the $100,000 AI Business Challenge participant
Hey everyone, First off, huge thanks to Titus for this incredible opportunity. I'm one of the finalists for the $100,000 AI Business Challenge, and honestly, I'm still pinching myself. I'm 38, from Saint Maarten, and I need to be real with you all. Growing up here, your options are pretty straightforward: go to school, work whatever job you can find, or sometimes people end up doing things they shouldn't just to get by. I started school when I was nine and dropped out at fourteen. Yeah, I think about that decision sometimes, but I chose to stay on the right path even when things got tough. I've been doing manual labor my entire adult life. Construction, maintenance, whatever paid the bills so I could take care of my family. Don't get me wrong - I'm proud of the work I've done. But there's always this fear in the back of your mind, you know? One bad injury, one accident, and everything falls apart. Then in April, I bought my first laptop. I'm not even kidding - I could barely type. But I discovered AI and something just clicked. I started staying up until one or two in the morning, trying to figure out how prompts work, learning about different tools, slowly building something real. My wife works these brutal 12-hour shifts, and I just want to give her a life where she doesn't have to grind like that anymore. Look, I'm not some tech genius. I don't have an MBA or startup experience. What I do have is this drive that won't quit. This isn't just about me - it's about my kids, my wife, all of us finally having some security. Not having to worry about missing a paycheck or what happens if someone gets sick. I know the odds. I know there are probably people in this competition who are way more qualified than me on paper. But if you believe that sometimes the person who wants it most, who's willing to put in the work no matter what, deserves a shot - then I'm asking for your vote. Whether I win or not, I'm not stopping. This is my path now. But having this community's support would change everything for my family.