For many, the adage that “with age comes experience” is seen as a roadblock, not only in the workplace but also with personal goals. While those who view themselves this way might seem overconfident, some individuals refuse to allow age to hinder their success. Fergus White is not one of them.
Feeling Like an Imposter in the Ivy Tower
Fergus White arrived at the University of Edinburgh at 16 and was often surrounded by peers who had grown up with privilege.
“Being so young, I’ve felt that I have a need to push myself further,” White says.
At a university, where most students had the luxury of having help from wealthy and prominent parents, White pushed himself to research every field he could get his hands on. Specific fields, such as compilers, theorem proving, and concurrency theory in technology, attracted his attention.
White would be credited in a game showcased at Nintendo Direct at the age of 17, and would meet Princess Anne due to his work in furthering student relations within computer science.
Entrepreneur First, Everything Else Later
At 18, White was invited to join Entrepreneur First, where he engaged with seasoned executives and emerging technologies before many of his peers had sat down for their first exams.
“Entrepreneur First at 18 allowed me to meet high-level execs daily, learning and applying advanced technologies before most people start university,” White shares.
However, as glamorous as these opportunities seemed, White saw the situation as grounding. Working with such affluent people allowed him to see how fast an idea needs to become real to matter in the grand scheme of things.
Now, as a member of the founding team at Telepathic, White is taking that lesson to heart. At the core of the startup is an AI-driven engine that analyzes content in a way that reflects how humans think, prioritizing semantic meaning over keyword stuffing.
Unlike most existing solutions on the market, Telepathic is designed to be flexible, making sure that as search grows, companies can maintain relevance, efficiency, and genuine communication with their audiences. The platform intends to act as a vehicle for businesses to adapt to the next wave of search, where traditional SEO is no longer enough.
Failures as Fast Forward
White’s greatest challenge, he says, has been the constant rejection he has faced, in part due to his age. As someone young and ambitious, White says he tends to go for things he doesn’t have much experience in. As a result, he comes off as unknowledgeable and is often dismissed.
Despite this, White is determined to build his own path. He pushes forward, learning through experience and refining his vision with each setback.
Building a Future Bigger Than Oneself
For White, success isn’t defined by building a successful business or startup. Instead, he strives to ignite something more collective: a viable, thriving startup culture in Scotland. His belief in local brilliance, as seen in hubs like Edinburgh and St Andrews, showcases his goal of playing the long game — not just for himself, but for his peers.
“Building an industry-defining company is the top-level goal,” White says. “But more philosophically, I want to help build up the start-up scene in Europe, and more specifically, Scotland.”
Having carved a path through rejection, competition, and self-doubt, White sees his journey as proof that resilience, not privilege, is the real launchpad for success. He aims to reshape the narrative that age isn’t just a number and that people can continually improve their future no matter their stage in life. For Fergus White, each obstacle serves as fuel, and each failure brings him one step closer to changing technology.
