App Kid: How a Child of Immigrants Grabbed a Piece of the American Dream

An inspiring and deeply personal memoir from one of the most extraordinary entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, who taught himself how to code as a thirteen-year-old and claimed his share of the American Dream.

As his parents watched their restaurant business collapse in the wake of the Great Recession, thirteen-year-old Michael Sayman was googling "how to code." Within a year, he had launched an iPhone app that was raking in thousands of dollars a month, enough to keep his family afloat—and in America. Entirely self-taught, Sayman headed from high school straight into the professional world, and by the time he was seventeen, he was Facebook's youngest employee ever, building new features that wowed Mark Zuckerberg. These features are now being used by more than half a billion people every day. After Sayman pushed Facebook to build its own version of Snapchat's "Stories," engagement on the platform soared across all demographics. Millions of Gen Z and Millennials returned to the app as teen engagement rose dramatically on Instagram and WhatsApp, causing a billion-dollar loss in value for Snapchat's parent company.

Three years later, he jumped ship for Google. In this candid and uplifting memoir, Sayman shares the highs and lows, the successes and failures, of his remarkable journey. It tells the galvanizing story of how a young Latino, not yet old enough to drink, excelled in the cutthroat world of Silicon Valley, becoming an inspiration to thousands of kids across the United States and Latin America by following his own surprising, extraordinary path. In addition, it is filled with practical wisdom, making it essential—and affirming—reading for anyone marching to the beat of their own drum.