📖 Biography

Jaylen Bledsoe taught himself to code in the sixth grade after discovering an interest in web design through a gifted-education programme at his school, quickly realising he could turn the skill into paid work, charging small amounts for early projects before his rates climbed steadily.

At age twelve, with just $100 in starting capital, Bledsoe founded Bledsoe Technologies, an IT consulting company offering web design, app development and technology consulting services. Within two years, the company had grown to include more than 150 contractors working globally.

By the time he was a teenager still attending high school in the St. Louis area, Bledsoe's company was valued at approximately $3.5 million, drawing national media attention as one of the youngest self-made entrepreneurs in the country — achieved without outside investment or family wealth, and while growing up in a region later associated with the Ferguson protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Bledsoe went on to found The Young Entrepreneur University, a set of programmes designed to teach entrepreneurship specifically to minority students, and later rebranded his growing portfolio as The Jaylen Bledsoe Global Group. He has continued to build his business career into adulthood while remaining a sought-after speaker on youth entrepreneurship.

🕰️ Timeline
1998
Born in St. Louis, Missouri.
c.2009
Teaches himself to code in the sixth grade through a school gifted-education programme.
2010
Founds Bledsoe Technologies, LLC at age twelve with $100 in starting capital.
2013
Company grows to over 150 contractors and reaches a valuation of $3.5 million.
2015
Founds The Young Entrepreneur University to teach entrepreneurship to minority students.
Ongoing
Continues building The Jaylen Bledsoe Global Group and speaking on youth entrepreneurship.
✦ Achievements
  • ◆Founded a technology company at age twelve that reached a $3.5 million valuation by his teens
  • ◆Grew Bledsoe Technologies to over 150 global contractors within two years
  • ◆Founded The Young Entrepreneur University to teach entrepreneurship to minority students
  • ◆Named to Ebony Power 100 and featured in McDonald's "Future 22" leadership list
  • ◆Built his business without outside investment or inherited wealth
"
As a minor, there's nothing you can do that will shoot you down for too long. You can always jump back up and keep going.
— Jaylen Bledsoe
🕊️ Legacy
Jaylen Bledsoe's rise from a twelve-year-old coding for small fees to the head of a multi-million-dollar technology enterprise demonstrated that entrepreneurial opportunity in tech could be built from nothing but skill, persistence and a willingness to start absurdly young — and his subsequent work teaching other minority youth reflects a deliberate effort to widen that path for others.
💡 Leadership Lessons
  • →Skills can become businesses at any age. Bledsoe turned a self-taught coding hobby into paid consulting work within a year.
  • →Start small and scale deliberately. His $100 starting investment grew into a multi-million-dollar operation through steady expansion.
  • →Extend the ladder behind you. His Young Entrepreneur University exists specifically to give other minority youth the same head start he built for himself.
  • →Resilience matters more than a perfect plan. His own words emphasise recovering quickly from setbacks rather than avoiding them.