ARMONK, N.Y. — The $100,000 Thiel Foundation fellowship James Schuler just won allows young entrepreneurs to drop out of college to pursue their business ideas — except he never got there in the first place.
Before graduating from Byram Hills High School in Armonk, N.Y., last year, the 19-year-old co-founded a healthcare transaction smartphone application and website.
After graduation he immediately entered Y-Combinator, a Silicon Valley start-up incubator where Schuler and his co-founders spent three months using a $170,000 grant to grow Eligible, the healthcare transaction company.
He resigned from active involvement with that company in August, and is already on to his second venture, FundElevator.com, a crowd-funding platform for political candidates and non-profit organizations that will launch in a few weeks.