Exclusive update! The first young entrepreneurs exchange meeting opened to the public
On a Saturday at 4:30 pm, a group of more than 30 students and parents from all over the United States, Toronto, and Beijing came together in a Zoom meeting. Putting aside their time differences, a strong group was formed: Entrepreneur and FEC mentor Mr. Massi, Harmony Plus alumni Albert (who is also Launch X Regional Director), parents who care about their children’s education, and high school students. Sharing an interest in business, they all gathered to take part in a young entrepreneurs exchange meeting of the Silicon Valley Future Entrepreneur Challenge (FEC). With the challenge of the pandemic, it has not been easy to carry out group projects, and it is even more difficult to find suitable teammates. So in response to this problem, FEC created this exchange meeting and opened it to the public for the very first time.
The meeting was divided into three parts: Introductions, sharing FEC experiences, and the student exchange. First, Mr. Massi introduced the FEC incubator project. Different from other similar courses where the teacher leads, this incubator project is completely student-led. The project involves students finding teammates, actively arranging meetings with mentors, developing product prototypes, and communicating with users. Students will get a chance to put their skills to the test while meeting with their mentors and investors. In the end, each team will produce a complete, feasible business plan, along with a minimum viable product (MVP). The teams will then share their businesses in a final presentation to win a recommendation letter from a famous Silicon Valley educator.
After the introductions, Harmony Plus alumni Albert shared his experiences from FEC. In eleventh grade, Albert founded the On Track brand and designed the first software that uses artificial intelligence and works with Google Chrome to help students and their parents improve concentration while in online classes. In addition to FEC, Albert has also participated in the Diamond Challenge (a popular business competition for high school students), MIT’s top summer school Launch X, and the Model Entrepreneur Challenge hosted by Columbia Business School, all with outstanding results. As a successful student and entrepreneur, he believes that entrepreneurship is a skill that high school students should learn. The communication, teamwork, speaking, and leadership skills that are exercised in that field directly benefited his Columbia, Penn, and UC Berkeley admissions.
Once Albert had shared his story, the student exchange began. The host invited the participants to write down their business ideas on a Google sheet. He then assigned them to different breakout rooms one by one, according to the business information provided. In total, there were eight discussion rooms. To ensure the free and open discussion, students were able to switch between different discussion rooms and listen to the opinions of different partners. After an hour, the eight discussion rooms were merged into five, and each room was full of excitement for the topic at hand.
The discussions in the student exchange showed variety in thinking, with talks ranging from sources of funds to profit models. Some students discussed mental health consulting services, while others asked questions about the paid membership system and the division of membership levels. All the students displayed professional vocabularies, using words such as “the invisible hand”, niche market, and the feasibility of combining GitHub and software, etc. And despite some students not knowing each other, they did not hesitate to share their thoughts and actively invited new partners to share their opinions. For example, when discussing the idea of cooperating with the school district to launch a stylus and a touchpad, a few students brought up practical considerations such as market saturation and product competitiveness. With such insightful comments and analysis, the student exchange rose to the height of higher-level thinking and corporate social responsibility.
In the last ten minutes of the meeting, all the students returned to the main discussion room to share their ideas, thoughts, and ask Mr. Massi questions. Although this section was supposed to last only ten minutes, the students’ enthusiasm increased the time to twenty minutes. In addition to giving suggestions on a few business ideas, Mr. Massi also spoke on entrepreneurial knowledge and recommended programming languages to the students.
At the end of the event, the Harmony Plus teaching team shared how encouraging it was to see more than 20 young students participate and make connections in the very first young entrepreneurs’ exchange meeting. A total of 18 students shared their contact information, looking forward to establishing a close network with new colleagues. Only a few days after the event, a few students successfully formed a team and took the initiative to arrange an interview with Mr. Massi to share their ideas! While this team was lucky, the other teams understand that it often takes fate and time to find like-minded teammates. Therefore, before the official start of the second-level FEC project, there will be more of these exchange meetings for young entrepreneurs. Students currently taking part in the first-level course will be able to join the discussion with their preliminary entrepreneurial plans.
Harmony Plus is honored to provide young entrepreneurs with opportunities like this to share their passions and inspire others. They hope that the students from the exchange complete their entrepreneurial dreams and take part in the second-level incubator project of the Silicon Valley Future Entrepreneur Challenge, which is coming up soon. This 8-week accelerator project is open to all high school students who already have business ideas or experience. So if your child has endless ideas and ambitions, have them join us this summer!
