Davis High junior Jazzy Shah invests in his future

PHOTO: Junior Jazzy Shah laughing

By Elina Hibel

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

During the pandemic, junior Jazzy Shah was bored and wanted to make money.

In the summer of 2020 he partnered up with now-juniors Alec Robins and Jeffrey Wong. The trio began by reselling home appliances locally on sites such as Facebook and Offerup.

“The first thing we got into was local reselling. We weren’t into shipping because that was more complicated and we didn’t have the funds or the experience for that,” Shah said.

They quickly learned and by winter, they had moved to shipping on sites such as Ebay, but it wasn’t ideal. “A lot of the time they side with buyers without even looking at the sellers; lots of losses in profit,” Shah said.

By the time school went back in person, Shah’s business was running successfully. “It was more about maintaining it than developing it, (…) so I had enough time to hang out with friends,” Shah said.

In December 2022, Shah got into investments. “I started investing with just normal stock and later on I moved to higher risk options,” Shah said.

However, six months later he was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. “When I got sick I shut everything down,” he said.

Shah said the most rewarding thing about his business has been the experience and the money, which gives him the freedom and opportunity to do what he chooses. “(I can) eat out whenever I want, go out with friends and be able to spend money on anything,” he said.

He keeps 50-60% of his earnings in savings. “I still budget well,” he said. “That’s mostly my parents’ doing, they wanted to keep it as controlled as possible.”

Shah’s parents emphasized the importance of saving money, not just making it. “They remind me of that every time they see my credit cards,” he said.

Using his experience marketing with Google Ads from his eBay business, Shah has plans to start a new marketing company. He hopes to launch it by January 2024.

His company will find companies that are owned and functioned by older people in Davis and help them bring their companies online, giving a more social face to them.

“(Many older business owners) don’t have experience with the internet and can’t correctly utilize all their opportunities, so we’d help them with that,” he said.

He plans on continuing the business in college, but not getting new clients. Shah’s dream is to go to New York University’s Stern Business School, and get a degree in business. He plans on pursuing venture capital.

His advice to high school students who want to start their own business is to “jump in and start locally.” “Any type of issue that larger companies have, if you can find the solution for it, that’s a great business. All companies have some type of issue,” he said.