Kaeden Patel is just like any teenager: he likes video games, sports, and eating too many sweets.
But unlike most boys his age, the 13-year-old is earning a six-figure salary after starting his own business.
The entrepreneur – and his 11-year business partner – launched an eco-education company that teaches kids how to help save the planet.
Kaeden now has to be homeschooled as he divides his time between Canada, London and New York, where he attends conferences and meets with clients.
But he still makes time for daily meetings with his business partner Vasco Connor, 11, who is from Singapore.
Patel never met his business partner, a young tennis prodigy from Singapore (Kabuni).
The two have never actually met and instead conduct their business meetings through avatars using virtual reality headsets.
Their company, the Sustainable Squad, aims to promote sustainability education among children, with 12 cartoon characters aiming to educate children about green issues and offer children VR lessons in sustainability. They also make their money by selling branded items.
“Making that much money is great at my age – it just drives me to want more,” Patel told DailyMail.com.
“I love sweets, but I don't think I'll spend all my money on them.”
“Me and Vasco are meeting in a social meeting place in VR,” Patel said. 'We play some games, and there are some educational things, like quizzes. We will meet in a private room to discuss our business.'
Flanked by his proud father, Nimesh Patel, Patel said: “I have always been very confident.
'I'm not a shy person. And just having experience, I thought I'd give it a try. I have time. What could go wrong?'
Patel is also a passionate cricketer and hopes to become a professional (Kabuni)
Patel has never met his business partner Vasco Connor (pictured), a young tennis prodigy from Singapore, but the two meet daily in virtual reality and conduct their business meetings via avatars while wearing headsets – while squeezing in games and puzzles.
He conducts his business meetings in VR (Kabuni)
He designed the website and characters himself (Kabuni)
Patel previously did a project raising money for starving children in Africa, together with his three sisters.
“My sisters and I switched roles every year,” he said. “I think I was maybe five years old. One time I became CEO and I loved it, so I thought I wanted more of this, so we decided to create the Sustainability Squad.”
Patel spreads his life across Canada, London and New York, taking his favorite cricket bat with him.
Kabuni is a web3 education platform that aims to teach children the technical skills needed for the business world of the future (Kabuni)
He met Vasco through homeschooling platform Kabuni and quickly realized he needed help building his little empire.
He said: 'I realized Vasco was a great writer, so I thought, 'I need him on this,' so I asked him, and he said yes.
Patel used Midjourney to help design the Sustainability Squad characters (Kabuni).
'We did almost everything together: we launched our own YouTube channel and created a website.'
Patel said he works on an iPad, VR headset and laptop, and father Nimesh helped him set up a store using Shopify, and he and Vasco designed and launched the website together.
“We have our first T-shirts on sale,” he said. “We're having our first sale and we're going to hand deliver it to the first person.”
The company features AI-generated characters to teach other children about being sustainable, which the company sells on merchandise.
Patel said he came up with the concept for the eleven characters because he loves cricket, so he thought, 'Why not animals that play cricket?'
Patel is also a passionate cricketer and hopes to become a professional (Kabuni)
“We have found a sustainable place to produce the merchandise, and hopefully we will produce a book soon.”
Patel's income comes from crypto coins he earned through the education platform Kabuni, founded by his father, which allows children to earn Kabuni crypto coins for learning (Patel's business counts as “learning”) – and its value has soared in recent months.
Kabuni is a web3 education platform that aims to teach children the technical skills needed for the business world of the future, with an emphasis on homeschooling and VR.
There are a dozen kids worldwide with six-figure amounts of USDT (the cryptocurrency Tether, which is pegged to the value of the dollar) who earned them through Kabuni.
Patel said the homeschooling approach has helped him “develop himself more academically.”
Patel is also a passionate cricketer and hopes to become a professional (Kabuni)
Patel never met his business partner, a young tennis prodigy from Singapore (Kabuni).
'It's much better than school because I get to play cricket three times a week during school hours – and I'm way ahead of my age in maths and stuff.'
'At school you wouldn't be allowed to just start your own company while studying math, would you? Homeschooling gave me the time and support to create it and, for example, gave me the platform to do it.”
He said he hoped to start more businesses and go to university, but said: 'Hopefully I'll be a professional cricketer before that.'
He said his advice to other young people considering starting a business is simply: “Don't be afraid to fail: you have time.”