Are You an Adult or a Kid? The Thiel Fellows Gear Up for Orientation … and Adulthood
Released on 06/20/2014
(light electronic music)
[Narrator] 20 Thiel winners,
all under age 20.
$100,000 to drop out of school and pursue our dreams.
This is Teen Technorati.
(students clapping)
Raising money is hard.
You really have to have something good.
It's very unlikely you're gonna trick an angel
or VC into giving you money.
There's what's called a seed round.
And then, beyond that, a Series A, Series B.
75% of those people I pitched in the second raise,
still said, No.
Once you are certain of your insurance,
you know, really understand the details of your plan.
You're gonna file in like tons of taxes
based on exactly where you are.
You know, the S&P 500 has gone up and down a bunch.
I highly recommend no one actually go and invest
in the stock market unless you know exactly
what you're doing.
I mean, any other questions?
(light electronic music)
[Leader] Great. How many
of you feel like you're an adult, already?
I feel like I don't have to rely on my parents
for a lot of, you know, support.
In what ways do you not feel like an adult?
Do you ever not feel like an adult?
Oh, I like to have fun, so I...
So (laughter).
Yeah, I think it's very difficult to break us
into the non-adult and adult portions
because we spend a lot of time in an adult world.
We're pitching companies.
We're designing new technologies.
You're such a mish-mash of adult and non-adult.
It's pretty difficult to work out
and by the end of it, I mean,
what are you really?
I think that in your youth, it's the best time
in your life to just take risks.
In Silicon Valley, itself, like the mentality is
to take risks and jump,
and do things that might fail,
but fail fast, move on.
(upbeat electronic music)
I decided to go into the educational technology
to try to make education fun for everybody
because I really hated the traditional ways
we were asked to study in school.
Some challenges that lie ahead for the company
I'm trying to form is...
It's a very, very tough market to break through,
and I don't think anyone has broken
through the consumer's side of it.
I don't know if I can cut this shirt up.
It's too small.
It's game day, today, so, yeah.
Oh, that.
Yeah, I got to look bad ass.
I'm currently in 3net Facebook
and I've been balancing that with the Thiel Fellowship.
[Roommate] I'd just skip the hat.
Or, just a nice little tilt.
Yes or no?
No that works, that works.
I feel like you guys are lying to me.
I know what works.
It really is bad ass.
See, girlfriends are much more useful!
They say, Yes, or No.
You guys are useless.
I was in a sorority.
I definitely miss my sorority sisters so much.
I've been Facebooking and texting them, constantly,
since I've came here.
[Roommate] Bye, have a good day.
I'm off to the bus stop to head to work.
My dream is to be able to make
an impact in someone's life.
I've been talking to a few incubator programs
and I'll be meeting with them to see
if I can get some extra funding.
[Narrator] Tune in for the next episode
of Teen Technorati when Google challenges us
to prove ourselves.
And be subscribe to the WIRED Channel.
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