You know you're going places when Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg shares a post on her timeline about your startup, citing it as an archetype for their FbStart programme. 19-year old Harsh Songra has declared himself "really honoured" on seeing his brainchild 'My Child App' find mention as well as support from her, under FbStart - Facebook's new platform designed to help early stage mobile startups build and grow their apps.
This young, "passionate programmer" (as he describes himself on his website) from Bhopal lived with a developmental disorder called dyspraxia until being diagnosed at the age of nine. The lack of awareness and limited access to information about such diseases meant that Harsh's parents were unable to identify problems in their son's development for several years - reportedly until they watched Aamir Khan's movie 'Taare Zameen Par' that dealt with dyslexia.
This motivated the teenager to search for a solution that would allow others like him quicker access to medical care. Launched in January this year, Harsh developed the MyChild app to help parents screen developmental disorders such as delayed motor coordination and neurological disorders in their kids by feeding in a few inputs. Moreover, it takes just 45 seconds for the app to identify any red flags.
Photo courtesy: mychildapp.in
Harsh Songra studies at the Bhopal School of Social Sciences and is also a software developer at Google, according to his Facebook bio.
Read Sheryl Sandberg's entire post here: