After $100,000 bitcoin score, 15-year-old creates startup

[Jazzy]

Erik Finman is the founder of Botangle, an online education program that links students with instructors around the world -- a pretty remarkable accomplishment, considering he's only 15 years old.

That's even younger than his mentor Alexis Ohanian was when he started the online community Reddit at the ripe old age of 22.

Ohanian inspired a generation of smart, tech-savvy teens with his book "Without Their Permission: How The 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed". Erik read it, then took a $1,000 check his grandma had given him at Easter, and invested it in the online currency bitcoin.

"I just thought it was an amazing tool, and it was going to be really big," Finman said. "I hit the jackpot."

His jackpot was worth $100,000, and Eric was hooked. His next venture was inspired by feeling stuck in school in northern Idaho, where he couldn't find enough interesting subjects to satisfy his curious mind.

His solution: Give users a place to chat with instructors and learn about any subject, from Spanish and algebra to robotics and violin.

"You can choose to register as a student and learn something, or become an instructor and teach something," Erik said. "I wanted it so that any person like me, who doesn't have the same opportunities as someone living in a really nice school district, can go on my site and learn anything they want."

He launched the company in May and now has more than 1,700 users and employs 20 people full-time.

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Very impressive considering his age.

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