Austin Dorsay

Even at first glance, you can tell Pebble Beach’s Austin Dorsay, 24, is up to something. The look in his eyes is electric, and his disarming grin makes you feel like an accomplice to some secret.

Dorsay was raised on a ranch outside of Gilroy, where he spent his childhood outdoors fishing for trout and dirt biking. He moved to Monterey before high school, and attended Chartwell School, a private K-12 school in Seaside for children with learning differences, because his ADHD and dyslexia made conventional public school tricky.

It was at Chartwell that Dorsay had his first taste of the business world by running a fake stock portfolio for his senior project with mild success. He would later go on to manage another mock stock portfolio in college before trying in his hand in the real market.

From there, his story starts to unfold like those of many tech entrepreneurs, who found that the classroom wasn’t where they excelled. After high school, Dorsey briefly attended CSU Monterey Bay before moving up to the Bay Area in the hopes of studying business at Menlo College. A couple of months later, Dorsay decided that the traditional college route wasn’t for him and moved again, to Southern California. It was there, while sitting on a beach, that he hatched the idea for SeeVi. It’s an Android/iOS app that combines a live video feed of a restaurant or bar with user-generated content on business review apps, like Yelp.

Dorsay moved back to the Monterey Peninsula to launch the startup, which after months of preparation and software development, is now in the early investing round. While Dorsay won’t say how much he’s raised so far or how much he has to go, the beta version – created by a software team that helped build Uber – is now available. He estimates he’ll begin rolling out the full release in Monterey and Santa Cruz within three months.

Weekly: How do you think SeeVi will change the way people go out for food or drinks?

Dorsay: If you’re visiting anew city and want to go out with some friends, SeeVi makes the task of finding a place to go easier. You can filter through bars and clubs to find the ones that suit your taste; maybe you’re after an intimate jazz night or maybe you want a pumping dance floor. You can also see what people are saying about it in real time.

How is SeeVi different from similar apps?

Take Yelp for example. Yelp is all about user-generated reviews. SeeVi does away with reviews because even though they might be helpful, they are totally subjective and not necessarily trustworthy. There are chatbots (computer programs) that create fake reviews. And you run the risk of competitors writing bad things.

Did you have any defining experiences that brought you to where you are today?

Yes, off the top of my head I can think of two. The first happened during the summer before my senior year of high school. I was up at Pinecrest Lake helping a friend’s dad build a deck. He was getting up in years and had all sorts of aches from working as a laborer. He told us that instead of busting your butt and using your body, you could use your brain and make your money work for you, instead of working for it.

What’s the second?

When I went to community college in the Bay Area, I took a business and finance class that was taught by a 30-year Wall Street veteran. He had us run stock portfolios and present each week to justify our decisions. I noticed heavy institutionalized selling, big block trades of 10,000-plus shares of brands like GM and Ford, so I decided to short it.

In the beginning, our professor advised us to not do that. When it worked, he was impressed. When I realized that I had done what he would’ve done in a professional setting, I decided college wasn’t worth my time or money.

Instead of going to school, how did you teach yourself about the business world?

I read as many articles on technology and business that I can. As far the actual business part, I learned by doing – and by working with people who know the ins and outs.

What would you say to someone who is thinking of starting their own company?

Trust your gut instinct and do your homework. Make sure the numbers work. To paraphrase Jeff Bezos, when you’re 80 and looking back at your life, will you be happy with the decisions you made? If it works it works, and if it doesn’t, you can be proud that at least you tried.