Amin Shaykho

Amin Shaykho (born January 20, 1998) is an Arab-American entrepreneur, technologist and speaker. He is the founder and CEO of Kadama, a mobile application that connects users with service providers for tutoring, household, yard work, and pet care. Shaykho founded the company with his friend Marwan El-Rukby and brother Dani Shaykho with a goal to help the community, and within a few months the application ranked 21 on the iOS App Store.
Shaykho is also an avid TEDx speaker and has been featured in several media outlets including Bellevue Reporter, University of California, University of Washington, Woodinville Weekly, Bellevue College and Patch. His startup Kadama was ranked as the top student-led startup in the Northwest by the Northwest Entrepreneurs Competition and awarded with prize money in 2020.
== Early life and education ==
Shaykho was born on January 20, 1998 in Seattle, Washington. Shaykho became the first in his family to attend college. He graduated from Lake Washington High School with a 4.0 GPA, parallely pursuing an associates degree from Bellevue College. Shaykho was a technical enthusiast and had a knack for exploring business ideas. 
Since childhood, Shaykho would actively volunteer at nonprofits that help children, refugees, and others in need. This formed his passion for helping others. At the same time, Shaykho’s mother encouraged him to develop a business mindset by supporting ideas like his tech resale side business, which he created before entering high school. By the end of high school, it was clear to Amin that his passion laid in helping others through technology, stemming his entrepreneurial endeavors at the university.
After completing high school in 2016, Shaykho attended the University of Washington and studied computer science. He graduated from the university in 2018. Shaykho completed his internship at Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company. 
== Career ==
Shaykho, at the age of 14, started his first business venture that involved software testing of Mac and iOS devices. He also did product marketing and analysis. Shaykho has been a tech savvy individual from the very beginning. He co-created the club Code for Care in 2016, his senior year at high school, and served as its president. It intended to assist local non-profit organizations by building mobile applications. Shaykho also did internships with companies such as Boeing and Affirma Consulting.
Shaykho’s Code for Care club helped him land a job at Apple. He started as a software engineer in 2018, and after working for a year, he was appointed as product lead.
In 2018, Shaykho founded Kadama, a top student led startup in the Northwest. Kadama is a platform that unites students with tutors. The primary feature of this application is to improve student learning by making tutoring accessible to everyone. This application instantly gained popularity and was featured by Bellevue Reporter, University of California, University of Washington, Woodinville Weekly, Bellevue College, Patch and other media sources.
In 2019, Kadama was inducted into the Jones + Foster Accelerator program at the UW Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship and received $25,000 in follow-on funding.
Shaykho is also involved with several humanitarian, education, and diversity challenges and has addressed these topics on multiple platforms including TEDx.
== Awards ==
Washington State Honors Award
2020 Northwest Entrepreneur Competition 1st Place
== Personal life == 
Shaykho was born in Seattle, Washington. Shaykho’s parents were the first in his family lineage to move from Syria to the United States. Shaykho was the first person from his family to attend college and is fluent in English and Arabic. 
== In the media ==
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== References ==
==External links==
* Official website
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Category:Arab American
Category:American entrepreneurs
Category:American businesspeople
Category:American chief technologists
Category:American motivational speakers