F.A.Q

Beta Bowl is an extracurricular program for adolescents ages 13 through 17 who have an interest in startups and entrepreneurship. The program is broken up into 3 month sessions (Winter, Summer, Fall), during which participating teens will have the hands-on experience of taking an idea from inception to minimum viable product, ready to launch (and launch it in beta).

Beta Bowl is both an educational experience, but it's also a real-world introduction to building a business. The program covers everything from marketing to branding to business models and startup finance. Participants will be guided through every step of turning their idea into a reality by their startup mentor, with whom they will have weekly working calls. Startup mentors will provide strategic advice, as well as technical alternatives and easy-to-implement resources to enable all participants to bring their ideas to life, regardless of the idea's niche or industry.

Beta Bowl is founded and funded by current entrepreneurs and investors who have real-life experience, building, scaling, and selling companies.

Each Beta Bowl session with culminate in a startup competition, in which all session participants will submit their pitch deck and a pitch video to be evaluated by the startup judges. The startup judges are qualified investors and successful entrepreneurs, and they will assess ideas based on soundness of the business plan, profitability of the financial model, actual progress to date (i.e. beta launch traction and feedback from target customers) in selecting a winner. The competition winner will be awarded $1500. The winner will also be paired up with an industry expert for ongoing mentorship and additional help bringing their idea to life on a larger scale.

No! Every participant in Beta Bowl will be coached and guided every step of the way and given all the necessary tools and resources to turn their idea into a viable business and launch it! There is no advanced math involved, and the simple startup math included in the financial model will be thoroughly explained to all participants. All calculations will be handled in excel. There is also no need for participants to have any advanced technical or coding skills. If they do, that's fine and they can use those in their startup if they choose, but participants will have just as good a chance of success in startups and in Beta Bowl lacking that knowledge.

Success in entrepreneurship is really not about IQ or any specific skill-set taught in schools (like math or science), though those skills CAN influence bright and ambitious entrepreneurs and help them on their journey to success.

Yes! You can participate as many times as you want! That said, you will be given all the tools and resources, as well as 1-on-1 mentorship, to take your idea to launch each time. If you are a repeat participant with the same idea, we can provide you a customized "advanced" curriculum for you.

Yes - here's how these calls work: After the initial onboarding call, participants will be given a milestone tracker. Each week, the calls will move participants forward in turning their idea into an MVP - some weeks will focus on market research, the financial model, the marketing strategy, the pitch deck, etc. The calls along with the milestone tracker keep all participants on track so they come away with their completed MVP, financial model, marketing plan, pitch deck, and are prepared for the end-of-session startup competition.

If a participant wants his or her parents to sit in on the call (OR if a parent wants to be present for the call), that is completely fine. If a parent wants to be more involved in their teen's startup, that's great, but throughout the Beta Bowl session, we will be sure to equip all participants (the teens) to build and launch their own business. That's the goal. :)

The startup mentors assigned to each Beta Bowl enrollee (or team) are full-time entrepreneurs and/or investors or startup mentors. Some of our mentors have backgrounds in finance, some have come from accelerators, and some have transitioned from entrepreneur to investor/advisor. 

Participants can sign up solo or with friends as a "team" if they'd like to build one startup together (in which case the weekly calls can be group calls with all team members). You will each enroll individually, but in your application (which you will receive just after enrolling), you will be asked to select "Solo" or "Team" participant, and if you select "Team" will indicate the name and email address of your friend(s) who you would like to work with. Teams of any size can be accommodated, but most successful startups began with founding teams of 5 or fewer members.

As a Beta Bowl enrollee, you will be given all the tools you need to build and launch your MVP. That said, there are always multiple options (paid and unpaid) when it comes to getting a product or website built. IF you choose to spend additional money on bringing your idea to life, that is completely fine and up to you, BUT your startup mentor will always give you FREE alternative tools and resources you can use to accomplish the goals of the program and take your idea from zero to pitch-ready (and market ready).

Beta Bowl is for adolescents and teens ages 13 through 17. The program is geared towards gifted teens who are driven, ambitious, and have an interest in business, startups, or at the least watching Shark Tank :)

At the end of each Beta Bowl session, there will be a startup showcase competition, where each participant or team will send in their pitch deck and a video pitch, explaining their idea, business model, and current progress/traction to a group of pitch judges (seed and angel investors and successful entrepreneurs). These judges will evaluate that session's entries and will award $1500 to the winning startup, as well as ongoing mentorship from an industry expert to assist in taking that startup to the next level!