D:Hive Announces Third Pilot Winner, Bringing Kidpreneur Downtown
DETROIT (WWJ) -- The downtown business accelerator D:hive announced the third winner of its Pilot program, awarding two months of free retail space to Thanh Tran of Kidpreneur.
Kidpreneur is a for-profit business that provides entrepreneurship and technology classes to kids aged 9-13.
Tran will receive two months of free rental space at 1249 Woodward Ave., along with marketing and build out support for the space.
"We get many requests for youth entrepreneurship programming and have been looking to fill that void," said April Boyle, director of small business initiatives for D:hive. "We're excited to bring Kidpreneur downtown to help train the next generation of tech entrepreneurs and programmers."
Kidpreneur will be open for business starting in mid January 2014, with classes beginning Jan. 18. Classes and workshops will be geared towards middle school-aged children and will cover entrepreneurship, coding, robotics, and more. Classes will run for multiple 9-week and 3-week condensed sessions. Kidpreneur will hold an information session for those who are interested at D:hive on Dec. 14 from 2to 4 p.m. Online registration is open now and interested individuals can register at www.kidpreneur.co/#!detroit/c24bh.
"By bringing our classes to Detroit we hope to make them more accessible to a wider range of audiences," Tran said. "We're not only teaching kids to have their own business and be their own boss, but to have the confidence to sell and present their own ideas."
As part of Kidpreneur's Community Outreach Program, Tran is offering several grants for children aged 9-13 who are Detroit residents. The award will include a free scholarship to enroll in one of Kidpreneur's Detroit-based classes or workshops. Grant applications are open now and available online at http://bit.ly/1cd9b38.
Pilot was developed by D:hive Detroit and Opportunity Detroit to spur retail business growth in the city. For more information on Pilot, visit http://dhivedetroit.org/pilot/.
D:hive is designed to welcome new recruits and assist existing innovators in the city, in order to grow and keep more talent in Detroit. Its storefront Welcome Center provides individuals with information, connections and key tools they need to live, work and engage in the city. D:hive is located at 1253 Woodward Ave. D:hive is a project of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, with support from the Hudson-Webber Foundation, Quicken Loans, Rock Ventures, Model D Media, Detroit Economic Growth Corp. and others.
