas, 15, and Akshat, 13 are the founders of Rising Makers – a forum for young makers where they evaluate all product ideas from members and try to commercialize the most promising ones. It’s a blend of a hobby club, maker club, shark tank and business consulting.
After their Maker Faire debut in Philly, Rising Makers went on to the New York Faire and the EcoSoap received the prestigious Maker Faire Blue Ribbon and Yashas’ Ecosoap invention was prominently mentioned in the NY Times.
Akshat was interviewed by a reporter at the NY World Maker Faire.
What do you make?
We make anything that makes everyday life a bit better. We have made 3 things so far, and they are: the Eco Soap where we insert a reusable or recyclable core during the making of the soap, which prevents soap wastage because now there is no need to throw away the unused leftover bar soap, Safe Handle for trash cans which makes it easy and hygienic to open the trash can lids, Domino Trax which is a 3D template which allows players to quickly and easily setup dominos for toppling games. And we are working on many other ideas.
Who do you make it for?
We make things for ourselves and for members of our Rising Makers club. Goal is to use our collaborative approach and collective knowledge develop ideas and to solve a problem or invent something that improves the user experience in some meaningful way. We believe that many everyday items we use can be improved or reimagined and made better and we usually start a group discussion in our meetings by asking members to identify things that they think don’t work properly or are inadequate. Then we collect ideas and discuss the merits of each idea and pursue promising ones.
Where are you located?
We live in Garnet Valley, PA and go the Garnet Valley HS and Garnet Valley MS. I, Yashas, am in 10th grade and my brother Akshat is in 8th grade.
When did you start making?
We started making things about 2 years ago. But we are avid Shark Tank fans and have been watching it with our father for as long as we can remember. We always came up with ideas for making things better but Shark Tank has motivated us to make things and commercialize our inventions so that more people can have better experiences.
How long have you been making?
We have been discussing ideas and tinkering for about 3 years but got serious about 2 years ago.
What inspired you to make these products?
Shark Tank and our Dad, who is an entrepreneur and an inventor – he holds 2 US patents.
What makers inspire you?
Our Dad and all the kids who appeared on Shark Tank. We also like Mr. Wonderful and Mark Cuban of Shark Tank as they appear to be good businessmen because we think that all entrepreneurs and businessmen are makers too in a way. That’s why really we admire Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma and Elon Musk.
What’s next?
Hope to commercialize our 3 products (EcoSoap, Safe Handle and DominoTrax) and be on Shark Tank.
What would you like to ask the maker community?
Some smaller events every few months so that there is more opportunity for kids like us to participate. Smaller events will also encourage more kids to become makers. These could be just events at an university or a library, but they would provide us with an opportunity to showcase and interact and get feedback.
Anything else you want to add?
We think that our Rising Makers club is a great incubator of ideas and products and we would like to have some investors come and meet with us for a mini-Shark Tank type session. Our funding needs are not much, but we are looking for advice, feedback and connections. Getting some investors to back our ideas will truly validate our ideas, make it real, and give us a boost of confidence.