{"680847":{"#nid":"680847","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Beyond Tech: CREATE-X Entrepreneurs Make Forbes 30 Under 30","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECREATE-X is celebrating the eight CREATE-X entrepreneurs included on the recent \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/30-under-30\/2025\/\u0022\u003EForbes 30 Under 30\u003C\/a\u003E list. They include founders Sohan Choudhury of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.flintk12.com\/?ref=theresanaiforthat\u0022\u003EFlint\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;Garrett Smiley \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/soraschools.com\/\u0022\u003Eof Sora Schools\u003C\/a\u003E, Sarah Hamer of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.retailreadyai.com\/\u0022\u003ERetailReady\u003C\/a\u003E, Bruno Geoly and Mia Rath of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lumindt.com\/\u0022\u003ELumindt\u003C\/a\u003E, Rishabh Kewalramani of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.google.com\/aclk?sa=l\u0026amp;ai=DChcSEwjXptqKte6LAxUjK9QBHSMkG9kYABAAGgJvYQ\u0026amp;co=1\u0026amp;gclid=CjwKCAiAw5W-BhAhEiwApv4goMJNCfhWGBLt2-IuGO9qbN6IAyrx-XpZGAjyg_ZkbkCtAD1mgT2XQRoCjWYQAvD_BwE\u0026amp;sig=AOD64_3KdcEjG4jpVipvy0InBod2YCBVOg\u0026amp;q\u0026amp;adurl\u0026amp;ved=2ahUKEwiSzNWKte6LAxXTG9AFHTjQGZYQ0Qx6BAgGEAE\u0022\u003EBackBar\u003C\/a\u003E, Safir Monroe of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.undelayapp.com\/\u0022\u003EUnDelay\u003C\/a\u003E, and Tamara Zubatiy of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/app.thebarometer.co\/landing\u0022\u003EBarometer\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EForbes 30 Under 30 is a yearly list of notable young people in art, entertainment, healthcare, science, and more. CREATE-X has had founders on this list 11 times since 2017. Read about how some of the 2025 honorees got their start \u2014 and their advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003ESohan Choudhury: Flint\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Beginning\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI decided to start Flint because I was passionate about education as a space, and I felt that there\u0027s a lot more that could be done with AI in education. When we started the company in May 2023, the perspective of a lot of schools and teachers on AI was very negative because they were looking at how students were using it to cheat. As technologists, my co-founder and I asked, \u2018Is there something more we can do to change this narrative and perspective?\u2019 We started building tools for teachers and students and partnering with schools.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe CREATE-X Experience\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u201c\u003C\/strong\u003ECREATE-X gave me the first avenue to work on my own thing. When I was a first-year or sophomore in college, I didn\u0027t know that was possible. I thought once I graduate I\u0027ll maybe get an engineering job and just do that. But CREATE-X changed that story for me by giving me another path. As I went down that path with my first company, the advisors we had through CREATE-X were incredibly helpful to us.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Outlook\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDay to day, a lot of the work we do is pretty unglamorous. We\u2019re dealing with bugs that our customers are facing, or we\u2019re cold emailing people. It\u0027s easy to get lost in the weeds. The Forbes announcement was a great way for us to reflect on what we\u0027ve done so far. It\u0027s such a team effort, so it was validating to get recognition on a broader level for the work we\u0027re doing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAdvice for Success\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf you can code or are interested in coding, pull on that thread. If you can build your own prototypes, which is becoming easy to do nowadays with AI, it will help you get further with your ideas. The second piece of advice is to take your idea and try to convince someone to pay for it. Even if you have a tool that will save your peers time with studying, build something basic for it, but then ask them to pay you five bucks. People speak with their money. There were times at Flint where we had a lot of positive feedback, and then we asked people to pay, and all of the constructive feedback came out.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGarrett Smiley: Sora Schools\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Beginning\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was a military brat, so I moved around to a lot of different schools and experienced a bunch of different styles of learning. I went to school in the early 2010s, right when laptops were entering the classroom. We had YouTube, Khan Academy, Coursera, and all these things hit the mainstream. Because of my background, education was a very active question in my life. I saw how these tools completely supercharged my learning and changed the relationship between student and teacher and the dynamics of the classroom.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe CREATE-X Experience\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cCREATE-X asked us to think about large systemic problems we were passionate about. That pushed me to think seriously about how I could help solve a problem in this space. It was helpful to put into practice many of the startup lessons that I\u0027d been studying forever, and it was great to have a community of founders before anyone believed in us.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Outlook\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u0027m inspired by Forbes\u2019 emphasis on education, so to be recognized in that context was extra special. We\u2019re in 46 states and 16 countries, so it\u0027s great to see the breadth that Sora has accomplished. We\u0027re bringing this style of education to different communities that, in many cases, have never considered something like this before. Seeing our students accepted into places like Harvard, Georgia Tech, and other elite institutions shows families that you can have a transformative education like Sora and still go to those schools if it makes sense.\u201c\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAdvice for Success\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u201c\u003C\/strong\u003EUse your free time in school to try the things you\u0027re thinking about. Sora was an idea I thought I would circle back to when I was 30 or 40 and had money and credibility. But I was shocked by how open people were to listening to a young person with a few resonating ideas. There\u0027s no qualification or age requirement to provide value and improve people\u0027s lives.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESarah Hamer: RetailReady\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Beginning\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI met my co-founder, Elle, while we were working at a company called Stord, which is also an Atlanta-based startup. Elle and I were put on a project going to a warehouse every week for six months. We saw some gaps in supply chain software and decided to solve them since nothing was on the market. So I applied to Y Combinator and got in, and now we\u2019re here.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe CREATE-X Experience\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cCREATE-X was my first foray into starting a business. It gave me confidence, and I learned a lot of lessons with my first business. I think I would\u0027ve made a lot of mistakes starting a business now if I hadn\u0027t had that experience in college. For example, knowing how important user interviews are, how you\u2019ll probably fail here and there, start small, then scale \u2014 the principles you take for granted that CREATE-X taught.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Outlook\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI started at Microsoft right out of Georgia Tech and was there for a year and a half. It was a very stable, well-paying job. I followed my gut to leave and join a startup called Stord and then followed it again to leave and start RetailReady. Quitting your stable day-to-day job takes a lot, and I\u2019m proud I took the chance. We\u2019ve grown fast, and it\u2019s a huge honor to be included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the first year of being in business. We\u2019re really happy about it.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAdvice for Success\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen you can, take the chance and do it. Even if you\u2019re not sure, always believe you\u2019ll win. A lot of it is mental fitness, believing what your gut is telling you. There will be times when you\u2019ll say, \u2018This probably isn\u2019t the right move to make.\u2019 Listen to that.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBruno Geoly: Lumindt\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Beginning\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAn inflection point for me was the summer of 2021. I was working at SpaceX, and at the same time, my friends and I had started this Web3 crypto company dealing with NFTs. And I was like, I can mix these two things together to do something cool, something important. The idea of what Lumindt is wasn\u0027t even a sparkle in my eye at that time. But I knew I wanted something of my own, doing these two things I enjoy \u2014 entrepreneurship and high-level engineering. And that\u0027s what I did.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe CREATE-X Experience\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cCREATE X was a way for me and my co-founder to stay accountable for our work. When you have an idea you want to turn into a business, it\u2019s hard to stay on yourself to do that. CREATE-X was a good way for us to always have a thing to go to and ideate what we\u2019re working on. And there was a little bit of competition. You see all of these other people making progress, and it\u2019s good inspiration and a motivator to continue working.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Outlook\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMy co-founder and I were very appreciative of being included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Looking back on what I wanted to do in college, I just loved building stuff. And to have this small team of people, and we\u2019re able to build what we want, and there\u0027s cohesion and camaraderie, I\u0027m very happy with that. It\u0027s fun to go to work every day and work with the people I do. And not only that, we now have a business that impacts the world.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAdvice for Success\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf you want to be an entrepreneur, that\u0027s a skill set like anything else. If you want to get better at karate, you practice karate. If you want to be a better entrepreneur, you have to practice entrepreneurship. You\u0027ll learn a lot about yourself \u2014 what problems you like to solve and what problems you need help solving.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWant to Build Your Own Startup?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech students, faculty, researchers, and alumni interested in developing their own startups are encouraged to apply to CREATE-X\u0027s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/create-x.gatech.edu\/launch\/startup-launch\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EStartup Launch\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, which provides $5,000 in optional seed funding and $150,000 in in-kind services, mentorship, entrepreneurial workshops, networking events, and resources to help build and scale startups. The program culminates in Demo Day, where teams present their startups to potential investors. The deadline to\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/create-x.gatech.edu\/launch\/startup-launch\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Eapply for Startup Launch\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;is Monday, March 17. Spots are limited.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/create-x.gatech.edu\/launch\/startup-launch\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EApply now\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECREATE-X is celebrating eight of its entrepreneurs who made it to the recent Forbes 30 Under 30 list. These founders include Sohan Choudhury of Flint, Garrett Smiley of Sora Schools, Sarah Hamer of RetailReady, Bruno Geoly and Mia Rath of Lumindt, Rishabh Kewalramani of BackBar, Safir Monroe of UnDelay, and Tamara Zubatiy of Barometer. CREATE-X has had founders on this list 11 times since 2017. The honorees shared their startup journeys and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Forbes 30 Under 30 list featured eight CREATE-X founders, including Sohan Choudhury of Flint, Garrett Smiley of Sora Schools, Sarah Hamer of RetailReady, Bruno Geoly and Mia Rath of Lumindt, Rishabh Kewalramani of BackBar, and Tamara Zubatiy of Barometer."}],"uid":"36436","created_gmt":"2025-03-03 17:31:17","changed_gmt":"2025-03-03 17:38:39","author":"bdurham31","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-03-03T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2025-03-03T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"676437":{"id":"676437","type":"image","title":"2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 CREATE-X Founders","body":"\u003Cp\u003EForbes 30 Under 30 list featured eight CREATE-X founders. Pictured are Sohan Choudhury of Flint, Garrett Smiley of Sora Schools, Sarah Hamer of RetailReady, and Bruno Geoly \u0026nbsp;of Lumindt.\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1741023303","gmt_created":"2025-03-03 17:35:03","changed":"1741023412","gmt_changed":"2025-03-03 17:36:52","alt":"Pictured are Sohan Choudhury of Flint, Garrett Smiley of Sora Schools, Sarah Hamer of RetailReady, and Bruno Geoly  of Lumindt.","file":{"fid":"260228","name":"2024-Forbes-30-Under-30-Web-Article--1200-x-630-px-.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/03\/03\/2024-Forbes-30-Under-30-Web-Article--1200-x-630-px-.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/03\/03\/2024-Forbes-30-Under-30-Web-Article--1200-x-630-px-.png","mime":"image\/png","size":1280298,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/03\/03\/2024-Forbes-30-Under-30-Web-Article--1200-x-630-px-.png?itok=G0Bd7Xxc"}}},"media_ids":["676437"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/create-x.gatech.edu\/launch\/startup-launch","title":"Apply to Startup Launch"}],"groups":[{"id":"583966","name":"CREATE-X"},{"id":"655285","name":"GT Commercialization"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"139","name":"Business"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193658","name":"Commercialization"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EArticle by Alyson Key\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECREATE-X Contact:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBreanna Durham\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr\u003EMarketing Strategist\u003Cbr\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["breanna.durham@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}