MESSAGE OF HOPE
Horton credits family
Nearly 170 high school student entrepreneurs brought their optimism and dreams to the Fogolar Furlan Club Monday to seek advice and mentorship from business owners who have turned similar hopes into reality.
The fifth annual High School Entrepreneurs’ Summit drew students from Holy Names, Riverside, St. Joseph and Assumption high schools to mingle with the founders of 22 local businesses. “I wanted to share my story of not giving up and hoped they’d find it inspirational,” said Jacob Duhaime, founder of the games’ app development firm iDream Interactive.
“You’re likely to fail, but it’s only truly a failure if you give up. In my case, it’s been 12 years of hard work, grinding and learning from my failures.” Duhaime’s Windsor-based game development company employs 12 people and is now working on a project for online giant PokerStars.
Among the company’s most popular offerings is Slot Universe, which has over three million users and 120,000 daily active users. Duhaime said that success came on the heels of the disappointment of the company’s first release, Monster Farm. “We took a massive loss, learned and moved forward,” Duhaime said. “We made Slot Universe and it was so successful it basically financed us for the next five years.
“You need to love embracing the journey.” The summit, which was open to all high school students, is the creation of the Downtown Windsor Business Accelerator.
It’s an outreach program that tries to prime the pumps for students thinking of venturing into entrepreneurship.
Sophia Symons, a Grade 12 student at Assumption, started her own art business last June called Mystallic Art Shop.
“I like the flexibility of having my own business,” Symons said. “I wouldn’t be happy doing an office job eight hours a day. I like the excitement of not knowing what each day will bring until that day starts.”
Symons said her business is doing well and she hopes to branch out to shows farther afield than Windsor.
“There isn’t one pathway to success,” said Symons, who added time management is her biggest challenge. “I want to hear how other people have done it. “I think the one thing I’ve learned is how driven these people are after their mistakes. They’ve been through rough patches, but eventually succeeded.” Assumption High School business teacher Jeremy Bracken, who is also a board member of the downtown business accelerator, said the most important aspect of the summit is giving students access to people who can show them the pathway to success.
“It’s important to promote experiential learning and this gives kids the opportunities to have indepth conversations with entrepreneurs,” Bracken said.
“We also want them to see other young, successful entrepreneurs, so they can see you don’t have to wait until you’re older. You can be successful now.” Assumption student Evan Piatkowski was just finishing up Grade 10 when he launched the photography business that carries his name last June.
Like many entrepreneurs, a passion became an avenue to create a business.
“My parents were nagging me to get a job,” said Piatkowski of the impetus for his business. “Instead of working for someone else, I thought I’d turn photography into my job.
“They’re not nagging me anymore.”
For Piatkowski, Monday’s summit was an opportunity to learn how to add soft skills, like networking, to his repertoire. “(Running the business is) a lot more than just taking pictures,” Piatkowski said.
“I’d really like to learn how to improve my flow of customers. Right now it’s a lot of jobs, then a slow week.”
Bracken said he’s watched students’ interest in entrepreneurship rapidly grow in the past 10 years.
“I find students are fascinated by entrepreneurs because they ’ve become household names now,” Bracken said. “Names like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have reached celebrity status and there’s social currency in their achievements.”