Leonard Selvaraja | 👨‍✈️👨‍💻💼✈️⛰️

Born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu 🇮🇳

To Mr & Mrs. Ansbert. I was the firstborn grandchild in the family, so with my arrival, I brought promotions for everyone ✨
A couple became parents, their parents became grandparents (you get it, right?).

@ Velankanni, Nagapattinam

Grew up near Porur Lake.

You could say that I grew up in a lake house, and you wouldn’t be wrong 🤣 Technically it was my thatha’s house. I was a spoilt brat.

View from Thathas house

Area friends

I had a typical childhood with my brother. We grew up with a TON of friends in our area. There was love, mischief, beatings of course. Life was simple. Life was beautiful.

Schooling at Montfort School, St. Thomas Mount

Was not really the brightest star in academics, but I was a star for sure. (Thanks Montfort ❤️)

I failed for the first time in 4th grade. Got my report card on Children’s Day (14 NOV – the one day where we get to wear color dress instead of uniform).
First failure. Felt dejected.

But it’s not like I stopped failing after that 🤣 just became easier to cope with.

Secret Code with My Brother

Dad did Marine Engineering training, so he taught us (my brother and I) Radio Phonetics.
We could have full secret conversations in our vans, with no one able to comprehend what we were talking about.
It was a flex on the St. Dominics girls who used to speak in Pig Latin.

Extra Curriculars

At Montfort, you were given an opportunity to try everything. (Sometimes forced too) ~ that was the first time I experienced aggressive support. My love and gratitude to all the teachers who made me believe that I had it in me. The light they gave me still shines bright.

Dad’s Summer Training Regimen

Every summer, my dad made sure we learned something new:
- Music 🎶
- Swimming 🏊‍♂️
- Coding 💻 (This changed my life.)

Curious Kid Turned Scientist

Wanted to be a scientist, and that was what I was branded for – being curious lol.
Tribute to all the remote control cars I demolished in the process.
Love you, Peter Thatha! Thanks for buying us all the toys we ever desired of having.

Gaming Obsession

Grew up playing:
- NFS Underground 🚗
- GTA Vice City
- GTA San Andreas

Was obsessed with driving. That’s ALL I ever wanted to do.

First Time Driving a Car

Drove our Golden Maruti Omni for the first time at my mom’s school when I was in Grade 8.

Life peaked then.

The Airplane Game That Changed Everything

One day, I got finally bored of car games, and decided to download an airplane game on my mom’s phone.
It was a simple game, where you have to fly airplanes into loops.

Air Force Base Visit

The curiosity was fueled by a recent aircraft visit that my uncle took us on to a nearby Air Force base (He's a pilot)
I felt it in my heart “This is it. This is what I want to do”.
Still remember coming home, turning on my computer and trying to simulate proper flying in .... GTA San-andreas 🤣 ~ (I used the best tool I had at the time)

Infinite Flight

Very soon, I stumbled my way onto Infinite Flight Simulator, which was a full-on flight simulator, where you could plan flights, use complex autopilot systems and what not. This was much better than the previous "flight-games" or GTA. For a curious kid, this was amazing I would find myself youtube-ing alot of infinite flight videos. I was hooked and I wanted more.

FSX & The 1.5-Month Download

The Youtube rabbit hole led me to discover Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX). I remember seeing a video of FSX and thinking (Wow, this is much better than Infinite Flight. I need this)
Googled it and saw it was $99. I didn’t have that kind of money 🥲
Decided to get it from the forbidden sources (pirate it)
Realized it was 22 GB and I didn’t have that kind of internet 🤣
It took 1.5 months to fully download it. Every day after school, I’d start the download, let it run for a few hours, pause, and repeat. I didn't have alot of (any) money or internet, but boy did I have alot of patience and drive.

The "stimulator" pilot

Well, for some time, I was this cool kid who had discovered this cool new game with an insane learning curve. None of my friends were able to play it, because this needed you to actually "learn" from videos and SOPs. I had my sights on becoming the "cool" guy in class and my dreams took off....in the opposite direction. I was soon labled "stimulator" pilot by my peers 😅 The mount of fun they made, at some point, I just accepted my fate and gave up getting upset.

Chai shop and "real" pilots

One evening, I was walking to Asarkhana Bus-stop from my school, with my friends and something amazing happened. I spotted 3 guys in white and black uniforms, with golden stripes on their shoulders. I knew they were PILOTS!!!! The coolest people at the time for me. I was a 14 year old kid. I went and spoke to them, and much to my surprise, they said they're from Orient Flight School, the admin office of which happened to be RIGHT NEXT to my school.

Took the first step

I went into the admin office of Orient Flight School. I spoke to the admin officer. They didn't shoo me away. They didn't make fun of me. They actualy engaged in conversation and told me the pathway to become a pilot and guess what, I didn't have to wait for 5 more years, I could literally become a pilot right then. All I had to do, was enroll in a course. That's all!

First defining event of my life. Approaching dad.

Now, as a 15 year old kid, can you imagine approaching your dad and telling him you wanted to become a pilot? ~ At this point of time, my parents saw how engrossed I was with aviation. The odds of my dad shooing me away were HIGH! Because, at this point, I had already told him a bunch of things I didn't mean. How could I ever guarentee that my dad would take me seriously? So, to increase my odds, I made a PowerPoint presentation with how I would manage studies and flight training, along with an Excel Sheet with the total expenses. To my surprise, my dad said "OK" 😱 ~ I did not expect that, at ALL!

Failed attempt at getting into OFS

Well, after approval, it wasn't really much of a question. The next step was to take my dad to OFS, introduce him to the admin staff and get myself enrolled in their SPL (Student Pilots License) program. Everything was going well. The application was filled, photos were stuck, documents were provided but at the last minute, my dad said "wait. We will go home, discuss this once, and then come back" 🫨 In my dad's dictionary, that's lingo for "THIS AIN'T HAPPENING NOW SON" 😭 ~ It was because OFS folks said that my training would get over, but I still wouldn't be licensed or be able to fly until I turned 16. My dad's reasoning was: Why do a course if you cannot complete it? In hindsight, my dad was right (he always is) but that wasn't going to rescue him from the tantrum I was throwing for the next few months 🤣

Tunnel vision

After that embarassing meltdown at OFS, it became even clearer. I HAD to become a pilot, I don't have any other choices. So I spent ALL of my time on youtube and on my flight simulator, learning about aircrafts as much as I can.

My time came

I finally turned 16, and my parents enrolled me at Orient Flight School, Lawspet, Pondicherry for my flight training. After almost 6 months of ground training and some flight training I became the youngest licensed pilot in Tamil Nadu (2016).. I was trained and qualified to operate the Cessna 152 - Single Engine High Wing training aircraft. I didn't have my FRTOL (radio license) so they told me I couldn't fly solo. But still, it felt amazing. To know that I could legally fly aeroplanes before I could drive cars. I felt on TOP of the world.
I saw an article about a girl who got her SPL in Bombay Flying Club, becoming the youngest in Maharastra. I could visualise myself on the newspaper. I wrote to press, thinking this was an amazing thing. But to my surprise, it didn't even get them to bat an eye. No media coverage because they only awarded girls 🥲

School of Aeronautics

First picture with first aircraft

Had to come back to school 🤮

Obviously, at this point, I am only 16, I have just passed my grade 10 and I still had to come back and complete my grade 12. Can you imagine the insult? After memorising the normal and abnormal checklists from the Pilot Operating Handbook, I had to come back and memorize prose and poetry. Ugh. I was disgusted the whole time.

Change of school

I had also changed schools to something closer to home. Rookie mistake. This made things worse. Very quickly I realised that there is no other place that I would ever be other than Montfort.

First job (kinda)

At 17, my online friend Rahul Sharma (now my best friend, co-founder and rock) called me one evening. “Wanna join as staff for a Virtual Airline?” he asked. It was a group of flight sim nerds running IndiGo Airlines online. The role? Hub Manager for VOMM (Chennai) - solely because I was from Chennai 🤣. Gave my first-ever interview to another teenager from Delhi. The moment I mentioned I was a licensed pilot - boom, I got the job.

Feeling important

This was my first taste of responsibility. No pay (NPO = fancy way of saying you’re broke), but I had a title, an official email ID, and I got to work with people who loved aviation like I did. From Hub Manager to Graphic Designer to Lead Dev to VP - eventually CEO. I was leading a 15-member team across India, gunning for one goal: make IndiGo Virtual the BEST Virtual Airline in the world. We were already the best in India. My job? Go global.

Bold moves. Backlash.

Introduced a Boeing 737 livery for an airline that only flies Airbus A320s (rattled a few cages). Signed code-shares with Emirates, United, Qantas, Delta - to attract global simmers. Ran massive online events. And most importantly, I started building the BEST crew center the world had ever seen - iCrew v4. But with ambition came friction. Not everyone wanted to be world-class. We were teenagers with fancy titles and fragile egos. My lead dev - the most talented guy I knew - quit to start a rival: AirAsia Virtual. Public meltdowns, allegations, comment wars on Facebook. It was chaos.

The humiliation

They mocked my dream. “Let’s see him build iCrew v4 without a dev,” they said. I was publicly humiliated. But my mother didn’t raise a wuss. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED - publicly. I was in Grade 12, supposed to focus on boards. But I knew that didn’t matter. I just had to pass - flying was my destiny.

Late nights. Silent grind.

What followed was 8 months of solo dev. School till 5, tuition 6 to 7:30, then grind from 8 PM to 1 AM. My parents thought I was “cooling off” playing airplane games. SCOFF. They thought school pressure was tough? Please. The lyrics of “No Church in the Wildwest” felt written for this moment.

It was ready.

After a 6-month forced break (thanks, board exams), I came back swinging. Sleepless nights. Quiet victories. I launched a private beta. People were blown away. iCrew v4 was real. From not knowing Ctrl+S to building a full-stack app - I pulled it off. It was crowned the pinnacle of innovation in 2018. People flocked to experience it. And to those who laughed, mocked, reacted “🤣” on my posts - thank you. You helped. More than you’ll ever know.

The Birthday That Changed Everything

On my 18th birthday, I expected my dad to give me money to treat my college batchmates.
Instead, he gave me 100 bucks and said, “Have fun.”
I asked for more, and he responded:
“Okay, tell me how much, and tell me why you need that much.”
That moment triggered something in me. I HAVE TO CHANGE THIS.

So I launched my first product online that same day.
In 4 days, I got my first order – £120 from the UK.

It was the best feeling ever. I was so happy. I treated my friends with that money.
Looking back, I had the skill and the resources to start a business, but I just needed a push.
And I owe that push to my dad… and a tiny bit to my inner drama queen.

About > Origin