Weekly Children's Business Incubator: Junior Board Members

**Junior Board Members: Get on the Board** **A Weekly Boardroom and Business Incubator for Kids Ages 8–14** SURF is opening its startup community to the next generation. For years, adults have come to SURF Incubator to build companies, test ideas, solve problems, meet collaborators, and learn from other founders. Now, Seattle’s young people get that opportunity too. Junior Board Members is a weekly, hands-on business incubator where kids can develop real businesses, products, services, inventions, books, games, media concepts, community initiatives, and other creative projects—inside an actual Seattle startup incubator. **Big Ideas Start Young** **What Is Junior Board Members?** Junior Board Members combines a real business incubator with a kid-friendly board meeting. Participants may bring something they are already building or use their first few meetings to discover what interests them. They may: * Build an ongoing business or creative project * Start something completely new * Explore several possible ideas * Join another member’s project * Bring a question or problem to the board * Experiment until they discover something they genuinely want to pursue This is not a traditional class where every child completes the same assignment. Some members may spend several months developing one business. Others may explore different ideas, change direction, collaborate with another member, or complete one project and begin another. Participants may attend once, join us occasionally, or return every week to continue building. **What Can Junior Board Members Work On?** Members may: * Brainstorm business and project ideas * Develop products and services * Create names, brands, logos, advertisements, and prototypes * Explore pricing, costs, revenue, profit, and budgeting * Develop books, shows, games, channels, and other media concepts * Practice marketing, public speaking, selling, and pitching * Research customers and competitors * Test ideas and collect feedback * Solve problems with help from the board * Collaborate with other young founders * Build confidence in their ideas and voices Every meeting offers a new conversation, challenge, and opportunity to make meaningful progress. **What Happens During Each Meeting?** Each two-hour session combines project work, a kid-friendly board meeting, and direct access to a visiting founder or professional. **First Hour: Junior Board Meeting and Incubator** **Open Boardroom** As members arrive, they begin working on their businesses and projects. They might design a product, calculate a price, create a logo, conduct research, improve a prototype, prepare a pitch, or ask for individual help. **Call to Order and Member Reports** We officially call the Junior Board Meeting to order and review the day’s agenda. Each member gives a short update: * What am I building? * What did I work on? * What progress, decision, or discovery did I make? * What question or obstacle do I have? * What help do I need from the board? New members who do not yet have a project may share their interests or the ideas they are considering. **Old and New Business** We revisit goals and questions from previous meetings before discussing new ideas, proposals, and challenges. Members may ask the board for help with a product name, design, price, customer, marketing plan, prototype, pitch, or other decision. The group asks questions, shares ideas, and offers respectful, constructive feedback. **Incubator Challenge and Project Work** Each meeting includes a practical business or creative challenge, such as: * Who is your customer? * What makes an idea valuable? * How should you choose a price? * What makes people trust a business? * How can you test an idea without spending much money? * What should you do if nobody buys? * What problem do children understand better than adults? * What could you build with only $20? Members apply the topic directly to their own projects and use the remaining time to build, research, revise, or