The 3DuxDesign founder, 16 year old Ethan Klein spent some time inspiring a very energetic group of third graders when he was asked to be the keynote speaker at their entrepreneurship program’s kickoff meeting.
He was more than willing to share his story at the Whitby School, an International Baccalaureate (IB) School in Greenwich, CT where the students are getting ready to embark on their own journey into entrepreneurship. He also enjoyed the opportunity to tell his high school dean that he needed to leave early to “give a lecture”.
Considering that this will be their first chance to create their own startups, these 7-8 year old soon-to-be founders had certainly done their homework. They were well prepared with an impressive range of questions. After a 15 minute talk about how he and his sister began 3Dux, Ethan opened up the floor to questions. Here were some of our favorites
“Where did you get your funding?”
“Are there any products in the market that are your competition and how do you deal with that?”
“How long did it take you to prototype?”
“Is any of your stuff made in China?”
“Are you in toy stores?”, “How do people buy your sets?”
"I started my own business too. I make slime in all different colors."
“Is owning your own business as a syudent hard and do you miss a lot of play dates and fun stuff because you own a company?”
“How many mistakes did you make and were any really bad?”
“How did you make your website?”
The students then had a chance to see the various prototypes from the original R&D back in ‘17 (when they were still in first grade). Students loved the “Museum of Mess Ups ” and appreciated that a lot of time, energy, trial and error and cost goes into developing a new product.
They were also thrilled to have the opportunity to share their own business models with Ethan and bounce ideas off him.
The students then got to play with the 3Dux products and were unanimously impressed. By the end of the talk, these little folks were inspired to launch their own businesses and will ultimately be pitching their concepts shark tank style 
Students learned how a simple invention like 3D printed connectors by 3DuxDesign can blend art and design with geometry and engineering learning.
Next month, Ethan will be speaking at The Henry Ford Museum, sharing his story at their "Meet the Maker" Conference in Michigan and holding a SKYPE meeting with some more student entrepreneurs in Virginia.
