Kevin Hartz, co-founder of Eventbrite and A* Capital, is increasingly backing teenage founders — and says the dropout-to-startup pipeline is no longer a rebellion, but a viable default path.
From College Campuses to High School Classrooms
Teenage startup founders are no longer Silicon Valley folklore — they’re a growing demographic with serious venture backing.
Kevin Hartz, investor and co-founder of Eventbrite and Xoom, has placed close to 20% of A* Capital’s fund into companies founded by teenagers — a fourfold increase from just two years ago.
“We had one company where the founders were 18, 18, and 15,” Hartz said. “And that’s not really unusual anymore.”
Behind the trend is a perfect storm of factors:
- Rising disillusionment with higher education
- Increasing access to tools, capital, and communities
- And perhaps most critically, the early-stage tech supercycle, driven by AI disruption
From “Too Young” to “Right on Time”
Teen founders today aren’t just being humored — they’re being taken seriously.
One of Hartz’s recent bets is Aaru, an AI-powered prediction engine led by a teen who didn’t even have a driver’s license at the time of investment.
Venture circles are also increasingly populated by dropout-centric programs like:
- The Thiel Fellowship ($100K over two years to skip college)
- Z Fellows, launched by Cory Levy, which offers $10K grants to student founders — even high schoolers
“The dropout community is at an all-time high,” Levy says. “At a group dinner of 15 or 20 people, we’ll look around the table, and no one has a college degree.”
Institutional Validation: Even YC Is In
Even Y Combinator, long associated with championing young and unconventional founders, has formalized support for students.
- A new YC program allows college students to apply while enrolled, get accepted and funded immediately, and defer their participation until after graduation.
- This provides a middle ground for those not ready to leave school but unwilling to wait years to build.
It’s a subtle sign that dropout culture has gone mainstream — or at least, it’s no longer taboo.
The Bigger Shift: From W-2s to 1099s
Backing teens isn’t just a philosophical bet. Hartz believes it’s a strategic move that reflects a changing economy.
“There’s this flipping that’s supposed to happen in ’26 or ’27,” he says, “where there will be more 1099s than W-2s.”
In other words, entrepreneurship is becoming the norm, not the exception.
- Fewer teens see a stable job waiting after college
- Many are building or freelancing as their first career move, not their backup plan
- And AI is rapidly automating the jobs that used to require degrees
The Emotional Cost of Building Early
But while the opportunities are vast, so are the trade-offs.
Hartz — who launched companies young himself — is candid about the personal cost:
“It was exhilarating… but also full of painful challenges. It takes over your life.”
He compares teenage founders to Marines in battle — fearless, driven, and sometimes unaware of what they’re giving up.
- High school experiences
- Social development
- The emotional breathing room of adolescence
“Maybe it’s too soon to know what the long-term effects will be.”
AI and the Expansiveness of the Moment
Hartz believes we’re only in the opening innings of a long, generational tech expansion, especially in AI.
- He points to companies like OpenAI and Anthropic as foundational layer giants
- And sees emerging companies like Cognition, Decagon, and Sierra building powerful app layers
- But the field is still wide open — and that’s exactly where young founders excel
“Teenagers want to build, to learn, to push the envelope,” Hartz says. “We’re just at the beginning of a supercycle of expansiveness in tech.”
Would He Let His Own Kids Drop Out?
Despite his conviction as an investor, Hartz is more cautious as a parent.
- His 17-year-old daughter is currently applying to colleges.
- “She wants that flavor of life,” he says. “She never really questioned it.”
- Still, he’s open to alternatives for his younger daughter: “I’ll give her as many chances as I can to consider different paths.”
This dual perspective — the investor and the father — highlights the tension many in tech feel today: Is college still relevant? Or is founding a startup the new degree?
