Aarav Kalra, home
TIP Tip-off Intro
TIP: Tip-off — Intro

Aarav Kalra

Aarav Kalra

Aarav Kalra

BUILDER · FOUNDER

Saratoga High School

Number 30

Aarav Kalra

BUILDER · FOUNDER · Saratoga High School

Season by season
SeasonMain projectRole
GR 9Public-sector learning platformSoftware developer
GR 10YouthShieldCo-founder & CBO
GR 11ThinkLinksCo-founder & CTO
GR 12ThinkLinksCo-founder & CTO

Career highlights

  • Top 6 worldwide, SAGE
  • Mott semifinalist
  • Provisional patent

Scouting report

“Builds AI that adapts to how each kid learns.”

I build AI that adapts to how each kid learns.

Co-founder & CTO of ThinkLinks, a multi-agent learning platform piloted in three schools.

Senior · Saratoga High School · Saratoga, California

See the play 60-second version
World SAGE Entrepreneurship Cup
Students in school pilots
Patent U.S. provisional patent
Q1: Career Stats — Timeline

Grade by grade

Four seasons of high school. Every bar is a project; click one to jump to it.

  • Founded
  • Built / Researched
  • Also involved
  • Now · fall of senior year
ThinkLinks Founded, Gr 11 → 12, ongoing
SigIQ.ai Built / Researched, Gr 11
YouthShield Founded, Gr 10
AI as an ideation partner Built / Researched, Gr 10 → 11
Teen speaker series Built / Researched, Gr 10 → 12, ongoing
Classroom app & SAT curricula Also involved, Gr 11
Public-sector learning platform Also involved, Gr 9
FTC & VEX Robotics Also involved, Gr 10 → 11

  1. GR 9 23–24

  2. GR 10 24–25

  3. GR 11 25–26

  4. GR 12 26–27 Now

    ThinkLinks and the speaker series continue.

Q3: The Roster — Projects

Seven more projects

The shot chart is a map: each zone is a kind of work. Every shot is a make.

The paint
Companies I founded 02YouthShield
Mid-range
Internships & research 01SigIQ.ai03AI as an ideation partner
The arc
Paid work 05Classroom app & SAT curricula06Public-sector learning platform
The corners
Community & team 04Teen speaker series07FTC & VEX Robotics

07 players

Mid-range Internship

Project 01: SigIQ.ai

An AI tutoring startup serving 200,000+ students, backed by $9.5M from The House Fund, GSV, and Duolingo.

Role
Product analyst
When
Grade 11

HighlightsWhat I personally built

  • Benchmarked rival AI tutors against SigIQ’s product.
  • Built and tested product improvements for the platform, serving 200K+ students.
  • Presented findings to the founding team, who adopted three of my features.
In the paint Company I co-founded

Project 02: YouthShield

A teen social-emotional wellness platform for schools, built to surface mental-health warning signs early.

Role
Co-founder & CBO
When
Grade 10

HighlightsWhat I personally built

  • Coded the risk-scoring algorithm that flags warning signs and raises alerts.
  • Refined it with 5 educators — counselors, principals, and teachers.
  • Led product design, business strategy, and outreach to schools.
Mid-range Research

Project 03: AI as an ideation partner

Usability research on how founders use custom GPTs, compared with general-purpose AI models, to develop startup ideas.

Role
Research intern
Where
USF School of Management
With
Prof. Jonathan Cromwell
When
Grades 10–11

HighlightsWhat I personally did

  • Cold-emailed nearly 200 professors to find a research position.
  • Designed and led 10 usability sessions testing custom GPT ideation tools.
  • Analyzed the findings and recommended improvements for startup founders.
The corner Community

Project 04: Teen speaker series

A speaker series bringing people who build in tech and business in front of local teens.

100+ TEENS REACHED

Role
Member → committee lead → president
Where
Saratoga Library Teen Advisory Board
When
Grades 10–12

HighlightsWhat I personally built

  • Created the series and led 5+ speaker events.
  • Recruited OpenAI engineers, CEOs, and industry experts myself.
  • Elected president of the Teen Advisory Board.
Beyond the arc Paid work

Project 05: Classroom app & SAT curricula

An app for a test-prep company that puts lessons, live class analytics, and practice in one place.

Role
Curriculum developer
Where
Justin Sigars Prep
When
Grade 11

HighlightsWhat I personally built

  • Built the app combining lessons, live analytics, and in-app practice for classroom use.
  • Created 200+ Desmos SAT practice questions and reading curricula.
Beyond the arc Paid work

Project 06: Public-sector learning platform

A learning management system for a public-sector client, taken from concept to deployment.

Role
Software developer
Where
New Tech Solutions
When
Grade 9

HighlightsWhat I personally built

  • Built the content-management module end-to-end: design, coding, testing, and deployment.
  • Lets public-sector clients upload and organize their own training materials.
The corner Team

Project 07: FTC & VEX Robotics

Autonomous routines and engineering documentation for two competition robotics teams.

Role
Programmer, notebook author
When
Grades 10–11

HighlightsWhat I personally built

  • Programmed high-precision autonomous routines for FTC and VEX robots.
  • Wrote the engineering notebooks for both teams.
  • Helped the FTC team advance to regionals.
The starter · In the paint ThinkLinks The company I co-founded — featured above in Q2 · The Play.
All seven projects
#ProjectCategoryRoleWhen
01 SigIQ.ai Internship Product analyst Grade 11
02 YouthShield Company I co-founded Co-founder & CBO Grade 10
03 AI as an ideation partner Research Research intern Grades 10–11
04 Teen speaker series Community Member → committee lead → president Grades 10–12
05 Classroom app & SAT curricula Paid work Curriculum developer Grade 11
06 Public-sector learning platform Paid work Software developer Grade 9
07 FTC & VEX Robotics Team Programmer, notebook author Grades 10–11
Q4: The Rafters — Awards

Ten banners

Building awards hang in arena colors; writing awards in cream and oxblood.

10 banners

  1. 01 Top 6 worldwide, SAGE Global Entrepreneurship World Cup Building Selected to represent the USA · Top 6 of hundreds globally · Grade 11
  2. 02 Semifinalist, Mott Million Dollar Challenge Building Top 60 of 3,700+ · Top 6 in 9–12 Social · $7,750 won · Grade 11
  3. 03 Bronze medal, Singularity AI Essay Contest Writing Top 6 worldwide · 500+ entrants from 50 countries · Grade 11
  4. 04 National finalist, Stossel in the Classroom Essay Contest Writing Top 8, high-school division · Grade 11
  5. 05 2nd place, Bulldog Pitch Competition Building Ferris State University · Grade 11
  6. 06 High Commendation, John Locke Global Essay Prize Writing Science & Technology · ~Top 3% of 100,000+ · 2026
  7. 07 Commendation, John Locke Global Essay Prize Writing Economics · ~Top 10% of 100,000+ · 2026
  8. 08 Honourable Mention, Cambridge Re:think Essay Competition Writing Senior Division · Top 10% of 15,000+ · 2026
  9. 09 High Honors Award, Lumiere Scholars Essay Award Writing 2026
  10. 10 AP Scholar with Distinction, College Board Academic
OT: Off the Court — Also / About

Overtime

Lincoln-Douglas Debate Captain

Grew the club’s smallest section 2–3x in one year; mentored novice debaters, led weekly practices, and placed at tournaments.

Tuba, Marching Band

Part of a 200+ member band that placed 2nd of 33 at the WBA SoCal Championship and medaled at the Cupertino and Folsom competitions.

Harvard Ventures-TECH

Summer 2025: interned with Rove, a Y Combinator-backed travel-rewards startup, on product analysis and Gen Z market research.

Wharton

Essentials of Entrepreneurship summer program.

Off the court

Warriors and 49ers fan, video games, Bay Area through and through.

Currently playing College Apps

POST: Postgame — Contact

Let’s
build

Working on something in AI, education, or both? I’d love to hear about it.

Shootaround Makes 0 Streak 0

Drag back and release (or flick) to shoot. Keyboard: focus the court, hold Space for power, ↑↓ to aim. Just for fun: everything on this site is readable without it.

Aarav Kalra · Saratoga, California · 2026 Built by me with Astro + GSAP