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Jonathan Meier

21 year old autistic tech founder with the goal to advance education globally

My life

Science as a child

Almost since I can remember I have been obsessed with problem solving and was extremely ambitious and goal-oriented. When I was 5, I dressed up as an antibody for carnival which shows my early fascination with science. From around 8 to 14 I was intensively engaged in creating scientific concepts. Roughly in this period I had for example ideas and developed concepts for graphene structures, synthetic photosynthesis, applications for CRISPR, photon sails, use of AI in hacking, cybersecurity, law etc., 3D metal printing, AR-based social networks etc.

Of course my understanding of these topics was very superficial, but still most of the underlying ideas are in the process of being developed by someone else, have actually been developed in the meantime or had already been developed without my knowledge.

Unfortunately, for a long time school ruined my fascination for science. With 15 I then set myself the goal of changing the education system.

Became a Christian (age 15)

 I believe that Jesus Christ is God and died on the cross for my sins and restored my relationship with God through grace. My goal is to serve God every minute of my life by having a maximum positive impact and fulfilling my purpose. I believe that the Bible is entirely true.

I have analyzed the question if there is a creator and if so which one is most likely by intensive scientific research (e.g. historical credibility, witness reports etc.) and have come to the conclusion that there has to be a creator and that the Bible is the most likely answer. 

The enormous change in myself that I noticed after my decision to follow Christ, along with the countless experiences I have had over the years and observations of the lives of Christian friends, confirmed this analysis for me.

Won Jugend forscht (age 16)

In 2019, together with Carl Raabe, I won Germany’s largest youth competition at the local level and in Hamburg. In addition to this, we received the special award from the school senator “for an outstanding achievement”.

I developed four “test”-apps and analyzed their effectiveness in terms of improving education which helped me to understand the problems of the current education system more deeply. The primary app addressed digital education through gamified methods.

As part of the related project, we had TV appearances on a local level (e.g. Tide) and national level (e.g. ARD), we advised e.g. representatives of the authorities and the “Techniker Krankenkasse” at a Germany-wide conference in Rostock (BAKM 2019). We presented our work at the 20th anniversary of the “Hamburger Bürgerstiftung”, and we cooperated very closely with the LI (State Institute for Teacher Training and School Development).

Founded my first Company (age 16)

I founded my first company “Coxtyy Designs UG” when I was 16. I used this as a legal corpus to manage various projects and revenue streams and to finance work on my long term goal.

Through Coxtyy Designs, I managed for example revenue from marketing contract work for international clients in various industries, as well as app (e.g. in education) and social media projects.

Since you are not allowed to found a GmbH / UG in Germany until you are 18, I founded the company on my mother’s name. Currently I am in the process of dissolving this company as it has now served its purpose.

Business@School (age 17)

I won all three phases (school level) in BCG’s Business@School competition. In phase 1 and 2 we analyzed existing companies. In phase 3 we had to plan a startup which was in our case in the education sector (“CorrectAI”) with the idea to correct exams and homework by AI and to provide fitting learning material based on that. For transparency reasons, I linked the presentation even though in real life I would take a much less MBA focused approach and do quite a bit differently. 

We had cooperations with Duden, some of the biggest German education companies and were supposed to meet the CEOs of two of the biggest German publishers (Westermann Group & Klett) which had to be cancelled due to Corona. We also cooperated with the Hamburg data protection authority, a well-known German voice actor and various educational influencers.

Only the 3rd phase was also contested outside of the school where we made it to the Hamburg finals. An older woman on the jury there refused to believe that OCR was possible despite evidence and expert testimony, which was ultimately the only criticism of our work but led to us finishing second. The team we lost to then won the German competition. 

Dropped out of School (age 17)

As soon as it was legally possible, I dropped out of school.

School has always been a torture for me, mainly because of the extreme ineffectiveness. I knew that school wasn’t helping me to achieve my goals and wasn’t effective in terms of learning.

I tried to work as much as possible on my own projects simultaneously and did my MSA degree (1.21) practically completely on the side. I left school one year later, which was one of the best decisions of my life and saved me a whole year of time.

Autodidactic learning & Harvard

I have educated myself through the internet, dozens of video courses, books, conversations with experts, apps etc. Trying out a lot had the side goal of understanding learning deeper and to test products on the market.

In 2020 and 2021, I took digital courses at Harvard Business School (Negotiation Mastery, Global Business) and also participated in digital courses from MIT (via edX, e.g. on educational technology).

DealCircle (age 17)

I met Kai Hesselmann (founder of DealCircle together with Graig Gröbli) through Business@School where we won with a presentation about them. At this point DealCircle had 13 employees and was founded just two years before. Shortly after, I joined the company and was in the beginning the responsible for marketing and branding. Since then DealCircle grew tremendously and I gradually handed over all areas of marketing to focus more on other projects. 

DealCircle is a German finance technology company and one of the leading companies in matching corporate transactions. Similar to the early days of online dating, DealCircle connects the buyer and the M&A advisor of a matching seller based on data. This enables the identification of more fitting buyers and sellers while both sides keep full control. The Buyer only pays if a transaction based on DealCircles Matching takes place and its completely free for the advisor. DealCircle’s database includes over 250.000 strategic buyers, over 10.000 financial investors and over 1.000 M&A advisors. In 2022 DealCircle was named the second best employer in Hamburg according to Kununu and was also named a top employer by Focus.

Psychosomatic pain disorder

A medication accident in 2020 with a wrongly prescribed substance combination triggered a “horror trip” with rotating extreme pain in different body regions. This resulted in a severe psychosomatic pain and anxiety disorder for which I was treated in a hospital for 6 weeks.

The time was absolute hell, with almost constant and sometimes very extreme pain and related panic attacks. In the beginning it was so bad that I thought about taking my own life to stop it. Because of Corona visits only outside of the hospital were allowed and I was there alone over Christmas. God intervened exactly at this lowest point and gave me joy and peace like I had never felt before, despite the hell I was in. The only thing that went through my mind at that moment was how powerful my God is. The following time was extremely difficult but God, the support of close ones, competent medical treatment and my goals brought me through.

Even though it has gotten much better over time, I have had many pain attacks since then, even now to some extent. But I am still very thankful that God allowed this to happen because it shaped and changed me like little else, focused me more on God and my goals, and turned my life, which was going in a very problematic direction before, around.

Diagnosed with Autism

With 19 I was diagnosed with atypical autism in combination with asperger autism.

In summary, this means that except for romantic love and fear, I feel much less emotions and the emotions I feel are harder to identify. I have no attachment objects, no nostalgia, its almost impossible to hurt me emotionally, I am less emotionally empathic and I was originally introverted.

I am obsessed with problem solving and understanding things more deeply so much that it sometimes feels like I am being forced to solve problems. My brain is constantly very active, often it feels like a constant flow of ideas or thought.

Every area of my life is systemized and optimized to an extreme degree (when it is best for achieving goals). I have been extremely ambitious for as long as I can remember, and I align my entire life, down to the last detail, towards achieving these “impossible” goals. Certain smells and meaningless/goalless things (like decoration), elements or situations (like school or vacations) are very aversive and painful.

Extreme Sports

I am an extreme athlete in various fields such as skydiving, scuba diving, freediving, climbing and have some experience in flying training fighter planes myself. I am constantly learning more extreme sports. 

Greatly simplified the main reasons to learn these sports are that they make my real-life movie character and story more interesting which helps me strategically in many areas, and I am also trained/prepared to perform certain very crazy viral stunts in the future which I predict will achieve global attention.

This strategy has been planned for a long time but getting an anxiety/psychosomatic pain disorder made the realization of extreme sports quite difficult in the beginning. Because my goal is important enough for me, I still managed to pursue my strategy despite these obstacles and also several dangerous accidents. I learned a lot about death, fear and overcoming fear in the process.

Nearly Died Skydiving

In July 2022, during my 19th solo jump, I passed out after opening the parachute and crashed into a forest. Against the odds, I survived the impact and woke up with only minor visible injuries. The first thoughts I recall were about what happened and then about the impact of the accident on my goals.

Because I had the impression that I was fine, I foolishly refused calling an ambulance and was driven privately to the hospital instead. A brain hemorrhage was discovered there and I directly went to the intensive care unit. By now, all injuries have healed.

Social Media & Movie Character

Currently I’m active on Instagram and recently started posting on X, YouTube and TikTok. I also plan to be more active on LinkedIn as well.

These are all methods to tell the story of my Real-life Movie Character, generate reach, pave the way for some super viral actions and for other strategic plays.

I’ve done a lot of research on social media and virality over the years, generating clips with millions of views and pushing up test accounts not associated with me, and I think I’ve achieved a basic understanding of virality, building a strong authentic real world movie character and using social media for strategic goals. There is of course still much to learn and to test. 

Changing Education Globally

My goal is to fundamentally change education globally and to make it more adapted to the brain and accessible through technology. Since I am 15 I am working on this endeavor in stealth mode (a company’s temporary state of secretiveness).

The video further below gives a simplified explanation, in the form of an AI-generated TEDx Talk, of how I believe education needs to be changed.

Organizing a TEDx Event (age 20)

In 2023 I was the leading organizer and license holder of TEDxNiendorf, a digital TEDx Event out of Hamburg.

Thirteen Nobel Prize-winning scientists and economists, five federal and/or deputy prime ministers of European countries, an Emmy Prize winner, influential investors (such as Cathie Wood), and around 50 of the world’s most impactful people across several areas spoke. (Click the button to view the edited recording and the full speaker list.)

I rented the Elbphilharmonie for the event and some of the recordings were done all across Europe, for example in Italy, Spain, Denmark and the UK. We had the first TEDx Talk generated by AI and were fully self-financed, free and without ADs. 

My goal is to have the biggest possible positive impact on as many people as possible. 🎯

 

How education needs to be changed
(The First Fully AI-Generated TEDx Talk)
Some Fun Facts

I accidentally bought Elon Musk’s flamethrower

At 17, I managed a high five-figure investment portfolio for my family

I have a dog

I eat the same food almost every day

I nearly died at 12 in a quad incident in Canada

I am mentally only ok when I am doing something useful / pursuing goals

I once created a completely pointless Storm Area 51 app & got over a thousend downloads

I taught a few months at a school for children with special needs

I recreated Gru’s Tortilla Hat

I sleep on the floor

I once shaved Nike’s logo into my hair

I speak German & English, have a Latin proficiency certificate & currently learn Chinese

I am an experienced flamethrower cook

I once shaved my head in a rented cinema & then mind-controlled the cinema

I dislike small talk

I made hyperrealistic cakes for various partners as gifts

At around 9, I tried to import & sell thousands of Mexican candies

My life is constantly livestreamed for a few selected friends
(for accountability)

I hold the world record for the longest ironscope kill in PUBG

I had a severe sleep disorder & for a long time trouble eating enough because of brain activity

I am trained in Kung Fu & fighting with swords

As a child I sometimes ate bugs

Criticize me / Give me feedback

 Criticism and feedback in every area helps me. Tell me where I am wrong, where I have done something poorly, or if I should change something. Or just share a message or idea with me. Be as hard and direct as you want. Since this is supposed to be as anonymous as possible I will not be able to answer. Thanks!