By: Owen Fugit

Editorial Editor

Out of all Los Gatos High School’s students, only a few can claim to have started a successful business, and leading that small group of entrepreneurs is junior Sahil Agarwal. Agarwal runs his own business, BoxMate, with friends while also acting as president of his entrepreneurship club at school. Agarwal takes four AP classes, as well as Trigonometry/Pre Calculus Honors, and Spanish 4 Honors. He is also the de facto fundraising lead for LGHS’ robotics team. 

Outside of the classroom, Agarwal is the senior patrol leader for his Boy Scout troop. This role is the highest post that someone under the age of 18 can hold, meaning he essentially runs the troop. After school, Agarwal runs for the Boys’ Varsity Cross Country Team at LGHS. 

“I’ve always been obsessed with making money,” said Agarwal, even though he admitted, “I didn’t really know the path to get there.” This changed when Agarwal attended a summer program run by a company called Leangap, which focuses on teaching teens how to make their first startup. This was a pivotal moment for Agarwal since it showed him how he could start his own business. While at the camp, Agarwal met a colleague who helped him create a curriculum for his club. After the camp, Agarwal met with friends and created his own company called BoxMate, which puts advertisements on takeout boxes. Agarwal described it as “a billboard in your customer’s home.” He said that BoxMate was his first deep dive into startups, disregarding side hustles he had dropped early on. Over the past few months, Agarwal worked with his friends and cofounders to bring BoxMate from an idea to a reality, even though “all of our co-founders are in high school, so we’re busy with our own lives.”

At school, Agarwal is the unofficial fundraiser for the robotics team at LGHS. He says, “I think having someone doing maybe less technical stuff, such as fundraising, is probably equally as important,” when compared to other, more technical roles on the team. Agarwal shared how LGHS’ robotics needs over 100 thousand dollars in fundraising each year.

Outside of robotics, Agarwal runs on the LGHS Boys’ Varsity Cross Country Team. Agarwal started his cross-country journey in his freshman year, where he was “one of the slowest people on the team,” but after a lot of consistent effort and work, he now runs with the best high school runners in Los Gatos. 

With so much on Agarwal’s plate, he has learned some big life lessons. He recognizes that “the best way to get better is just to consistently put in effort,” especially when it comes to business and cross-country, where repetition and hard work are key values. With a wide and varied personality and skill set, Agarwal will certainly go on to do great things no matter what the future holds.