- 18-year-old Nils Reichardt has been running a startup for a homework app along with two peers since March last year.
- Along with running his startup, the teen manages to squeeze in sports training, school, homework, and cycling to meetings.
- Here's what a day in the life of the 18-year-old German teen entrepreneur looks like.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Half an hour after midnight, Nils Reichardt sends his last e-mail for the day and closes his laptop.
20-hour days used to be unusual for the schoolkid living in Düsseldorf, Germany — but since the 18-year-old won $11,000 in a teens' startup competition around six months ago, they've become increasingly common.
In order to squeeze in school, running his startup, and sports training, he's sometimes awake at four in the morning, which has landed him with the nickname of "The Machine" among his peers.
While Reichardt's classmates play video games, meet up with friends, or work towards getting their driver's license, the 18-year-old is working on concepts and financial plans for his Startup "Sharezone" every afternoon after school.
He's been working on the homework app with two co-founders since March 2018, in which teachers and students can share tasks and worksheets. In theory, it means nothing should get lost if someone is sick or is simply too lazy to write down the tasks. The idea came to Reichardt after it became annoying to repeatedly answer the question "What do we have on?"
While, on the one hand, the teenager's schedule is impressive and he looks set to produce some pretty exciting work, equally, there are moments when you wonder if he's going too far and will eventually just burn out.
Here's what a day in the life of the 18-year-old German entrepreneur looks like.
Nils Reichardt sometimes gets up at 4 o'clock in the morning
On one or two days a week, Reichardt's diary gets so full that he has to be up at 4 o'clock in the morning to get everything done.
He then answers messages from his team and does his homework
After breakfast, Reichardt answers messages from his team and gets his English homework done on his tablet.
Reichardt also trains seven times a week
Reichardt runs for the FC Schalke 04 athletics team and trains seven times a week.
While training usually happens in the afternoon, at least once or twice a week he goes running before school so he has more time in the afternoon.
The NRW Championships are just around the corner so today he "only" running eight kilometers — at almost zero degrees Celsius and snow.
Reichardt is committed to training, and said: "Sport helps me to structure my day."
After the German Championships, however, he wants to stop doing sport so he can concentrate on his company.
Reichardt doesn't neglect school; he's one of the best in his class
Reichardt is studying mathematics and computer science at Lessing School and Vocational College in Düsseldorf.
Despite his tight daily schedule, he's one of the best students in his class. "At school, I try to pay attention and take part so I don't have to do so much in the home. This is because I know that when school's finished, the countdown for my free time has already begun," he said.
His parents say he makes sure he doesn't neglect school while he's working.
"One thing is clear: if Nils' performance at school dips, I'm there to intervene," said his father, computer science professor and vice president of the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences.
Usually, he turns Reichardt down when he asks to take time out of school for conferences or business meetings. Apart from that, however, he supports his son's entrepreneurial spirit and doesn't seem concerned that the burden could end up too high, or that his son could eventually end up burnt out.
"What worries me sometimes is that Nils' attitude to work eats up too much of his life and he doesn't find enough time for himself ... but getting up early, staying up late and not sleeping much — that's relatively normal at this age."
Reichardt is also popular among his classmates
The 18-year-old is one of those students who always has his hand raised in class and is sat in the front row.
He likes math best, while English is his worst subject.
His teachers describe him as both determined and disciplined — qualities that could quickly earn you the reputation of a "nerd" but Reichardt is popular among his classmates, as he's usually the first to offer his help.
"Nils is like a machine, the way he works on his app. Respect," says one of his classmates about him.
His classmates gave him the nickname "The Machine" because of the way he works.
Reichardt originally started programming to improve his skills in computer games
Reichardt started programming at the age of 14 to improve his performance in computer games.
"I played a lot of Minecraft back then," he says.
His knowledge later helped him with Sharezone — he programmed the homework app himself with two co-founders.
For Reichardt, school isn't just a place to learn; it's somewhere to test the market
At 10.25 a.m. the bell rings for recess.
Reichardt had arranged to meet three fifth-graders to get feedback on his app.
It's becoming more and more of a frequent occurrence, he said.
For him, school isn't just a place to learn; it's also a place to test the market.
When it becomes clear his classmates have forgotten the meeting, Reichardt pulls out his cell phone and makes another call to arrange a business appointment in the afternoon.
Reichardt uses all his free time to get work done
Though Reichardt could have left at midday today, he still chose to use his free hour to show his app to some sixth-graders.
Smartphones are forbidden at his school but when the teacher explains she's making an exception today, almost every one of the 30 pupils in the room fetches a smartphone from their satchel.
Since the school WLAN only runs over a 16Mbit/s line, Reichardt has to switch on his hotspot.
Reichardt covers 23 kilometres a day on his bike
During his lunch break, Reichardt usually has a portion of pasta at his desk, which he's brought from home, namely as he usually doesn't have time to sit in the school cafeteria.
He then cycles to his first business meeting and, by the end of the day, he will have covered 23 kilometers on bike.
Reichardt has a number of experienced founders as mentors
Since Reichardt won the "Startup Teens" start-up competition in June 2018, he has a number of experienced founders for mentors, as part of the scholarship.
Today he has a meeting with Olaf Peters-Kim, head of the Düsseldorf advertising start-up Welect.
Peters-Kim was formerly CFO of Mediacom, Germany's largest media agency, and is helping the young founder with his financial plan.
They look at the app together, discuss the concept and draw the financial plan on a white sheet of paper.
Terms such as "Quick Wins", "Freemium Model" and "Growth Cycle" are used.
Reichardt spends his afternoon at a co-working space to work on his app
After the mentoring, Reichardt drives to a co-working space called Startplatz.
He usually spends the afternoon there where it's quiet to further develop his app and take care of business matters.
Today he has an appointment for a telephone conference with his co-founders Jonas Sander and Henry Silderhuis.
Since Sander goes to school in Siegen and Silderhuis studies mechanical engineering in Dresden, their team meetings take place virtually.
Normally he finishes work at eight o'clock in the evening
After the meeting, Reichardt carries on working for another three and a half hours on the registration process of his app.
He stresses that he normally leaves at around eight o'clock in the evening.
Today, he was simply gripped by motivation and had to complete the new feature.
It's just after midnight when Reichardt gets home
Before he goes to bed, he writes an e-mail to our editorial staff.
He signs off with: "Now I can have a bit of a lie-in".