Kler tells us about his successful app, UndrTheRadr, which raises money for 'Free the Children' to support their efforts to educate children who are living Under the Radar of Western society.
Kler tells us about his successful app, UndrTheRadr, which raises money for Free the Children to support their efforts to educate children who are living Under the Radar of Western society.
Eighteen-year-old Aanikh Kler has already accomplished a lot for his age – he is the creator of a successful app, has been a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) speaker, and been named one of Canada’s Top 20 Under 20 by Plan Canada.
Kler’s app, UndrTheRadr, is a neuroscience-based ringtone that only those 21 years old and under can hear. A friend’s phone confiscated at school after it rang during class because he had forgotten to shut off the ringer got Kler thinking of ringtone technology as a great way of having your phone ring without adults being aware.
From each 99 cent app download, 20 cents are contributed straight towards Free the Children – an international charity dedicated to providing education to children and teens in developing countries. This charitable and social entrepreneurial aspect came from a trip to Cambodia.
The winter before Kler turned 14, he travelled with his family to Cambodia. “It’s an incredibly beautiful country, but it’s also a country of great strife,” says Kler, narrating the story of a young girl he met who was selling bracelets. The girl, about 12 years of age or younger, reminded him of his cousins back in Canada. She was intelligent and entrepreneurial. “She was going up to tourists to sell these bracelets and the way she was getting their attention, and the way she tried to communicate with them was really street-smart and entrepreneurial,” he recalls.
This impressed Kler, “Although she had no formal education, she was impressively selling bracelets, probably to help her family. I couldn’t help but imagine what she could do for herself, her community, her country, if she had an education.”
These two aspects of the app – staying under the radar of your teachers or parents, and helping support children who live under the radar of western people’s everyday lives – is why the app is called UndrTheRadr.
After he launched UndrTheRadr, Aanikh appeared on the national television series Dragon’s Den, where he pitched the app in front of some of Canada’s most successful venture capitalists. The publicity he earned through this appearance played a large role in his app gaining popularity. “I honestly didn’t even think I’d make the cut. I went on the show and became the youngest social entrepreneur to receive funding. After the episode aired, the app hit number two in the iTunes app store top chart. I just saw it there and couldn’t believe it. It was a really cool moment, seeing all of the positive feedback, support, and downloads,” shares Kler, who will begin attending Stanford University in the Fall to study management sciences and engineering.
With the success of the app, the young entrepreneur decided to visit the slums of Delhi and donate school supplies to roughly 1,000 children – wanted to give back form his own personal profit from the app. This has been his most memorable moment since launching the app, “For me, being able to go and do service work with profits from my app was a very special moment. It was from something that I was able to create. To see the excitement when they opened up a pencil box of school supplies and speak to them and hear what inspires them – that to me was probably the coolest moment.”
Kler’s advice for youngsters is to believe in your work. “Whether it’s in technology, art, retail, food, or anything in between, youth are always worried and scared because they feel that they’re too young, inexperienced, or think there’s someone else out there doing more. My advice would be that if you have something in life you’re passionate about, go for it. Believe in your passion and someone else will believe in it too, and they’ll be there to support you.”
