Where Is He Now? Carter Jernigan '07

Carter Jernigan ’07 launched his own business at age 12. In sixth grade, he founded the Computer Coach, a company that provides information technology services to individuals and businesses. When SPECTRVM spoke with Jernigan in 2004, he was an MIT first year student with a full course load—and a seven-year-old business with 250 clients.

Where is he now?

Jernigan has worked with some of the world's largest technology companies and launched several start-ups. As an undergraduate, he completed two internships at Apple—and even had a chance encounter with Steve Jobs. Later, he and a team of electrical engineering and computer science classmates created an Android app called Locale for a class project. Locale won Google’s 2008 Android Developer Challenge, which came with a $300,000 grand prize. On the heels of this success, Jernigan launched twofortyfouram LLC, a startup that builds artificial-intelligence apps for Android devices.

In 2009, he and Behram Mistree '07, MEng '08, published a research paper studying privacy in online social networks titled "Gaydar: Facebook friendships expose sexual orientation." And in the past year, he filed patents ranging from artificial intelligence geofencing algorithms to systems for secure mobile payments.

Now 28, Jernigan is a senior software architect at Intel in Santa Clara, CA. But he still owns the business he began when he was 12 and shows the same drive that helped him keep it running for more than half his life.

“Now, I’ve got a few ideas for a health-related invention, so I’d like to get that going. I’ve also been working with Water Missions International and recently completed funding a project to provide clean water for a community in Haiti,” he says. “By the time I’m 40, I want to change the world through philanthropy and invent cool new technologies that save lives.

“Being at MIT was like being thrown into the deep end of a pool,” he says, “but it prepared me tackle big challenges.”