Meet the Best-Connected 21-Year-Old in the World
Ankur Jain is the founder of the Kairos Society, a network of college entrepreneurs dedicated to changing the world through business. And socializing. Which is, in fact, business.
When Ankur Jain was 12 years old, he knew, absolutely knew, what he needed to make the eighth-grade basketball team: $100 contraptions called Jumpsoles.
These are strap-on foot weights that look like Birkenstocks stuck to chunks of asphalt, yes, but they promised to help him jump higher, maybe even dunk, and Ankur needed to make up for lost time: He was a skinny seventh-grader who had spent the summer learning to program websites instead of playing hoops. But his parents said no. Even though they were rich (his dad, Naveen Jain, was the CEO of InfoSpace; Forbes had recently called him a billionaire), and Ankur himself now made around $200 a month from his websites, they said $100 was too much for some foot weights. They wanted to impress on him the value of money.
It was a coming-of-age moment—a test, in a way, of Jain's character. He could grudgingly honor his parents' wishes. He could throw a tantrum or secretly spend the money he'd earned without their knowledge. But Jain did none of those things. What he did was call the CEO of an online retailer that sold a lot of Jumpsoles. He told the CEO, truthfully, that he ran a website aimed at young teen consumers. He was considering featuring Jumpsoles, he told him, but would need to try out a pair first. Jain had his pair the next day.
Both Ankur and his father tell the story proudly. Ankur had his Jumpsoles. Naveen and his wife, Anu, felt as if they had taught their son not to spend money foolishly. And the retailer felt as if he had put his product in front of the teenager market online. Ankur had found a way to produce what he still prizes above everything: the win-win.
"Everything I ever wanted, if I had to buy new shoes or whatever, I would have to find a way that makes them happy, do an extra school thing, or something, where everybody wins—then I'd end up with the reward," says Ankur. "If I just asked for a favor from my parents, they would always say no."
"Your responsibility as a parent is to let them know what makes you proud of them," says Naveen. Dealmaking was, and is, a sort of family value.
Nine years later, Jain has stacked win-win on win-win on win-win-win-win-win, and he has turned himself into possibly the world's best-connected 21-year-old. He's Wharton '11 and the founder of the Kairos Society, a network of college entrepreneurs dedicated to, according to the mission statement, "solving the world's greatest challenges." I find him at a café beside a canal on the cobblestoned streets of The Hague, in the Netherlands, enjoying a sunny April afternoon with his best friends: Jacob Medwell, Jonathan Shriftman, and Daniel Pourbaba. The gang, uniformly dressed in dark suits and designer sunglasses, have traveled to the Netherlands for something called the World Foresight Forum, a conference hosted by investor Joel Wyler, the father of another Jain friend, David Wyler. They landed last night. This morning, they took chauffeured Porsches (available to certain forum attendees) from their hotel to the conference. Now it's 2 p.m., and jet lag notwithstanding, it feels like lunchtime. Tagging along with them are Jain's girlfriend, Kate Rems; one of their Dutch hosts, Jelle Brouwer; and Dylan Reid, a Jain protégé.
They sit at a long table overlooking the canal, spring sun beaming onto their shades. Brouwer orders them Bloody Marys. When the waitress comes again, they order traditional Dutch sandwiches, which are like club sandwiches with an egg inside, and Jain, who adheres to his family's traditional vegetarianism, orders one with just egg and cheese.
As they sip their drinks, Reid, the new CEO of Kairos, shows off the new Kairos lapel pins, which look like little red washers with silver trim. Jain loves them—they're more practical than the ornate gold medallions he'd had made when he started the group.
"Now we've got people walking around The Hague with Kairos pins—people we don't even know!" says Jain.
Brouwer orders a round of beers for the table, and Jain shifts his attention.
"Jelle, I love you," says Jain.
They start talking about travel plans after graduation. Pourbaba and his dad, a prominent real estate developer based in Los Angeles, are going to Dubai to check out construction projects. Jain and David Wyler are going to Dubai, too, to work on their "game changer," shorthand for their ambitious new business idea. "We've got some meetings, like with the CEO of Aramco," Jain says.
Reid chimes in. "There's gonna be a Kairos trip to Mexico, hopefully. Have you met Jorge yet?"
"Aw, I heard about this," says Jain.
"Youngest politician in Mexico, Kairos fellow…" says Reid.
"Isn't he a senator now?" asks Jain. As it turns out, Jorge Miguel Martin is actually a regidor, the equivalent of a city councilor, in Playa Del Carmen. But no matter; Jain rushes on. "One of our fellows is the youngest senator ever in Mexico. He just invited the Kairos team down to Mexico."
"State sponsored," adds Reid.
"The government's paying for it," says Jain.
"Oh, hell, yeah!" says Pourbaba in a falsetto.
Jain turns his attention to Reid. "How many kids is he paying for?"
"Probably 14, 15," Reid says.
"Get him higher than that," Jain says.
"Dude, he got inaugurated yesterday," says Reid.
"Is he here?" asks Jain.
"He's coming tomorrow."
"Sick!" says Pourbaba.
"He was like, 'There's no way I can make it to the Netherlands; I'm being inaugurated,' " says Reid. "But then he was like, 'All right, screw it, first official tour of duty…' "
Jain starts clapping his hands in appreciation. "Kairos Europe Summit!" he crows.
