Growing Founders equips middle and high school teachers with a complete, classroom-ready entrepreneurship curriculum, plus the training, materials, and ongoing support to make it work.
Entrepreneurship isn't just for future founders. It builds the durable skills every student needs problem-solving, financial literacy, communication, resilience, and self-direction, through projects that feel real.
When students design a product, talk to customers, and pitch a business, they're learning math, writing, economics, and design at the same time. And they're learning that their ideas matter.
Most teachers want to teach this. Few have the training, materials, or time to build it from scratch. That's where we come in.
Whether you're a teacher, school leader, or entrepreneur, there's a path built for you.
A 6-week online cohort that prepares you to teach our curriculum with confidence. Built for any subject background. No business degree required.
We partner with schools and districts to train your teachers, license the curriculum, and run student showcase events, all aligned to state standards and CTE pathways.
Two tracks. Every unit ends in something real.
Both project-based, both built around the modern lean-startup approach: find a real problem, build something, talk to real customers, iterate. Aligned to Common Core literacy & math standards and state Career Technical Education and business education frameworks.
Explore what entrepreneurs do, the mindset they share, and what makes a business different from a hobby.
Students learn that great businesses start with a real problem, and practice noticing problems in their own school, home, and community.
An introduction to empathy interviews, customer surveys, and the idea that the customer, not the founder, decides what's valuable.
Prototyping at a middle school level: paper sketches, mockups, sample products. Students make their idea tangible.
Pricing, costs, profit, and the basics of a simple budget. Students figure out what it would actually take to sell their idea.
Capstone unit: students prepare and deliver a 3-minute pitch to a panel of peers, teachers, or community judges.
The history, types, and economic role of entrepreneurship. Sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, and nonprofits.
Going beyond "would you buy this?" Students learn structured customer discovery, surveys, and competitive analysis.
The Business Model Canvas, revenue streams, unit economics, and the difference between an idea and a business.
Reading and building a P&L, cash flow vs. profit, break-even analysis, and personal finance fundamentals.
Students present their business concepts to a panel of real entrepreneurs, business leaders, and community judges — Shark Tank style. This mid-point checkpoint pushes students to sharpen their ideas before the final stretch.
Brand fundamentals, positioning, content and social marketing, and a hands-on intro to selling and customer service.
Contracts, intellectual property, regulations, and how to actually run a small business day-to-day.
Bootstrapping, loans, grants, crowdfunding, angels, and VCs. When each makes sense, and when none of them do.
Students launch a real micro-business, generate revenue, serve real customers, and report back on what they learned.
Students present their completed ventures to an audience of friends, family, teachers, and community members. A celebration of what they built — and a moment to share their entrepreneurial journey with the people who matter most.
Even if entrepreneurship is brand new to you. No business degree, no startup experience required.
Live weekly workshops, walk-throughs of each unit, and dedicated time to adapt the curriculum to your classroom.
Lesson plans, slide decks, student handouts, project rubrics, and assessments, editable and ready to use.
A private community of certified teachers sharing lessons, student work, and answers to "has anyone tried…?"
Monthly office hours with a coach who has taught the curriculum themselves. Bring your hardest classroom problem.
Earn a recognized Growing Founders certification plus professional development hours for your district.
Templates and judging rubrics for Shark Tank pitch session, the option to enter our national student showcase.
Whether you're launching a single elective, building a CTE pathway, or rolling out entrepreneurship across the district, we partner with school leaders to make it happen.
Our partnerships include teacher training for your whole team, an unlimited curriculum license, implementation support, and end-of-year outcome reporting you can share with your board, parents, and funders.
Students don't just read about entrepreneurship, they practice it. Every unit ends in something they can show: a prototype, a pitch, a customer interview, a launched product.
Business teachers, English teachers, math teachers, and advisors have all used this curriculum successfully. The training is designed for anyone to use.
The curriculum maps to Common Core literacy and math standards, state CTE business education frameworks, and the National Standards for Entrepreneurship Education.
The next generation of founders is already in classrooms near you. Entrepreneurs can play a powerful role in bringing this education to life, as mentors, guest speakers, sponsors, or workplace partners.
Share your real story with students, the wins, the failures, and what you wish someone had told you. A single 30-minute conversation can change a student's trajectory.
Fund a teacher cohort or school partnership to bring entrepreneurship education to students who wouldn't otherwise have access to it. Sponsorships start at $2,500.
Show up for student pitch nights as a panel judge. You'll be energized by what you hear, and your feedback matters more than you know.
It is helpful, but not necessary. The training is designed for anyone that can coach and extract the genius from anyone willing to apply themselves.
6 weeks, online, with one 60-minute live session per week plus ~2 hours of asynchronous work. Cohorts run in summer, fall, and spring.
All three. The middle school track is typically a 7-12-week elective or club. The high school track runs as a semester elective, club or full-year course.
Yes. We provide alignment documents for Common Core (literacy & math), the National Standards for Entrepreneurship Education, and most state CTE business education frameworks. We'll map to your state specifically as part of school partnerships.
Individual teacher cohorts and school/district partnerships are priced separately. Reach out below and we'll send a one-pager with current pricing.
Yes, and they should.
Tell us a bit about you and we'll send next steps within one business day, whether you're an individual teacher or a school leader exploring a partnership.