From 0 to... 0.01 (Progress is Progress)
The Process | November Recap
Does anyone truly have it all figured out?
Earlier this month I had a call with the CEO and Co-Founder of Armilla AI, Karthik Ramakrishnan. He shared something that stuck with me: in the startup world, nobody really knows what they’re doing. Most of entrepreneurship is uncharted territory. It was a reassuring reminder that figuring things out as you go is part of the journey. But it also sparked something in me to work towards marking this ‘uncharted territory’.
I know I don’t have all the answers yet—but I’m committed to the process. This newsletter is my space to share the process of my journey: the wins, the lessons, and everything in between, as I work toward my ultimate goal—becoming a unicorn and “figuring it out”.
Let me introduce myself! 👋
Hey! If we haven’t met before; I’m Noah, a 16 year old aspiring entrepreneur obsessed with start ups and artificial intelligence from Toronto. I’ve founded and launched an AI chatbot—CostCulture, launched a charity that raised over $1000 in less than 30 days—while giving talks to schools across the Toronto & Peel school boards about our cause, in a position of internships at two start ups, a SHAD fellow, and an Innovator at TKS. Welcome to my 0 to 0.1 newsletter (and incase your wondering.. yes it’s a play on Zero to One by Peter Thiel & Blake Masters haha).
Every month you’ll see that I’m very persistent in taking action and jumping at every opportunity. I’ve personally never seen the downside of taking on challenges—worst case scenario, I’m not ready, but I learn a ton along the way and come out stronger, no need to be comfortable all the time. No matter how unqualified I might be—I don’t care! Cause I’ll figure it out!
This month, I dove headfirst into countless spirals and rabbit holes in the world of startups. It’s probably been the most I’ve worked ever, and the funny thing is, it’s still not even remotely close to the productivity and work rate that I want to be at. But isn’t that the point? Always chasing growth, learning from every stumble, and raising the bar higher each time—it’s a privilege to be in a position where growth and opportunity are always within reach.
I’m excited to share the lessons, failures, and tiny wins from this past month as I navigate the wild world of startups and AI.
Let’s dive in and grow from 0 to 0.1 together,
Starting at 0.01
Starting from 0.01 | Highlights of the month
This month was a roller coaster, and before I get started I feel like I should catch you all up so we’re on the same page, I’ll go deeper into everything later so don’t worry:
Re-Launched and Co-Ran a Charity Initiative & Spoke at Schools Across Peel and Toronto
Raised over $1,000—while delivering impactful talks to students, spreading our mission, and building meaningful connections within multiple communitiesSecured Two Internship Opportunities
Armilla AI: A groundbreaking Y Combinator-backed startup and the world’s first AI insurance company
Built For Impact (BFI): A promising startup backed by UofT’s Rotman School of Management and Western Ivey’s entrepreneurship group
Personal Growth Lessons
Realized the power of putting yourself out there and creating your own opportunities instead of waiting for them to appearThe TKS Impact
Reflecting on how just a few months in TKS have completely reshaped my life’s trajectoryAI Exploration & Focus
Exploring the world of AI, through projects and real world opportunities.
MovItiative 🥸
Believe it or not, The MovItiative started as my very first entrepreneurial project—a passion-driven charity born in grade 7. It began as a way to support my best friend, who had been battling cancer for more than three years, and to honour my grandmother, a two-time cancer survivor, and my grandfather, who sadly lost his fight against cancer. Back then, my mission was simple yet deeply personal: raise awareness about the mental toll cancer takes—not just on those fighting it but also on the people who love them.
Fast forward to today: This month, I relaunched The MovItiative—but this time, I wasn’t doing it alone. I worked with my partner and close friend, Matthew, and together, we took what I started in grade 7 and elevated it to a whole new level. We began planning in August, and now we’ve grown into one of the largest student-led charities in the GTA. And honestly? I’ve never felt more accomplished. Seeing what started as a small project expand into something so big is humbling and exhilarating all at once and if you asked me anything about it, it would take me a few minutes to grab myself to say anything—because that’s how big it is to me.
Here are just a few milestones that make me pinch myself:
Surpassing Our Goal TWICE 📈: We doubled our fundraiser target from $500 to $1,000 in less than a week—and then blew past $1000.
Empowering Young Minds 💡: We gave talks at schools across the Toronto and Peel boards, sharing our message and inspiring students to take action and build community.
Building Community 🥸:
We marketed, launched, and successfully initiated an entire school-wide trend, Movember Mondays, where students purchased and wore moustaches to support our cause. The funds? All donated to cancer research and mental health.
We organized a school-wide basketball tournament, creating a fun and impactful way to bring people together.
The process was exhausting and time-consuming—juggling school, extracurriculars, university applications, and running a charity was no joke. But honestly, it reminded me why I fell in love with entrepreneurship and taking action in the first place: the joy of creating, but more importantly, seeing something you built bring people together—still puts me in awe.
When I looked out at a sea of students rocking Movember moustaches or coming together for the basketball tournament, or the faces and smiles of the young students we worked with—I couldn’t help but think back to grade 7 me. I think he would be very happy.
The TKS Impact
TKS has been a transformative experience for me, and I’m grateful to be a part of the TKS community. Why? Because in just three months of weekly sessions, I’ve learned so much—and very different things than what is taught at a traditional high school.
In three months, I’ve had in person sessions on things like AI, brain-computer interfaces, medical devices, the MECE framework, and hackathons with some very smart people. But the greatest value has been the work ethic and the high standards that TKS expects from you. If you’re always doing the bare minimum and not meeting the challenges TKS throws your way, you’re not going to see results. That’s why I joined TKS Velocity—a program for the top 7% of students in TKS. Velocity provides more structure, higher expectations, and additional resources to immerse myself in my interest areas: AI & Startups.
More Intentional Work = More Intentional Outcomes.
Now beyond Velocity, what work did I do so far?
Explore Hackathon:
This was one of my first-ever hackathons! The hackathon went alright, I didn’t think our idea was very realistic, but my group loved it so I had to adjust. My team and I focused on artificial organs, inspired by CGM technology. We developed a product to monitor organ efficiency and an app to track real-time health data post-transplant. My role was designing the app’s UI and pitch deck.
But here’s the thing—I really wanted to present. I knew I was the best fit for the role and could have delivered a strong pitch, but fear held me back, and I let someone else take the lead who didn’t even want it. We made it to the top 8 but fell short of Best Overall purely because of our pitch. It’s a decision I’ve reflected on and it has taught me the importance of stepping into roles that scare you—because that’s where growth happens. It also reinforced something important: I have to trust myself to deliver when it matters.
Focus Hackathon:
I loved my group for this hackathon—everyone was productive, and we were all laser-focused making our team successful. I had a lot more confidence going in. I also made sure I was doing the presentation. Our slides were stronger, our idea was more practical with a realistic timeline, and we even developed a chatbot for our project.
We focused on minimizing GLP-1 side effects with better nutritional planning, using AI to guide users when they needed support. The chatbot provided instant help with health-related questions or issues, making the plan more accessible and user-friendly. We got much better feedback this time and I walked away proud.
Overall, TKS has transformed how I see the world and approach problems. Now, whenever I face a challenge—big or small—I think, “Could I create something to solve this?” It’s a gift to have that mindset, to constantly be ready to create and take action. TKS has also improved my work ethic and productivity in ways I couldn’t have imagined, and honestly, I can’t wait to see where I’ll be just a month from now (so subscribe).
When AI Takes Over My To-Do List
How does someone with zero coding experience dive into AI development?
This month, I went from having no clue about Python syntax—or even knowing if I liked coding—to discovering just how much joy it brings me. Now, building AI projects has become a top priority in my free time. Don’t let me fool you—I am not a coder haha, but I will be.
The first AI project I ever worked on was a stock sentiment analysis tool. Honestly, I followed a YouTube tutorial step by step, and whenever I hit a roadblock, I just turned to ChatGPT for help. Going into it, I thought coding would be the death of me—but to my surprise, it was kind of underwhelming how simple it was—especially with all the resources available online.
For the longest time, I’d built coding up in my head as this massive, intimidating obstacle. A lot of accelerators and VCs talk about successful co-founder dynamics, often split into two roles:
The technical co-founder
The business/marketing co-founder
I always saw myself as the second one—the business/marketing type—because coding seemed so out of reach. But after that first project, even though it was just a tutorial, I realized it wasn’t nearly as scary as I’d imagined. It gave me the confidence to take on any role, “figure it out” as I went, and still learn and deliver great results.
To push myself further, I cold-pitched 11 clothing brands on Instagram—brands I thought were cool—proposing a sentiment analysis project to track their social media trends. Out of the 11, only one responded. But honestly, that’s all I needed. Just like that, I landed my first real-world coding project.
Here’s the funniest part: I got a project before most of my friends who’ve been coding for years—and are, on paper, way more qualified than I am. The difference? They’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to land in their lap, while I’ve learned that waiting doesn’t work.
At TKS, we studied The Third Door approach—the idea that there’s always an alternative path to achieving your goals if you’re willing to hustle, take risks, and create your own opportunities. Ever since, I’ve stopped waiting and started building my own doors, no matter how unconventional. And I haven’t looked back since.
Do I know how to code well? Not yet. There are countless people better suited for this kind of project, with more expertise and experience. But that doesn’t bother me, because I know I’ll find a way to make it work—and in the process, I’ll push myself far beyond what anyone expects.
I’ll share all the details of the project when it’s finished (I plan to write an article about it here, so follow my account to stay updated). For now, all I can say is this: the fear of starting is so much bigger than the task itself. Once you take that first step through the third door, a whole new world opens up.
What’s Next? 💭
Learn, learn, and learn—then learn even more. Learn what exactly? Anything entrepreneurship!
Taking on the next TKS challenge
Wrapping up my first ever real-world coding project
University applications
Launching new projects (to fail intentionally to grow)
Kick off my internship at Armilla AI & BFI
Going after just about any opportunity I see—even if I’m not deemed ‘prepared’
Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to reach out on my LinkedIn if you’d like to have a chat on anything and everything entrepreneurship!
See you next month with even more to share and compounded growth toward 0.1! 👋
Nice first newsletter, Noah! Really excited to see your journey and appreciate getting to see the wonderful stuff you do outside of our chats :)