At age 22, three longtime friends — Adarsh Hiremath, Surya Midha, and Brendan Foody — reached a milestone rarely achieved so early in life. Their artificial intelligence-driven hiring startup, Mercor, secured a major funding round worth $350 million, pushing the company's valuation to $10 billion. With that financing, each founder’s equity stake elevated them into the ranks of the world’s youngest self-made billionaires, surpassing Mark Zuckerberg, who reached billionaire status at 23.
Hiremath and Midha, both of Indian origin, grew up in the tech-centred environment of California’s Bay Area and attended Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose. Their friendship strengthened through academics and competitive policy debate, where they made history by winning all three of the top national tournaments in a single season — a first in the U.S. debate circuit. After high school, Hiremath pursued computer science studies at Harvard University and later left to build Mercor full-time, eventually becoming a Thiel Fellow. Midha attended Georgetown University, studying foreign studies, and linked up again with Hiremath in the entrepreneurial world.
Mercor initially launched in 2023 with a central mission: connect skilled engineers in India with U.S. companies in need of flexible, remote tech talent. As the platform scaled rapidly, its model expanded to serve global hiring needs through AI-powered workforce aggregation and placement. The startup’s growth has been rapid, with revenue accelerating dramatically within months, placing Mercor among the most talked-about companies in the emerging tech-recruitment space.
The founders' journey to wealth has also drawn attention due to their ties to the Thiel Fellowship, a program created by investor Peter Thiel that funds promising young entrepreneurs who choose to pursue ambitious ventures instead of completing college. Each of the three founders decided to prioritise building Mercor rather than finishing university, a decision now validated by their meteoric rise in the tech industry.
Before Mercor’s breakout valuation, the record for the youngest self-made billionaire belonged to entrepreneurs like Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang and Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan, both of whom hit billionaire status in their twenties. Mercor’s founders now sit at the top of that category, with Midha being the youngest of the trio by a slight margin.
Their personal stories reflect a strong technical lineage as well — all three founders come from families with deep roots in engineering and technology. Their parents worked in software development and tech-related roles, providing early exposure to Silicon Valley’s innovation ecosystem.
Mercor's trajectory points to a growing global shift toward AI-driven recruitment and remote tech staffing, and its founders’ rise represents a new chapter in youth-led entrepreneurship shaped by cross-border innovation, technology acceleration, and the increasing integration of global talent pools.
