What motivated you to start your business and what is your vision for the future of the company?

I started with the wrong idea. For years, I had been dreaming about quitting my job to create a language-learning app. I was sure that I would build the next "Dualingo". When I finally quit my software engineering job to go full-time on this dream, I realized that I was in way over my head. I had greatly underestimated the incredible amount of expertise required to create quality lessons, regardless of the medium. Once I realized this, I was left with three choices: 1. Spend years developing that pedagogic expertise and then try again 2. Find a business partner who can provide that expertise 3. Pivot and focus on what I know I can do well, developing tools for experts I decided on #3, It's as if, instead of becoming a chef, I decided to make kitchen tools and appliances for the chefs. Teachers know better than I do what constitutes quality lesson material, so why not build them the tools to help them create what they need? Fortunately, this pivot coincided with the sudden growth of the popularity of AI tools. At the start, all but the most tech-savvy of educators had little interest in anything AI-related. ChatGPT and other tools have completely shifted the way educators look at AI. It wasn't long before schools were reaching out to me to express their interest in having their teachers use Roshi.

Why do you deserve to win the Best Youth Entrepreneur Award?

When I became an entrepreneur, the odds were not in my favor. I started Roshi with no industry experience, no investment money, no team, and lots of competitors who had plenty of all three. Despite knowing this, I set out to build this company. To solve the lack of industry expertise, I consulted with the most important of experts, the users themselves. I attended teacher events, sent emails, set up calls, and did everything else possible to talk to teachers, get to know them, and learn about their needs. Developing close relationships with Canadian teachers has allowed me to build a platform that creates better lessons for them than the tools they were already using. As a result, Roshi has, in just two years, become one of the platforms most widely used by Canadian ESL educators. Roshi has over 300 paying customers across several Provinces, as well as dozens of customers in other countries around the world. Despite there being much larger companies offering similar tools, teachers have been choosing Roshi because they believe in me and what I've built for them. I believed in myself and what I was building as well. However, at times when that confidence was challenged, I wished I could have had a role model to look up to for motivation. I never found local entrepreneurs with a similar background and similar challenges as I had, so I aspire to be that role model for someone else. Through this award, hope to inspire other youth entrepreneurs, so that, even without expertise, investment, or a big team, they can thrive as entrepreneurs.