3 skills your kids can learn from starting a business

Happy Friday!

In case you’re new here, Prequel is the free, twice-weekly newsletter for parents who want their kids to succeed. We give you weekly insights on how your children can get ahead ― in school and in life.

For this week’s newsletter, we’re sharing Shreeya Patel’s story. Shreeya, a BETA Camp alumnus, built a revenue-generating startup with her sister in just 4 weeks. In part thanks to that startup (and other projects she built at BETA Camp), Shreeya was accepted to Columbia University’s Computer Science program.

The lessons she learned through our program have helped her excel in her university education as well as in her career!

There are so many great takeaways from her story, so let’s dive in.

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Students will be introduced to innovative AI tools that they can use to improve studying and organizational skills, and find out how it can help to future-proof their careers. Be one of the first to experience this new era of hyper-efficient learning and creating!

Parents are welcome to join too!

💡 How one teen launched a revenue-generating startup in 4 weeks (and how your kid can, too!)

When Shreeya started applying to colleges and scholarships, she knew she wanted to do something big that would make her applications stand out and give her an edge.

So, she decided to apply to BETA Camp (and then made her sister apply, too!). Together, they built a startup called Brain Bundle, which helped students retain information better and study smarter. And in just 4 weeks, they’d built a product, found interested customers, and earned real revenue.

Here’s what your kids can learn from starting a business like Shreeya:

3 skills your kids can learn from starting a business

1. Adaptability

Starting a business taught Shreeya how to adapt. “BETA Camp taught me a lot about adaptability and flexibility and staying on your toes,” she says.

In business, the first idea your kid comes up with is probably not the idea they’re going to launch. The first prototype they make of their product is probably going to look nothing like the one that’s ready to ship into the world.

Being an entrepreneur is all about getting comfortable with making changes, learning as you go, putting something out there, and then repeating the process. In our programs at Prequel, we emphasize that it’s better to move quickly and learn from your mistakes than to waste time trying to be perfect. 

Adaptable kids grow up into adults who are ready to thrive in a fast-changing world. Look at how quickly technology has changed just in your kids’ lifetimes alone — if your kids are flexible and ready to learn as they go, they’ll be ready for all the changes that are sure to come.

Sure enough, when Shreeya left her small town to attend Columbia University, “the transition was pretty seamless.” Even though she was going from a town of 80,000 people to a city of millions, she was more than ready to take the leap — because she knew she had what it took to adapt to her new circumstances.

2. Creativity

In our programs at Prequel, we teach kids to access their creativity via entrepreneurship. We encourage them to come up with solutions to everyday problems — and then go build those solutions and put them out into the world!

Starting a business forces kids to open their eyes to the world around them and constantly ask themselves, “What’s missing? How could things be better?” 

Creative kids are innovators, change-makers, and leaders. When everyone is stuck trying to solve a problem the same way, a creative kid will look at it differently and find a solution no one else could see. 

Even after BETA Camp, Shreeya couldn’t turn off her creative mindset. She noticed that COVID-19 kept kids out of daycare, and she wanted to find a way to help them continue developing at home. So, she and her sister started writing children’s books to teach kids concepts like computer science and aerodynamics — and they’ve already written and self-published eight so far.

3. Accepting feedback

Starting a business forces kids to get comfortable receiving feedback — because without it, they can’t improve, and their business will never be successful.

Kids don’t learn to take feedback and criticism well. In fact, at school, what they learn about feedback is all wrong. They receive a grade, and then that’s it — no chance to improve or iterate upon what they’ve learned. 

But in the real world, feedback isn’t final. Instead, it’s an invitation to iterate. And it’s one of the best ways to help your kids improve over time.

Kids who are open to feedback grow faster and go farther. They’re not shy about seeking out others’ opinions, and as a result, they end up turning everyone they meet into a mentor. Their work improves at an exponential pace, because they’re constantly improving and getting better every single day.

And it’s not just their work that will improve. They’ll start to improve themselves, too. As Shreeya said, her experience at BETA Camp taught her that starting a business is all about “continuous self-improvement — finding ways to improve the startup and yourself.” 

⚡️ 2 Tutorials

1. School is preparing kids for jobs that no longer exist — and the skills kids need to thrive in the real world (link)

2. How to use ChatGPT to start an email marketing side hustle (link)

🚀 3 Tools To Boost Your Teen’s Productivity

1. Personal AI — supercharge your memory, instantly get the answer to anything you once knew

2. PPTX.ai — generate TED-talk style presentations with speakers notes in minutes

3. YOYA AI — build personalized apps, without code

Thanks for reading!

Did you find this issue helpful? Let me know what you thought of today’s issue and what you’d like to see from us next time.

Until next time,
Ivy
CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo
Follow my journey on LinkedIn