Whilst only in her early twenties, Erin Smith has already helped to make the world a far better place. Her company, FacePrint, aims to help thousands of people with degenerative illnesses, years before they fully manifest.
And best of all, she started her company whilst she was only a teenager!
In recent weeks, we have covered numerous teenage entrepreneurs, commonly referred to as kidpreneurs. This includes Bitcoin millionaire Erik Finman, green fashion designer Maya Penn and tech guru Ben Pasternak (among many others!).
Early Life
Erin Smith was born in the Chicagoan suburb of St. Charles, in Illinois on December 26, 1999. Here, she was the middle child, having two older sisters and two younger brothers.
Just prior to Erin’s second birthday, her family moved from the outskirts of Chicago to the relatively sleepy city of Lenexa, Kansas. Here, the family would remain until the present day.
Growing up, Erin was initially just like every other child. She played with dolls, watched TV and did things that most other children did. At least at this point, there was nothing that made her “different” from the rest.
Once she got to school, Erin found that she had a natural gift for both Math and Science. But it was more than that- she actually really enjoyed doing this, perhaps a lot more than her classmates did.
As a child, Erin’s favorite thing to do was performing science experiments with her mom in the kitchen. These may not have been particularly difficult experiments, but Erin found a lot of enjoyment in this.
Upon going to high school, Erin continued to excel in school, but especially so in Math and Science. At school, she would do Science and Math, and at home, she’d do more Science, including experiments with her mom as she’d done years before.
Here, Erin decided that she wanted to pursue a career in science or math of some description.
FacePrint
On top of her scientific research, Erin loved to watch sci-fi films, especially the Back to the Future franchise. On one occasion, she was watching an interview with Michael J. Fox, who played Marty McFly.
This particular interview showed Michael, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, laugh and smile. Here, Erin noticed something: his laughs and smiles seemed rather cold and distant.
Being the curious scientist she was, Erin reached out to many doctors and degenerative disease specialists in her local area about this. They too had noticed this in patients, years before an official diagnosis was made.
After doing more research, Erin found that there was no definitive test for this. As such, Erin, using her scientific background, and basic knowledge of coding, Erin began to develop her own test, calling it FacePrint.
On top of developing FacePrint, Erin also incorporated her own company- FacePrint, Inc.
Essentially, FacePrint comprises of two parts. The first is a device (usually and iPad or something similar) that produces a series of pictures and emojis that are designed to invoke certain emotions, namely happiness.
Secondly, the device also photographs your emotions, namely, how you smile. This smile is then comapred to faces of people with degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and faces of regular peole.
This method is over 85% effective, more so than the 70% for the method currently in use.
Today
According to extensive research carried out by Finance Friday, Erin Smith may not be as rich or famous as other kidpreneurs. However, Erin Smith’s net worth is estimated to be at about $750,000 (as of the time of writing).
The entirety of Erin’s net worth is dependent on her holdings in FacePrint, which is currently estimate dot be worth several millions of dollars (sources differ as FacePrint is privately-held).
Today, Erin Smith is quite a vocal degenerative disease advocate. She has contributed many articles on major news outlets, as well as industry outlets and scientific journals on the topic of degenerate diseases, as well as FacePrint.
On top of contributing numerous articles, Erin Smith has also been selected to give numerous TedTalks. Many of these TedTalks have broken records, both in terms of length, detail and the number of times she’s done them.
Due to her significant contribution to the medical field, coupled with her particularly young age, has seen Erin receive numerous awards:
- 2018, Erin was labelled as a Global Teen Leader by the WAAF
- 2019, Erin was featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 award
- 2019, FacePrint was nominated as one of the Top Health Startups by Wired
Today, FacePrint is becoming more and more common. In the US, FacePrint has been rolled out in many Kansas hospitals. Erin hopes that by the end of the 2020’s, FacePrint will be standard in all hospitals in the US and the across the US.
University
During the Summer break in between her junior and senior year, mostly due to Erin exceling in both Math and Science, she participated in MIT’s Research Science Institute.
This is extremely difficult to not only apply for, but also to be accepted into, notoriously having an acceptance rate below the 1% mark.
Upon graduation high school in 2018, Erin Smith applied for, and was accepted into Stanford University. The school is quite famous for producing entrepreneurs, with students being encouraged to start their own businesses whilst there!
However, she deferred her place in the 2018/19 school year in order to focus on her business and to enter in 2019 as a Thiel Fellow.
How Can I Replicate What Erin Smith Did?
Short answer: You can’t. At least, you can’t fully replicate what Erin has done- after all, that is why Erin has been so successful. Her tests are more conclusive than the ones previously used.
So unless you believe that you can make something that is even more accurate than FacePrint, you probably can’t replicate what she has done.
And plus, why would you want to? Why on Earth would you want to be remembered as the person who just did the same thing as Erin Smith? Surely you’d rather be remembered for doing something from scratch!
Long answer: You can. Assuming you keep the above points in mind, you could, in theory, replicate what Erin Smith has done.
Let’s assume that you too, want to create something revolutionary that helps people, perhaps something that is in the medical field. You could, in theory, replicate Erin 100%, albeit with your own product rather than FacePrint.
On top of just learning about Erin, you could also learn about other contemporary medical entrepreneurs, such as Abhilash Patel or Fabien Beckers. You could even look at older, much larger people like Fredrich Bayer too!
The good thing about many of these older medical industry entrepreneurs is that there are biographies, and occasionally autobiographies. Many of these biographies are written by professionals, who often knew them personally.
On the surface of it, it may seem weird- after all, they’re dead and their businesses are behemoths today. However, when you read the biographies, you learn what made them tick, and more importantly, which of them made them so successful!
From thereon, you can implement them in your own life, and become more successful!
What Can we Learn From Erin Smith?
Erin Smith may only be 20 years old, but she has led a rather interesting life. Erin Smith can teach you a lot, mostly about starting your own business, but also (somewhat) to do with life and personal finance!
Be Consistent
As of the time of writing, Erin is still enrolled at Stanford, having previously been enrolled at high school whilst also running FacePint. Here, she has to balance her life as both a student and as a CEO of a startup.
As such, she needs to use every available spare second to help grow FacePrint. This means that Erin likely gets up far earlier than her classmates, whilst also going to sleep far later than them.
On top of this, she likely forgoes the wild parties that many of her friends will go to. After all, she can’t afford to have two days where she can’t do anything (because she’s drunk and/or hung over).
Erin likely also works on the weekends and on public holidays too! This is because Erin physically can’t afford to spend 16 hours running her business as she has other commitments as well.
For Erin, being consistent and running her business even on the weekends and maybe even at half past four in the morning, is of paramount importance. Every day she works is yet another life saved!
Follow Your Passion
As a child, Erin loved science. When she was just a little girl, she would perform science experiments in her garage with the help of her mom. This likely only helped to reinforce Erin’s love and enthusiasm for the subject.
When she got older, Erin continued to do this, both at school and at home. For Erin, it seems that there was nothing better than a good science experiment!
Whilst in her late teens, Erin still had the love for science she’d had all those years ago. And Erin used that love for science, and the natural curiosity that came with it, to found FacePrint.
Just listening to one of her TedTalks, you can understand that Erin is extremely passionate about science, but especially about diagnosing various degenerative illnesses years befire they manifest, and with more accuracy!
And t has been this passion that has driven her for the last few years. Running a medical startup, whilst going to school and being a teenager has its own challenges, but Erin hasn’t let them win. Her love for science is too great!
Don’t Forget to Help Others
For many kidpreneurs, and really just any kind of entrepreneur, we are so often rushing around trying to get one thing or another done in time (or putting one fire after the other!) that we often forget to help people.
Many entrepreneurs have made it their entire MO- to help as many people through their entrepreneurship as is humanly possible. For many more, their entrepreneurship is their way of funding their giving back.
The same can also apply to non-entrepreneurs too. I understand, it’s the 21st century, everyone’s lives are much more complicated, but still, don’t forget to help others. Even if it’s only your local homeless man.
However, the vast majority of us still forget. Erin, on the other hand, has not. She has subscribed to the years-old sentiment of “Help thy neighbor” in part, using FacePrint to help people live longer and healthier lives.
Age is Just a Number
When Erin Smith came up with the concept behind FacePrint, she was only a teenager. When Erin Smith finally built FacePrint, she was still, only a teenager, who lived at home with her parents.
Erin tried to get people to trust (and more importantly, use) FacePrint. Many people, likely including friends and family, as well as medical professionals, probably told her that this wouldn’t work, because she was a teenager.
However, Erin did not listen to them. She realized that she had indeed created something that could save people’s lives one day, and allow many more to live far better lives than without it.
To Erin, the fact that she was a teenager meant absolutely nothing.
Erin, alongside just about every other kidpreneur we’ve covered, proves that you are indeed never to early to start. Just because you are a teenager doesn’t mean you can’t have a side hustle, or even start your own business.
By the same token, we have also covered late-starting entrepreneurs. This includes Ray Kroc, the man who turned McDonald’s into the behemoth it is today, not to mention hedge fund manager and investor Phil Town.
Don’t be Afraid to do Something Different
Erin excelled in school, to the point where she was offered a place at MIT, a university that is well known for only accepting the best of the best. This is a place Erin later took, and is currently excelling at as well.
In another life, Erin could’ve coasted through high school, and later through university. Upon graduating from the latter, Erin would’ve probably been offered several high paying jobs in whatever field she wanted to go into.
However, she didn’t.
Instead, Erin decided that she wanted to help people, and make a living off of it too. But at the same time, she didn’t want to be “corrupted” by the money, as many large pharmaceutical companies have been.
So Erin founded FacePrint. She took the risk, knowing that she may end up worse off because of it. As of the time of writing, this has not been the case, and she is actually better off for it! Plus, she gets to help way more people!
You too, don’t need to be afraid to do something different. As Albert Einstein once said: ““The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
And I don’t think I could’ve put it any better! If you do what everyone else does, it’s almost a certainty that you’ll end up like everyone else!
Has the story of Erin Smith inspired you? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Erin Smith and FacePrint.
