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“You have to offer a unique perspective.”Rohit
Srinivasan, 19,
and
Sidharth
Srinivasan, 17
Cofounders, TrashbotsSIDHARTH AND Rohit Srinivasan love solving
problems. The brothers frequently partici-
pate in robotics competitions and have trav-
eled from their home in Austin, Texas, to
India to teach STEM courses at orphanages.
In 2015, that’s where they discovered their
most intriguing problem yet: “The schools
didn’t have an affordable way to teach
robotics,” says Sidharth.
Conventional robotics kits typically
require wi-fi and fast computers. They’re
also limiting; extra robot parts cost money,
but what if an inventive kid wants to
experiment? So the Srinivasans launched
Trashbots, a kit that allows young people to
build bots using cheap supplies like rubber
bands, paper clips, and ice-pop sticks. “We
wanted to encourage kids to see the world in
terms of tools,” says Rohit. “The only thing
you’re limited by is what you have around
you and what’s inside your brain.”
The hardware kit includes motors, lights,
speakers, sensors, gears and axles, and some
“trash.” It costs $100 and comes with lesson
plans that span kindergarten through the
12th grade. The Srinivasans have shipped
units all over the world, helping kids build
things like temperature-controlled fans and
soda-can whales.
As they prepare to fill this school year’s
demand, they’re also thinking about how to
turn Trashbots into the category leader for
promoting STEM. Their plan: Recruit more
problem solvers as they grow. “For every
problem that exists, there’s one person who
can solve it,” says Sidharth. “The question is:
How do you find that person?”“Keep persevering and moving forward.”Jack Bonneau, 13
Founder and CEO, Jack’s Stands & Marketplaces, and Teen HustlFIVE YEARS AGO, Jack Bonneau desperately wanted the LEGO Star Wars Death Star, which
cost $400—way more than he had in his wallet at the age of 8. So he set up a lemonade stand
at his local farmers’ market. “In 12 weeks, I made $900 in profit,” he says. “I never knew any-
thing like that was possible.”
He wanted to make it possible for other kids, too, and launched a one-stop destina-
tion for children’s commerce: For a $15 fee, Jack and his dad will help kids in the Denver/
Boulder area set up a branded Jack’s Stands & Marketplaces stand. They spend 30 minutes
helping to get the operation running for the day and then check back several hours later
to review a P&L statement. Over four years, hundreds of kids have operated thousands of
these stands around the city.
As he starts his freshman year of high school, Bonneau is transitioning Jack’s Stands to a
nonprofit organization; that way, it can partner with larger organizations and grow beyond
Colorado, he says. He’s also working on his next big idea: Teen Hustl, an app that gives teens
access to the gig economy. “My dad told me that back in the 1980s, millions of teens used
to have their own paper routes and babysitting businesses,” Bonneau says. “I was like, Wow!
Now, because of the internet, those jobs are being taken by adults. But teens are the most
tech-savvy, so why not plug them in to that?”
Teen Hustl will operate as a sort of hyper-local DoorDash or Postmates, serviced exclu-
sively by neighborhood teens making deliveries on bikes or scooters within two to three miles
of a store or restaurant. “The big guys focus on serving cities, but there are 24 million teens
across America ready to work these untapped markets,” he says. “That’s a big opportunity.”September 2019 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / 37