When it comes to exchanging money with apps, you have your choice of a few major players like: Venmo, Cash App or PayPal.
Now imagine you want to pay someone who has a different app than you do. How would you solve this problem?
During BETA Camp’s summer 2022 cohort, a team of four students has built a revolutionary product that bridges all of these apps, allowing you to exchange money with anyone, anywhere, no matter what app they have.
I spoke with two of the team members, Shakeel Majeed and Navin Narayanan, to find out how they built their company, PayBridge.
It all started with a problem…
Last year, Navin was trying to split the bill for hosting a Minecraft server with his friends. But everyone had different apps, so…Navin wasn’t getting paid back anytime soon.
Luckily, he was in BETA Camp at the time — so he was on the hunt for a problem that needed solving. The first iteration of PayBridge was a simple landing page, and transactions were processed via Google Forms.
“It was really badly formatted,” laughs Navin.
During BETA Camp, Navin joined forces with Shakeel, Trinayaan Hariharan, and Venkat Mandava.
This rockstar team filled Navin’s skills gap, and together, they catapulted PayBridge forward with a new website, styled to perfection:
It’s remarkable how this team of students has been growing PayBridge for over a year while also:
- Taking AP classes
- Doing sports and activities
- Getting excellent grades
“I don’t think it has negatively impacted our studies,” says Shakeel. “I think it’s improved them.”
And finally… Customers!
When the team finally got their first transaction, it was totally unexpected.
“This customer was just out of the blue… I was in India at the time on vacation and it was late at night for me,” says Navin.
The team panicked to get the unexpected transaction completed across three separate time zones.
It was a test they didn’t know they were ready for. But luckily, they passed. “That was like a year in the making,” says Shakeel.
The high schoolers have already done more than most adults — hiring and firing team members, meeting with investors, and working with real customers.
“The skills we’re learning are so valuable,” says Navin. “[Building a business] prepares you for the real world.”
It’s true — the team at PayBridge is learning skills like:
💬 Communication — when you can talk to an investor, you can talk to anyone.
⏰ Time management — the work never stops at an early-stage startup.
🤝 Teamwork — between defining your roles and making commitments, building a business is the ultimate group project.
These skills are valuable for any teen to learn, whether or not they want to pursue business as a career. And the PayBridge teens are knocking it out of the park.
Lessons
Learning by doing is so much more powerful than just learning theory.
According to this study, learning by doing gives students more authority and responsibility over their education, as well as getting them more involved in the learning process. This was definitely the case for the team at PayBridge:
“If you saw our code a few months ago compared to now, it’s definitely gotten a lot more complex,” says Navin. “Building PayBridge, I’ve improved my programming skills.”