Interested in Entrepreneurship?

In High School (Grades 9-12)?

In Washington State?

Join the Most Prestigious Entrepreneurship Program Worldwide Today

About TiE Young Entrepreneur (TYE) Seattle

TiE Young Entrepreneurs (TYE) is a global initiative that equips high school students with entrepreneurial skills. Students learn modern business techniques, iterate based on customer feedback, and connect with industry experts. They form teams of four to launch startups, and each chapter culminates in a competition, with winners advancing to the TYE Global Finals.

Mission: To inspire, challenge, and empower high school students to become the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders

Dive into the World of Entrepreneurship with TYE Seattle!

Get ready, young trailblazers! TYE is not just any program; it’s your ticket to the dynamic universe of startups. Designed for the ambitious high schoolers of today, TYE is here to help you explore the challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur.

🏆 Pitch & Win Big 🏆

Bring all this together at the end of the program by stepping into the spotlight in a pitch contest. Impress Venture Capitalists from Madrona Ventures, Seattle’s biggest and most active VC firm, and grab the opportunity to win over $5,000 in cool prizes and goodies sponsored by TiE Seattle. The crème de la crème? The champion team will fly Seattle’s flag high in a global contest with a staggering $10K up for grabs!

What’s on the TYE Seattle agenda this year?

🌟 Craft a Startup from Scratch: Not just theory, real hands-on experience.

🌟 Ideation to Execution: Bring your ideas to life and charm your customers and investors with a killer pitch.

🌟 Generative AI: Harness the cutting-edge power of AI technologies.

🌟 Mentorship Magic: Work with devoted mentors who’ll guide you at every step.

🌟 Learn from the Best: Direct insights from founders and big-league Venture Capitalists.

The program is being taught by Aravind Bala (Co-Founder & CTO of SeekOut, a Seattle area unicorn that has raised over $180M in funding).

Program Videos

Program Schedule

Welcome to a focused program that lets high school students learn entrepreneurship, invention, and innovation by ‘doing’ rather than ‘talking’. This is a full school-year course in entrepreneurship for 9th-12th graders.

Important Dates:

  • Info Session: September 14th, 2023 (Virtual)
  • Open House: September 28th (TBC) (In-Person)
  • Application Due Date: September 30th, 2023
  • Financial Aid Due Date: September 30th, 2023

Class Schedule:

  • October 12th, 2023, 7 PM – 8.30 PM
  • October 26th, 2023, 7 PM – 8.30 PM
  • November 2nd, 2023, 7 PM – 8.30 PM
  • November 16th, 2023, 7 PM – 8.30 PM
  • November 30th, 2023, 7 PM – 8.30 PM
  • December 7th, 2023, 7 PM – 8.30 PM

*Dates are subject to change. Please monitor the Slack group for the latest announcements.

There will be additional online classes held over Zoom. The dates will be announced later but will be in the same time slot – Thursdays 7 to 8.30 pm PT.

Testimonials

TYE Graduate | Class of 2022

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“TYE was worth every minute. I was able to learn about each stages of building a successful business and with the support of the highly-qualified mentors, actually built one. This program made me highly interested in pursuing entrepreneurship in the future.”

TYE Committee

Yash Profile Pic_TIE

Yashovardhan Wagh
Co-Chair

Yash is a seasoned executive with a proven track record of leadership in the supply chain domain. He brings an entrepreneurial mindset to his work, with a deep passion for creating best-in-class customer experiences and driving sustainability. As an engineer at heart, Yash uses his analytical skills and an approach of radical candor to solve complex problems.

aravind

Aravind Bala
Instructor

Aravind Bala is the Co-Founder & CTO at SeekOut. Additionally, Aravind Bala has had 1 past job as the Co-Founder & CTO at Nextio.

ranga

Ranga Vadlamudi
Co-Chair

Ranga is a thought leader and a speaker in the technology circuit, with real-world business sense and the ability to communicate clearly and collaborate across functions with well-rounded communication and negotiation skills. He moved into product management from engineering being a software engineering leader at Microsoft and Architect developing Enterprise, Big Data, and Mobility software.

FAQs

About the Program
TiE Young Entrepreneurs (TYE) is a global program that fosters the future generation of entrepreneurs. It does this by teaching high school students the rewards and challenges of becoming an entrepreneur.

Our program aims to tap into ambitious high school students aspiring to start up on their own, and integrates classroom sessions, mentoring, and a startup competition. Student teams use modern skills and tools to build concepts using customer feedback, iteration, and lightweight business models.

The content of our program was developed based on the design thinking methodology of IDEO, Stanford D-School, and the Business Model Canvas developed by Strategyzer and Eric Ries.

The focus of the TYE program is learning the basics of business: marketing, product development, finance, legal matters, and most important – presentation skills. Students will also learn entrepreneurship and leadership skills.

In the first phase, the TYE curriculum includes: Intro to Entrepreneurship, Bugs, Passions, Solutions; Customer Empathy, Design Thinking; Rapid Prototyping; Skill Assessment, Team Building; Startup Math; Lean Canvas Business Model; and Presentation Skills. The second phase focuses on Team Formation, Human-Centered Design, Customer Validation, Product Development, Business Model, Lean Canvas, and Presentation Preparation.

TYE used to be a business plan competition, but it is now an Entrepreneurship Lab focused on innovation and invention. Student teams must use modern skills to build a real-life concept using customer feedback, iteration, and lightweight business models.
Their approach should integrate the “Lean startup” and “Design thinking” aspects, creating innovative design or business concepts based on a user-centered approach. The Lean startup business model aims to build a continuous feedback loop with customers during product development. In design thinking, the idea is to identify user needs to create appropriate solutions.

Through the program, students will interact with local entrepreneurs who share personal experiences of successful milestones and challenges. A “start-up afternoon” session lets them be guided by a mentor to create and build their own business plan.

A total of 350 and over students have graduated from the program from 2013 to 2023.

Applications and Eligibility

Applications will open up in summer for the next Cohort. Applications will be due in September; all admissions are on a first-come basis for 50 seats.

This program is open only to high school students (Grades 9-12).

Yes, since we are running this as a virtual program, students around the world can attend this program.

You just need to fill out the application form and send it in. For now fill out this TYE Interest Form and we will reach out to you when the applications open.

The deadline for submission of applications is September, and students will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis. Applications will be accepted until the cohort is filled.

First come, first serve. The applications will be reviewed for completeness; students will be admitted into the cohort on that basis.

Chosen students will receive an email from the Executive Director/Program Chair of TYE. Emails confirming enrollment will be sent in late September – early October.

The sessions are held on alternate Thursday evenings. They run from October to April. This program will follow a hybrid model with some sessions being in-person, and others being conducted remotely.

The fee is $499 (for the full year, payable upon acceptance) with a $100 discount if you sign up as a team.

Yes, students can write to the Executive Director/Program Chair for waiver of fees. Financial status or a need for financial aid will not affect your chances of selection.

The fees will be payable to TiE Seattle. Your application will be complete only when payment is made. A $25 late fee is added to the program fee for late payments. Payment link will be available in application.

No refunds will be given for dropouts, but funds may be applied towards future cohorts.

TYE Regional / Global Competition

The end goal of the TYE Competition is to learn how to make a serious pitch to investors, with all the components of launching a real entrepreneurial venture. Teams must have all the right components and iterative processes of a real business, and should include an “Ask” of what they are looking for to launch their business.

Teams are required to send their registration form, Executive Summary, Lean Canvas, and Presentation to TiE Global. For the Finals, teams must prepare their product/startup demonstration and one-minute elevator pitch.

All teams competing in the global finals must make a presentation (10 minutes) and present the Executive Summary, Lean Canvas, and any financials.

There are 40 chapters around the globe participating in the global finals. Teams can participate in the global finals in person or via video-conference facility. Please inform your chapter/TiE Global whether your team will participate in person or via videoconference. The TiE Chapters participated in 2020 TYE Global Virtual Finals are as follows:

1.​ Atlanta (USA)
2.​ Bangalore (India)
3.​ Boston (USA)
4.​ Carolinas (USA)
5.​ Chandigarh (India)
6.​ Chennai (India)
7. ​Dallas (USA)
8.​ Delhi (India)
9. ​Hyderabad (India)
10. ​Kerala (India)
11. ​Melbourne (Australia)
12. ​Oregon (USA). ​
13.​ Philadelphia (USA)
14. ​Rajasthan (India)
15. ​Seattle (USA) Host
16.​ Silicon Valley (USA)
17.​ Southcoast Orange County (USA)
18. Southcoast SanDiego (USA)
19. Sydney (Australia)
20. Tampa (USA)
21. ​Uttar Pradesh (India)
22. ​Vancouver (Canada)
23. Washington DC (USA)

A total of 20 minutes is allocated per team. Student teams must wrap up their presentation in a maximum of 10 minutes. There will be 5 minutes for a Judges’ Q&A session. Five minutes are allocated for transition between teams, where judges will score teams.

The presentation must be in PowerPoint (or similar) format and should include a company introduction, problem, solution, product, market, competition, traction, marketing and sales strategy, and team founders and roles.

One minute is allocated for the elevator pitch. Only one team member can present the pitch, and there is no Q&A in this round.
Pitches will be evaluated on four, equally-weighted categories: presentation (body language, clarity, articulation, passion), opportunity (market identification, size and attractiveness, target customer identification), solution (value proposition, differentiation, financial viability/profitability).