Turning middle schools and high schools into startup incubators

I consider myself to be an entrepreneur. Nowadays, a lot of people call themselves entrepreneurs. But not too many of these people are my age.

I’m 14 years old and started a WordPress development business when I was 13. Relative to others my age, I’m pretty successful. But I’m lucky.

I’m lucky because I’ve grown up around entrepreneurs all my life. My dad is an entrepreneur, and because of this, I’ve had the opportunity to learn so much, not just from him, but from all of the people he knows.

Even though I’ve had this “advantage”, understanding how to start and run a business hasn’t been easy. Most of the resources available for entrepreneurs are targeted at people in their 20's and 30's. The only resources I could find for people “my age” felt like they were designed for people a lot younger.

This is when I got an idea.

I’ve learned a lot about this entrepreneurship stuff. What if I could help other people my age launch real businesses, even when they were in middle or high school? A course, let’s say, that walked people my age through the entrepreneurial process. I could put it online, where anyone would have access to it. And I could get schools to promote it. And maybe, this course could become the curriculum schools use to teach students about entrepreneurship. I think it would be better than any traditional school curriculum, for two reasons. One, it would be written for kids from the perspective of someone their same age. And two, it will allow some kids to graduate high school with a real, growing business.

Essentially, middle schools and high schools become startup incubators.

Imagine how transformational this would be. With college becoming more and more expensive, this will help students pay tuition―eliminating some, or all, of their student loan debt. Also, for those not going to college, it could provide a career path that they otherwise might not have found.

Now, I wrote this post for a reason. I’m currently working on the course I’ve been talking about. I call it ConceptGlue, and I need your help. I’m looking for suggestions, feedback, and advice before I start presenting it to schools. Again, the goal is to turn middle schools and high schools into startup incubators to give everyone the same “luck” I’ve had.

If you’re an entrepreneur, and you think you would be able to provide any advice, please email me at alex@conceptglue.com. I’m hoping to get as many contributors as I can, so ConceptGlue is influenced by as many knowledgeable people as possible. Also, it would mean a lot if you followed ConceptGlue on Twitter at twitter.com/ConceptGlue and liked my page on Facebook at facebook.com/conceptglue. Lastly, if you want to keep up-to-date with my progress, you can sign up for email updates at conceptglue.com.

I’m going to try to post every week or two, to update everyone on my progress with ConceptGlue. I really appreciate any likes, favorites, follows, et cetera. It really helps the people who can’t see past my age realize that I’m serious and that, with your help, am going to change education and the world.