Bustling crowds of eager students and Westport community members gathered at the library on Nov. 25 to hear how some of the most recent successful innovators created their own businesses. Specifically, Dylan Diamond, Max Hammer, Jack Sharkey and Josh Karol were interviewed at the event. All of them created businesses at the age of 26 or younger. But that’s not all they have in common. They all went to Staples High School.
Startup Westport, a public-private partnership of entrepreneurs, investors and innovators, hosted the event at the Westport library to celebrate successful Staples alum.
Dylan Diamond ’17 is co-founder and CEO of Saturn Technologies, which he created as a junior at Staples. This app allows high schoolers to track their schedule on their phones, and since its release, it has been used in schools nationally. Six years later it is still commonly used by Staples students.
“We have taken the product from one school, Staples, to 20,000 high schools and countries,” Diamond said. “We have most of the high school network in the country.”
This event gave helpful insight to students who aspire to go into business in the future, specifically how AI can be used as a tool in modern technology.
“I have replaced a lot of my google searches with ChatGTP and I use it for a lot of organizational thoughts,” Jack Sharkey, co-founder and CTO of Whop, said.
Overall, this event inspired the Westport community and featured amazing innovators who started at Staples High school.
“I am really interested in business,” Olivia Kuliga ’26 said. “This event was super inspiring and interesting for what I might want to do in the future.”
