A 10-Day Entrepreneurship Studio

Ideas don't become
companies in classrooms.

Sandbox Studios gives middle schoolers the space, tools, and support to turn an idea into a real company, in just ten days.

100% free to joinIn-person + virtual sessionsBased in NYC, more locations coming soon
I want to joinstart here →
Imagine→Choose→Make→Test→Share
Watercolor collage of speech bubbles with an arrow rising toward a star
The curriculum

Ten modules. One business by the end.

  1. 1

    Idea Generation

    Founder Foundations, the builder-type quiz, brainstorming, and a first pitch to the class.

  2. 2

    Customer & Market

    Defining a ideal customer and mapping out the competition.

  3. 3

    Prototype Design

    Sketching, planning materials, and building a first rough version.

  4. 4

    Brand Development

    Name, color palette, logo, and slogan.

  5. 5

    Marketing Strategies

    Social media, flyers, school ads, and outreach.

  6. 6

    Business Model & Pricing

    Business model types, profit vs. revenue, and pricing strategy.

  7. 7

    Product Development & Packaging

    Building the real product and making it feel finished.

  8. 8

    Website Building

    A simple storefront: home, product, about, buy, written and built by the student.

  9. 9

    Pitch Creation & Rehearsal

    Writing a 2-minute pitch and rehearsing it with feedback.

  10. 10

    Pitch Day

    The live pitch, in front of real guests.

Watercolor lightbulb at the start of a winding path leading up to a paper plane
Day 10

Demo Day

Nothing here is graded on paper. Everything is judged live, in front of outside guests.

By day ten, students aren't presenting a plan. They're showing something they made and answering questions about it.

What Demo Day looks like
  • 5-minute live pitch
    Explain your idea and why it matters
  • A working build guests can try
    Physical or digital
  • Live Q&A
    Guests ask what they want. Students answer without a script.
  • A real audience
    Family, staff, and outside guests: investors, founders, teachers, neighbors.
Walk away with

Ten days in. Four things out.

Not a certificate. Not a participation trophy. Things you can show, share, and keep building.

A real product

Something you actually made: packaged, priced, and ready for a customer to hold or open.

A live website

A simple storefront you wrote and built yourself: home, product, about, and buy pages.

A brand & its story

A name, logo, colors, and slogan, plus the words to explain why your company exists.

A plan to keep going

A 90-day roadmap for after Demo Day: who to talk to, what to build next, and how to get your first real sales.

First cohort, in progress

Real ideas, being built right now.

Our first cohort is still underway, and students are already building companies like these.

Figure skating bag charms

3D printed charms for skaters' bags, with proceeds going to local animal shelters.

Raising money for animal shelters

Shock grips

Grips built to absorb shock, sold to raise money for fighting food insecurity.

Raising money for food insecurity
Watercolor hands stacking colorful puzzle blocks into a tower topped with a flag
Why this exists

Most kids get told to wait until they're older to build something real.

Younger kids come up with some of the best and most creative ideas all the time, then get handed a worksheet about entrepreneurship instead of an actual shot at building one. Somewhere between "that's a great idea!" and being taken seriously, most kids get the message that big thinking is for later.

Sandbox Studios exists because that gap is fixable right now, not someday. Give a kid ten days, a few people to test their idea on, and a room that isn't obligated to clap for them, and they'll build something that actually works. Not a pretend version of entrepreneurship.

The mission isn't to make every kid start a company. It's to prove to them, early, while it's still cheap to fail, that their big ideas are allowed to leave their notebook.

Student sign-up

Want in? Tell us a little about you.

Quick form. We'll read every one.