Stoking the Start-Up Spirit at Gilman School

With technological innovation on the rise, today’s youth face a career landscape vastly different from that of their parents, and different even from the generation just before them.  In fact, some of the jobs for which current students will compete do not yet exist.

So how do we prepare students for this ever-changing world?

In an attempt to answer that question, Gilman School conducted last week a two-day workshop for upper school students called The Start-Up Experience. The workshop, in its second year, paired Gilman students with alumni mentors to identify real world problems, create viable solutions and business models.  For two days, 40 high school boys (double that of last year’s workshop) participated in an intense, transformational experience that took them beyond the daily upper school grind of English, math, lab science, foreign language and history.

The Start-Up Experience is the inspiration of Henrik Scheel, a Danish former engineering student who created his model after living and working in Silicon Valley.  His goal is to “transform future entrepreneurs” by developing a “more entrepreneurial approach to life.”  Regardless of the career path his participants choose, his workshops cultivate life skills that enable participants to translate real problems into opportunities. 

Gilman alumni Jason Griswold and Nick Owsley, both class of 1993, sought out Scheel after seeing a similar workshop at Griswold’s college alma mater, Colgate University.  Scheel has led workshops on college campuses and at companies across the U.S. and in 15 countries around the world.  Gilman is the only high school with which Scheel has worked.

For Griswold, the match was a no-brainer.  Recognizing Gilman’s long-term strategic goal of preparing boys for the future, he felt Scheel’s program — based as it is on learning how to develop and pitch an idea — provides important lessons for boys on how to do anything, whether it’s starting a business, buying a car, or even getting a date. 

A large part of the teaching comes from the partnership of students with Gilman alumni who have lived the start-up experience. This year, eight Gilman alums served as mentors to the student teams.  Each one had his own unique career story of following the road less travelled.

Griswold, for one, left an investment banking job to start an aviation company, Brown Aviation Lease.  While he cautions about the risks of building a capital intense business from the ground up, he highlights the benefits of the process of starting a business, from listening to and learning from potential customers and investors to the constant brainstorming of ideas, and more.  The ultimate reward for him is doing what he loves and feels excited about.  His hope in sharing the experience with students is to give them an example of how to “look at the future a little differently,” whether or not it follows a linear career path.

Fellow alumni mentor, Lawson DeVries, ’96, a general partner at Grotech Ventures, first learned about the Start-Up Experience in the Gilman alumni magazine, and knew he wanted in. “I knew immediately it was something I wanted to be a part of,” he says. “Entrepreneurism is the way of the future now more than ever.”

Mentors Charlie Moore, class of 1976 and co-founder of DinnerTime, and David Zinreich, ’94,  of Black Diamond Financial, told of early entrepreneurship.  For Moore, entrepreneurship started small, when, at age 15, he ran a summer camp for five to eight year old boys.  His goal back then was to buy a car.  Zinreich sold tapestries at the University of Vermont to help pay his college bills.

Scheel agrees that entrepreneurship is often born out of such necessity.  He adds, however, an important point: “Entrepreneurship is a game of failure.”  Your ability to cope with failure marks your chance at future success.

During the two-day workshop, the students saw Scheel experience failure — and recover from it — first hand.  Many were not sure what to expect when they signed up for the Start Up Experience.  On day one, when asked how many wanted to become entrepreneurs, only half of the boys raised their hands.  By the end of day two, the conversion was clear.

Scheel’s energy and charisma are keys to the change of heart.  He is young, personable, and passionate about his program, and seems singularly equipped to do the impossible: keep 40 high school boys actively engaged for nine-hour stretches. 

Scheel holds the boys’ attention with lively presentations and directed, hands-on activities.  The first day, the boys were sorted into eight teams based on their personalities.  Each team included “a hacker, a hustler, and an artist” and each team was mentored by a Gilman alum.  The combination of traits yielded a group of boys well-equipped to develop, make, and sell a product to potential investors.  The final products fell into one of three categories, health, education, and social, and sought to address a real life problem or issue.

DeVries was in awe of the process.  Drawing from his career working with start-up companies, he notes, “People spend years of their lives trying to figure out a great business idea and these students were forced to come up with something in hours, think through a business model, go to market and put together a pitch in a day and a half.  It was really impressive to watch.”

By the end of the first day, the room was littered with post-it notes, pens, poster board, and notebooks.  Teams huddled together in the most important phase of the project: idea generation.  By then, the boys had shed their Gilman dress code ties and rolled up their sleeves.  Scheel believes, “It is not important what you look like or who you are…it is about creativity and innovation.” 

Will, a Gilman sophomore, admits that he did not know what to expect when he signed up for the workshop.  Assigned to a group that included three seniors and another sophomore, none of whom he knew very well, he was amazed “how fast we clicked.”  He credits Scheels’s high energy and “cool, colorful” presentations for keeping them engaged. 

Students were also forced to go outside of the building to interview potential users of their products.  This, too, contributed to more effective business models and a better understanding of the start up process.

The result of the boys’ efforts was a competitive selection of eight new products that addressed a varied and sometimes controversial range of issues including stress management, financial responsibility, sexual consent, ER wait times and temporary labor.

One of the alumni judges who invests in start-ups for a living noted that nearly every idea presented by the boys had a real life equivalent in which he had either invested or of which he knew.    

Given this, judging among the eight teams was incredibly difficult.  In the end, the winning team developed an app, “Sixth Sense,” aimed at curbing texting and driving.  For Will Zerhouni, an alumni judge and a member of the class of 1994,  “Sixth Sense did the best job identifying a real world problem….identifying the solution to that problem in detail and linking that solution to a paying customer with deep pockets.” 

Regardless of the overall winner, all of the alumni mentors and judges agreed that the experience was invaluable for both the boys and the adults. Griswold sees real progress from the last workshop to this one.  The depth of experience of the mentors coupled with the boys’ “quality of ideas and thorough and thoughtful work” contributed to the improvement.

Gilman has found a unique niche with its Start Up Experience and the alums encourage its continued growth. Griswold’s hope is to “empower boys to build an entrepreneurial community at Gilman.” 

The success the boys had at the end of their two-day workshop suggests that momentum is indeed building.  As the future these boys will enter continues to change, so too must the tools they are given.  With the success of the Start-Up Experience, Gilman seems poised to lead.