Afrah Shuja
In May 2022, David Meltzer’s entrepreneur pitch show 2 Minute Drill aired an episode featuring six JA alumni from around the world: Alyssa Le, Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas (USA) alumna, Founder & CEO, Locket; Ida Johansson, Fonden for Entreprenørskab (JA Denmark) alumna, Founder & CEO, Turn Consulting; Kordian Caplazi, Young Enterpise Switzerland alumnus, Co-Founder, Rimon Technologies; Love Dager, Ung Företagsamhet (JA Sweden) alumnus, Founder & CEO, NextGenGov; Mykolas Aškelovičius, Lietuvos Junior Achievement (JA Lithuania) alumnus, Co-Founder, Yuffi; and Afrah Shuja, INJAZ UAE alumna, Founder & CEO, CorteX Wellness.
On 2 Minute Drill, contestants have two minutes to pitch their business to a panel of powerhouse businesspeople for the chance to win a cash prize of US$50,000. The alumni episode featured Verb Technology founder and CEO Rory Cutaia, Trade and Travel founder Teri Ijeoma, Powerhome Solar founder and CEO Jayson Waller, and show host and JA University Chief Chancellor (and fellow JA alumnus) David Meltzer. Unsurprisingly (at least to us), the six alumni blew the judges away with their pitches.
So . . . who won the US$50,000?
Afrah Shuja!
“I founded CorteX Wellness after learning about how many people are suffering from psychological disorders and mental health issues at school in particular,” Afrah said, “especially after witnessing, you know, how the pandemic affected my friends in my immediate circle. I decided that it's important to build something to help them.” CorteX Wellness provides direct lines of communication to therapists and counselors for students ages 10–18 years old in UAE. Users can also join interest groups, find additional resources, and sign up for events through the platform. “I've been doing this for a year now,” said 18-year-old Afrah. “You know, I want to really test my potential and see what my limits are, and then push those even more. Just put it in my all every day and see where it takes me.”
Afrah’s Pitch
“Fifteen-year-old Sarah was upset about her low grades, but she kept it to herself. Nobody knew until she died by suicide, leaving her friends and parents grieving. And she is not alone. In fact, approximately one in six youth reported making a suicide plan in 2019. And it’s not that schools just don’t care about this. They don’t have the infrastructure in place to do so adequately. I noticed that affecting my friends. So I built a website to facilitate remote counselor communication. And with its success, I realized I could do so much more. Fast forward, and that project is now accompany: Cortex Wellness. We’re digitizing school wellbeing-support systems. For example, in the place of super long and boring psychological surveys, we’re gamifying those online. You can book a school counselor appointment and find help with the privacy and ease student like Sarah deserve. We are currently pre revenue having just launched our MVP and R&D that follows with 84% of students saying that having Cortex at their school would have helped them with a mental health issue. We toured schools an annual fee and our milestone market in the GCC is valued at $2.21 billion. We’ve received over 11 recognitions including first place at the Harvard Innovation Challenge and Company of the Year by INJAZ UAE. We plan to service 10 to 15 schools this year. I acknowledge I’m only 18 years old, but I surround myself with awesome people. I’m joined by my former business teacher and school wellbeing researcher full time as well as an advisory board with experts and executives. This is not only a huge market gap, but one that we have a social responsibility to fill. With the $50,000 we will have the seed necessary to scale our tech and help schools better actively prevent tragedies like Sarah’s from happening ever again. Thank you.”
Afrah and her team developed Cortex Wellness during their time in the JA Company Program with INJAZ UAE, and they won the national Company of the Year competition. Additionally, the company won first place in the Harvard Innovation Challenge and Abu Dhabi University’s Entrepreneurial Challenge, and it is part of the United Nations SDSN Youth Project and startAD incubator at NYU Abu Dhabi.
Check out Cortex Wellness for yourself and give it a follow on Instagram!
In addition to the US$50,000 in cash and prizes awarded to the winner, each episode features the JA Impact Award. This award is given to the contestant whose company demonstrates the greatest social impact. The recipient of the Impact Award is selected based on their mission-driven values and has the opportunity to align with JA Worldwide to our alumni network, driving awareness to their brand through millions of entrepreneurs around the world. The award also comes with a US$1,000 donation to JA Worldwide in that contestant’s name. But, of course, with this special episode came a special surprise for all six contestants and for JA . . .
“I am so impressed by all of the contestants,” David Meltzer said, “that I'm going to make a donation in the name of each of the contestants. Because it's so impressive and the issues that they're addressing are so important. And I encourage anyone out there that watches this episode, we support Junior Achievement because if anything is going to be a testament to what that program does for our future.”
Watch the special JA alumni episode of 2 Minute Drill below or on davidmeltzer.tv.