Teen entrepreneurs: Alaska's young adults start up the state's future.

• Author: Resz, Heather A.
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Junior Achievement

Starting businesses isn't how most people spend their teenage years, but for some Alaskan teens, businesses they started in middle school and high school are continuing to grow and thrive.

There's Mike Dunckle who started Mike's Music in Eagle River more than two decades ago when he was twelve.

Grayson Davey was inspired to launch a line of wearable survival gear after two friends nearly died of exposure following a boating accident.

Kyra Hoenack was serving on the board of a local outreach group for homeless teens when her good idea blossomed into first one business, then two.

Casey Conner founded 907Boards after building his first longboard in middle school shop class.

And there's Tyler Arnold, who at twenty-three-years-old has already started two tech businesses, sold one, and is on track to roll out his third startup later this month.

Davey attributes some of his success to lessons learned at the Anchorage Chamber's "Young Entrepreneurs Academy." He was one of five young entrepreneurs who graduated from the eight-month program this year. The program also paired him with a mentor from the University of Alaska Anchorage College of Business and Public Policy.

More than 1,300 teens in grades seven through twelve have completed the Young Entrepreneurs Academy nationwide.

"That really kicked it up a notch," Davey says.

SimplySocial

Tyler Arnold used $400 from his sixteenth birthday to start "Tyler Systems" in 2008 during his junior year of high school. He launched SimplySocial in May 2012 with a pair of international partners and sold it in June 2015 to a Manhattan advertising agency.

Arnold's latest rollout is "Circa Victor," which he describes as a software suite that helps political organizations make strategic decisions about campaign expenditures. He said he will be working in the political arena through the 2016 election.

He owes his success to his Alaska mentors, Arnold says--earlier investors like Allan Johnston, who was one of the first people to invest in Arnold's first business, Tyler Systems.

"I'm thankful for all the mentorship and support I received," he says. "Without that, none of this would exist."

Johnston helped create the Municipality of Anchorage 49th State Angel Fund in 2012. He's also the founder of a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation called The Entrepreneurs and Mentors Network, Inc., which helps foster mentors and potential business Angels.

"I don't know anyone who is more committed to creating new entrepreneurs," Arnold says.

Arnold also is taking a business course at Columbia University to complement his active learning experiences. For now, his focus is on building business systems and finding individuals interested in changing the world, he says.

"I'm very excited about the company I am working on now," Arnold says.

He says he would like to see Alaska become a player in the intellectual property world as a means to diversify its economy, adding, "We should be planting those seeds now."

Alaska Paracord Designs

Like most kids his age, Grayson Davey, fourteen, struggles to manage his time.

But what sets this South High School freshman apart is what devours his free time.

Davey was eleven in February 2013 when he started Alaska Paracord Designs with $300 and a business idea aimed at saving lives. Now he has nine employees and is on track to make $40,000 this year from his parttime business, his dad, Trent Davey, says.

"He could easily make it a full-time job," Trent says. "Were trying to find that balance between school and being an entrepreneur."

The fledgling enterprise...