14-Year-Old Startup Founder Rejected by Y Combinator, Still Smarter Than Your VC

KEY POINTS

•Alby Churven, 14, founded Clovr, a front-end vibecoding startup, after failing with Alpha Grips, a grip socks ecommerce brand started at age 12.
•Despite viral attention and advice from Frank Greeff, Y Combinator rejected Alby’s startup application; he admits his video was overproduced and rule-breaking.
•With Australia imposing a social media ban on under-16s, Alby believes his youth gives him time and creative freedom, but also limits funding and industry respect.

Meet Alby Churven, a 14-year-old Aussie startup wunderkind from Wollongong who’s probably coding while you’re still deciding on breakfast. Alby’s still in his school years but has already died and been resurrected twice in business: first flopping with Alpha Grips, a 12-year-old’s e-commerce grip socks brand, then bounced by Y Combinator for Clovr, his latest front-end vibecoding startup. Despite hitting the US tech scene and cold-emailing big shots like Frank Greeff, YC thought his slickly edited video was too fancy—not that he even read the rules. Kids under 16 face a new Aussie social media ban, but Alby, with zero VC dollars and all bootstrapped hustle, claims the ‘wow factor’ of youth both opens doors and slams legitimacy. He’s got time, ideas, ambition, and no pressure—except maybe figuring out how to monetize while Twitter’s X is just 'full of startups.'