 "Raffay Ansari (center). Image via Tech in Asia")
Sixteen-year-old Raffay Ansari is a self-taught programmer. He’s been an iOS developer for over three years and has now graduated into full-stack, meaning he’s comfortable working with a number of different languages as well as both back-end and front-end technologies. The teenage prodigy from Pakistan has earned several thousand dollars freelancing online, coded games that have attracted about 8 million cumulative downloads, and is now on the brink of launching his own start-up.
Raffay has Ataxia, which means he has difficulty walking, speaking clearly, writing, reading, and other activities that require fine motor control. Raffay tells Tech in Asia that his muscles continue to weaken, even after his diagnosis over two years ago.
It wasn’t always so simple. Raffay’s condition meant he was different from his peers at school. He was bullied and found it difficult to socialise and make friends. His teachers didn’t know how to handle him properly, and he would be constantly rebuked for missing classes.
Raffay says his turning point came when he was introduced to the video game Borderlands.
The internet became Raffay’s teacher. He taught himself how to code through free online courses, primarily from Code Academy. By the age of 13, he had successfully bid for and completed his first freelance assignment – coding the iOS game Mr Flap.
Raffay is now on the brink of launching his own start-up, Odyssy, which he describes as a data-driven content management system (CMS) targeted at bloggers and publishers who aren’t very technologically savvy and who don’t want to spend time coding in HTML. He reveals Odyssy is on the brink of closing its seed funding round – $20,000 from an angel investor based out of Islamabad.
