Applications open · Fall 2026 cohorts
Make your first dollar before you finish middle school.
Jr Founder is a two-day build weekend for ages 8–14. Kids arrive with nothing. They leave with a working product, ten real customer conversations, and — for most pods — money that a stranger actually paid them.
- Ages
- 8–14
- Format
- 2 days
- Seats
- 24 per city
- Cost
- Free
Why a weekend works
Most programs teach kids about business. This one makes them run one.
A semester of entrepreneurship class produces a slide deck. A weekend with a hard deadline, a room full of mentors, and a stranger holding a wallet produces something else entirely — a kid who has learned, in their body, that they can make a thing and get paid for it.
The compression is the point. Forty-eight hours is short enough that nobody can hide in planning, and long enough to get all the way through the loop: find a problem, build something, ask for money, get told no, fix it, ask again.
One kid with AI now moves like a small team. An eleven-year-old can put a real product on the internet before lunch. That is new, and it is why this program can be two days instead of two years.
The six gates
Pods don't “finish”. They clear gates.
Every gate is binary — cleared or not — and every gate is on the wall where the whole room can see it. No participation credit, no partial marks, no gate cleared by a grown-up.
- 01
Name it
The problem fits in one sentence a stranger understands.
No category, no buzzword, no “app for people who…”. A specific person with a specific annoyance.
- 02
Talk to ten
Ten real humans interviewed, with notes we can read.
Not ten friends. Ten people who actually have the problem, found and approached on Saturday afternoon.
- 03
Ship it
A working thing a person can use, today.
A landing page, a small app, a booked service, a physical stand. It has to survive a stranger touching it.
- 04
Price it
A number, said out loud, defended without flinching.
Most pods discover their first price was a guess. That discovery is the lesson.
- 05
First dollar
Money received — or a signed commitment to pay.
The single hardest gate, and the only one that changes how a kid sees themselves.
- 06
Tell it
A 90-second demo video, recorded and submitted.
Problem, product, proof, ask. Shot on a phone, cut before the parents arrive.
The weekend
Saturday you find the problem. Sunday you get paid.
Both days run 9:00 to 5:00 with a hard wrap. No overnights, ever. Times are published before you apply so families can plan around them.
Saturday
Day one · 8 hours- 9:00
Doors, breakfast, pods assigned
- 9:30
Kickoff: a live sale, on stage, no slides
A mentor sells something real to a real person in front of the room.
- 10:00
Idea Forge
Every kid pitches three ideas, sixty seconds each. The room votes with their feet.
- 10:45
Gate 1 locks — name the problem
- 11:00
Build Block 1
Mentors float. Nobody sits alone.
- 12:30
Lunch with a guest founder
Kids ask anything. Nothing is off limits.
- 1:15
Workshop: Talk To Strangers (Safely)
Scripts, openers, and staff role-play until the ask stops feeling scary.
- 2:00
Customer Gauntlet → Gate 2
Ten real conversations, on site, supervised.
- 3:15
Workshop: Build It With AI
Page or app, live on the internet, in thirty minutes.
- 3:45
Build Block 2 → Gate 3
- 5:00
Hard wrap
Homework: send one message to one real person tonight.
Sunday
Day two · 8 hours- 9:00
Breakfast + standup
Sixty seconds per pod. What shipped, what broke.
- 9:30
Workshop: Price It & Get Paid → Gate 4
- 10:00
Build Block 3
Payments go live. Real money, real receipts.
- 11:30
Workshop: Tell It In 90 Seconds
The story spine: problem, product, proof, ask.
- 12:00
Lunch + The Rejection Game
Points for no's, not yeses. The pod with the most rejections wins the round.
- 1:00
Final Sprint → Gates 5 and 6
- 3:00
Videos lock
- 3:30
Parents arrive — Demo Fair
A station per pod. Parents are the first customers of the afternoon.
- 4:15
Top four pods pitch the mentor panel
- 4:45
Awards + First Dollar Club induction
- 5:00
Wrap
What we actually train
Four pillars, drilled all weekend.
Grit
Hear no, keep going.
We manufacture rejection on purpose, then score it. By Sunday a no is data, not a verdict.
Customers
Find them, talk to them, close them.
Every kid leaves having spoken to at least ten strangers about something they made. Most have never done it once.
Tools
One kid with AI moves like a small team.
Claude, v0, Canva, Stripe. Not as toys — as the reason a nine-year-old can ship on a Saturday.
Story
Say the true thing in ninety seconds.
Pitching is not performance. It is compression. We drill it until the fat is gone.
How we judge
Four criteria. Equal weight. One of them is honesty.
Sunday afternoon, every pod presents at a station. The top four pitch the mentor panel live.
Awards
- Best Angle — the sharpest wedge in the room
- Most Shipped — the most working product per hour
- Most Customers — the pod that talked to the most humans
- Best Comeback — the clearest account of a failure
Grand prize: a private working session with a mentor, plus seed credit to keep the business running past day 30.
- 01
Angle
25%Is this a real wedge, or a copy of something you've seen?
- 02
Shipped
25%Does it work, right now, in front of us, without a story about next week?
- 03
Customers
25%How many real humans did you reach, and what did they actually say?
- 04
Honesty
25%What failed, and can you explain it without softening it?
Monday morning
What every kid takes home.
Not a certificate of attendance. A running business and the receipts to prove it.
A live URL
Their product, on the internet, still up on Monday.
A 90-second film
Edited, watchable, and theirs to send to anyone.
A 30-day plan
One page. Next ten customers, next price, next ship date.
Tool credits
Ninety days of the AI and payment tools they built on.
First Dollar Club
For every kid who took real money. Pin, certificate, wall.
The alumni room
A moderated group, plus a parent handbook for what comes next.
Cohorts
Four weekends. Twenty-four seats each.
We read applications as they arrive and answer within a week. Tracks run side by side: Sprouts for ages 8–10, Builders for 11–14.
Austin, TX
East Austin
October 10–11, 2026
24 seats
Miami, FL
Wynwood
November 7–8, 2026
24 seats
New York, NY
Lower Manhattan
December 5–6, 2026
24 seats
Online
Live, small-group video
January 16–17, 2027
24 seats
No city near you?
Clear the same six gates from your kitchen table. Free.
The Jr Founder Course is the weekend unpacked into six modules — about 8 hours of real work, at your own pace, with no account to create and nothing locked. Same gates, same standards, same finish line: a working product and one dollar from a stranger.
Gate 01
Name it
45 min
Gate 02
Talk to ten
90 min
Gate 03
Ship it
120 min
Gate 04
Price it
45 min
Gate 05
First dollar
120 min
Gate 06
Tell it
60 min
For parents
Hard wraps, supervised outreach, and nothing published about your kid.
Background-checked staff, one mentor per six kids, allergy-aware meals, and no overnights. Every customer conversation happens on site or through a channel you have approved.
Covers supervision ratios, media consent, what your kid needs to bring, and what happens after the weekend.
Questions
Asked before you ask.
Does my kid need a business idea before they arrive?
No — and if they arrive attached to one, we will probably talk them out of it. Saturday morning is built to generate and kill ideas fast. Pods form around the strongest problem in the room, not the loudest idea.
Does my kid need to know how to code?
No. Roughly a third of past-style projects ship without a line of code — a service, a stand, a spreadsheet, a booking page. The kids who do want to build software use AI tools we teach on Saturday afternoon.
Is it really free?
Yes, for accepted students, including both lunches and both breakfasts. The weekend is funded by partners and mentors. There is no upsell at the end and no paid tier of the program.
Are there overnights?
Never. Both days run 9:00 to 5:00 with a hard wrap, published before you apply so you can plan the weekend around it. Parents are welcome in the building at any hour.
How do you handle the “talk to strangers” part?
All outreach is supervised and takes place on site or through channels a parent has approved. Customers are staff, mentors, partner businesses, and consenting adults we have invited. No child publishes a phone number, address, or personal email. Details are in the parent handbook.
What if my kid is shy?
Shy kids often do best. The Saturday afternoon script drills exist precisely so the first ask is not improvised, and the Rejection Game reframes a no as a point scored. We pair, we never send a kid out alone.
What are you looking for in an application?
Fit and intensity, not credentials. We do not read for grades, awards, or a parent's résumé. We read the applicant's own paragraph — in their own words, typos and all — for whether they actually want to make something and hand it to a stranger.
What happens after the weekend?
The 30-day plan and the alumni room. We check in at day 30 and day 90 to ask one question: did you get another customer? Kids who keep going get intros to mentors. There is no obligation to continue.
Three questions. Two minutes. No résumé.
We read for fit and intensity, not credentials. Write it in your own words — we would rather hear the kid than the parent.
Start the application