March 14, 2018
A shout-out to all the startup founders who make the time to present their work to kids. And a shout-out to the families who make the time to take their kids to meet these innovators, and participate with their kids in this uplifting and enlightening shared experience.
We have had the privilege of meeting in person, or via the web over a hundred very special startup founders from across the nation. What makes them special is the humility with which they come to a local public library to present their work to a young audience. This has been happening in the form of community events held in public libraries across several cities on both coasts, and in the mid-Atlantic, through a carefully curated citizen-led program where kids meet cool startups.
These events give us an insight into how easily parents in various localities are willing or able to embrace a unique way of getting their kids to learn about a future that these innovators are building.
In some localities these kids’ events have a packed room all the time. The events in some areas have followers who make it to as many events as possible when held with a short drive. It helps that we have been able to avoid repeating a startup founder who has already presented in a region, making each event a unique and exciting learning opportunity.
In some cities, we have parents who contact us and ask us when we will bring AlligatorZone to their city.
In some cities, we have mixed results. Some events are very well attended, filling rooms to capacity, and others are sparsely attended. In some cities they have been very poorly attended. The reasons for this vary from place to place and from time to time.
An innovative event program that is hard to describe because of its many layers of value derived by kids, their family members and the presenting startup founders, has to still compete for family-time and mindshare with the traditional leisure-time pursuits of families such as baseball, soccer, and ballet. That does not stop parents from showing up when they can. Perhaps we can cross out ballet.
In some cities, we have seen only women bring their kids to these innovation events. In some locations people do not come because they did not find transportation.
Despite these variations, the one constant we have is that the startup founders who agree to present to the youth always show up and they present their creations to the kids with great patience.
They present their work with the same enthusiasm and dedication, whether to a room packed with parents and kids or a room with just a few families who have taken the pains to drive their kids to meet the innovators.
The startup founders give selflessly of themselves. They give their time on a weekday evening or a weekend. They share their wisdom. They stay approachable. Often, they are pleasantly surprised by the quality of the questions coming from the digital natives in the events. Many a time, they leave with fresh insights. However, they always leave the events feeling uplifted.
It’s a labor of love for the startup founders, and for us.
Therefore, we salute all the startup founders who consider it worthwhile to spend a couple of hours inspiring our kids and the accompanying family members at AlligatorZone’s event programs.
Because, all it takes is for just one kid to get inspired to create something that transforms the world for the better, to make this massive collective effort from each community completely worth it. Or for thousands of inspired kids to make small incremental innovations. Perhaps we may even see thousands of revolutionary innovations by the kids, each of which transform the world in some uniquely positive way.
Having stated the above, one must admit that many of the startup founders enjoy takeaways too. They answer questions and have honest conversations when they are presenting to the kids; kids who happen to be digital natives merely seeking to understand the world they will inherit. The startup founders learn new lessons from looking at their own worlds through the eyes of the kids — enough lessons to fill a book. Stay tuned.
The writer of this article, Ramesh Sambasivan is the co-founder of AlligatorZone®, where kids meet cool startups, a nationwide face-to-face community platform that brings together startup founders and school-age children to help the kids get a peek into the minds of innovators who are creating the future. What began as a passion project is now touring several cities and serving communities through free inspirational gatherings in public libraries for families. He is also the principal at SiliconGlades, a business innovation and design firm helping organizations transform themselves into formidable sales-machines through operational excellence and a story-telling system for not just the entire organization, but also for the communities it serves.
