Pieneers is a platform for all the players in the innovation ecosystem. But, initially (and later on of course), it makes sense to target college/high-school students and recent graduates, here are a few thoughts on, why so?:
Current generation of students are energetic and passionate to pursue entrepreneurship than their previous generations. More and more are okay with the idea of pursuing it during/after college than settling in salaried job. This is the trend, I see not just in the advanced countries but also in the developing nations.
When they are in college they have no big financial obligations like family support, mortgage etc, except a college loan, which needs to be repaid after graduation. Pursuing their passion can be done while in college without any new financial burdens, especially when the tech barrier to enter, is so low. It is really amazing that the tech barrier to enter & develop a product or a service is becoming low everyday, either in terms of access to information/mentoring or lowering of tech costs.
Nowadays top colleges have good incubators and entrepreneurship programs….but a lot of colleges, across the globe, still have none! Forget the incubators, most of the colleges, in the developing world, do not even have good faculty to mentor the kids! Then where can a good passionate kid, from one of those colleges, go? With the internet access growing everyday, it will be good to have an online resource that the kids can reach out to. Pieneers, once all the features are built/launched, will provide pathways/tools for the kids to pursue, all kinds of Problems Worth Solving (#ProWoSo), collaboratively with like minded folks.
During the college years, most of the kids discover what areas they might like to work on and perhaps even innovate. So, it is very important that the kids are exposed to the problems that are out there and also inspire them, with what is possible! Pieneers aims to be that destination. This blog is the first step in that direction, where the kids can come to and discover the problems.
I believe in Problem Driven Learning (#PDL). Pieneers is designed with that in mind and will give an opportunity to work on a problem while building the knowledge as well as skills. Entrepreneurs, Pros, Pros looking for career change, could also benefit from Pieneers and #PDL. College Students/Graduates, especially are most definitely well suited, with their ability to learn and also as they are in the beginning of their careers. Most of the points mentioned above are equally applicable to high school kids. We already see in the news that several high school kids doing great work and solving problems beautifully! So, high school or college doesn’t really matter, a kid with passion can do miracles!
Not every student who passionately learns and works on a problem is expected to solve or build a solution/product/service. In the end, even if they don’t come up a great innovation, I am confident, they will end up landing on a great job or have a great career!
Dr. Krishna Vuppala