Getting involved in entrepreneurship in high school is often a challenge; there are so many unknowns, and even more unknown unknowns, so many steps you need to take, and high school courses generally aren鈥檛 designed to prepare you for this. There are limited extracurricular opportunities which fill this gap, but they do exist, and can be a great thing to avail yourself of. In this article, we鈥檙e going to explore one such opportunity, the program (TYE). This is an international program specifically designed to foster and encourage entrepreneurship in high school students, providing resources, mentorship, and a competition for you to show off your own potential. In this article, we鈥檙e going to explore what this program is, and how you can get involved.
What TYE Is
This is a program with two main bases in Kerala and Seattle, but with local branches and chapters in . Not every city in the US has one, but many major cities do. Each branch offers coursework, a curriculum designed to introduce students to entrepreneurship, and mentorship opportunities.
The main thrust of the program is a competition, where teams of students work together to ideate and pitch their own dream of a startup, under the mentorship of TYE alumni and community partners. This begins with the ; you sign up for this through your local branch of the program. The curriculum culminates in the global competition; we鈥檒l describe this in more detail in the next section.
The program focuses on professional development of the participants, building the soft and hard skills they need to understand how businesses operate, and guiding them through getting started, everything from setting up a LinkedIn profile to the steps to actually build a professional network.
The program has been in operation for eighteen years at this point, and is still growing, with over 35,000 total participants over its tenure. It is free for students to participate in this program, though local branches may have their own policies. TYE is run off of charitable donations from business and community partners.
The TYE Program Competition
The culmination of the TYE Program, and the main draw for students, is the competition. This is the final part of the curriculum; once you have learned practical lessons about business and entrepreneurship, you get the chance to enact them by beginning your own company.
Note that, technically, you do not need to participate in their curriculum to sign up for the contest, or have any prior experience with business. These are the only eligibility requirements for the competition:
- You must be a high school student
- You must be currently aged 14-19
- You must take part in a team of 2-5 fellow high school students
Note that while you do not need to complete the curriculum, those teams that have are often prioritized. The exact deadlines and requirements to compete are set by your local competition; we鈥檒l be using as an example, since we鈥檙e based in Houston ourselves.
The competition has two phases, students competing in their local round first, with the winners from that round invited to the national round, which is held in Seattle this year. The exact format varies slightly by location, but the competition follows a fairly standard approach across venues.
The competition has a single round, where teams have ten minutes to present a pitch-deck, followed by a five minute Q&A session. For the Houston competition, this is entirely done via Zoom. Your pitch deck needs to cover the following for your product or business:
- Problem: what the company is trying to address
- Solution: how you are trying to address the problem you have identified
- Target customer: Who is your solution aimed at
- Customer Validation: Evidence that you have spoken to potential customers and that this problem and potential solution are relevant to them
- Product or prototype: Validation that this is a thing which can exist in the world, rather than a mere pipedream
- Market opportunity: Some evidence there is a space in the market for your business or product to flourish
- Business model: How your business itself will be organized and run
- Team and roles: What each team member contributes to the business and plan as a whole, the overlapping and complementing skills you bring to the table
- Your ask: As with all pitch decks, you are asking viewers to invest in your business; what you need and what purpose it serves should be clearly presented
Competition Judging
The competition judges each presentation on eight areas, each of which is scored from one to nine, and which are given equal weight. These areas are related to, but distinct from what you need to cover in your pitch deck. In general, you are judged on the implementation of these, and how effective they are. Specifically, they score on the following categories:
- Customer Validation: They want evidence that you spoke to actual potential customers, and can show through data the insights you gained from doing so, and that this impacted your business plan
- Execution: Demonstration: That your product or service is tied to a real customer pain point, with clear value it can give them
- Execution: Iteration: Clear evidence that you have taken consumer feedback into account, and iterated your business based on it
- Product-Market Fit: Your customer segments are matched to value propositions with evidence that these exist
- Business Model: Evidence that you have examined potential costs and revenues, your overall plan for your business, and that you understand the potential size of your market
- Teamwork: That your team has clearly defined roles that make the best use of skills, and that you have invested in gaining any needed skills for the business model
- Presentation Skills: The actual quality of your presentation itself; that it flows logically, tells a story, is persuasive, and has strong and relevant visuals
- Q&A: That you answer all questions clearly and directly, and that all team members have a clear role and participate in answering questions
The strongest talks are the ones which have talked with real customers, and support the points they make with evidence. They want to see that you have actively sought feedback from potential customers, and iterated and changed your product to meet the needs as they exist in the world, rather than merely the theory of them.听
Prizes
The overall prize of the competition is $3,000 for the winning team at the global event. Winners from local competitions advance to the global event. Six different teams are recognized overall, for excellence in various aspects of their pitch and presentation.
The prizes here are smaller than some competitions, the real benefit being the experience of formatting and pitching a business proposal, and the recognition given for doing so. Yes, 鈥渢he real prize was what you learned along the way鈥� feels like a copout, but students do learn a lot from this competition.
Is TYE a Good Fit for You?
Now that we have a good understanding of what the TYE program is, the important question remains: is this a good opportunity for you to pursue? This depends, so we鈥檒l look at what recommends this program, and which students it is best suited for.
If you are interested in business, and specifically in entrepreneurship, then this is an interesting opportunity. There are limited avenues for students to get involved in these fields generally, especially for younger students. Frequently, the best avenue is just starting your own business. Since that鈥檚 exactly what this program and competition is designed to help students do, the benefits are quite obvious.
This competition is somewhat limited when compared to what鈥檚 available in the sciences, but that鈥檚 also understandable. Success in business comes once you have built a successful business; whereas the sciences are more nebulous, and require significantly more investment and oversight. There is also far more funding for science competitions, which is why they offer significantly more prizes.
If you are interested in entrepreneurship specifically, and there is a branch of this program in a city near you, then we recommend checking it out. Even if you don鈥檛 end up competing, the courses they offer on entrepreneurship can be useful, a primer that high schools generally don鈥檛 cover. If you have your own ideas for a business venture, and want to put the plan into action while getting feedback on it, then this is a good option for you to do so.
This competition certainly isn鈥檛 a good fit for all students, but not all students want to pursue entrepreneurship. This is especially ideal for students at the younger end of high school, for whom more serious opportunities are not yet available, and who will benefit from learning the basics and foundations now, to be built upon going forward.
Final Thoughts
There are any number of ways to explore your interests in high school, but some fields are better represented than others. Despite business being one of the most popular majors and career paths, there are few resources for high school students interested in it, very few paths they can explore at this stage. TYE is not a unique program, but it is a great way for students to get a first taste of entrepreneurship, and what exactly starting a business from scratch entails.
We hope that this article has helped you understand the TYE program, and assess whether or not it鈥檚 a good opportunity for you to pursue. It can be difficult to assess all the programs out there, or find the ones that speak to your goals or interests; that鈥檚 where 吃瓜官网 can help. Our mentors are skilled at helping students find opportunities which resonate with them, and which set them up to stand out in their college admissions. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can help, we鈥檙e always happy to hear from you.
