The Latin American who got a scholarship for the most selective and prestigious university and then sold his business to the #1 company in the world: Apple
Passionate about technology since he was a child, Lucas Roitman is a remarkable entrepreneur and researcher who has made a name for himself in the tech and entrepreneurship world.
Coming from a middle-class family in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he had, and still has, a desire to use his knowledge and experience in technology to make a difference in the world.
“I enjoy working on several projects at the same time, and I am willing to go out of my way if that means I will be changing someone’s life for the better.”
Despite facing challenges early on, such as limited access to technology and resources needed to develop his projects, he was able to overcome these obstacles and rise to the top of his field.
Lucas’s successes started at a very young age. When he was 11, he created a videogame that became viral. By that time, Roitman’s name became increasingly popular in the field and was interviewed in several major newspapers. His next major impact in the tech world occurred when he was just 14 years old, with the development of an Augmented Reality product, which was then acquired by an international media company, turning Roitman into one of the youngest self-made millionaires in the world. This innovative technology that Lucas created is now vastly used in the industry around the world.
When asked about his success and how it relates to the current market, he reflected, “It’s very important to grow fast, but it’s also important to never give up. Since the market is constantly changing, you need to learn to adapt and avoid sticking to old ideas that don’t work anymore.”
Later on, he worked as a Senior Game Developer at Electronic Arts and became an international medallist in Informatics Olympiads, representing his country in both Italy and Thailand. After that, he obtained a full merit-based scholarship to study Industrial Engineering Fundamentalsin ITBA (Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires). However, he was then accepted and awarded another full scholarship for Stanford University, where he received his bachelor’s degree with honors. This institution accepts less than 1% of international applicants and the chances of receiving a scholarship coming from overseas are even lower (0.2%). Even though Roitman had been an entrepreneur at heart since his teenage years, he also remembers that this institution really encouraged students to create their own companies. It is not surprising that Google, LinkedIn, OpenAI and Instagram, among other several renowned companies’ founders, are Stanford graduates.
In his first year at Stanford University, he joined a research team to work under Sebastian Thrun (founder of GoogleX and the self-driving car). This project then turned into a smart-home startup called Lighthouse, which was eventually sold to Apple.
In Silicon Valley, home to the Google and Meta headquarters, among other companies, he created the startup Adia Robotics, a personal drone company, which received two rounds of funding.
Adia was later bought by Apple for an estimated USD 55,000,000 and Lucas and his team, as part of the acquisition, joined the company, where he has continued as a Senior Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning Researcher, working on several confidential Deep Learning Projects. Lucas also has aspirations of getting involved in the crypto industry, making another successful startup, and venturing into the entertainment industry as well. On experimenting in different fields, Roitman says, “My aim is to inspire entrepreneurs and broaden their horizons.”
Lucas’s success story serves as a source of inspiration for many upcoming entrepreneurs. He is the living proof that hard work, determination, and perseverance always pays off. We asked Lucas for advice to young folks interested in technology and entrepreneurship and he answered, “It’s important to stay motivated and to understand that bumps in the road make us stronger, even when things seem challenging.”
