This was the week we had been

waiting for.

We knew that the students had come up with a special idea. It was now our chance to start turning it into something more than just a thought. As we later found out, the kids were already plenty of steps ahead of us.

Our goal with week 3 was to take the initial lessons of ideation and SWOT analysis and show how they naturally transition into a minimum viable product. So far, the kids had come up with a concept of incentivizing high school class attendance. They had surveyed and chatted with some of their classmates, and discovered it was an idea that their school population would definitely use.

With that taken care of, they were ready to learn the MVP process. Things started out a little slow, as the kids weren’t as interested in the details of what makes up an MVP. Instead, they were ready to toss ideas and potential features out. We took a few minutes to walk them through Snapchat’s one-feature MVP model, and then we got down to business.

Austin and I did our best to guide the students through the process of building the features list, but the students were eager to get as many concepts out as they could. Everything from technical specifications to clever user incentives ended up taking the entire class’ whiteboard. Before our eyes, we watched the kids have fun with the process of entrepreneurship.

It was another one of those uniquely introspective experiences. We were reminded of who we once were in the early days of our startup journey. Seeing that same level of enthusiasm in the faces of the students was something that we hope will stay with them as they progress in their lives. There’s no doubt in our minds that these students have the entrepreneurial bug.

Next up, business plan creation.

Stay tuned.