Meet Neil Ruaro, a tech geek who dropped out of school to build an AI startup at 19

Taking the road less traveled 

Speaking with PhilSTAR L!fe, the Gen Z entrepreneur shared that he has been exposed to tech since he was a kid and grew up being told he should take up computer science in the future. 

Ruaro started learning how to code at 16 via several online courses, which he took when he was not busy with his studies as a senior high school student. "I found the curriculum way too easy, and I found that I wasn't really spending too much time on school," he recalled. "I was pretty bored and it just so happened that it was also during the pandemic, everyone was just at home. I had nothing else to do, so I decided to learn how to code instead."

Coding didn't appeal to him at first. "When I first started learning how to code, I didn't like it. It didn't click [on] me. It wasn't intuitive. I think it took me like six months to get the basics done, just the very basics of programming. But after I got the initial hurdle, I found it super fun," he told L!fe. "The more I got into it, the more I found it pretty cool and appealing to me. I was pretty amazed at the potential that you can do when it comes to creating software."

At 17 years old, he landed his first job as a software engineer for a startup based in New York City.

Ruaro juggled his full-time job with his studies at University of the Philippines Diliman, but found himself wanting to focus more on programming.

"I had a full-time job but it just felt like a chore going through some of those stuff I had to do in UP, especially since some of the subjects I was taking [didn’t] really relate to this field that I really want to enter in," he said.

So, in March 2023, he decided to drop out of school to put his full focus on coding even though his parents were "really against it."

"It didn't make sense for me to go through four more years of school studying computer science. I already have a job in this field that I'm studying in, so it felt like it was going to be just a waste of four years on my end and like I could just use that time to upscale myself. That's why I decided to pull the lever and just drop out of school entirely," he recalled.

He spent the next few months working on mobile developments and doing more systems engineering, which further equipped him as a programmer. 

Ruaro quit his full-time software engineering job in January this year, and took a big leap just two months later: He moved to Singapore and raised VC (venture capital) funding under the Antler program for his own startup company.

On starting Intellecs.ai 

In building Intellecs.ai, Ruaro took inspiration from what he had the most difficult time with when he was still a student: the amount of work that needed to be done only to prepare to study.

"I guess the popular thing that happens between students is they tend to write down their notes during the lectures and then they get the recorded lectures after and then they rewrite their notes, and if they use learning techniques such as flashcards, for example, they would have another app for their flashcard creation and then that will mean that they will have to rewrite their notes again in a flashcard format," he said. "So there's a lot of time being wasted, and this is repetitive on every major exam that they have coming up."

He anchored on this problem and used artificial intelligence (AI) to improve one’s productivity with his app. Beyond using technology for writing, he pointed out that it can also be helpful in completing other tasks, such as generating flashcards, doing research, and keeping track of to-do lists, among others.

"We want students to use this as their go-to platform when it comes to learning," he said.

Among the many AI tools that are easily accessible now, Ruaro said his creation stands out as it brings all of them together in one platform and works like a "second brain" for all.

"There are a lot of apps out there that specialize in one thing, like maybe an app specializing in creating only flashcards or something like ChatGPT where you can ask it a bunch of questions and then you can even ask it to write some stuff for you," he said. "But we have never seen an app that brings everything together. There may be some apps that bring some things together like note-taking and standard creation but never everything that Intellecs.ai encompasses."

Ruaro added that with their AI, they "try to mimic the exact way a human would process information" by keeping images, tables, and formatting fixed so no context ends up being left out when a file is processed on the app.

Ruaro is the only full-time employee of his startup so far, though he has part-time content creators who keep the app’s social media pages active and make sure Intellecs.ai is able to reach a large audience online.

Finding fulfillment in the tech world

Ruaro stressed the importance of striving to be financially independent for anyone considering to take the same path as him and start their own company at a young age.

"The number one advice I would always give to people, especially if they're pretty young, is to actually get a job and to actually be financially independent as fast as possible. Because if you're entering this field, investors won't give you money just because you're asking for it," he said. "You really have to put some skin in the game and invest your own personal funds to see this grow without institutional funding. You have to prove yourself first with your own finances."

According to him, being financially independent puts off the pressure from people who are expecting one to succeed in their every move.

"You can show that you know how to live and earn money for yourself and then when you're building something and you manage to earn money and you can then go to investor and say, ‘Hey, I've done this so far just with the money I have, it's getting a lot of progress, people really loving it.' So that gives you a lot of leverage, especially when you're pretty young," he explained. 

Pursuing a business can take a toll on one's health, that’s why Ruaro puts self-care at the top of his priorities. "You need to be able to take care of yourself before you can take care of a company. You should know how to live by yourself and how to be independent," he highlighted.

While it's impossible to achieve work-life balance when managing a startup, he said work-life integration has made him able to take breaks in between, especially since the environment he's in can get "physically demanding and mentally exhausting."

"You need to have an understanding of what your body is telling you to do," he emphasized.

Ruaro makes it a point to go to the gym everyday, and even play football and enjoy bouldering with his friends. "I also get the usual, like get a massage or go to a fancy restaurant and get a nice meal for myself," he continued.

"I believe that everything is interconnected here—the food you eat, how much you exercise, how long the hours you work and how you work on treating yourself mentally and physically," he said. "If you manage to take care of yourself pretty well in all these aspects, that's when you can do your best work on this."

After all, Ruaro loves what he's doing for a living and doesn't see himself stopping or changing direction anytime soon.

"It's not really like you were able to build something and then have people use it. It's more of like people are actually paying to use what you've built and they're actually loving and getting value from it," he said. "That's the best part of it all."