Starting a Company, Pitching to Microsoft, and WSC: My 2nd Quarter
Hi there! My name is Rhea Mehra, and I’m a 15-year-old innovator and space enthusiast changemaker based in Dubai. I’m tirelessly working on understanding how we can use microalgae and cyanobacteria to support life on Mars so I can make us a multi-planetary species! I’m going to change the world, so here’s a sneak peek into what I’m doing now.
Highlights This Month
Starting Spirulinx, a Space Tech x Gene Editing Company
Pitching to the Microsoft Global Director + winning Best Presentation
Attending the World Scholar’s Cup Competition + winning tons of medals
Speaking on stage for the first time + presentation advice
Starting Spirulinx, a Space Tech x Gene Editing Company 🚀
As an innovator at TKS, an accelerator aimed at exposing teenagers to emerging technologies and mindsets, we had a Moonshot challenge from April to May.
In this capstone project to the 10-month-long program, we were tasked to solve a global problem using groundbreaking technology and radical solutions.
During this challenge, my team had our sights set on Mars, the red planet that is humanity's next frontier. Unsurprisingly, setting up a colony on a new planet involves many challenges, so we wanted to help!
After much research, pivoting, and failed plans, we decided to use genetically modified organisms to tackle the nutrition problem on Mars.
Our Solution: Using Genetically Modified Organisms for Nutrition on Mars
According to a paper published in the NPJ Microgravity journal, a big issue with allowing humans to survive on Mars is that the food astronauts consume does not meet nutrition requirements.
This can lead to bone loss and weakening, neurological impairments, increased risk of cancer, prolonged bleeding, and much more.
So, at Spirulinx, we genetically modify Spirulina, a highly nutritious cyanobacteria, to create the Martian nutritional supplement!
Essentially, we modify Spirluna’s genome so it can survive on Mars despite radiation, lower atmospheric pressure, very low and varying temperatures, and the lack of readily available CO2.
In doing so, we can cultivate spirulina directly on the Martian surface! Then, we turn the spirulina into a powder that the astronauts can add to water, coffee shakes, and more to consume.
With this, only drinking one glass every five days would fulfill your nutrient needs for an entire year!
To learn more, check out our website with a one-pager and multiple articles below!
After pitching to three impressive judges, we won “Best Presentation” and moved on to the Superfinals!
Our success and growth simply prove that no matter what setbacks you face, as long as you have the determination to continue, failure is just the beginning, not the end.
This was a fantastic project that was the perfect way to end this phase of TKS, so I plan to continue working so I can bring this solution to life! (pun intended)
I have to thank
and Nitish Manocha for being amazing teammates! I couldn’t have done it without them; calling every day and going through the highs and lows was so much better with you guys around, so thank you so much!Pitching to Microsoft’s Global Director + Winning Best Presentation 🏆
In TKS, March marked the beginning of the Microsoft Challenge.
During this challenge, my team and I had to tackle the prompt, “As AI continues to grow and requires additional data centers, chip manufacturing, and energy usage – how can we sustainably continue the accelerated AI growth while saving our planet and optimizing costs?”
My team and I spent countless hours researching and stress-testing our ideas until we found the perfect idea: modular data centers.
The big problem with data problems is that it’s simply too big, which makes it expensive and time-consuming to build.
Because of this, using modular data centers that can be gradually expanded allows for 62.5% faster deployment and saves 18% on initial costs.
Based on this, we created the recommendation deck, which you can access below!
With this idea, we were chosen to move on to the finals out of around 100 teams. Along with two other teams, we pitched to the Global Director of Google, Jarnail Singh!
After just two days to prepare a pitch deck, I gave a 5-minute presentation summarizing our ideas and comparing them to the status quo. After some deliberation, due to our straightforward pitch and innovative idea, we won Best Presentation!
This amazing achievement and experience taught me much about myself and what good teamwork can accomplish.
I have to thank my teammates and good friends Narin Yüksek, Mark Leupold, and Arnav Khanna for making this possible and simultaneously extremely fun!
Attending the World Scholar’s Cup Competition 🏅
From May 26-27th, I attended my first World Scholar’s Cup regional round!
In this competition, my team and I had to debate, write a story or essay based on a prompt, complete a multiple-choice quiz, and do a scholar’s bowl, which is basically a big kahoot.
This experience was definitely a highlight of the year.
Hugging people I’d barely known, gaining confidence after a strong debate, and making close friendships closer all made this supposedly academic experience extremely lively and social.
With such an amazing community surrounding me, I got 5 gold medals and 2 silver ones after placing 7th out of 1000+ people in writing and 44th in the debate!
With a great performance from my team, we were invited to a global round in Stockholm, which will take place from July 12th to 18th. I can’t wait to relive it then!
Speaking on Stage for the First Time 🎤
On May 12th, to prepare for the launch of the in-person TKS award, we held an event to share our experiences! Although I had presented on calls and in school before, this marked the first time I’d come on stage.
Even though a couple of months ago, I would’ve been crying and quivering at the thought of presenting in front of dozens of people, when I got to the stage, it felt natural.
After training this muscle for months, I feel like communicating ideas and telling stories have become some of my greatest strengths, so let me share some things that helped me along the way.
Tips for Presenting Well 🗣️
Because I know how scary it can feel, I want to give a couple of tips that have helped me pitch to executives and 300+ people:
Be simple - I can’t stress how important this is. No one will think you’re smart or capable because of your excessive buzzwords and jargon. You only want to ensure your audience understands what you’re saying and can follow along. To do this, use aiding images and pictures, don’t speak so quickly, use analogies and stories when explaining complex topics, etc.
Be excited and entertaining! - The audience will feel what you feel. If you seem bored, confused, and uninspired, so will they. So smile! Use hand gestures! Do what you must to look passionate and committed so they can follow along and have a good impression of you and what you’re saying. To lighten the mood for a longer presentation, include jokes, anecdotes, and stories that add to the main idea so you can catch their attention and make it more humane.
Make pitch decks aid what you’re saying: For pitch decks, the main things the audience wants to see are graphs, tables, helpful graphics, text to aid what you're saying (especially numbers), and a ton of pictures. No one wants to see a block of text that’s completely unrelated to what you’re doing. The deck is meant to supplement what you’re saying, not be its own presentation you talk over. If you want an example, take a look at my Microsoft pitch deck.
What’s Next
Traveling to Stockholm for the Global World Scholar’s Cup Round 🇸🇪
From July 12-18th, I’m going to Stockholm, Sweden, for the global round in the World Scholar’s Cup! After having a blast at the regional round, I can’t wait to bump up the difficulty and see how I can learn and how much more fun I’ll have.
The really exciting aspect to this is that, if my team and I do well in Sweden, at the end of this journey marks the Tournament of Champions which is hosted at Yale University in November!
This could be a great experience to visit schools, grow closer to this new community, and improve my public speaking, writing, and memorizing skills. I can’t wait!
Joining Nights and Weekends at Buildspace 🌌
Along with 60k+ people, I’ve joined the Nights and Weekends program at Buildspace, where I have to build upon an idea for 6 weeks!
With it starting just as my school is ending, it serves as a great catalyst to push my ideas and creation forward throughout the summer, where one can easily fall into the trap of staying in bed watching the latest Netflix show until half of the day has already passed.
For the next 3 weeks now, I’m going to be building towards building…
To follow along to see how it goes, check out my YouTube channel which will have all of the shorts I make:
Thank you so much for reading until the end! If you want to keep up with me, please reach out on my LinkedIn and X/Twitter or email me at rheagmehra@gmail.com. I’ll see you all at the start of August. Have a great month! 😁
Congrats!