WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Ayaan Parikh graduated high school in May and was hired as the CEO of Novus not long after. Novus is a Wichita startup that tracks and rewards people on their recovery from substance abuse.
“He thought, given my interest in health care, tech administration, and entrepreneurship, it was a good fit for me to start leading Novus,” Parikh said. “So he kind of gave me this opportunity. For the past couple of months, I’ve been working to expand it, grow it, scale it, and kind of push to market now.”
James Walker is Parikh’s mentor and serves on the board of his nonprofit. He says Parikh has ambitions, unlike anyone he’s ever seen.
“He’s been able to do things that very few would do at any level, much less as a high school student,” Walker said. “He stands out because there aren’t many people in this world that can do the stuff he can do.”
In high school, he accomplished many things, including starting his own nonprofit, Medic All.
“I worked with my nonprofit, and that was really important in developing the administration, entrepreneurship side of my brain,” Parikh said. “I think a lot of these individual experiences in high school, they’re now synthesizing, accumulating at this point where now I’m using them for Novus.”