Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Teenage Entrepreneurs (WSJ)

I thought this article on young tech entrepreneurs was interesting. I'll make sure my kids learn how to program ...

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/109472/teenage-entrepreneurs?mod=career-work
Teenage Entrepreneurs
by Geoffrey A. Fowler
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Wall Street Journal

Monta Vista High School senior Diane Keng pitches MyWeboo.com, her third start-up, at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

Here is one indicator of the allure of Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial culture: Diane Keng just launched her third start-up -- and she is still in high school.

In March, the 18-year-old launched Internet company MyWeboo.com to help teens manage their digital lives and social-network identities in one place. She is now pitching the company to venture capitalists, and earlier this week presented at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

Yet each morning, Ms. Keng also heads to Cupertino's Monta Vista High School for a schedule of classes that includes Advanced Placement economics and government. In the afternoons, the high-school senior squeezes in varsity badminton practice.

"My age, my gender and my lack of experience don't deter me from going after what I want for the company," says Ms. Keng, who runs marketing for MyWeboo.com from home and co-founded the venture with her 25-year-old brother, Steven.

Ms. Keng has several advantages in pursuing her entrepreneurial ambitions, including her father, a venture capitalist who splits his time between Beijing and Cupertino and gave her $100,000 in seed money.

Another big advantage is that Ms. Keng is here in Silicon Valley and can tap the region's unique ecosystem of tech resources and experience -- not to mention supportive parents and teachers. Her high school alone is home to about 10 entrepreneurs, including a student who buys and flips websites that he thinks have potential.

The Valley is filled with teen-entrepreneur legends: Gurbaksh Chahal started online ad company Click Agents in San Jose when he was 16, and sold it for $40 million two years later. He then founded ad network BlueLithium, which he sold for $300 million when he was 25.

Kristopher Tate, who five years ago finished high school early and drove his parents' car from San Diego to Cupertino at the age of 16 to launch photo-sharing site Zooomr, says Silicon Valley is a great place for budding entrepreneurs. "Everybody is there, and when you want to step up or feel like your idea is worth a grain of salt, there are people who will take it seriously."

<rest at link>

Here is another article on the same theme. An interesting writer about startups is Paul Graham http://www.paulgraham.com/ , and a good book is "Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days"

http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-12-03/business/17326433_1_silicon-valley-high-tech-thinkers

Log on, drop out, cash in / These top techies weren't leery about leaving school
December 03, 2006|By Jessica Guynn, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle

Aaron Swartz dropped out of high school after one year to study on his own. Then he dropped out of college after one year to seek his high-tech fortune. He was still in his teens a year later when he hit the jackpot, selling his startup in October to Wired Digital for an undisclosed but lottery-like payout.

With his boyish mien and more geek credentials than engineers twice his age, the suddenly wealthy Swartz belongs to a new generation of young, brainy geeks who began booting up and logging on when their friends were still watching "Sesame Street." Before they were old enough to drive, they landed paying gigs. Now that another high-tech boom is heating up Silicon Valley, more of these technologically developed but underage techies are dropping out and starting up.

Theirs is the stuff of classic Silicon Valley mythology: young people deserting higher learning for high technology to follow in the famous footsteps of Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell. These dropouts barely raise an eyebrow in high-tech circles, where their worth is measured in real-world smarts, not Ivy-League degrees.

Of course, Silicon Valley has always thrived on youth. Virtually every revolution there has been fueled not by fossilized executives but by an anarchistic youth counterculture experimenting with technology.

"Everything that would get you detention at school will get you funding in Silicon Valley," said Paul Saffo, a valley forecaster and essayist who has been exploring technological change and its impact on business and society for more than two decades.

And that culture can be a powerful draw. Max Levchin, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign graduate who sold the company he co-founded, PayPal, to eBay for $1.5 billion when he was just 26, uses his blockbuster success to persuade students at his alma mater not to follow his example. He makes the case that young people should seize the fleeting opportunity to get a different kind of education.

"You are essentially taking a class in real-life company-building on the nickel of a venture capitalist," Levchin said. "It's a pretty unbeatable deal."

<rest at link>