

Silicon Valley's child soldiers.  - hessenwolf
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2011/tc20110412_222218.htm
The vast majority of them will fail miserably. Then they've screwed up their careers.
======
pstack
I know my comments questioning the background of parents for young startup
successes was roundly criticized here a few days ago, but I can't help but
bring up those points whenever I see articles like this which substantiate my
assertions.

 _"I was surrounded by tech everyday for so long that I gained a natural
interest for it," said Daniel Brusilovsky, an 18-year-old from San Mateo,
California, whose upbringing by a software-manager father and Oracle Corp.
veteran mother led him to found two startups before he was old enough to
vote._

We tend to forget that most of the successes where the "founder" is very young
seem to be attributable to parents with significantly more resources than the
average person or who are in the industry and have resources and/or also
connections.

I don't intend to dismiss the accomplishments of people like this, but these
reports often try to present a case that young people are succeeding left and
right in ideas simply because of technological advances and easier access to a
computer. They don't often seem to make more than a glancing nod toward the
fact that the parents are there to provide financial resources to get them
started. Or in some cases, connections to get them started and skip ahead of
the hurdles other children that you don't hear stories about would encounter.

I'd be more interested in stories where the kid isn't from a family where dad
is a wealthy lawyer and the kid has a sure thing at a prominent university
ahead of him and where the kid's mom and dad aren't professionals in the
industry that are available to encourage, advise, support, and assist on
behalf of their child. I'd be more interested in the seeming lack of stories
where the kid with an absentee dad and a mom on welfare or toiling in a
minimum wage job to provide for them and their siblings while attending a
mediocre public school who has no mentor or support or resources creates the
next Facebook or Windows or Angry Birds.

~~~
njs12345
To be fair this is true of most people who end up succeeding in any walk of
life, as a child/teen or adult..

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ShabbyDoo
The idea that one can never again obtain formal education if he drops out of
college is absurd, and I hope the quote about "screwing up one's career" was
taken out of context. Many universities require that all credits for a degree
be earned within N years of each other, but N is usually a very large number
compared to the timelines of 20 year-old dropouts. Furthermore, who would want
a "career" where those evaluating you looked negatively upon having once done
a start-up.

Are there any universities which, in practice, will not take back a student
who left on good terms (passing grades, left at the end of a semester vs. in
the middle, etc.)? My guess is that the real risk is that scholarships would
not be renewed and the returning drop-out would have to pay full fare.

~~~
keiferski
The only thing to worry about is student loans; you typically have to start
paying them back 6-12 months after dropping out.

In general, though, you're right. The credits at my university are good for 11
years (after you stop going.)

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inmygarage
This headline is linkbait. While there is a quip about "child soldiers" I
don't think that's really what the article is about.

~~~
hessenwolf
I tried to type more in but it only let me use 80 characters so it ended up
with just the child soldiers part. Honestly not sure what you mean by linkbait
in this context, unless you mean from the original source's perspective.

------
daimyoyo
Can people under the age of 21 even sign term sheets? I apologize for my
ignorance, I'm just unsure of the wisdom of someone seeking VC funding before
he can sign the paperwork.(I'm 29, BTW)

~~~
yardie
Contracts aren't enforceable unless they are over 18. This is where the
parents come in as a proxy.

Anyway, most of these uberkids have the same story, mom or dad is a VC or SV
entrepreneur. The kid relies on family connections to get their idea out there
and raise capital. Rinse and repeat.

I'm not saying it as a bad thing, but stories like this tend to read like the
NYTimes lifestyle sections.

~~~
shareme
Yeah, but did you notice the kid in charge of TechKids(?) finally is repairing
is damage to his name for his TC debacle(ipad for article) and is starting
again to get press for his efforts.

~~~
mistermann
Backstory, anyone?

~~~
yardie
You can catch up on it here:

[http://www.aolnews.com/2010/02/05/tech-site-apologizes-
for-c...](http://www.aolnews.com/2010/02/05/tech-site-apologizes-for-conflict-
of-interest-again/)

