Launching Generation Entrepreneur
The journey over the past 3 years and 8 months.
This is the story of how two sixteen year old students launched a social enterprise that is changing the lives of Australian high school students. This article recaps our early days and shares some personal reflections.
The Inception
2013:
I remember I often dreaded school.
Rules were set by teachers. Tests were standardised. Students tried to ‘fit-in’.
I attended an academically selective high school. Although an academic focus is good, I don’t believe it should come in the way of a person’s holistic development. Unfortunately, my school was highly focused on our grades, often to the detriment of our individual passions and curiosities.
To survive the mundane classes, I would jump on my laptop and learn about the world outside school. I loved reading stories about the daring people who have changed the world around us.
These stories fascinated me, excited me, and sparked a fire within me. I constantly felt an urge to break free from the classroom and do something, anything, as long as it was in the real world.
I believe many of us as children were naive, curious, and believed the world was our oyster. As we grow up, our youthful spark becomes muffled by the structures, expectations and rules of the world. We become moulded by our world.
January 2014:
A good friend (Alex) approached me and asked to launch a business club at our school. It’s been something I had considered for a while, so I immediately said ‘Yes’.
We spoke to the principal, registered the school club and found a few friends to help out.
The first lunch meeting attracted over 220 students. I was both shocked and excited by the magnitude as students flowed onto the stairs and crowded at the door.
From there, we continued to run weekly lunch-time sessions — speaking about entrepreneurship and bringing in guest speakers.
However, as the weeks passed, student attendance began to fall. Why would they join another class during their lunch breaks?
Talking about entrepreneurship doesn’t create a generation of entrepreneurs.
The Pivot
July 2014:
A little lost with the future, we attended a Startup Weekend and pitched the idea of Generation Entrepreneur as 2 exuberant and overly excited 16 year olds.
The event itself was an unimaginable experience — transporting us away from the world of school, into the world of entrepreneurship, imagination and creation. It’s rare that you can forget the distractions of life, to focus on creating something you love.
After 2 sleepless nights, we went on to win ‘Runners Up’ position and the ‘Best Social Venture’ prize.
We came out of the experience buzzing with excitment and ready to create a similar hackathon-style event for our high school students.
September, 2014:
We launched our first ‘Intiate 48’ program just 2 months later. It was a event where students could form teams, come up with ideas and build a real business or social venture over a weekend.
It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I remember personally messaging hundreds of friends to attend this event and only 25 students showed up.
The event turned out to be incredible. The atmosphere of the event was indescribable. It’s where high school students all of a sudden realised that seemingly ‘impossible’ tasks were in fact more than possible!
The students loved it so much they volunteered to join the team and help us grow the next event!
January 2015:
We went on to nervously run our next event for 65 students at Fishburners.
The Challenges
To be honest, running Generation Entrepreneur was very difficult, especially during the early days. It was surprisingly difficult to do anything — from attracting students, to finding venues, to raising funds or even finding mentors.
Although part of it was our inexperience, a large barrier was our age.
We were too young to incorporate the organisation, so we didn’t have a legal entity, public liability insurance, a bank account etc. — making it almost impossible to get any form of support. It was a chicken and egg scenario.
What kept us going was the people. Especially our amazing team and the huge impact we were seeing before our eyes.
2016 — A Year of Progress
We finally turned 18 and were able to incorporate ourselves as a non-profit organisation. We welcomed a long term advisor, Garry Visontay, to join our team as our Chairperson — thank you for your continued support!
This was an incredibly impactful year, where we ran programs every school holidays and here are just some highlights:
January 2016:
It’s something quite magical when you give 120 excited teenagers free-reign to bring their imaginations into life.
July 2016:
Our first collaboration with the UNSW Business School was an event we ran for 80 students.
Fast foward a year, the UNSW Business School is today helping us impact thousands of high school students across the state.
Sept/Oct 2016:
An event held at the AEONA co-working space in Surry Hills. The founders (Alex and Benny) have supported us for months, providing pro-bono office space and access to a vibrant community.
The weird thing we call ‘Luck’
November 2016:
It’s fascinating, how almost nothing goes your way for a long time. All of a sudden, the stars align and 3 beautiful things happened:
Firstly, I was privileged to win the PitchUp of the Young Social Pioneers incubator to receive a $10 000 grant from the UBS Foundation. These funds enable us to run programs for students from lower socioeconomic areas of Western Sydney.
Secondly, we won the prestigious ‘Knowledge Exchange Grant’ from the City of Sydney Council. Thank you for believing in us and letting us be part of your Tech Startups 2030 Action Plan journey. My amazing partnerships team gave it their heart for several months and it paid off.
Thirdly, we finalised an official partnership with the UNSW Business School for significant monetary funding and facilities to push ahead our programs. I am incredibly grateful for their continued support and belief in a group of students.
November 2016 marked a turning point. After 3 years pushing an uphill battle, we were finally able to gather some support and accelerate our work. At that point, we’ve supported over 650 high school students with less than $2000 in monetary funding. Imagine what we could do with over $30 000!
2017 — A year of change
2017 has been a huge year for us. We now have a team of 30 that’s helped over 1500 students launch startups and social ventures.
As this blog focuses on our early days, I’ll keep this part short and sweet. Here’s what we’re doing:
- High School Programs
We aim to empower 10 000 Australian high school students by 2020.
To achieve this, we must go full circle back to where we started — inside high schools. We are now bringing entrepreneurship education into schools because we believe education should be experiential, exciting and empowering.
We are currently running Initiate 48 programs and shorter workshops for high schools across NSW. Shoot me a message if you want to learn more!
2. Initiate 48
Initiate 48 is an event that has already changed the lives of hundreds of high school students. We will continue to run these and bring together some of Australia’s leading mentors from the startup, education and business community to inspire our students. Best of all, we’re now bringing these to Western Sydney and supporting those from lower socio-economic regions.
The learnings that changed me
The journey may sound fast-paced and exciting.
In reality, the entire journey was very challenging. Along the way, we were often misunderstood, dismissed or rejected. These challenges stretched my boundaries, forcing me to learn quicker than ever before — running events, building partnerships, raising funds and leading teams.
The most rewarding challenge for me was transitioning from an entrepreneur into a leader that could empower others. It’s a huge privilege to work with some of Australia’s most passionate, ambitious and altruistic teenagers.
The process of building the organisation was exciting, painful, gradual — a mixture of every emotion you can think of. Above all, it was incredibly rewarding.
It was during the most difficult times, that I learnt the most about leadership, people and about myself.
The Future
I believe in a world where young people are not simply defined by their academic grades, but are encouraged to pursue their passions and create their own futures.
Generation Entrepreneur is an organisation built to empower young people to create their own futures through entrepreneurship. We believe in young people taking charge and transforming the world around them.
That has been our dearest value since day 1, when my co-founder and I naively started the journey at age 16.
Even today, I’m proud to say Generation Entrepreneur’s entire team is between 15 and 20 years of age. At the time of writing (26/09), it is my 20th birthday.
We are a generation of young people leading a movement to change the lives of other young people.
We will forever be an organisation for young people, by young people.
Join Us
The purpose of sharing our story is to inspire the next generation of high school students to become change makers in their communities. If two naive teenagers could put something together, you certainly can as well. We will do what we can to support you and bring you into our family.
Regardless of whether you’re a student, we want you to be part of our journey to create the future. So what are you waiting for?
Connect with us: www.generationentrepreneur.com.au
Say hello: victor@generationentrepreneur.com.au
