( CNN ) -- Trying to find a cheap place to crash in Silicon Valley ? For most people , that 's impossible . But Eric Simons is not like most people . The recent high school graduate scored a spot in AOL 's first Imagine K12 cohort , an initiative aimed at supporting entrepreneurship in the educational field . His dream was to create software to tap the vast potential of the Web and facilitate collaborative learning among students and teachers , one of several such innovative efforts the technology company hoped to help bring to life . Thus the then-19-year-old put off college , left his Chicago home and headed west last year to work out of AOL 's Palo Alto , California , office . There , he continued working on his product and made the most of his new work digs -- heading to the office 's gym each morning to work out and shower , then snacking over the course of the day on ramen noodles , trail mix and leftovers from meetings . He used his limited venture capital funds to pay his rent and assorted other bills . Until , that is , that money ran out . `` I tried to sleep on my friends ' couches , but they were full for the next month or so , '' Simons told CNN on Monday , explaining what he did after losing his apartment . `` So I just ended up sleeping on their couches . '' By `` their couches , '' he meant the furniture he could find in the Northern California offices of AOL , which was once but is no longer a sister company of CNN . Simons evaded security for two months -- not to mention having to pay for an apartment , gym membership and more . He said that he spent a total of $ 30 over those weeks , splurging at Boston Market for his Thanksgiving feast but otherwise subsisting largely by `` eating scraps . '' `` I was n't paying for rent , I was n't paying for water , ( and ) most of my food was provided by other companies leaving leftovers , '' Simons recalled . He knew that squatting in a corporate office `` is certainly frowned upon . '' But Simons insisted it was the course he had to take if he really wanted to get his venture , ClassConnect , off the ground . `` If I did n't do that , we would n't have been able to build this product , ( and ) we would n't have been able to launch it and get the large amount of traction that we did , '' he said . Today , ClassConnect is up and running and close to securing $ 500,000 more in funding , on top of an earlier $ 50,000 , according to Simons . AOL has n't talked to him directly about the couch-surfing that helped make the dream a reality . But AOL senior vice president , David Temkin , released a statement about Simon 's situation , saying , `` It was always our intention to facilitate entrepreneurialism in the Palo Alto office -- we just did n't expect it to work so well . '' Simons , now 20 , admits that mooching and living round-the-clock at AOL 's offices was `` certainly a gray area '' legally . But he now casts this experience as a positive when pitching ClassConnect to potential investors . `` If you were to invest in a company , would you invest in someone that closed up shop and went home ? '' he said . `` Or would you invest in a person that , kind of against all odds , ... figured out a way to pull everything together when everything was stacked against him ? ''
Eric Simons was chosen to be part of an AOL program to foster entrepreneurship . His venture capital funds ran out while he was working from AOL 's Silicon Valley office . Simons spent the next two months sleeping , eating and showering at the office . `` If I did n't do that , we would n't have been able to build '' his product , he says .