Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Computers are more than child's play to 10-year-old software tester Elliot Onn.

Computer whiz kid puts himself in business

By Sarah Lombardo

When Saratoga resident Elliot Onn attended the Mac World Expo in San Francisco in January, he was a man with a mission.

Armed with a copy of an article he had freelanced for Mac Home Journal magazine last November and a wealth of computer knowledge, he sought the opportunity to write software reviews for computer companies.

Elliot--who, with a friend, recently founded a testing company they called GET (Games and Entertainment Testing) Enterprises--approached members of a few companies with expo booths, introduced himself and eventually left the expo with a few solid leads. Within the next few days, two California high-tech companies and one Florida company sent him software to review. He reviews the programs and checks in with the companies a few times a week.

Elliot's is not an unusual story in Silicon Valley--except that Elliot is pushing 11 years old.

"He's just been interested in computers since he was very small," his mother, Ann, said. "I think he's just like so many kids just naturally going to it."

Ann, an instructor at West Valley College, said she and Elliot's dad, Charles, a finance consultant, never pushed computers on him, and it was his idea to attend the expo and seek a job.

"First, I really, really wanted a job," Elliot said. "And I asked my mom, 'What do you think I should do?' And she said, 'Well, you know, some people need gardeners and people need baby-sitters, but I think you are a little too young for that.' That's when I was 9."

Elliot said instead, he decided to try to parlay his interest in writing into a job.

"I called the toll-free information directory and said, 'Give me all you have on computers,' which turned out to be a lot," he explained.

"So I just picked the Mac Home Journal and I called them up and I asked for the editor and she said, 'Yes, send me what you've got.' "

After a little more direction on what he should send, Elliot wrote an article on the pros and cons of a video game. The article, along with Elliot's picture, was published.

"From there, he just went to Mac World Expo and started to network," Ann said.

Before his success with Mac Home Journal, Elliot had tried pitching himself to the companies themselves, including Sun Microsystems and Apple Computer.

"He asked me if I could take him to Apple," Ann said. "I thought, 'Well, I'd better change my clothes ...' "

Elliot got a pin from Sun and an autograph from Steve Jobs, but no job.

The pin and autograph sit in his bedroom, which looks like any other modern 10-year-old's room. It's down the hall from the front door, next to older brother Daniel's room. A computer sits at a desk facing a window to the back yard, a few bookshelves and pictures of animals grace the walls and the twin bed is neatly made.

The room is probably much neater than most kids', but Elliot joked that a visit by the Saratoga News photographer might have had a little something to do with that.

Two bicycles in the front yard testify that kids live in the house.

Elliot's clubhouse in the back yard also looks like any other kid's. It's child-sized with a low ceiling, which Elliot seems to be quickly outgrowing, and small windows from which Elliot, Daniel and their friends can look down on the rest of the house.

But inside is the headquarters for GET Enterprises. Several computers, many of which Elliot said he and his friend rebuilt, sit on desks inside the upstairs and downstairs rooms. Elliot said they recently hooked all the computers into one network so that they can communicate with each other.

So what drives a boy to pursue a job in the computer industry with more determination than some college students pursue their degrees?

"It's funny, but this is just how he is," Ann said. "We don't even dream up these things."

Ann said her son does well in school and makes his own schedule.

And what a schedule it is: Elliot does some of his software calls in the morning before French horn lessons. After school and after violin lessons, he plays with software. Then comes homework.

"When the phone rings at nine in the morning, I know it's him," said Scott Brand, public relations manager of Denaba Software in Florida. Brand calls Elliot "the man I'll be working for someday."

Elliot reviewed Denaba's Canvass 5.0.3 program and now is using it in his own Web site, which is in the works.

Nicole Milne, a spokeswoman for Syquest, said the company is excited to have Elliot testing for them. He is currently trying out the SparQ 1.0, a removable-cartridge hard drive. "To have someone who is technologically fit to review the drive but come at it from a child's perspective is really valuable," she said.

So what does Elliot want to do for a living--go into the computer business?

Not necessarily. He said whatever he does, he wants to combine the skills his dad has for his job with the love his mom has for hers.

"But [computers] could be something I could fall back on," he said.

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