Start-Up Kids - Tyler Lucas & Nathaniel Thompson

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Tyler Lucas and Nathaniel Thompson are making a difference in the lives of 4th - 8th graders. They are helping run Start-Up Kids a project founded by Gerhard Apfelthaler of California Lutheran University's School of Management, Maria Ballesteros-Sola and Vlad Vaiman of CLU. Note: Gerhard and Vlad have been on the show before. This project, now in its second year, is expanding as they move to the third year. Over an eight week period, these two, and others on the team, spend 30 minutes a week helping students realize their entrepreneurial ambitions. This project is so successful, one of the teams was asked to present their project at the opening of the 2017 New Venture competition at HUB101. Who doesn't love hearing energetic, passionate young 12-14-year-olds who want to change the world? The students learn marketing, design, product development, costing and take the classes very seriously. You'll love hearing examples of how enthusiastic the students are in their desire to improve situations they think will make a huge difference in the world. Like making a kid-friendly version of Instagram, because their parents won't let them log in to it. This coming school year sees the program expand to 5 schools. Over the eight weeks they are taught three models; Explore, Create and Build. One of the tenets they teach is not everyone has to be an entrepreneur. They explain there's plenty of room on the teams for workers and individual contributors. The biggest surprise for the guys? It was how much the students retained over the period of eight weeks. If you have a 12-year-old in your life, you might consider moving to Ventura County, so they have a shot at getting into one of these classes. If you are interested in putting one of these programs together in your school district, drop the guys a note.