Young tech entrepreneurs of the future gain a new place to hone their craft next month as part of downtown's new economy nexus.
We're talking really young -- as in middle school age.
A Northville startup called Kidpreneur is the third winner of the D:hive Pilot program, giving it two months of no-rent space on Woodward for classes in business-building and technology.
At the Detroit Regional News Hub blog, Karen Dybis describes the newcomer as "an incubator-style learning environment where great minds meet a great chance to achieve."
Owner Thanh Tran, a father of two, . . . has watched his idea blossom in ways he didn’t expect. Kids everywhere from St. Clair Shores to New Baltimore have made the trek to his Northville site in hopes of learning about the things they love: smartphone app development, computer programming, robotics and web design.
About 50 kids have gone through its initial start; that’s incredible when you consider it’s only been four months in the making and it already has two locations.
The classes, which run for either three weeks or nine weeks each, will start in mid-January in Detroit. Most will take place during the week, offering kids with big ideas a time and space to exercise their brains.
Weekend workshops and other events at the 1249 Woodward Ave. storefront will let fee-paying participants "play individually and together," explains Dybis, whose interest is parental as well as professional. "I'm glad Detroit will have its own Kidpreneur soon. Much love to D:hive . . . for bringing it downtown and a little closer to my future Skynet programmer," she posts on Facebook with a link to her report.
"It’s never to early to start innovating,” said Thanh Tran, founder of Kidpreneur. (Facebook photo)
The founder, tells her:
“It’s not just about being your own boss or owning a business. We want every child to be confident and be able to present their own ideas to a group. . . . We want to teach kids that failure is part of success. You have to fail to succeed."
So at the end of those nine weeks – when kids are working together and individually in small groups – they do a formal presentation to a panel. And that panel includes not only their classmates and teacher, but others from the community who can offer advice and encouragement.
Classes, which typically have about five kids, cost roughly $300 to $400. "The early response to Kidpreneur has been a sure sign that the parents who schelp these tots around are willing to make both the financial and personal investment," according to the Detroit Unspun post.
Kidpreneur will hold an informational session for interested parties from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14 at D:hive (address and map) to go over some of the basics.
There are some ground rules for the kids who participate, and these classes are rigorous, so there has to be a buy-in for this all to work, Tran notes.
Registration is open here for January classes that start Jan. 18 downtown in Android App Development (ages 10-13), Web Design (10-13), Entrepreneurship (10-13), Animation (8-13), LEGO Robotics (9-13) and Video Production (9-13).
Kidpreneur wIll replace Spielhaus Toys in the D:hive space for pop-up businesses, Jon Zemke reports at Model D, adding:.
Tran also hopes to eventually host hackathons and TEDx-style talks for young people in downtown Detroit’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.
"We just want to be a part of that growth," Tran says.
D:hive is a Downtown Detroit Partnership project supported by the Hudson-Webber Foundation, Quicken Loans, Rock Ventures, Model D Media, Detroit Economic Growth Corp. and others.
