MHCC SBDC Inspires Youth Entrepreneurship with Project Proto
Posted: 05/03/2017
Tristan Taylor, a junior at Sam Barlow High School, has always been surrounded by entrepreneurs and small business environments. It started at home as he watched his mom operate a home-based caregiving service for people with disabilities.
Tristan Taylor works the Good Old
Fashioned Caramel Corn booth at
a Gresham Saturday Market. “Her desk was always covered by papers,” recalls Taylor fondly. “It was funny to see.”
It also inspired him, and Taylor strove to learn more about small business development. So when Mt. Hood Community College’s Small Business Development Center launched the youth entrepreneurship and business incubator program Project Proto in January
2015, it was almost natural that he was drawn to the opportunity.
During that first year of Project Proto, Taylor and 92 other high school students spent five months pitching business ideas, performing market research, securing funding and launching their businesses. Taylor and several of his classmates established
Good Old Fashioned Caramel Corn, a business that produced traditional-style caramel corn.
“Most candy stores today only add a little caramel to their popcorn,” Taylor explained. “We put in a lot, making it really rich…Many customers say it reminds them of the caramel corn from when they grew up.”
They sold their product at various farmers’ markets – including the Gresham Saturday Market at MHCC – and similar outdoor events. The response was “overwhelmingly positive” from consumers, from business partners and from the community overall, Taylor
added. And it was a lot of fun to create the company.
“I’ve had a lot of jobs over the years, but this was probably one of the most fun, exciting and challenging experiences of my life. And it was definitely a great eye opener to what business building is like,” he said.
Next up for Taylor and Good Old Fashioned Caramel Corn: Securing enough capital to buy their own caramel corn-making equipment and rent out kitchen space. Currently they rent the necessary food production equipment; by buying it, they expect to raise
profit margins.
SBDC business advisor Adam Reid helped launch Project Proto. Now, as the lead instructor, he pitches the program to local high school students and helps them take their businesses from ideation to working concepts and actual companies.
The program focus, explains Reid, is to help students gain real-world experience and not just learn business from a textbook – an opportunity they often lack in high school and an increasingly necessary skillset.
“Entrepreneurship is going to become one of the most vital components of our economy,” said Reid. “I think it’s vital for students to learn those entrepreneurship skills, like problem solving, innovation, creativity, people leadership, and to start
their own companies and become self-starters.”
“Entrepreneurship is going to become one of the most vital components of our economy,” said Adam Reid, Project Proto lead instructor. “I think it’s vital for students to learn those entrepreneurship skills, like problem solving, innovation, creativity,
people leadership, and to start their own companies and become self-starters.”
An entrepreneur of 15 years and an educator of nearly two decades, Reid is still impressed by the business ideas that students in Project Proto originate and launch. And he doesn’t know of many other programs that afford high school-aged youth the opportunity
to develop their own companies.
“We’ve had high school students launching their own businesses and earning their own money – I don’t think a lot of other places can claim that,” he said.
This April, Project Proto entered its third season. The format has changed from the first two seasons, explains Kedma Ough, director of MHCC SBDC. Instead of the multi-month format, they use a four-week bootcamp. Over four 8-hour Saturdays, students begin
with business ideation before creating a plan, defining target markets, gathering feedback and creating a prototype. After building the prototype, they continue product testing and improving, identify and secure funding, work out any legal aspects
and launch the business. Project Proto students also earn seven college credits (BA101, Introduction to Business, and BA150, Developing a Small Business).
Project Proto is one of four signature programs that MHCC SBDC – one of about 1,000 SBDC offices nationwide – created and now implements. Ough and her team recently received a Ford Foundation grant to develop the program into a proprietary curriculum
that other school districts can license; Tillamook Bay Community College’s SBDC will serve as a pilot test site. And a U.S. Bank grant will allow for increased mentorship of Project Proto students by business advisors.
The success of the program has impressed even Ough.
“If you asked me 20 years ago, I would say there’s no way that youth can begin their own businesses,” she said. “Now I think it doesn’t matter how old you are; what matters is how driven you are.”
To learn more about Project Proto, including participating schools, application information, and upcoming schedules, visit www.projectproto.com.
Several Project Proto students prepare FreezyCream at a Gresham Saturday Market booth.