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Elon Musk was only 12-years-old when he created and sold his first business – a sci-fi space game called Blastar. The coding of that game helped shape young Musk to become one of the most prolific innovators of the modern age.
Interestingly, many self-made entrepreneurs all share a striking similarity — they started young. The one regret often heard from adult entrepreneurs is that they wish they had started sooner.
Even Kevin O’Leary, star of ABC’s Shark Tank agrees: “People ask me what’s the right age to teach entrepreneur you know what I say? Any age! I think it’s fantastic that kids get involved in business as early as possible and that’s why I want to give a huge shout out to the Rocket Club members. This rocket club is a fantastic idea.”
Rocket Club, a new award-winning after school program that teaches kids (9 -14 years old) entrepreneurship, coding, and robotics, just opened a second center in the Upper West Side (by Lincoln Center). The program is created with the unique goal of molding kids into becoming tech business owners and serial entrepreneurs.
Within the first few months of opening Rocket Club’s first location in Hoboken (the waiting list for this location is full until Winter 2020), the kids were able to grow their ideas to colossal heights. Its members developed model autonomous cars, Mars Rovers, The World’s First Robotic Lemonade Stand, and all launched their own real businesses – 17 in total.
The true X-factor of the program is the entrepreneurship curriculum. Kids build and program robots to automate each of their semester-end businesses. Once the community heard what the kids were up to — executives’ doors of major companies flew open.
11-year-old Rocket Club member, Kayden built Grow-In-Low, a hydroponic farm from his knowledge of his family’s vegan lifestyle. After his dad had a health scare, Kayden was inspired to teach his peers about healthy food alternatives. Since building his company, he’s met the Co-Founder and C.E.O. of Square Roots and pitched his basil to Celebrity chef Dan Kluger.
Another Rocket Club member, Katherine developed robotics for her organic lipstick line, Beauty In Berries, after her family decided to use natural products around the house. Executives at Estée Lauder heard about her interest in creating a new lipstick line and invited her to their Long Island plant for an exclusive tour to see how the company mixes, packages, and distributes its products.
All of Rocket Club’s leaders and partners are accomplished business owners or engineers who also started young. RC’s founder, Alex Hodara, is a “Forbes 30 Under 30” serial-entrepreneur and real estate developer who built and owns more than 200 buildings along the East Coast. He started his first business when he was a teen in New Jersey. Hodara has sponsored numerous FIRST robotics teams and high school Hackathons throughout N.J. He has self-funded Rocket Club to help enterprising kids to become the next Elon Musk, Meg Whitman or Jeff Bezos and takes zero equity stake in the members’ companies.
Rocket Club’s Lincoln Center location is accepting a total of 21 memberships for their inaugural Fall 2019 semester which starts in September. To book a tour for the remaining few spots visit: https://www.
