From Aitchison to Forbes: Senan Khawaja and Saeed Naeem make it to ‘30 under 30’ list
- The duo founded Kollegio, an AI college counselor, in 2023
Two former students of Aitchison College, Senan Khawaja and Saeed Naeem, are among 600 people featured on the Forbes ‘30 Under 30 United States 2026’ list.
The duo co-founded Kollegio in 2023, an AI-driven platform connecting students, schools, and colleges, and was honoured in the ‘education’ category.
Kollegio, which is free for students, has helped about 110,000 across all 50 states and 190 countries, giving personalized guidance for navigating applying to college, including providing essay feedback.
“They expect to serve 1 million students by the end of 2027. The startup has attracted $3.6 million from investors, including a $2.8 million seed round with funding from Reach Capital, JFFVentures, ECMC Group and Tuesday Capital,” Forbes said.
“A tremendous thank you to my family and friends for supporting me on this journey and undoubtedly the biggest thank you to the phenomenal team at Kollegio,” said Khawaja on social media.
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“This success is only possible with the hard work we put in together day in and day out,” he added.
The founder did his undergrad from Stanford University in Econometrics, Quantitative Economics & International Development.
Naeem, who attended the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated with a BA in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, said he was honored to be included in the list.
“I’ve never been great at pausing to celebrate milestones, but this one made me reflect a bit. Not on the award itself, but the signal that we’re pushing in the right direction.”
As per Forbes, the competition has grown fiercer than when the list was first introduced in 2012.
“Each year, more than 10,000 people apply, and the bar to make the list continues to rise. Despite sweeping change, the requirements to be a pioneering entrepreneur remain constant: imagination, intelligence, and plenty of grit.”
The report said that the honorees on this year’s list are leading the charge in the midst of an AI revolution.
“The new class is using machine learning to do everything from building robotic astronauts to creating powerful tools that let anyone become a genius coder or master artist.”
Forbes also 41% of the individuals that appear on this year’s list self identify as a person of color, and 22% are immigrants.
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