Projects logbook — From 12 to 18yo

Julian Ivaldy
5 min readMar 7, 2020

Developing projects has always made me very happy. I wanted to share on my medium account a retrospective of all the projects I developed until I was 18. My name is Julian and this is my projects logbook — from 12 to 18yo.

🔈 12 years old: Home speaker

Speaker designed from components found in my garage.

The main idea was to develop my own speaker from recycled materials, which could play music from a telephone.

After a few weeks of tinkering with cables and circuits, I was able to operate my speaker from recycled materials. It was a real surprise for my family who was afraid that I would electrocute myself.

🚀 13 years old: Air rocket

Compressed air rocket created with a bicycle pump.

This challenge was to build a rocket that would be powered by compressed air.

I managed to make my rocket take off, this one being able to cover a distance of more than 30m. All this is thanks to the pressure of a pump that causes the release of energy from the compressed air. Far from an innovation project, the search for perfection and performance awakened in me.

🛹 14 years old: Electric skateboard

Functional prototype but not resistant in autonomy (too heavy).

This project took up a lot of my time. I worked with many resources that can be found online.

I wanted to develop my own electric mono-wheel skateboard. To do this, I used the electrical assembly of an old electric scooter. I designed and made the board, installed a wheel I bought on the internet, and assembled it all with a stability system (With manual weight management). I improved it to reduce weight and increase performance.

📱15 years old: Mobile App for neighbors.

Mobile application developed in Objective C and Swift

Living in the digital era and facing the exponential development of digital companies that are turning the industry upside down, I became interested in digital.

My goal was to develop my own mobile application “MyJob”. The concept was very simple, to connect neighbors together by creating a social network that would allow an area to share community tasks.

I learned how to code some computer languages like Objective C. I worked on the project for over 2 years. Develop the idea, its business plan and build the mobile application for Ios devices. I’ve created ads playing on the fresh side of mobile application development.

🖥 16 years old: Web development agency

PartnerShip with a big Indian development company (Appsimity)

I created an IT agency. The development of this project took place at a time when my objectives were put into question.

From creating projects for my personal enjoyment, I moved on to a more professional and entrepreneurial vision. Creating projects that are interesting but also viable and profitable.

In this context and in view of the popularity of the development of IT projects (website, mobile applications), I co-founded an IT agency. For that, I developed very quickly a network of foreign developers because they proposed a very interesting economy thanks to the cheap workforce.

🏄🏽‍♂️ 17 years old: Sports media channel

Production and realization of video totaling + 300K views (I drive the motorcycle)

‎​Coming from a small surfing town, I decided to launch a local sports media with 5 friends. We have grown through our social networks.

To this day we have worked with companies and municipalities to promote their products & territories through our videos. In particular, we shot a promotional clip in partnership with the city Seignosse to highlight the first aid service of the municipality.

Our social networking pages have had great traffic and we have developed a large community that has led us to contract professional services. All our videos have been viewed over 300,000 times.

🕵🏼‍♂️‍ 18 years old: Sightseeing application

Showcase of our technology at VivaTech 2019.

A project illustrating my personality. Faced with a problem, I decided to create a solution and (try to) make it viable. Sightseeing ( or Sunday stroll ) in large urban tourist cities like Paris…

There are tools to be created, I thought… Having “too much” or “too little” information about interesting places to visit, not being able to sort and adapt my visits to my needs in real-time. For this, I had the idea to develop a technology that would allow me to offer a tailor-made tour to each person, taking into account internal factors (needs and desires of the person) but also external factors such as weather, tourist flow, or exceptional events such as disturbances, strikes, cultural events, etc. ;

I partnered with a developer (Romain) and we developed a mobile application based on the concept I had imagined. The application has counted more than 5000 downloads in Paris on Apple devices and without any marketing campaign.

We exhibited our application and our technology at the entrepreneurship fair VivaTech and we were invited to the city hall of Paris by Anne Hidalgo to discuss with advisers about the tourist flows in the Parisian capital.

I have always developed side projects in parallel with my main activities. This has really taught me a lot on a professional level, but also on a personal level. What I like is to study and launch different types of side businesses, test new digital business models, and create growth acquisition strategies. This year, I decided to create my digital side business lab, SideFounders.

This story has inspired you and awakened your entrepreneurial side ? Check out my article How to Create a Successful Digital Side Business !

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