Startup companies have seen a massive increase in the past few years with the help of crowdfunding websites like GoFundMe. Still, others have trouble pushing their visions forward, especially young people. One company, known as the Tardigrade Group, has created a team of individuals to aid teenagers in turning theirs dreams to reality. These individuals have been searching for young people with ideas and potential to push them forward with the initial aid that small businesses need to enter the market. Shocking to hear, though, is that the Tardigrade Group was created exclusively by teenagers.

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The group was created by current CEOs Bear Mathews and Sebastian Rodriguez, but now has a large team of fourteen people working to ensure the success of their young business partners. It was formally acknowledged as an LLC as of 2017 but already has twelve startup companies that it expects to aid before 2020.

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This is the first of the steps they plan to take to help young people create a foundation for their ideas and create an environment where the opinions and creations of America’s youth hold value. After viewing their website, it becomes apparent that these are not just kids giving a helping hand, but an intelligent group offering valuable services for creating a successful public brand.

The details of the aid that they can offer are also available on their homepage and the list is impressive. It revolves around their three essential needs of a company which, as they concluded, are technical support, legal aid and financial assistance. Branching off of these core necessities has allowed them to focus their efforts in the right sectors, thus ensuring efficiency for their relatively small team. Their engineers were tasked with helping the startup to create their app or start their websites.

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Once this platform is created, the engineers will continue to provide support for the project. This allows the startup to save a significant amount of resources on their own. The staff members of the legal team are meant to guide them through the process of creating a legally recognized corporation. Other types of legal documentation, such as employment contracts are made available through the teenager’s company.

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Their financial aid sector is nothing like the crowdfunding sites commonly used by young people. They will not directly finance the projects but instead they provide vital services to handle the startup's finances, which is even more important when they’re young people. They will help create a budget for the company to run efficiently. Instead of investing in the startup, the Tardigrade group has opted to set them up with trusted investors allowing them the freedom of choice but all while they’re building up their portfolio. During this time the team members will help a group get proper financial aid from an accredited institution. It’s not a unique business model but the clientele certainly is.                                   

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This is a wonderful idea and the Tardigrade Group is doing well for the time being. This is definitely a company to watch as they continue to grow and produce successful startups. Their motto states “Created by teenagers, for teenagers” and they have already begun. As of now, the company has announced thirty five scheduled events to follow.  While helping young entrepreneurs thrive is a noble cause, it will be interesting to see this evolution of the crowdfunding method in the future.