Why a 10-year-old runs this company
Nishanth has been building things since before he could spell "engineer." His first robot came home at age 4, and he hasn't stopped since. His current favorite build is an M Block Bot running on a Raspberry Pi — the kind of project that would intimidate most adults. By 8, he was writing his own fantasy novels and entering robotics tournaments on the weekends. By 10, he had opinions — strong ones — about which kids' robotics kits were actually fun and which were just expensive plastic.
RoboKid started from a simple complaint he kept making at the dinner table: "Why do the robot kits for kids either suck or cost like a car?" Dad (a biotech CFO by day) took the idea seriously. Nishanth made a list of the kits he wanted to try. We called the makers. That list became the catalog.
"If a kit is boring, we don't sell it. It has to pass the me test."
— Nishanth, age 10
What he actually does here
Every kit on RoboKid gets tested in our living room in Cary, NC before it goes live. Nishanth builds it, rates it 1-10, and writes the "kid review" that shows up on every product page. He also gets final say on which emoji goes on each project card. (He's very serious about the emoji.)
Building & Robotics
Nishanth's vision for RoboKid
"I want every kid to feel what I felt when my first robot actually worked. That moment when the wheels start spinning because of something you built — that's the best feeling. If RoboKid gives that to even one kid, we did our job."