JAY KATARIYA: Teen Entrepreneur and Innovator

RASHI PAJWANI catches up with a 17-year-old business entrepreneur driven towards innovation - Jay Katariya. His non-profit start-up, MindCord, is all set to educate the masses, especially the underprivileged, about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and the finance and business sector.

- RASHI PAJWANI

TTT: Hello Jay. Welcome to The Teenager Today! Would love our readers to get to know you more. So, let’s get down to it! You mentioned that the seed for this venture was planted in your mind at the young age of 13, and you designed a complete framework draft for your website by 14. So how, at the age when I remember merely knowing that a stem is a part of a plant, did you acquire the knowledge about STEM and develop the start-up idea?

Jay: I have always had a natural inclination towards the sciences and mathematics. Textbook knowledge wasn’t enough for the scientific geek within me, thus I started researching to know more about science and familiarised myself with the concept of STEM. However, I very soon realised that my companions had little to no knowledge about the same. That was when I started thinking of designing a website which would be a go-to source for knowledge for not just my friends but for the entire world. Initially, the website was more of a blog page focusing on imparting knowledge about finances, economics, business news and entrepreneurship. Later, I focused the content on topics of business, finance and STEM.

TTT: What is MindCord? When was it launched and what is its current viewership percentage?

Jay: MindCord is an open-to-all blog page, not just for readers but also for writers who wish to express their thoughts or share their knowledge about STEM, business or finance. The website was launched in January 2020. For the first two years, it was just an informative blog site for readers to gain knowledge. However, in March 2023, we launched a monthly competition called