How This 18-Year-Old Was Promoted To Junior Partner At A Global Investment Firm

Rishi Bagaria started working at Thessalus Capital when he was just 15.

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In 2018, Rishi Bagaria was promoted from analyst to junior partner and director at Thessalus Capital.

That's impressive considering that he was only 17 years old at the time, making him the youngest person to ever to make partner at the biotech and healthcare investment firm. (An investment company takes money from clients and invests it in companies in an effort to make a profit. Investors collectively share in the profits or losses.)

Bagaria started working as an analyst at Thessalus Capital, which was founded by his older brother and family friends, in 2015, when he was a 15-year-old eighth grader.

Mitchell Ng, who is managing director at the firm, calls Bagaria a "rising star in the investment world."

Perhaps a "shooting star" would be more apt. Bagaria's rise to success has been remarkably quick — and he isn't even out of high school yet. Today, at 18, Rishi Bagaria takes five honors classes at The Lawrenceville School in N.J., is president of the both the investment and debate clubs at his high school, co-editor of a student magazine and an award-winning member of Model United Nations. He also likes to play golf, work out, hang out with his friends, play board games and watch Indian movies with his family.

Learning the ways of the stock market

Neither of Bagaria's parents, who emigrated from India, are involved in finance. His mother, Suman, is a holistic healer. His father, Sunil, founded a recycling and sustainability business.

Bagaria was first introduced to investing by his uncle, Surendra Bagaria.

"Whenever we would go over for dinner or Thanksgiving, when I was around 10, my uncle would pull me and my older brother aside and tell us about stocks he was investing in, how cool the market was and what opportunities there were," Bagaria tells CNBC Make It.

And he always sought out ways to learn more.

"The first book I read was, 'Investing for Dummies,' because ... I didn't know anything," Bagaria says. He also took a financial literacy class in middle school.

Bagaria's brother Raj, who is 20, was also interested in investing. So their father helped them set up virtual stock market account. "My dad wanted us to treat it like a real account, so we had to do proper research. We had to handle it like it was actual money," Bagaria says. In eighth grade, Bagaria's father gave him $2,000 to invest in stocks.

First, Bagaria bought "blue chips stocks," like Apple and AT&T. "I didn't want to be too risky," he says.

Bagaria's parents encouraged their sons to try new things. "When they said, 'Dad, should I do this?' I'm like, 'Okay, try it," Sunil tells CNBC Make It, adding that, at the very most, they would fail and be able to learn from their mistakes.

Read more about Rishi Bagaria here

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How this 18-year-old became the youngest junior partner ever at one global investment firm | CNBC Make It.