First studies and then left home, day cut in the neighborhood of the poor, yet at the age of 20, the company of billions made

If you also think that only good studies and degrees are guaranteed success, then the story of Samir Vasavada (Samir Vasavada) is enough to change your thinking. This story is of an Indian-origin boy who left studies in high school and faced the parents’ displeasure due to leaving studies. But with his passion and hard work, he created a billion dollar company. The name of the company is Vice.

Sameer Vasavada was born in the city of Cleveland in the Ohio state of America. His parents wanted him to bring good numbers in studies, go to a good university and do a good job. But Sameer’s brain used to learn more technology and new things than the books of studies.

At the age of 12, Sameer participated in a summer program of Northwestern University. Here he met Renger Mehrotra. Baldam later became his business partner. At the same time, after the program, the two started making apps and software together.

Decision to leave school and start struggle

Sameer used to find school studies boring. At the age of 16, he took a difficult and adventure decision to leave high school. His parents were very sad and there was a lot of stress in the family. But Sameer remained firm on his decision.

He came to San Francisco alone and started living with houses in a cheap and sharing. The name of this area was Tendeloin. Usually poor people live here. From there, he started turning his dreams into reality.

By the way, Sameer and Baldhi started making apps from the age of 13. In 14 years, he created an app studio, which worked for small business. Then he created new projects related to AI and started a company called NYX Group, which worked with the international team.

By the age of 16, he started giving advice for investment banks. He realized that financial advisors do not have the technology of today’s era. From there, the foundation of Vice was laid.

Start of Vice and big challenges

In 2016, Vice was started by Sameer and Balion. Vice is an AI based platform, which helps financial advisors to create better investment portfolio for their customers. The beginning was, but it was not easy.

Both did not have the money to live in San Francisco. There was no money to pay the team, so they had to distribute shares of the company. Around 1,000 investors turned down his proposal, as he was very small and also college dropouts. Even a well -known and big investor Vinod Khosla refused to invest money.

He initially focused on big banks, but later targeted independent financial advisors after meeting JP Morgan’s CEO at an event, and the decision proved to be a game Changer. Before bringing his final product, he had to make him again 6-7 times. It was difficult, but Sameer never stopped.

Amid difficulties, an investor applied $ 100,000 in Vice. Then the Founders Fund received $ 2 million, and later received a $ 14.5 million funding from the famous company Cichoia Capital.

In just six months, Vice raised $ 126 million and its value increased to $ 1 billion. Sameer and Brew became the world’s youngest unicorn company founder at the age of just 20 years.

The objective of Vice is that every person should get better investment facility. Its platform helps financial advisors to make portfolio, plan tax and connect with clients. It has been called “Spotified Rapped for Investment”.

But when the company increased rapidly, some problems also occurred. The team became very big and there were problems in taking decisions. In 2023, Sameer once again “hard reset” to turn the company in the right direction and made a change in the business model.

Along with Sameer’s professional life, there was a struggle in his personal life. After leaving the high school, the distance from the family increased, but the relationship was reconciled over time.

There was a time when he used to recognize himself with the tag of “Unicorn Founder”, but later he understood that the identity of a human being is different from his company. He learned that it is necessary to learn something new from every mistake.