Good morning, everyone. I'm Saion Gupta, the Founder of 10xCoderKids and the Guinness World Record holder for the youngest computer programmer in the world with 20+ programming languages and 100+ apps under my belt.
One prominent app that I created and particularly want to mention about is an upgraded version of Wordle, the word-guessing game that got really popular. The original creator, Josh Wardle, sold it to the New York Times for a whopping $1 million. I even reported a hack that I found in his application. Now, I'm thinking of selling my enhanced version to media companies who might want it. Cool, right?
Good morning, everyone! I'm Saiasmi Gupta, Co-Founder of 10xCoderKids with 5+ programming languages and 10+ apps under my belt. We stand before you today to share our coding journey with you all – the triumphs and challenges. The prospect of genuinely inspiring even one person in this entire audience would bring us immense joy and fulfillment.
Before we start, I have an announcement to make, that the most active participant in the audience today will receive a special price from our side.
Okay, let’s start.
At the tender age of 9, I delved into coding with three fundamental JavaScript commands: alert, prompt, and confirm. These basic tools sparked a fire within me, fueling my passion for coding and setting me on an extraordinary path. After experimenting with the three commands, my father asked, "Did you enjoy it?" Without hesitation, I responded with a spirited, "Yes!". Following that excitement, we decided to delve deeper by ordering a book called “Learn JavaScript: Build the Room Adventure Game” by Stephen J. Wolf. This resource guided us in creating a Mystery Rooms game using HTML, CSS, and JS. When I heard "Mystery Rooms," I envisioned crafting a 3D game where I could explore, collect items, and more. What we ended up creating after flipping through 500 pages was a web app/game, essentially an image with 12-15 buttons, each with its own quirky function. Alright let’s go 2 months ahead. Creating new and straightforward games became our jam. In the span of a year, we cooked up around 50 apps, became multilingual (in programming, not human languages), and were pretty chuffed with our progress. Then, in January 2020, the coding engine got a turbo boost. I bagged a special award from my school, earning the coveted title of Young Innovator of the Year. That win was like a high-five from destiny, urging me to keep exploring the coding cosmos.
Okay, for me, it all began when my dad and Saion introduced me to Python programming language. Initially, I struggled with exercises and felt like giving up. However, my parents always encouraged me, and that’s what kept me going. The first achievement that made me truly happy was coding a calculator in Python. It felt amazing, and I never looked back. As I progressed in coding, I found it easier and began creating more apps. My school principal recognized me as the young innovator of the year. Despite initially finding coding challenging, my passion and determination led me to overcome all obstacles.
But wait, before we dive deeper into this coding saga, let's give a shout-out to the unsung heroes: our teachers and parents. Seriously, we would be lost in the coding wilderness without them. Big props to our dad, Sandeep Gupta, a Computer Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering, India. He's the wizard who introduced us to coding, patiently answering all our questions without ever pulling a "Nope, I'm busy." Thanks, Dad, for being the real MVP of our coding adventures! Our Grandfather Mr. Satish Gupta and our mom, Rupal Gupta deserve a special shout-out. They have been our 24/7 support hotline and the motivational coach in our coding rollercoaster. Picture this: one late night, I'm wrestling with a coding conundrum, and there's my mom, keeping me company till 2 am. Little IT background, but she's the MVP of staying-up-late-and-motivating-her-kid department.
Now, let's talk about our teachers. Dr. Jyoti Bose, the Director of Springdales Schools, is the captain of our support squad. She's not just there to help; she throws us into the coding arena, and says, "Go, shine!" Mrs. Ritu Madan serves as the behind-the-scenes magician, consistently providing encouragement and ensuring our ongoing progress.
And then there's Oppu sir, the wizard behind the scenes. He trusted me with the school app. Big thanks to this dream team for being our cheerleaders in the coding Olympics!
Let's roll into the YouTube saga! Armed with my award, I plunged into the YouTube jungle with the name Saion Gupta. My debut act? "Coding LCM Calculator in JavaScript." Drumroll, please. Subscriber count? A solid 20, mostly honorary aunts and uncles. And the grand view count? A dazzling 15. I was practically YouTube royalty! Next up was the thrilling sequel, "Coding HCF Calculator in JavaScript," which, let's be real, didn't exactly set the internet ablaze with its 8 views. Then, my cinematic masterpiece, "Coding a Simple Calculator in JavaScript," hit the screens with a modest 3 views. A bit like a box office flop, but hey, I was having a blast! At times I just thought of completely quitting but that wouldn’t have been the correct decision. As my view counts played hide and seek, I decided to spice things up with guitar and Rubik's cube videos. Because who doesn't want a dose of musical and cube brilliance? But reality check—something felt off. So, I took a detour back to the coding highway. Did I become the next YouTube sensation? Nah. But I kept at it, and now I'm rocking a solid 630 subscribers with over 400 videos. Consistency is key, my friends. As Dwayne Johnson would say, "Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come."
Okay, imagine this: I wanted to make coding cool for everyone, especially kids. So, I cooked up this awesome plan called 10xCoderKids. It all started small, just me, my passion for coding, and a big idea – make coding fun and easy for everyone, no matter how old you are or where you come from. At first, I made apps that were like a party for everyone – simple, fun, and open for all. It was a tiny start, but my dream? Huge. Then, a lightbulb moment hit me – the real magic is in teaching. If we show kids the magic of coding, we're giving them the keys to shaping the future. So, our plan got a serious upgrade.
Now, fast forward to today, and 10xCoderKids isn't just about apps. It's like a superhero training camp for little tech wizards. We're all about making sure every kid, no matter where they live or what they have, gets to learn, and have fun with coding. To make this magic happen, we added coding classes. But here's the secret sauce: these classes aren't just about coding; they're about teaching kids to think big, solve problems, and get creative with technology. We even tried to get on Shark Tank S2 but didn't make it. However, we didn't give up and made it to the final level in Shark Tank S3. We're now eagerly awaiting the results, which should be announced soon. Together, we're on a mission to turn every kid into a coding superstar!
The last two years were like a magic spell on my life. Before that, I was doing alright, but there was this one glitch – I never got the chance to show case my skills. Then boom! The past two years were like a rollercoaster of coding competitions. I won a bunch of cool national and international contests, and let me tell you, that was seriously motivating stuff. Now, don't get me wrong, I also lost many competitions. They were like those awkward faceplants, you know? But hey, my family became my official cheering squad. Now, hang on, I'm getting to the good part – how I ended up in the Guinness World Records!
So, a year ago, I discovered that getting a Guinness World Record is like signing up for a marathon, but with paperwork. The form they handed me was like a novel, seriously. Then, to spice things up, they tossed in four verification forms that were longer than my weekend to-do list. But, hey, knowing Guinness is a big deal, I played along. Because, you know, life's all about following the rules.
Now, here's where it gets wild. Remember that time I thought of ditching YouTube? Turns out, it was my secret weapon. My YouTube videos became my superhero cape—they were like my coding portfolio. So, when the Guinness folks wanted proof of my coding skills, I was like, "Check out these epic tutorials, my friend!" It was like having a cheat code in real life.
And do you remember what Edison said, right? "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." So, fast forward from filling out forms in June last year to hitting the record jackpot in February this year. Guinness has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for me. And here's the best part—I'm passing on the coding torch to one of you in the audience. Good luck, future coding wizards! May your code write your success story.
