Large Firms
May 30, 2001
Teens' High Tech Business Plans Wow the Judges
SAN FRANCISCO - Suzanne McKechnie Klahr gave a bag of electronic gadgets to the students who came to her after-school business training course at Eastside College Preparatory School last year.
On Wednesday night, her students returned the favor. They presented their polished business plans to a panel of Silicon Valley high tech executives attending the second annual Youth Entrepreneur Business Plan Competition and made Klahr proud.
Klahr, a Stanford-educated lawyer, teaches the 50-hour business course at the East Palo Alto high school. She said her students were poised and professional.
"Many of our judges remarked that their business plans were better than some of the college business plans they had seen," she said.
The East Palo Alto teenagers were competing for $2,500 in seed money and the chance to attend the national Youth Business Plan Competition in New York City next year. The competition was held at the Menlo Park offices of Gunderson, Dettmer, Stough, Villeneuve, Franklin & Hachigian, where more than 60 teenagers, high tech executives, attorneys and local politicians gathered Wednesday night.
A panel of six judges ultimately awarded a partnership of two young women, Amber Bundy and Lungusu Malonga, the seed money and the opportunity to compete in the national competition. Their winning business plan, according to Klahr, was to consult retailers on the likes and wants of urban youth and the so-called Generation Y.
"I felt like a proud parent," she said. "They really caught the entrepreneurial spirit."
Sean Caplice, a corporate and securities lawyer at Gunderson Dettmer, attended the event. He also judged earlier rounds of the competition.
"The improvement was amazing," he said of the student teams. "Most amazing was the final presentation and seeing the polished presentations of these kids."
Klahr, 28, was fresh out of law school when she founded the after-school business program in September 1999. A recipient of a two-year fellowship from New York's Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, she created the program under the auspices of the East Palo Alto Community Law Project. She called it BUILD, which stands for Businesses United in Investing, Lending and Development.
At first, BUILD provided local entrepreneurs with free legal advice and services. But four enthusiastic high school students from Eastside Prep convinced Klahr to add business education to BUILD's offerings.
"They stopped by and wanted to learn more about business," she recalled.
Klahr asked for space at the school and created a curriculum through the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Her first class completed the course last May and participated in the region's first business plan competition.
Members of the three student teams that participated in last year's competition have gone on to create their own for-profit businesses.
"They've become role models themselves," Klahr said.
In the past year, the BUILD program has also grown in prominence. Today, it has nine staff members, a panel of 15 volunteer attorneys, 40 business mentors and 30 students. Another recent Stanford grad, Ulysses Hui, runs BUILD's business incubator program, which pairs students with mentors and lawyers.
"We are trying to work with students proactively before they ever need the other legal services of my office," Klahr said. "We are not only representing them, we are also empowering them."
Klahr has also set her sights firmly on East Palo Alto, which was once plagued by drugs, violence and crime. Among her activities in the past year, she has tried to bring a bank and a chamber of commerce to the working class community.
"East Palo Alto still has its problems, but it has a lot of civic pride now," she said.
Although her Skadden Arps fellowship is coming to an end, Klahr said she will continue to direct the BUILD program. She said the program has enough in donations to survive another two years, and it will soon incorporate as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
She considers herself fortunate to be helping local kids realize their dreams.
"The world of business was so scary and so foreign to them," she said. "After taking this course, not only can they be a part of that world, but they can also succeed in that world."
Erik Cummins
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