Simons wanted to create a company that would help teachers build lesson plans and then share them with other teachers and students. However, Imagine K12 gives their startups just $20,000 and Simons and his partners soon used this up. While his partners went back to college, Simons wanted to stay and continue working.
Imagine K12 is located at AOL's Palo Alto headquarters, and each program member is given a building badge. Simons realized that his badge continued to work after the program ended and by then, his face was familiar to many in the building. As such, they didn't question his presence.
Simons had nowhere else to go so he decided to live at the headquarters. He would sleep on couches, eat at the cafeteria and work out and shower at the gym. The rest of the time, he was working on his startup. After two months though, Simons was finally caught by a security guard. Other than being yelled at and losing his building badge, he didn't get in that much trouble. While he's no longer living at AOL headquarters, Simons does still go to meetings there and things are looking up for his startup.
