11-Year-Olds Learn Life Lesson During Startup Weekend

<p><pre><code> &#62; What happened next was a hard wake up call for two young entrepreneurs who were &#62; ready to start working on their startup and something I hope any entrepreneur, &#62; parent or kid never experiences in their life. </code></pre> 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?<p>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?<p>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: <a href="http://whartoniteseekscodemonkey.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://whartoniteseekscodemonkey.tumblr.com/</a> 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.<p>But hoping that they never learn any hard life lessons? Ridiculous.

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

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.<p>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.

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.<p>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.

I guess the issue is <i>why</i> 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.<p>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.

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!<p>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.<p>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

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

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