
11-Year-Olds Learn Life Lesson During Startup Weekend - GeoffreyHull
http://www.blackweb20.com/2011/06/10/two-11-year-old-entrepreneurs-learned-the-hard-way-what-it%E2%80%99s-like-to-be-a-minority-in-tech-during-startup-weekend/
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biot

      > What happened next was a hard wake up call for two young entrepreneurs who were
      > ready to start working on their startup and something I hope any entrepreneur,
      > parent or kid never experiences in their life.
    

Oh come on. The death of one's children is something to hope nobody
experiences. These kids got a little rejection therapy and didn't even have to
buy the set. You hope nobody learns the value of persistence in the face of
adversity? Do you expect them to be able to go through life always getting
exactly what they want?

A few years down the road, maybe you'll be chronicling a 15 year old Ben
asking Susie to go on a date. Will Susie's rejection be a hard wake-up call
that you hope nobody ever experiences in their life?

Instead, pull them aside and offer a little bit of mentorship. Tell them that
this is exactly the same thing that white men with MBAs go through when they
come up with an idea (it's the next Facebook!) and no hacker joins them
either. Show them this site, where we developers mock rich privileged kids who
think their ideas are zomg awesome:
<http://whartoniteseekscodemonkey.tumblr.com/> Teach them that ideas are a
dime a dozen and that if they can't code and they still want to prove
themselves, then they're going to have to roll up their own sleeves and get to
work showing people why they theirs should be taken seriously. Teach them that
they're NOT entitled to automatic help because of their age and skin color,
but that they need to earn it.

But hoping that they never learn any hard life lessons? Ridiculous.

~~~
seats
Hyperbole yes, but I think he was just trying to describe the sensation as a
spectator.

I can imagine it was truly cringe worthy to watch their little faces slowly
realize what is happening. Of course you hope for all children to learn
important (and therefore probably hard) life lessons, but your human instinct
as a spectator, and more-so as a parent or teacher) is that you somehow wish
that it would have gone down differently, that they wouldn't have dropped the
ball, or forgotten their lines, or gotten picked last.

I don't see any reason to chastise someone for expressing that wish. Also,
give him credit for doing precisely what you say he should have. He gave
encouragement, tried to help pick them back up and get them engaged on their
real work instead of moping.

------
kabushikigaisha
tl;dr Wayne Sutton confuses lack of interest in conducting srs bzns as racial
prejudice/racism when it probably has more to do with age and quality of idea.
Also what exactly do said children bring to the table? If the young man there
had a prototype already in the works built by himself, that would be
something.

Honestly, I never understood the idea of pitching startups at events like
these to garner funding or co-founders, with no actual code/product/etc no
matter the age, skill, or race of the individual. Always seemed a little
quixotic and irrationally exuberant. pg and co seem to not mind however, as
they seem to have gotten pitches (and accepted them) for non-existent
startups. Wasn't Reddit at 0 when it was pitched and accepted into original
YC?

Then again, there's a quote of pg somewhere saying nearly everyone has a
product/some code at least now when pitching to YC.

~~~
vineel
> Wayne Sutton confuses lack of interest in conducting srs bzns as racial
> prejudice/racism

I don't think he's implying that at all. At the end, Sutton just notes that
there were few minorities. He never explicitly makes the connection that the
kids were actively discriminated against because of their race.

~~~
waynesutton
Correct! That's not the point I was making.

~~~
kabushikigaisha
Apologies, I inferred that since this piece was written on blackweb20.com ,
you were saying the reason the two youngsters weren't getting attention was
due to their racial background instead of age.

~~~
walexander
I think the headline does lead you to that conclusion, even if not explicitly
stated or even the author's intention:

"Two 11-year-old entrepreneurs learned the hard way what it’s like to be a
minority in tech during Startup Weekend"

Being on blackweb20.com, I would assume "minority" is referring to race here.
Wayne, you may want to update the title here if you want to avoid some
confusion.

(Wayne: By the way, I'm in RTP and just noticed your trioutnc site from your
profile - looks like a nice tool so far, i'll be trying it).

------
nkassis
Interesting story, I personally think that their age was the major reason for
being left out. Both ideas weren't worse than some of the stuff I've seen out
there being lunched and getting funded. At least they picked things that were
directly related to their personal interest.

I wish someone had pointed them to AppInventor for Android. I think App
Inventor is directly targeted to young people like them. While I was in high
school their was an organization that would help kids start a little business
like this and get it off the ground. Most successful ideas like selling
tshirt. It would be interesting to see it applied to ideas like these kids
had.

~~~
waynesutton
Yes, I their age played a big roll. Also you had to be there to experience it.
I tried to tell the story as it happen.

The kids were serious in pitching and people voted for them but I don't think
everyone who voted for them took them serious and wanted to join their team.

~~~
thaumaturgy
So, in other words, they were being encouraged by adults who didn't want to
form a business relationship with them? That's terrible!

I see you run an accelerator for minorities. Why not run them through your
program?

------
radog
This is a ridiculous post and I'm surprised it made it to the front page here.
The two kids who pitched these ideas were akin to the traditional adult
"business types" who pitch an idea with nothing else to really bring to the
table. Honestly, who wants to work with an 11 year old on a startup like this,
where the kid likely has very little to offer (they certainly can't work full-
time startup hours, even if summer is coming) except perhaps the media buzz of
a young entrepreneur.

The vague tinge of racism being alleged here (and yes, the author is crafty
enough here to set out the components of the charge without setting it out,
because it would sound ridiculous were it directly stated) is distasteful.

------
dgabriel
I guess the issue is _why_ do people attend start-up weekends? Is it to
network for professional reasons? To actually begin working with a team that
may produce a marketable product? Or is it for the fun of going flat out on an
interesting idea? It's probably a combination of these things, but if the
first or second reason applies most strongly, then it's not surprising that
the attendees chose to join other teams. More because of age than anything
else.

Don't get me wrong, I think that there are certainly serious barriers within
the start-up world for women and minorities. I'm not sure this is an example
of that bias playing out, though.

------
iqster
I attended startupweekend in nyc recently and enjoyed myself thoroughly! That
event also included a kid pitching an idea (this kid was white). That idea was
selected but I believe no one joined the team until day 2 (Saturday). I did
find this surprising because the idea was decent. On the morning of day 2, the
organizers made an announcement if people were still looking for a team, the
kid's team was "open". A few people answered the call and that's great because
the kid's team ended up winning one of the three special prizes - kudos to the
kid and his team!

Why the lack of support? I suspect it might be because other participants are
looking to build a network rather than work on the next Facebook.

Also the idea person becomes the effective leader of the team. I'm not sure
how well a kid would manage a motley troop of developers+business
people+designers. From my experience, most adults would have trouble with this
task :-p

~~~
Tichy
Maybe people were just not in the mood for working with a kid. Not saying it
can't be fun or successful, but perhaps most attendees had something different
in mind.

------
sleeper
It seems to be all hype because they're 11 years old. The little girls website
is proof of that.

~~~
forensic
hype can pay

they have domain expertise and unique perspectives, plus they are media
darlings

a savvy businessman should scoop these kids up

~~~
thaumaturgy
...for maximum exploitation?

------
aneth
Ugh.

If an 11 year old black child pitches me an incredible startup idea, I would
not join their team. Calling me racist for that is racist in itself. I don't
think an 11 year old is competent to run a company or manage a product.

This article is a rarity in being such a clear example of reverse racism. Get
over yourselves. The fucking president of the United States is black. Do you
think attendees of startup weekend are more racist than your average American
who voted for Obama?

If a competent black adult pitched a startup, they would have had no more of a
problem assembling a team than a white or asian.

This sort of self-important racism by people fixated on the past is exactly
what holds black culture back.

~~~
seats
I didn't hear the author call anyone racist. In fact I think you are only
supporting his point. These kids were minorities in at least two ways, race
and age (for the girl there is a third). I would say that age was clearly the
biggest deterrent for people joining their efforts and the tone of the article
to me was more about age than race. Even look at the title, it says '11 year
olds learn hard lesson', no mention of race. Two white 11 year old kids would
have had the same tough lesson.

These kids are minorities at this event mostly because they are minors.
That'll fix itself in time and I commend the author for trying to help keep
their spirits up so that this was a positive experience for them instead of a
let-down.

There is also something interesting to say here about the psychology of voting
without commitment. If the voting at this event was your true ranking of which
team you wanted to join (i.e. you rank all ideas and join the top one that
makes the cut), then no one would have picked these kids. When there was
nothing on the line, no one wanted the kids to feel bad so they got some
'mercy votes' or maybe 'cute kids, nice try' votes, but when it got down to
voting with your feet, no one thought their ideas or abilities were attractive
enough over the alternatives.

~~~
aneth
The title is actually "Two 11-year-old entrepreneurs learned the hard way what
it’s like to be a minority in tech during Startup Weekend"

I think it's pretty clear "minority" here means black. By indicating the
audience made their decision based on race, the author is implicitly calling
them racists.

