Tyler:

You have to make a quality product that people will want before you make money.

Adam: 

Welcome to the Youngpreneur Podcast brought to you by The Hunter Futurepreneurs Program.

The Hunter Futurepreneurs program has been designed to inspire, educate, mentor and connect future entrepreneurs to start or build a sustainable business.

It’s a free program for young people supported by the Commonwealth Government, under the Entrepreneurship Program Initiative.

On the show, you’ll meet other young people, not unlike yourself. These young entrepreneurs had an idea for a business and decided to take action and just got to work creating an opportunity for themselves. If you enjoy these stories please join us by subscribing to the podcast and checking out the other ways you can get involved by visiting the show notes at hunterfuturepreneurs.com.au/tyler.

I’m your host Adam Spencer and I’d like to introduce you to your mentor today. 

Tyler:

Hi, I’m Tyler, I’m from Orchard School Systems and we help schools improve results by 

providing a platform for student engagement.

Adam:

Tyler started his business journey from a very young age, we begin this chat talking about a business award Tyler won at the age of 16.

Tyler:

Hunter Young Business Mind Awards is put on by Hunter Futurepreneurs. This was the first year that they put it on, and it was only two categories. There was school/class and individual. I came third in the individual category.

Adam:

And what did you win it for? What were you doing that was so amazing that they needed to give you an award for?

Tyler:

For Orchard School Systems, I don’t know what it was about it that they liked.

Adam:

How old were you when you-

Tyler:

I was 15/16.

Adam:

Really?

Tyler:

Yeah.

Adam:

How long had Orchard School Systems been going?

Tyler:

Not that long. It was only two-ish, three months. And that was really the jumpstart and like, “This might be a good thing. I’ve won an award for it. I need to do some more work.”

Adam:

Did someone have to nominate you? How did they find out about you?

Tyler:

No, so my Mum found an ad on Facebook for this award. I applied online, and they were like, “That’s great. You’ve now applied. You need to make a three-ish minute video explaining your idea, what it is, how far you’ve come, and what you want it to do in the future.” And so I made this video and I sent it in and then I hid it from everyone else.

Adam:

You hid it.

Tyler:

I don’t like the video anymore.

Adam:

What do you mean you hid it?

Tyler:

I hid it from everyone. No one can see it. I have the only copy in the world.

Adam:

Okay. How did you feel standing up there on the stage? Were you scared? Were you excited?

Tyler:

Without a better word of saying it, it was a journey and this was the start of it. So I was scared. I was nervous. These are people that are a lot older than me, have a lot more business experience. I’m just a child. I’m an actual child standing on stage.

Adam:

How did winning that award change the trajectory of your business?

Tyler:

So I was just going to like do it in my free time until I left school and then go into it. That changed it. I’m like, “Oh, this is an actual viable thing. Okay, I’m going to put more effort into it then.” So at that point Orchard School Systems was only one app with the idea of expanding the suite of apps that are interconnected further down the line. At that point it was only a reward system where teachers can give rewards with messages. So describing why the child is doing positive or negative or something like that.

Adam:

So it was an app that teachers could write the reason for the merit.

Tyler:  

They gave the student points, and within those points they had to write a reason.

Adam:

Who had access to this information? Could parents see these-

Tyler:

No, we don’t want parents to look at it. We’re gearing these to teenagers. Teenagers do not want to have their parents snooping in in what they’re doing. So if we get parents on board, students aren’t going to use it. And if students aren’t, well the schools aren’t, and so they’re not going to pay for it.

Adam:

What was the reason the school wanted this kind of thing?

Tyler:

How it came about was my school was switching away from paper based randomised reward system. It was called Gotcha. Every time you were good you would get given a Gotcha point. And it was a card, you put your name on it, and you put it in a box in the library. And every Wednesday at assembly a random person would be awarded. Not a great way. It’s random, so there’s no real reason for students to act well a lot. And so they were moving away from that and they wanted a more digital system. So my computer studies teacher at the time asked me, “Hey, can you build a more digital version of this?” And at the time I built a very simplistic points only system. It was really easy. It was just a website. You could see students, teachers can give points, that’s it.

Adam:

So you built a very basic version of the product and, right, it was just a single product.

Tyler:

Minimal viable product.

Adam:

Point based.

Tyler:

Just points.

Adam:

What did you do next? Was it a case of you just sat down in front of a computer, and how long did that take to program it, to flush it out?

Tyler:

So the next step is always, what are your requirements, what do you want the system to do? And they were like, “We just want to count points, and the teachers can give students points.” I’m like, “That’s easy. I can do that.”

Adam:

Was this a school wide system?

Tyler:

Yes.

Adam:

Right.

Tyler:

So it was meant to all teachers, all students. The next is for me, designing the interface for the system. It was very basic. I didn’t use anything fancy. I basically built all the CSS, which is design code from scratch. I didn’t use a Bootstrap or anything like that.

Adam:

Okay. A lot of these things aren’t making sense to me. Bootstrap. CSS code I get.

Tyler:

So HTML is your content. CSS is the design.

Adam:

How it looks.

Tyler:

Yeah.

Adam:

Yeah.

Tyler:

And then you can use different stuff like JavaScript or PHP to do magic.

Adam:

Right. Okay. So now you have this kind of MVP. Take it back to the teacher. Has she been working with you in this process or you just went away and did it?

Tyler:

So it happened over the course of a month. And every couple of days, because I had computer studies with him. So every lesson he would catch up on what I’m doing, how it’s working. I would show him what I’d been up to, he’d take it back, show the deputy head, I don’t know who they were. To this day, I still don’t know who …

Adam:

The next one up.

Tyler:

The next one up basically, yeah. And yeah, we’d get feedback and iterate on that.

Adam:

Okay. And so now where it’s been a month, finished product, it’s not Orchard School Systems yet, is it?

Tyler:

No.

Adam:

Yeah, it’s just you’re doing this for fun, for the teacher, because you love programming. Take it to him, finished product. What’s he say? What happens next?

Tyler:

The school doesn’t want it. They’re going with a company.

Adam:

Right. Okay. And so that’s the end of that. That’s the end of the interview. Thanks for coming in.

Tyler:

Yeah, no worries.

Adam:

What happened next?

Tyler:

So what happened next was like, “Okay, so I’ve just wasted a month. And he’s like, “No. No you haven’t, because you can take this to market. You can actually make this an actual thing and sell it to people.” And I’m like, “Yeah, but that’s effort. I’m a student.” He’s like, “No, no, no. Keep working on it. And then I’ll help you get it to a couple of schools.” I’m like, “Okay.”

Adam:

Were you taking this product that you showed him to schools, or did you develop it further before you started having test customers?

Tyler:

From scratch.

Adam:

Right.

Tyler:

So this time I took security into mind, because then I’ll be working with the department of education. So security was a massive factor. So I researched the ITC Service Schemes Requirements and what they required, which surprisingly, not a lot. But I took that on board and I made it fit all the requirements, made it as secure as possible, and I built it from the ground up. So I actually used a style Bootstrap. So I used a style template for the entire thing, and I used actual guidelines on how to build UI to make it easier. And then we pitched it to the primary school because our high school and primary school were on the same site.

Adam:

What was the reasoning behind the decision to use a style or a Bootstrap.

Tyler:

Bootstrap.

Adam:

Time?

Tyler:

Yes. A Bootstrap usually is 30,000 lines of code. I did not have time to write 30,000 lines of code and make it.

Adam:

And what’s that do? Is that kind of just like a framework kind of template?

Tyler:

Yes, exactly like a framework/templates. So your Bootstrap is … So CSS files just sit alongside your HTML, and your HTML tags will have something called a class and an ID. And that basically just calls CSS saying with this class, anything that fits this class, style it.

Adam:

Yeah. Yep. Right. And that just saved you a whole lot of time. Then you’ve built it from the ground up, this new product. How were you feeling? Were you feeling excited? Were you feeling like this could go somewhere?

Tyler:

I didn’t know how far this could go. I was just, well until either no one likes it or I just don’t care anymore. That’s how far I would go.

Adam:

And are you still doing this in school, in class or were you doing this outside of class?

Tyler:

This is outside of class.

Adam:

Right, okay.

Tyler:

So I still had that school-work separation.

Adam:

What’s the timeline here between getting rejected by the school that you initially go to offer the product to, or build the product for, and then to going and having this new rebuilt version of it to take to other schools? Timeline.

Tyler:

Six to eight months. That sounds like a lot of time, and you probably picture it as me doing all the work all the time. No, I had to fit it around school. So there’ll be weeks at a time where I haven’t touched it.

Adam:

So what do you do? Do you take it back to your computer studies teacher?

Tyler:

Yeah. So I still show him the progress I’m doing, and then he helps me set up a meeting with the primary school after I feel like … because he kept wanting to show them now, basically.

Adam:

Yeah, the unfinished.

Tyler:

The unfinished product. I’m like, “No, maybe we should show them the finished project, the MVP, because that’s going to be a better reaction.”

Adam:

Your teach us set up the meeting with the … Was it another computer science teacher or?

Tyler:

No, it was the librarian of the public school because they dealt with the reward system that they had.

Adam:

Right. So was the librarian and the decision maker in the process?

Tyler:

No.

Adam:

You pitched her.

Tyler:

I pitched to her first, and then I was brought into a meeting with the principal, her, and some other head teachers.

Adam:

Right. Do you remember what happened in the big meeting with the principal?

Tyler:

Yes. So it was in a standard classroom with like a electronic whiteboard thing. So I had a projector, and I can show it off, and I went through logging in as a teacher, and seeing your top students in your class. Because at this point it was just geared towards primary schools, and primary school teachers only have one class. So it was a lot easier on the back end to have this teachers dashboard just say your top students in your class.

Adam:

Right. What was the outcome? What happened there?

Tyler:

They didn’t want it.

Adam:

They didn’t want it.

Tyler:

They didn’t want it either.

Adam:

Okay. Well thanks for the interview.

Tyler:

No worries. Anytime. They didn’t tell me straight up, which bothered me. This was a really hard punch in the face. This is reality, you’re not going to get told a lot of things. So I was never told why they didn’t want it. I think it was a month I kept asking, “Do you want me to go further with this? Is this a thing you would like?” And then they finally said, “Sorry, we don’t want to pursue this further.”

Adam:

Right. And in this month, what were you doing? Were you still doing development work on the project, or were you just waiting to hear back from them?

Tyler:

I was fixing bugs and stuff like that. So just before that meeting was the time that mom found the Facebook ad for the awards. So I didn’t give up. I was like, “Okay, I can send it in and see if people actually like the idea.”

Adam:

Yeah. So you’ve won the award so far. You’ve built two products, an MVP and then another fully-

Tyler:

Scaled it up.

Adam:

Scaled it up. But you’d had been rejected twice, and now you win an award.

Tyler:

Yes.

Adam:

What did that do for you?

Tyler:

Man, I was so cocky afterwards. It was, “Okay, so my idea isn’t awful. May not be great at the moment, but at least it has potential. Somebody has seen potential in it.”

Adam:

Because today, where are you today? You’ve got three-

Tyler:

We have a few schools.

Adam:

A few different beta testers.

Tyler:

Yes.

Adam:

Tell me about the first school that said yes.

Tyler:

Well, it took about a year of convincing, so we had a lot of meetings with Cheryl from Hunter Futurepreneurs. Getting in touch with a bunch of different contacts of hers to see who would like it. “Can I have a meeting with these people?” We had a meeting with a solicitor to make sure that we’re meeting our legal criteria. Trademarked some names and stuff like that. We’re registered now.

Adam:

Can you tell me more about that meeting that said yes? The very first customer you got on board, the very first beta tester you got on board?

Tyler:

Yeah. That one was showing them what we had, and basically describing what it can be. So I had to sit them down and say, “It is not perfect at this point,” because I’ve heard I didn’t say that before, and I probably should have. It is not perfect at this point. It is a scalable product. It grows over time.

Adam:

And we’ll work with you.

Tyler:

Yeah, we will work with you to get this to the point where it will fit your school.

Adam:

Like how did you pitch it to them? What were you saying to them that was getting their interest?

Tyler:

I basically pitched it as a product built for their school, designed specifically by their requirements. I did not pitch it in a way that this is a product, tough luck, that’s it. If it doesn’t fit your school, we can go somewhere else. I pitched it as this is very flexible, almost anything in this can be switched and changed.

Adam:

Now the first school is on board. Is there a big challenge between getting the subsequent schools on board in that group of beta testers, or have you kind of got a flow now of how it’s going to go?

Tyler:

Every school is different on how they want to use your product, so it’s not easier going to a different school and saying the things you said at the first school. Every school wants something different. One school might want complete flexibility and control over their system. The other one may want just a point and click solution that just fits in. Turnkey solution is what I meant to say.

Adam:

Right. Okay. But now today, you’ve got a handful of schools on board, they’re beta testers. What’s the next big hurdle that you need to get over in order to take this product to market?

Tyler:

Turning those leads into customers. So we need to take their feedback on board completely. We need to think about what they want, and choose what to implement. Because again, not all feedback is good feedback, but you should always take it on board.

Adam:

What’s been the biggest challenge so far? Just in that time where you’re trying to get people to test your products?

Tyler:

Changing how they think about what the product is, because at that point it was only a reward system, but I had to convince them that it is complete … you can ask us to do whatever you want to the system and we can change it for you, if it’s viable. But also we are developing other turnkey solutions that just click into it.

Adam:

And this comes, we start talking about that suite of products.

Tyler:

The suite of products that are all interconnected.

Adam:

That’s the future of Orchard School Systems. Where are you 

today?

Tyler:

So we’re at around 4 million lines of code, not 100% written by me. So at some point I did bring someone on to help me offload some parts. We’re at a few schools that really like it, hopefully turning those into leads. So we do a test for a term. There’s a massive influx of users at the very beginning where everyone wants to try it out and stuff, and then it dies down. And we hope that it doesn’t die down enough that no one uses it. So that’s what we try and get. So we do it for a full term to see the swing.

Adam:

And when you do these tests, what are you looking for? What data are you looking to get?

Tyler:

We want to know how many people use it a day over time. Again, it’s a lot over time because you can’t get all your data within a small period. We want to know who uses it. We want to know how many teachers are giving feedback to students, and how many students are receiving that feedback and actually looking at it. We’re hoping to start getting paying customers by the end of this year. That’s our cutoff point.

Adam:

Yeah. Are you still reaching out to other schools?

Tyler:

Absolutely. And if there are any schools that are listening, please contact me.

Adam:

And can you tell me, how are you doing that reach out? Is there a system in place? Do you have a spreadsheet? Have you built a spreadsheet?

Tyler:

Yes, I have a spreadsheet. I have a massive spreadsheet. It’s around 2000 lines, and I’ve contacted every school whether they know it or not.

Adam:

Right. And how did you build this?

Tyler:

I sat down one day and I called every school and asked them, “Do you have a reward system in place, and is it a digital system? If so, what is it? Or is it an analog system?”

Adam:

Who are you asking to speak to?

Tyler:

I speak to the first person that answers, because they usually know.

Adam:

Is this to qualify them as a lead?

Tyler:

Yes.

Adam:

So they’re saying, “No, we don’t have a reward system.” What are you thinking then?

Tyler:

If you don’t have a rewards system, that’s great, we can maybe implement one or help you transition into one. But if you do have a reward system and it’s analog, even better. You have a system in place and we can convert it to digital.

Adam:

Okay, so they would be your A-grade leads, but then the people that don’t have a reward system, they probably don’t have a system in place for a reason. They just don’t see the value in it.

Tyler:

Maybe they’re too small. That’s one of the things we talked 

about. I called up a school and I’m like, “Do you have a rewards system in place?” And they were like, “Honey, we’re a 90 person school. That includes staff.” I’m like, “Yeah, fair enough.”

Adam:

They’ve got a reward system, it’s just an A3 piece of paper on the wall with stickers.

Tyler:

Yeah. If I ask, that’s usually, “We don’t have a school-wide analog reward system, but teachers have a per class one.”

Adam:

What’s some of the biggest takeaways you’ve … Like the biggest pieces of information that you’ve taken from these phone calls that you’re just really grateful for because it’s helped it form this way or that way?

Tyler:

Schools aren’t willing to change unless you show them you will help them change and change along with them.

Adam:

Right. Okay. Why is that?

Tyler:

So schools are very intertwined with government. Government doesn’t like changing. They like if it works, they want to stay with it. So if you can show them that this is the direction you want to go, I’m showing you that this is the direction you want to go, and I can help you get there, and I will change my product along with your strategy.

Adam:

Yeah. And what is the benefit of them changing? Is that part of your pitch, and what are you saying? How are you convincing them, “You guys need to change”?

Tyler:

One of the key points that I reach on is, we’re digitising your information on your terms.

Adam:

Yeah. So then they’re having access to this information. They can draw conclusions, they can print out reports, they can-

Tyler:

Yeah, our system has report features built in where once a week someone, whoever you want can get automatically emailed a report outlining how your school did in the previous week.

Adam:

Yeah. So we’re making this data, this information, work for you.

Tyler:

Another point we present to the schools is students can get feedback on how they’re behaving on something that is more comfortable to them. So some students may not like talking to teachers but they are more comfortable with looking at feedback on a phone or a computer or just a digital interface. So if a student is more comfortable looking at that, that’s a major …

Adam:

That’s a great point. Because of the digital natives.

Tyler:

Yeah.

Adam:

That’s really powerful.

Tyler:

And opening up that communication dialogue between a 

teacher and a student on a platform that the student is more comfortable with it.

Adam:

Yeah. What are some of the business admin side of things that you didn’t think about maybe?

Tyler:

A major hurdle that I had when starting the business is, I was under 18. I can’t own a company if I’m under 18. I can now, because I’m over 18. So I had two options. It was get a parent to own the company and transfer it over when I was 18, or just wait. And I chose the just wait part.

Adam:

Right. Okay. How much did that limit what you could do though?

Tyler:

Not that much. It limited my credibility, and it was hard getting an accountant.

Adam:

Ah yes.

Tyler:

I was denied from three accountants because I didn’t have a ACN, and I was under 18, because they didn’t believe me. I called them up asking, “Hey, I’m just inquiring about corporate accountants, wondering if you’re available,” stuff like that. And they were like, “Yeah, yeah yeah, tell us a bit about your business.” So, “Software business, need to register it, stuff like that. Are you able to help out?” “Yeah, yeah.” And then somehow in the conversation my age came up, and they were like, “Sorry, we don’t deal with those.”

Adam: 1

Really?

Tyler:

Yeah.

Adam:

What did that mean for your business though? Does that just mean you have to press pause? Press stop, can’t do anything?

Tyler:

No, I can still work on the product. I can still talk to people, but I can’t implement it yet. I can’t beta test if I don’t have a legal backing, and I don’t have contracts, end user license agreements.

Adam:

Yeah. So would you be further along in your business now if you were able to have those things implemented at a younger age?

Tyler:

It depends. I’m not sure, because again, when I started this, I had very little business knowledge. And throughout the process I’ve gained a tremendous amount.

Adam:

Yeah. So you’ve learned a lot. If you knew everything you did though, everything you know now back then, having things implemented like an accountant and the legal entity, that probably would have helped a great deal.

Tyler:

Yeah, that would’ve gotten me a lot further a lot faster. Yeah, I probably would have gotten a school quicker if I had backing.

Adam:

Since winning the award and getting the free coaching with Hunter Futurepreneurs, how much has that helped your business?

Tyler:

Oh, tremendously. I had no idea where I was going beforehand. Now I don’t know where I’m going, but I have help to guide me along the journey.

Adam:

Orchard School Systems, what’s the future? What’s on the horizon? You’ve got the single product now that you’ve been offering to your beta testers. What’s on the horizon? What do you want to be able to do?

Tyler:

We would like to release it officially so schools can get on board now and start getting it into their schools. And we are starting to develop our second product that interconnects directly.

Adam:

Right, and when you told me about the suite of products that you want to develop, the first thing that come to my mind was Adobe. Are you familiar with Adobe?

Tyler:

Adobe Suite, yeah. Premier, Photoshop, Library, and all that stuff.

Adam:

There different though there, I mean there’s some functionality in being able to, like when you’ve got this program on your phone or tablet, you can do a little drawing and then make it available on your desktop, on Photoshop or Illustrator, that interconnectedness there. I think what you’re designing is probably more interconnected than what they have.

Tyler:

Each product shares a database. So each app connects to the same database to get data about a school. So it’s super easy. They’re basically automatically connected. It’s just about how we make the UI that it feels super interconnected, and doesn’t make it feel like you have to log out of one product and log into another product, or change websites or stuff like that.

Adam:

What some of the ideas that you have for other products? Like are we talking like reporting, school-

Tyler:

Can’t talk about it.

Adam:

Can’t talk about it at all?

Tyler:

I’ve been told I probably shouldn’t talk about it because one of my major competitors is … Yeah. I have super … So the education software industry is very … It’s both slow and super competitive, because you’re fighting for government contracts.

Adam:

Yeah. You’re probably playing against some pretty big boys, right?

Tyler:

Yeah. Our major competitor is a multibillion dollar super national corporation that’s in 20 countries.

Adam:

Yeah. What advantage do you see yourself having against guys like that? Being small and nimble?

Tyler:

Yeah. Quickness. We can develop and change our strategy on the fly. I’m one person. If I wanted to go into the bean industry, I can just do that. That’s just a one person choice.

Adam:

When we spoke previously, I think you alluded to the fact, or mentioned, that your dad, was it your dad that kind of got you interested in programming?

Tyler:

Yeah, so I got my first computer when I was nine, and that’s when I started messing around with programming.

Adam:

Right, okay. And by messing around with programming, what do you mean?

Tyler:

I mean basic stuff, very basic stuff. Like basic Python. I was making small web pages type of thing.

Adam:

Yeah. Okay. Why? Why was this interesting to you?

Tyler:

My entire family is computer based. We have a very divided line. You’re either a electrician or you go down the electronics path, or you go down the computers path.

Adam:

Okay. Right.

Tyler:

And I chose the computer path.

Adam:

Was your dad in the computer?

Tyler:

He’s both.

Adam:

Right, okay.

Tyler:

So he is a PLC programmer. Programmable Logic Computer, machine line, like manufacturing line programming. And he’s also an electrician. So I’ve been around computers in my house forever.

Adam:

What is it about programming that you like that’s interesting?

Tyler:

I get to make something by myself. It’s not just that. So I get an idea for something, I can flesh it completely out in program. I can write it, scripts for it and stuff like that. And then I get something at the end. And if it doesn’t work I can go and fix it.

Adam:

Problem solving.

Tyler:

And then I can iterate on that.

Adam:

Yeah. Okay.

Tyler:

It’s a lot of design work. So programming and actual design work have very similar things, because in programming you’re designing the code that computers will run. And you may not get it right the first time, so you have to iterate it, like design.

Adam:

Yeah, and iterate and iterate until you have this, maybe not perfect product at the end?

Tyler:

Yeah.

Adam:

Okay. So that’s why your teacher chose you.

Tyler:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Adam:

So let’s just finish off with, is there anything that you want to talk about that we haven’t discussed yet? Anything that would be valuable to other young entrepreneurs out there?

Tyler:

People shouldn’t get into business for money. And if they do, they’re not going to have a fun time. Because if you get into business for money, you’re not going to make money, because you’re going to be focused 100% on money and not caring about your quality of product. You have to make a quality product that people will want before you make money. If people do get into business, they need to worry about their mental health. Like mental health is as important as physical health some people say, and a lot of business owners don’t pay attention to that.

Adam:

Yeah, because you don’t think about it, do you? You don’t think it’s going to be a problem, because right now-

Tyler:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Until it’s a problem.

Adam:

Yeah. Because right now, before you get into business, everything’s fine. You’re not thinking about it, you feel healthy, you feel good, but there’s a lot of things that you don’t realise-

Tyler:

Yeah, things stack up.

Adam:

Thank you for listening to the Youngpreneur Podcast brought to you by The Hunter Futurepreneurs program. What exactly is the Hunter Futurepreneurs Program? I’d like you to meet the Entrepreneurship Facilitator at Hunter Futurepreneurs…

Cheryl:

Cheryl Royle and I’m the entrepreneurship facilitator for the Hunter Region. The Hunter Futurepreneurs Program exists to support, inspire, educate and mentor young people who have an idea or a passion they want to explore. We show you step by step how to validate your idea and build a successful business.  

If you are…or know a young person with an idea,

Hunter Futurepreneurs are here for you.

Adam:

Do you have an idea for a business but have no idea where to start? I’ll tell you where to start, it’s simple, all you need to do is go to the show notes page for this episode, hunterfuturepreneurs.com.au/tyler, and there you’ll be able to answer a couple of quick questions and then Cheryl will be in touch with you to schedule a free meeting to help you get started the right way. 

Cheryl:

So that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning. Two young guys coming in, knocking on my door, saying, “This is my idea. What do I do with it?” And we developed it to at least getting them a grant to make it happen. Proud. Proud, but I felt that the opportunity, the opportunities that were going to open up for these young boys were incredible, and the journey that they’ve been on has been incredible as well. So they’ve learnt so many things. They’ve learnt about finances. They’ve learnt about resilience on how … They’ve learnt about how to develop an app. They’ve learnt about things like contracts, working with other people. It’s just been amazing and it’s been an amazing journey. Whether that app is successful or not doesn’t matter now. These young boys have walked away with skills that will hold them very high throughout their lives.

Adam:

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts for more incredible stories from other Young Entrepreneurs to learn how they started and built their businesses. They started from scratch just like you, there is no better time to get started than right now, get in touch with the Hunter Futurepreneurs team today at hunterfuturepreneurs.com.au/tyler.

Thank you for listening!