Amazing success story of a teen techie
By Shanthi Shankarkumar
Anand Lal Shimpi brings new meaning to
words like "passion" and "tireless". Not to mention "teenage."
The 17-year-old high school senior who is
the CEO and creator of an Internet company (www.anandtech.com) that
reviews hardware, juggles school and 60-hour workweeks, a steady
girlfriend, time with friends and, as their only child, a close
relationship with his parents.
On weekends he even finds time to watch
movies and basketball games. In fact, Shimpi is having so much fun that
sleep is the last thing on his mind. With a site that gets almost 1.5
million readers a day and ad revenues nearing a $ 1 million, you can't
blame Shimpi for being a workaholic.
Who needs sleep when motherboards,
processors and video cards charge up your adrenaline?
Shimpi's typical day is needless to say
far from an average one. He is up by 6 getting ready for school. His
school day usually begins at 7.45 am and ends at 2.30 pm. Shimpi is
back home a little before 3 and immediately sets to work on his site.
He is takes a break at about 7.00, 7.30 for a quick 10, 15 minute
dinner. He is back at his computer after dinner and works without a
break till midnight when he then takes some time to do his homework.
Homework done, he is back to work on
Anandtech and hits his bed usually only at 2, 3 am.
"He has always been getting straight As,
only since last year he has been getting a few Bs because of the
pressure of business," says his father.
The lack of sleep doesn't really bother
this inferno of energy. The extreme passion he has for his work seems
to override any symptoms of sleep deficiency.
"In the end it comes down to how you
prioritize your time. The lack of sleep does not add to the stress, it
is in the business side of things that the stress comes in. The only
social life I have is during the weekends, but I'm willing to make that
sacrifice," said Shimpi.
Over the weekends, he puts work aside and
becomes a swinging teenager, who likes to hang out with his girlfriend
of two years, and watch movies and basketball games with his friends.
"It is my job to see that his friends get
enough food to eat when they come over for the weekends," said his
father, laughing.
Anand Shimpi's girlfriend, Amy Wheeless,
a junior at Enloe High School in Raleigh, is the soundingboard for
feedback on his articles.
"She is not as hardcore a computer
enthusiast as my readers, or me, which is good. Because it'll be crazy
if there is another me. I send her my articles and if she gets an
understanding of what I'm talking about, I know they are okay," said
Shimpi.
He draws great inspiration from his
father, Lal, a computer science professor at St Augustine's College in
Raleigh. Lal Shimpi came to this country in 1976 with $ 13. He borrowed
the airfare to fly from Bombay to Boston. He had a full scholarship to
study at the University of Boston, but with next to no money in his
pockets, he worked in the kitchen of a Punjabi restaurant, getting food
in lieu of pay.
"Anand keeps telling everybody, 'if my
Dad can do it, so can I'," said Lal Shimpi.
It was Lal who first injected the
computer bug in his son. This was one virus that would set off a love
fever that would never subside. When Shimpi was in third grade, his
father enrolled him in a computer course. The other participants were
undergraduates in their twenties.
When he was in his sixth grade, Anand
built his first PC with the help of his dad and was soon building PCs
for others.
"My interest in computers came from my
father, but my interest in hardware came from my mother. She is the
handy person in the house interested in electronics and carpentry,"
said Shimpi.
He exudes a maturity and humility that
doesn't go with either his age or his success. He interacts with Intel
executives, jets around the country to attend computer conferences,
socializes with corporate VIPs and has been featured in Fortune,
CBS Morning News and other frontline media. But to his friends he is
still a goofy, regular guy and to his parents a "dream son."
His only indulgence is an electric-blue
BMW he drives to school.
"I'm no different from the guys I sit
with in class. There is nothing that has changed about me as a person.
I've gained experience about running a business, but I'm still the
person I was when I started the site," he said.
His amazing story actually started in
April of 1997 when as a 14 year old he started anandtech.com. He
initially started off reviewing the hardware he had on his own
computer, since he could not afford to buy expensive computer parts.
But within months, he found that there
were thousands who shared his passion for hardware and his site was
bombarded with hits. When his first advertiser, a hardware manufacturer
came calling, he refused to take money from him. Instead he asked for
hardware to review.
Two years later, the ads are pouring in
and a California-based advertising agency looks after the site's
advertising operations.
The volume, range and objectivity of the
site have made it one of the top three hardware sites on the Internet.
In the Fortune article, an Intel spokesman has said
'Anandtech is as good as any other website. What's unique is Anand's
age.'
Shimpi employs 12 reviewers, a graphics
artist and a site developer. His mother, Iranian-born Razieh Shimpi
quit her bank job to take care of accounts and bookkeeping. Shimpi
himself does about 5 reviews a week, some of them running to 20 to 30
pages.
Last June, his parents bought a bigger
house in West Raleigh, since business was booming and there just wasn't
enough room for all the hardware that was coming in from manufacturers.
Shimpi has converted the upper level in the new house into a testing
facility. An office premises is under construction and by next year
Anandtech should be in its very own office.
The phenomenal readership of Anandtech
and the influence it exerts on their buying decisions has manufacturers
vying for reviews on the site. "We have contacts with all the major
manufacturers -- we're talking about hundreds of manufacturers," said
Shimpi.
Of course, unfavorable reviews have
roused the ire of many manufacturers. Not that Shimpi and his editors
care. They take their responsibility of separating the PR fluff from
the real stuff very seriously.
"Whether it is a $ 50 product or a $
1,000 product it is essentially somebody else's money and you have to
be careful when you tell people what to do with their money. When
manufacturers submit a product for review they know how tough our
standards are and how strict we can be. So they are aware of the risks
associated with it," said Shimpi.
Unlike other hardware sites, over 99 per
cent of Anandtech's readership are hardcore computer enthusiasts who
have either played around with their PCs one time or another or
currently run their PCs with components they chose or custom built.
Anandtech's success has led to the
creation of affiliate sites for Windows 98, Windows 2000 and even one
for movie reviews called movienut.com. "We are trying to funnel the
readership of Anandtech to these sites," said Shimpi.
There have been numerous buy out offers,
but Shimpi would like to keep his options open. The sheer joy of
producing his site cannot be matched by any hefty check.
"The future of Anandtech is kind of set.
I'm young and have my entire life ahead to make money. I'm enjoying
this and so is the entire team, but you never know what the future
brings," said Shimpi.
What he has decided to do is to study
engineering at North Carolina State University this fall. Life is
obviously two-tracked for this teenager who seems to have his feet
nicely balanced in both. On the one hand there are the normal teenage
stuff like school, college, girlfriend and friends and then there is
the more serious, adult side to him in his business. Of course, he is
constantly warned about burnout, not that Shimpi loses any sleep over
it!
"I think the men who burn out are the
ones who stop enjoying doing what they are doing. I'm honestly enjoying
doing what I'm doing," said Shimpi.
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