I just spent the morning alongside David Brown, talking to 115 middle school students about entrepreneurship. I do this periodically and it’s one of the most fun days of my year. The amount of unbridled energy and enthusiasm in the room is always palpable, and the kids have wonderfully insightful questions on how to startup a startup. Questions like:
- What should I do if someone tells me my idea is stupid?
- How do I know if my product is a good idea?
- What happens when you fail?
- How do I identify my target market?
- Once I identify my target market, what kinds of questions do I ask them?
- What is better, a product business or a service business?
- How do I get the money I need for my startup?
Rewording some of these questions, they sound identical to the same topics we often discuss at Techstars. I can only imagine that if we really taught entrepreneurship to kids at this age, imagine how much more quickly adult entrepreneurs could move through the stages of a startup. Maybe they would be less afraid of failure, know more about when they’ve hit product/market fit…
I’m all for teaching kids entrepreneurship and wish more middle schools did it. Consider pushing your local school to add it to their curriculum, or mentoring a young student if they have a program in place already.
Nearly Nicole 
Entrepreneurship is a mindset that, all too often, is neglected and passively discouraged. I agree with you wholeheartedly that more schools should invest time and resources into planting a healthy entrepreneurial spirit in children!
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If you were designing an entrepreneurship education program for middle school kids, what would you focus on? What would resonate most with that crowd? Customer Segments/Value Prop, Price/Revenue/Expenses, Prototyping?
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