Written by Rob Waugh, Dailymail.Com Technology Correspondent
December 16, 2023 12:24, updated December 16, 2023 12:28
Kaeden Patel, like any teenager, loves video games, sports, and eating too much candy.
But unlike most boys his age, the 13-year-old earns a six-figure salary after starting his own company.
The entrepreneur and his business partner of 11 years have started an environmental education company that teaches children how to save the planet.
Kaeden now has to be homeschooled as he travels between Canada, London and New York to attend conferences and meet with clients.
But he still makes time to meet his business partner Vasco Connor, 11, from Singapore, every day.
The two have never met in person, instead conducting business negotiations through avatars using virtual reality headsets.
Their company, Sustainable Squad, aims to promote sustainability education for children, and features 12 cartoon characters that aim to educate children about green issues. offers VR lessons on sustainability. They also earn income through the sale of branded products.
“It's amazing to earn this much money at my age. It just makes me want more,” Patel told DailyMail.com.
“I love sweets, but I don't think I'll spend all my money on sweets.''
“Me and Vasco will meet in a VR social hangout space,” Patel said. “We play some games and some educational stuff like quizzes. We meet in a private space and discuss our business.”
Looking to his side, proud father Nimesh Patel, Patel said, “I've always been very confident.”
“I'm not a very shy person. And since I had the experience, I thought I'd give it a try. I've got the time. Like, what could go wrong?
Patel previously worked on a project to raise money for starving children in Africa, where she and her three sisters held fundraisers.
“My sisters and I switched roles every year,” he said. “At one point, I think I was about five years old, I became a CEO and I loved it so much that I wanted to do more of this and decided to start a sustainability department. ”
Patel has spread his life between Canada, London and New York, taking his favorite cricket bat with him.
He met Vasco through the homeschool platform Kabuni and quickly realized he needed help building his own little empire.
He said, “I realized that Vasco was a great writer, so I thought, “I need him for this,'' so I asked him and he said yes.
“We've done almost everything together. We started our own YouTube channel and created a website.”
Patel works with an iPad, VR headset, and laptop, and his father, Nimesh, helped him create the shop using Shopify, and he and Vasco designed the website together. He said that he launched it.
“I'm selling my first T-shirt. I'm making my first sale. I'm giving it to the first person,” he said.
The company features AI-generated characters that help teach other kids about sustainability, which it sells as merchandise.
Patel said he came up with the concept for the 11 characters because he loves cricket and thought, “What about animals that play cricket?”
“I have found a sustainable place to produce my products. I hope to publish a book soon.”
Patel's income comes from crypto coins earned through Kavni, an educational platform founded by his father, where children can earn Kavni crypto coins for learning (Patel's business counts as “learning”) ). And its value has skyrocketed in recent months.
Kabuni is a Web3 education platform that aims to teach children the technology skills they need in the future business world, with a focus on home learning and VR.
There are more than a dozen children around the world who have made six-figure sums in USDT (Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the value of the dollar) through Kabuni.
Patel said the homeschooling approach has allowed her to be “more academically engaged.”
“It's much better than school because we get to play cricket three times a week during class. Plus, we're way ahead of our age in things like math.”
“At school, you don't just sit around during math time and are allowed to create your own business, right?” Homeschooling gave me the time, support to create it, and support to run it. It gave me a platform. ”
He said he would like to start more businesses and go to university, but added: “If possible, before that I'd like to become a professional cricketer.”
He said his advice to other young people thinking of starting a business is simply: “Don't be afraid to fail. There's time.”