Entrepreneurship education should not wait for college. This week, founder and Executive Director Luke Erickson taught a one hour entrepreneurship class at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Ventura.
The hour ran in two parts. First, Luke told his own story: starting a company, the setbacks nobody advertises, and the decision to build in Ventura County instead of leaving it. Then the students became the founders. Each one picked a real problem they had noticed, designed a solution for it, and named the business they would build around it.
The ideas came fast, and so did the lesson underneath them: entrepreneurship is not a mystery reserved for other people in other cities. It is a way of looking at problems, and it can be learned here, young, by anyone.
This is what building an ecosystem actually looks like. The founders who will lead Ventura County’s companies in 2040 are sitting in classrooms and club rooms right now, and every hour spent showing them what is possible is an investment with a very long tail. Our thanks to the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Ventura team for the invitation and for the work they do every day.
Want Startup Ventura in front of your students or your organization? Reach out. And if you want to put your own experience in front of the next generation of founders, raise your hand as a mentor.