Getting a head start with Shivad Singh

His colourful character and boundless energy is infectious, so it's not hard to see how he's come this far this quickly, and he's showing no signs of stopping.

When last we heard from Singh, he'd just completed the Red Bull Amaphiko Academy workshop training with his start-up, Presto Academy, which he co-founded with Fuaad Coovadia.

#AfricaMonth: Bridging the education gap with learner-created content

Shan Radcliffe  31 May 2017

Give us a quick update on Presto Academy...

Presto Academy completed the first pilot study of our Life Skills workshops with positive results. We are also implementing these workshops with Silulo Technologies, owned by award-winning social entrepreneur Luvuyo Rani. From next year, we will be licensing our content to Syafunda, which provides educational material via mobile phone, reaching over 80,000 learners. We have also had talks with major retailers, a well-known cellular brand, while also seeking sponsorships to get our Presto Study Guides to as many students as possible.

What else have you been up to since we last spoke?

I have been up to so much! I recently attended the Spark Accelerator for social entrepreneurs which helped strengthen my business model, create relationships with amazing entrepreneurs and provided access to funding.

I also received the Leading SA award, which will allow me to attend the prestigious, One Young World Summit on a scholarship this year. The summit gathers the brightest young leaders across 190 countries. Past speakers included Sir Richard Branson, Emma Watson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Arianna Huffington. I am really excited.

I am not done yet! I have also been busy in preparing for the launch of my new show called Head Start.

Tell us more about Head Start and what you’re looking to achieve with it?

Head Start is a show where I interview the most successful and inspiring young people in the world. This is done with the aim to inspire and fuel other young people to take action on their dreams. Once you see someone of a similar age achieving amazing things, you get a shift in your mindset. This is what I want the show to do for other young people like me.

People interviewed included Forbes 30 Under 30 Standout members, Times Most Influential Teens and a New York Times bestselling author to name a few. The show is available as a podcast on iTunes and Google Music and can also be watched on Youtube.

Who are your personal role models?

By my Facebook feed, most of my friends know that Elon Musk is my biggest role model for business. I'm also a big fan of Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, and Oprah Winfrey who have both positively changed the lives of millions. Tony Robbins and Dr John Demartini, who are personal growth experts. Furthermore, I have been influenced by the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Carol Dweck who are one of the world's leading psychologists aimed at maximizing human potential.

If you could have dinner with three people – dead or alive – who would they be?

This is a question that I ask on my show! I would like to have dinner with Elon Musk, the comedian and actor Aziz Ansari (my friends say I look like him) and the Buddha. I think it would be an interesting combination of having someone who is pushing humanity forward (Elon Musk), someone who is making humanity laugh (Aziz Ansari) and someone who made humanity suffer less (The Buddha).

If you could be a super hero, or have any super power, who/what would it be?

My super power would be to be the master of time and space. This will allow me to go back into the past, move forward into the future and also freeze time. I will be able to go back in time to invent Facebook, go into the future to see what would be the next big company (so I can start that) and also pause time so I can get more things done while everyone is frozen in time!

If you could head up any global company, which one would it be?

This is such a great question! Apart from heading my own companies (that will be global one day), I would probably head up Google. This is because apart from gaining my knowledge from books, most of my knowledge has come through asking the right questions on Google. Mostly everyone who I have interviewed mentioned Google as their #1 resource.

Google is also placing big bets on investments in self-driving cars, human longevity, and artificial intelligence. They are creating the future. Google also owns Youtube, and I'm a fan of watching cat videos so that's also a plus.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

My mission is to ensure that people give off their best self to the world. Everything that I focus on in the next 10 years will be aimed at achieving this mission. The focus is to do what I am currently doing but a bigger scale. I want to expand Presto and our Life Skills content online and to the rest of Africa and then the world, reaching millions of users. The plan would also be to turn Head Start into a fully-fledged media company (if the show takes off). I see myself on the Forbes 30 under 30 Africa list, becoming a New York Times best-selling author, a highly regarded public speaker and connecting with the most successful young people and other influencers in the world.

Check out the trailer for Head Start below, and don't forget to catch the weekly round-up of Head Start interviews on Bizcommunity.com