We help kids, teens, and young adults turn their ideas into meaningful projects, whether that's a digital product, a new service, an event, an organization, a campaign, etc. Drawing on how we build ventures at Radiical Systems, we coach builders to design for real-world impact and win-win business outcomes. Through small cohorts and one-on-one apprenticeships, we help our participants discover what they are really passionate about, and we coach them along the way, tailored specifically to their project.
Our program is based on our case study methodology at our parent company Radiical Systems, the same process we use to incubate and launch real ventures.
We offer both a small cohort program as well as one-on-one apprenticeships and advisory, meeting each builder where they are.
We help our participants discover what they are really passionate about, and we coach them along the way, tailored specifically to their project.
Each builder leaves with a project that's real, a sustainable foundation for a path forward, and the experience of having made something happen.
We don't just teach kids to start a business. We teach them to build things that help people, can support themselves over time, and leave their community better off. Projects that can make money and make a difference.
This comes from Radiical Systems' own approach: the best ventures create value for everyone they touch, not just their founders.
We bring that orientation to every builder we work with. The methodology isn't just how to build, it's a way of thinking about what's worth building in the first place.
That's what makes First Ventures different. Our builders aren't just learning to become entrepreneurs and how to build a sustainable business or organization. They're learning to leave the world better than they found it.
A venture can be a product, a service, an event, an organization, or a campaign, anything a builder creates to solve a problem or make something they care about real. Here are a few examples of what a project could look like.
A group of high schoolers who are strong in math start a low-cost tutoring service for younger kids, structured so the tutors get paid and a share funds free spots for families who can't pay.
A 13-year-old notices her block has no way to share local news. She builds a simple newsletter, signs up three local businesses as sponsors, and launches it to a couple hundred neighbors.
A teen who loves to draw builds a small zine showcasing other young artists, then turns it into a recurring pop-up event, with ticket sales and a local cafe partnership covering the costs.
A high schooler builds a simple app so students at their school can buy and sell used books directly, skipping the markup, and tests it with a few hundred classmates.
A young adult sets up a program teaching a skill they have to people who'd benefit, then builds it into something sustainable through small fees, sponsorship, or a grant.
A builder tackles a local environmental problem, like waste, energy, or green space, designs a real intervention, and brings in the partners and funding to make it happen.
The idea always comes from the builder. We help them shape it into something they can actually finish, and make sure it's built to last and good for the people it serves.
This is an example of a framework that we walk each builder through on their own project, although our process is not always this linear. We adapt our methodology to meet the reality of what each builder and their project needs.
What do you actually see? Who else sees it? Why hasn't it been solved? What's within your power to address?
Who's connected to this? Who could help, who could block it, who needs a seat at the table?
What's the smallest, most tractable thing you could build that would meaningfully change something?
How does this keep going? Each builder produces a real budget and learns to make the case for what they need. Depending on the track, that might mean pitching our cohort fund, raising from family and sponsors, or building a real funding strategy. We work through earned revenue, sponsorship, grants, cooperative models, and philanthropy.
Who do you need to work with: local org, business, city office, school? We support in crafting outreach and prepping for meetings.
Bring your idea to fruition and offer it to your first set of stakeholders.
What worked? What didn't? What would you do differently? Portfolio piece, Good Standing badge, documented project.
What happens next? Deepen the work, expand reach, build the team, or set it up to sustain itself without you. The shape of growth is different for every project.
Builders enter at the stage they're at. New to building? Start with the Prototype Track. Already have a prototype and want to take it further? Begin with the Builder Track. Ready to launch a real ongoing organization? Venture Build is for you. You don't have to start at the beginning, you start where you are. We work with kids, teens, and young adults across all three tracks, grouping by age for the cohorts and for coworking sessions.
For builders new to building. Workshop an idea and launch a prototype in a group setting.
You have an idea, or just a general curiosity about building, but haven't done it much before. You want to turn a hunch into a real thing — a website, an event, a small product, an experiment, etc.
For builders with some experience who want support taking an existing concept further.
You have a prototype that works, a project that's begun, a venture in motion, or you've done those things before. You want to grow a concept that is already real, fund it, build partnerships, and take it further with serious 1:1 support.
For builders ready to establish a lasting, sustainable organization.
You're ready to set up a real organization built to last — entity formation, funding strategy, real team, and moving beyond just launch. You want a strategic partner for the next 9–12 months.
Every project earns a Good Standing badge, a verifiable digital credential documenting what was built, and unlocking access to the Good Standing network, partner opportunities, and pathways forward.
Through Radiical Systems and Good Standing, our builders get access to council offices, civic organizations, brand partners, and community leaders across NYC. We get our builders into rooms that matter.
Ashley and Kurt run every track and engagement themselves. No facilitators-of-facilitators. The people who built Radiical are the people in the room.
We teach builders to use Claude and other AI tools to build websites, design materials, research problems, and prototype ideas, the same way we use them in our business. We also hold space for the nuance of using AI and how to do so in the best way possible. We help builders understand the political, economic, and environmental realities of these tools, and take seriously the disruption young people especially are facing and feeling. The goal is fluency and discernment, as well as the ability to speak to the larger issues facing society regarding AI and address them.
Earned revenue, sponsorship, fiscal sponsorship, cooperative models, grants, philanthropy. Builders learn the actual mechanics of how things in the world keep going, taught by people who do this work for a living.
Older builders who complete the program can move into VAST, our flagship incubation track. First Ventures isn't an end, it's the start of a longer relationship with the Radiical ecosystem.
Builder Track and Venture Build graduates are potentially eligible to become Good Standing Ambassadors, paid civic organizers in our citywide network of young leaders.
Young people are growing up in an environment of overwhelm and disconnection. We offer a different rhythm: real work, real relationships, real purpose. Building something that matters with people who care is what restores meaning.
Ashley is a builder, systems designer, and venture partner whose career has moved between global infrastructure and neighborhood-level community building. She was the first employee at ConsenSys during Ethereum's founding era, where she helped incubate some of the earliest blockchain ventures, and later designed economic frameworks for institutions ranging from cooperatives to UN Security Council compliance.
Closer to home, she has founded and built community spaces in NYC and channeled a lifelong passion for civic engagement infrastructure into the Good Standing platform, which she co-founded with Kurt. At Radiical Systems, she leads venture design and methodology.
Her work lives in the translation layer between complex systems and the people who actually have to live inside them, which is exactly what a young person needs when they're trying to make something real happen, whether they're 12 or 22.
Kurt is a journalist, cultural strategist, and narrative architect whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest, Interview Magazine, T Magazine, and PAPER Magazine, among others. He's profiled and interviewed some of the most celebrated living artists, musicians, and cultural figures of his generation, from Shepard Fairey and Nina Chanel Abney to Nadya Tolokonnikova.
Before his writing career, Kurt spent over a decade in hospitality and cultural programming, including as front of house manager and curator at CultureFix on the Lower East Side, one of downtown NYC's defining creative hubs of its era. That instinct for knowing who belongs in a room together, what a community needs to feel alive, and how to create the conditions for something real to happen, runs through everything he does at Radiical.
He's also the one who'll help builders figure out how to walk into a room of adults and make their case, whether that room is a community board, a brand partnership meeting, or a funder.
The program is hosted at our studio at 131 Varick Street. It's where we record the Good Standing podcast, host civic conversations, and now, where we'll work with our builders. Here's an episode we recorded with Tiffiney Davis of Red Hook Art Project on Enhancing Public Education with Art & Community.
Most education trains kids to take in information and prove they understood it. We train them to do something different: identify a real problem, make a plan, build relationships, pitch their work, and bring it into the world. This is entrepreneurship as a way of being — not a class about starting companies, but a practiced set of skills.
Noticing what's broken, who it affects, and what's actually solvable.
Understanding who's connected to a problem and how to work with them.
Turning a vision into a sequence of next steps that actually move.
Making a clear case for what you want, to people who can help.
Using tools (including AI) to make things real.
Understanding what things cost and how to pay for them.
Knowing what worked, what didn't, and what to do next.
Walking into rooms, making the ask, following up, building trust over time.
Developing the skills of adulthood while protecting what's already there: optimism, curiosity, and the belief that things can be made better.
Start with a short inquiry. We'll be in touch within 3 business days.