Her brainstorm was one of many potential ideas to come out of the first class of a new, four-week entrepreneurship course at the Greenwich YMCA taught by two teenagers.
Alex Rodriguez and George Weiksner, who is Kaki’s brother, are the instructors of “Ideas to Execution: Intro to Entrepreneurship.” The 17-year-olds are entrepreneurs themselves.
Rodriguez, who is from Old Greenwich, started his own landscaping company, which after five years, now services over 10 properties in his area. George Weiksner, who lives in Riverside, founded the cryptocurrency-gaming business Pocketful of Quarters when he was in middle school.
“My story is pretty relatable to you guys because, it’s a smaller scale thing that you guys can do with very low capital, very low access to resources and right now, you guys can do it, regardless of how old you are, you can start it right now,” Rodriguez told the five students who were at the first lesson.
The course is interactive and hands-on, George Weiksner said. The first 15 to 20 minutes of the hour-long class is lesson-based, with the rest of the class devoted to the kids creating their own business plan, which they will present at the last class on Aug. 9.
“They will present in front of some local business owners, specifically from Garden Catering and Mike’s Organics,” Weiksner said.
The topics the teens are teaching the middle school students are those that the two found were important and “could apply to any entrepreneurial venture they want to start,” Weiksner said.
“So brainstorming ideas and solutions, how to work through roadblocks, how to maximize profits … So things that we thought were widely applicable to many things the kids would want to do from a lawn mowing business like Alex had started to a crypto company like I started,” he added.
At the first class, the five attendees had some solutions to problems many of them face on a regular business. For example, as middle school students, they cannot drive, so the two instructors asked them how they would go about finding a way to get somewhere when they could not get a ride from a parent or guardian and were not allowed to Uber.
Some of these ideas spanned from creating an app where trusted local adults could sign up to drive kids around to making an app where teens can walk younger kids to and from their desired destination.
“Sometimes my mom won’t let me walk to a friend’s house because it’s a far walk … Maybe if you make an app where a teenager or somebody who looks strong can walk you there,” said Central Middle School student John Behette.
The two instructors told the students that, while not every idea will spark a business plan, these ideas can “help make the community a better place,” George Weiksner said.
“This is how you solve problems and whether it is making your community a little faster by taking a bike rather than driving … It is still important to do this, even if it is not a path to entrepreneurship,” Rodriguez said.
Registration for this course is open until July 25. The class meets every Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. through Aug. 9.
Any questions can be directed to George Weiksner by emailing him at [email protected].
This content was originally published here.
