Early Season Admission Deadline, Guarantee Your First Choice, Enroll by Dec 15th
Build a product. Create your brand. Pitch your business. Your founder journey starts here.
Course Description
Don’t just learn about business. Build one.
Choose a problem worth solving, find out what customers want and build a real product. In this two-week entrepreneurship course, middle school students use META24’s hands-on curriculum to follow five stages: Find, Brand, Make, Price and Pitch. Explore products already selling, compare competing ideas and use customer feedback to shape something people would choose.
Give the product a name, design its logo and message, and create a short commercial. In the B Math Lab, work with the materials and units you actually make to calculate true unit cost, margin, pricing and break-even. A business model canvas connects those numbers with your customer and plan. Experienced facilitators coach each activity while METTIE helps organize the venture, record costs and prepare an investor-style pitch grounded in real numbers.
Pitch Day brings the work together. Present your product and venture to judges, explain your decisions and respond to questions. Leave with a brand, product, business plan, commercial and downloadable pitch deck, plus a venture record you can continue developing on METTIE.
This two-week Summer Discovery course for middle school students takes place on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Beyond class, students connect active academic exploration with campus life, growing independence, new friendships and ideas for what to explore next.
What You Will Do
• Research products already selling and ask potential customers what they need
• Build a real product and refine it using customer feedback
• Create your brand, logo, message and a short commercial
• Calculate unit cost, margin, pricing and break-even in the B Math Lab
• Organize your venture in METTIE and build a practical business plan
• Build an investor-style pitch using real numbers and present to judges on Pitch Day
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Use customer research and product comparisons to explain who a product serves
• Calculate unit cost, margin, pricing and break-even using actual materials and costs
• Present a branded product and investor-style venture pitch supported by real numbers
You’ll leave with your brand, product, business plan, commercial and downloadable pitch deck, and a clearer sense of which founder tasks you want to explore.
I built a company at Summer Discovery.
Why Entrepreneurship Skills Matter
When students work on something they have created, learning becomes tangible. The choice of materials changes the cost. A customer’s opinion can improve the product. A price has to make sense. Students see how problem-solving, research, math and communication work together—not as isolated lessons, but as decisions a founder makes.
The experience builds initiative, creativity, teamwork, financial confidence and the ability to explain an idea clearly. These are skills students can bring back to school and use long after the summer ends.
Who Should Attend?
For middle-school students interested in making things, solving problems, exploring business or trying something new. No previous business experience or finished idea is required. Come ready to create, collaborate, experiment and share your thinking.
Your Summer at University of Michigan
Ann Arbor is a college town where the University of Michigan campus and the surrounding community meet. Tree-lined streets, bookstores, and cafés give the setting a character of its own. Students spend their summer learning on campus with other young people who share their curiosity.
Clear routines and supportive staff help students settle into a new place. There is room to make friends, share interests, and enjoy being part of a group. It is a welcoming way to try a campus summer without needing to have a future major in mind.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive