Teen Starts Company To Make Low-Cost Printers To Help Blind People

In Silicon Valley, it’s never too early to become an entrepreneur. Just ask 13-year-old Shubham Banerjee.

The California eighth-grader has launched a company to develop low-cost machines to print Braille, the tactile writing system for the visually impaired. Tech giant Intel Corp. recently invested in his startup, Braigo Labs.

Shubham built a Braille printer with a Lego robotics kit as a school science fair project last year after he asked his parents a simple question: How do blind people read? “Google it,” they told him.

“I love the fact that a young person is thinking about a community that is often not thought about,” said Martinez, who is visually impaired.

Shubham is too young to be CEO of his own company, so his mother has taken the job, though she admits she wasn’t too supportive when he started the project.

“I’m really proud of Shubham. What he has thought, I think most adults should have thought about it,” Malini Banerjee said. “And coming out of my 13-year-old, I do feel very proud.”

The Huffington Post