Southern Methodist University bringing innovative ideas and even science fair projects left sitting in the garage to the marketplace with a new startup bootcamp for the region’s young entrepreneurs.
Professors with founder backgrounds and leaders from the university’s business and entrepreneurship programs are kicking off the first virtual Startup Camp 4 Teentrepreneurs, with the goal of helping high school seniors and recent grads gain expert knowledge and take their ideas from the notepad to the launchpad.
“When we started looking at summer business camps for teens, a lot were business-oriented and not startup-oriented. Even the ones that were entrepreneur-oriented, they were more theoretical, they were more soft touch,” Simon Mak, executive director of the SMU Cox School of Business Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship and lead instructor for the bootcamp, told NTX Inno. “We’re teaching you how to start your own thing. That’s the catalyst we want to inject into our program.”
Mak said the idea came together in a matter of weeks, after he had been hearing parents were frustrated by cancelled summer programs and lockdowns keeping kids idle during the academic break. He added that students are likely unsatisfied with the state of the world at the moment and the program gives them the opportunity to use their ideas to start making changes.
“Their world been turned upside down and I would propose that most of them are probably not pleased with everything that’s effecting them,” Mak said.
With a focus on fostering a positive entrepreneurial spirit, the month-long program includes labs where students get one-on-one attention on designing their startup projects and apply their concepts. It will also have lectures on entrepreneurship, business planning, marketing, raising capital and pitching. Mak said when they were looking for professors for the course, one thing they looked for were people that not only had hands-on founding experience, but also had teens of their own so they could better relate and tailor their material.
"At the end of the day, I would hope they would say, ‘hey, I never thought I had the ability to change the world.'"
Upon graduation from the program, students will receive certificates of completion and access to the SMU Incubator’s online resources for the next six months. Mak said the goal is to continue to support the startups as they grow. The university also hopes that if there’s a great enough interest it will continue to host the bootcamp each year, eventually bringing on sponsors that could provide scholarship opportunities. This year, SMU expects to have about 20 students.
“We see a gap in the marketplace to encourage high school kids to do tech startups,” Mak said. “There's this whole movement… I can’t remember that last time there was so much change in the air. I want high school students to see that and say... ‘I can create something to benefit society.’”
Overall, Mak said he hopes the program is able to give a boost to the local tech and startup ecosystem by creating more density and having a pipeline for younger entrepreneurs to get recognition and access to the resources they need to be successful. In addition, by bringing students from different cities around the Metroplex that have a variety of backgrounds, new ideas and relationships can be formed.
The online bootcamp starts on June 29 and runs through July 20, with labs on Mondays and Wednesdays and Lectures on Thursdays. While the early bird discount to register ends today, the deadline to apply is June 29. Nancy Hong, the former director of the Addison TreeHouse will serve as the program director. She joined SMU as the Caruth Institute’s new assistant director earlier this year.
“At the end of the day, I would hope they would say, ‘hey, I never thought I had the ability to change the world,’” Mak said.
