How does a 9-year-old get venture capitalists interested in funding their business ideas? Sure, they can try to make an appearance on Shark Tank. But, if little Lucy is going to learn how to pitch VCs or neighbors on her hi-tech self-serving lemonade stand concept, she will need a lesson on entrepreneurism 101 to pitch; and a lesson in coding robotics to turn her idea into a potential reality. Rocket Club is ready to teach your kids and give them seed money to start their own businesses.
Rocket Club, the latest after school club for kids 9 – 14 years-old just launched in Hoboken’s Monroe Center. Its team of instructors are determined to empower your budding entrepreneur to learn coding and robotics – all while giving them access to a mentor network of nine Forbes 30 Under 30 company founders.
The Rocket Club team embarked on a year-long research journey to design a curriculum that will get your child thinking like tomorrow’s Thomas Edison. Kids will get to learn a mix of Silicon Valley-innovation and Wall Street-esque business lessons, while building and coding robots in the new NASA-styled workshop.
Only 36 members will be accepted for the inaugural Level 1 seventeen-week semester. Kids will learn how to build and modify robotic race cars, robotic arms, claws, and Mars Rovers. Members then earn Rocket Fuel units for tech prizes or to hire consultants on their projects, through friendly competition challenges. They even chart their stats and progress on a member profile – kind of like your winning fantasy football team’s player score.
At the end of the semester, members will develop a robotic product and abstract business plan. The kids will then get a shot to pitch three Forbes 30 Under 30 judges their brand strategies, marketing plans, and financial projections in Mission Control 2019, Rocket Club’s version of a kid Shark Tank.
They believe so strongly in the curriculum, that Alex Hodara, the Founder of Rocket Club, is putting his money where his mouth is for their inaugural Mission Control competition. Hodara is giving away a total of $10,000 seed money to three finalists to pursue their robotic based business ideas that they will come up with during level 1.
Rocket Club’s new workshop opens in Hoboken. Each new club member will receive a personalized signature Rocket Club bomber jacket
Hodara, a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient started building his real estate empire as an 18-year-old real estate agent while studying at Boston University. By his Junior year, he hired 15 college students to work for him and started what CNBC coined, “the first student run real estate brokerage in America.” By 2011 he started investing in buildings, and built a portfolio of over 200 buildings between Boston and Jersey City. But, his true business foundation came at 15 years-old, when he used $2,000 of his winnings from a fantasy football league to re-sell imported clay poker chips through new e-commerce websites like eBay and Amazon.
Hodara wants to change the lives of all young entrepreneurs who have a dream, which is why he built Rocket Club. The $10,000 personal investment will give three wunderkinds a chance to start a business like he did at an early age.
Throughout the semester kids will learn: VR/AR (virtual reality / augmented reality) & game development with a Parsons Art and Design Professor, how to program with Lego Mindstorms EV3 software, and hands-on basics of financial modeling, branding, marketing, and operations – and that’s just the start!
Society has come a long way since naming your pet rock after your crush, mine was Matty. Kids learning how to code and program robots to do their chores (sorry Mom!), is the new normal. Rocket Club will definitely empower members to think about tech as something they can create, rather than just consume. Also, a re-programmed vacuum cleaner that acts as a full-time butler could just be every parent’s dream.
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