Young CEO, Founder Of Ridgewood Company Wins $100K Fellowship

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — A Ridgewood High School graduate and founder of an investing app for teens will receive $100,000 and mentorship from The Thiel Foundation's network of founders, investors and scientists.

Sonny Mo, CEO and co-founder of Bloom — which offers educational modules to the next generation of Americans on how to build wealth —, was named one of 20 young entrepreneurs to participate in the Thiel Fellowship.

The two-year fellowship program, which was created in 2011 by tech billionaire Peter Thiel through his foundation, encourages young people to pursue big ideas instead of attend college, a spokesperson said.

“In a world where conformity rules, these young founders are setting out to reimagine every industry they touch,” foundation president Brian Rowen said. “No goal is too ambitious; this year's class is innovating in fields as varied as energy production, genetic testing, AI, and agriculture.”

Mo, a Korean immigrant who lived in Ridgewood and is now in San Francisco, studied at Brown University and is now joining 251 previous Thiel fellows.

He was required, as were the other fellows, to pause college enrollment to focus exclusively on building his technology and company.

“Young founders with radical projects know universities will only hold them back,” fellowship director Alex Handy said. “Members of this year’s class are not preoccupied with chasing trends, whether in Silicon Valley or on TikTok. They are acting on concrete plans to improve the world around them.”

Fellowship alumni include founders of Embar, Ethereum, Figma, Luminar, OYO, and DoNotPay. Since the fellowship’s inception, fellows have founded companies collectively worth hundreds of billions of dollars, a spokesperson said.