We had the good fortune of connecting with Aadit ‘AJ’ Jha and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
There are two business i am currently running:
1. Ball Parkk
2. Sports Marvel LLC

Both are related to my passion for sports analytics and the entrepreneurial mindset. I truly believe sports has the power to unite people in a way that nothing else does. This is what Nelson Mandela said and is depicted quite well in the movie ‘Invictus’. Sports is a trillion-dollar industry but most innovations are towards players. It seems this industry has largely ignored the experience of the fans. So, I developed Ball Parkk which is a ‘Patent Pending’ web application used to enhance the experience of an event such as a sporting event at a stadium, music concert. Ball Parkk’s main product will allow users to rent out private parking spaces near event venues at a lower price than typical public parking spaces around the area. This not only lowers the cost of attending an event, but also decreases the stress of finding parking spaces and the wait times at these event venues. Additionally, the Ball Parkk mobile app will host a variety of other services that will improve the overall experience of attending sporting events or concerts, like concession delivery, wait time estimations, and numerous others created by outside developers. I have completed the user surveys, marketing sizing, screen designs, and UX and now that patent is in place, we will start development.

The other business called ‘Sports Marvel LLC’ has evolved from a simple blogging site to a full tutoring offering. I have been blogging about various sports topics since 6th grade where I talked about sports predictions, use of analytics in sports, and general issue related with sports experiences.
I noticed through my internship at Wize academy that the young students loved sports but hated Math. That gave me the idea of using sports to teach various concepts of Math, Statistics, Analytics, and Physics and led me to develop a course called ‘Sports Marvel’. We completed user testing of this course and piloted it in a summer camp this year. As I started to teach this math concepts using sports topics, I started to get more and more requests for helping students with various subjects. That is when I decided to enhance Sports Marvel to a full tutoring offering where we help students with various topics around high school curriculum. Right now we have 3 teachers including me. The demand is really high and I am waiting for end of year to launch this in earnest and hire more teachers. This business is making $4K-$7K per year and I have demand for above $20K.

The main lessons I learnt in these two ventures is that you have to be diligent, consistent and persistent with the ideas. It all starts with one idea and then morphs into something big, some thing different, something that you would not have thought of before. If you ask me that I had any idea that my YEA project will turn into a patent pending business idea or my amateur blog on sports outcome will transform into a Sports Marvel LLC – the answer is No. The key here is I kept going on these two for last 4-6 years. Another learning I had was that instead of rushing to develop the app or the website, focusing on the whole process of getting to the point where we are clear on what we are building and finalizing the requirements was the most important and daunting steps. Talking to various industry experts, designing the user flow and hiring developers to develop the code, conducting user research, and then filing for a patent – At each of these steps, I got valuable feedback or insights that led to a constant refining of the plan. The process of filing the patent, incorporating the business, getting your EIN number etc are all super valuable experiences that I probably would not have learnt if I didn’t focus on the end to end process of starting an entrepreneurial venture.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I have one weekend to take my friends somewhere to truly capture DFW. Well on the first day I would take them to the Stockyards. It is a 45 minute drive, so we do not have to spend the night anywhere. We would spend 4-5 hours there, and eat nice texan barbeque. After that we would watch the rodeo, and ride on some cattle. We head on over to the gift shop and grab some really nice gifts and souvenirs. We look around and see some really nice shirts and cowboy hats and boots. My friends start going insane “Howdy AJ, look at me, I love riding horses and shooting guns!” We all laugh around and have some fun. I lock them in the jail inside one of the stores, and we all pose for the camera.

It was really hot, and we all wanted to cool down the next day to Paradise Springs which a beutiful waterpark and Gaylord hotel. All you can hear down the block is the constant “Splish splash” of us 4 jumping in the pool, doing cannonballs and cool tricks.

After that we head on over to the Stonebriar mall in Frisco, just to chill and grab bites. We decided to go there and head on over to some cool niche stores. We go to a sporting store and buy numerous jerseys, just because why not.

After that we head over to my high school at Wakeland to watch the sunset. We take some pictures, post on instagram and as Texas tradition says, we swat some flies.

After we wind down, we fire up the grill to have some nice chicken. We spend a lot of time, and make amazing memories with our parents until it hits 11:00 and that means it’s movie time.

Before I sleep I think about the weekend, and I believed this truly was the perfect weekend ever!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The role of my parents, my baseball coach, and my teachers (especially Math, Chemistry, Entrepreneurship, and English) have been critical components of my interest, direction and success so far. But i would like to mention two that have played a defining role in shaping my career so far:

1. Young Entrepreneurship Academy (YEA) – This is the first time i was exposed to business and entrepreneurship. I could not get selected in my 8th grade after being waitlisted, but made it in successfully in my 9th grade. Those 9 months of a structure business launch sessions totally shaped the direction i wanted to pursue for my future career.

2. Ms. Alpa Sharma – Head of Wize Computing Academy – Frisco & Plano – Ms. Sharma liked my outputs from YEA and saw the potential in a high school kid. She offered me my first internship to help with marketing of Wize summer programs in my tenth grade. Since then, i have been offered progressively new roles as an educator, coach, and marketer and getting guidance and learning all the way through. She also gave me a chance to pilot my course which is based on a unique method of teaching using sports

Website: nflaadit.wixsite.com/sportsmarvel

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aadit-jha-2a2813219/

Other: nflaadit.wixsite.com/aaditjha99

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