For parents
Make First takes your teen from an idea to a business that has made its first sale to a stranger, in one semester. You are the account holder. Your teen does the work.
Why now
AI already writes the code, drafts the copy, and answers the questions. Make First teaches your teen to direct it toward a real result, not to use it as a shortcut on homework.
A business class teaches concepts on a whiteboard. Make First requires your teen to talk to ten real strangers, ship a live product, and get someone who is not family to pay them.
Every gate produces evidence: a live URL, a paying customer, a running P&L. That becomes a public Maker Portfolio, real work instead of another line on an application.
The schedule
Twelve weeks, five to eight hours a week. School stays intact; the business is the extra thing your teen made.
| Weeks | Stage | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | Spark | Find a problem worth building for. |
| 3-4 | Make | Build the smallest version that works. |
| 5-6 | Launch | Put it in front of strangers. |
| 7-8 | Sell | Turn it into an offer. |
| 9-10 | Grow | Do more of what worked. |
| 11-12 | Run | Hand the repeat work to AI. |
Your role
You apply with your teen and hold the account. Make First is built for teens, with parents in the loop the whole way.
Stripe, Gumroad, domain registrars, and similar tools all require someone 18 or older. Your teen makes the offer and does the asking; your name is on the account.
Weekly group office hours with the founder, plus a Scoreboard your teen updates by hand. A dedicated parent view is on the way.
The AI cofounder and the founder's weekly reviews do the coaching. Your job is to stay out of the way of the work and show up for what your teen ships.
Safety and accounts
A parent view of the Path and Scoreboard, and a public Maker Portfolio of your teen's earned Firsts, are both In the works today.
Both are part of Make First Studio, the app that runs the Path with your teen.
See Make First Studio →Josh runs a one-person AI venture studio. He built Make First so his own kids could learn to do the same thing, at their age.
Founder
Founder, Make First and The Fractary
Built by Josh McWilliam, who runs a one-person AI venture studio and built Make First so his own kids could do the same thing at their age.
joshmcwilliam.com →Five to eight hours a week for twelve weeks, timed to fit inside a normal school semester. The last stage of the Path is built around getting the business running in under 10 hours a week so it stays sustainable after that.
That's normal, and it's what the Spark stage is for. The first lessons walk them through finding problems they've actually felt, narrowing to one, and talking to ten real people before they build anything.
Your teen does. Make First is a program, not a stakeholder or a partner in the business, and takes no equity or revenue share.
Today, weekly group office hours with the founder and a Scoreboard your teen updates by hand. A dedicated parent view of the Path and Scoreboard is in the works, and the founding cohort helps shape it.
No. It is a twelve-week program that runs alongside school, not instead of it. It does not offer academic credit, grades, or a diploma.
We share founding cohort pricing with families on the application call rather than on the site. Nothing is due at application, and nothing happens without a parent or guardian in the loop.
The founding cohort includes Studio, the Academy, office hours, and the community for 12 months. What comes after that (renewal, alumni access) will be announced before any founding cohort reaches it.
Teens 13 to 17, with a parent or guardian as the account holder. There is no program for kids under 13.
Anything your teen chooses to use to build and run the business: a domain name, an app builder subscription, or payment processing fees. The founding cohort includes Studio, the Academy, office hours, and community, not these pass-through costs.
Yes. The Path is built for 5-8 hours a week over 12 weeks, matched to a semester, and the program never asks a teen to skip school.
Weekly group office hours with the founder exist for exactly this: getting unstuck before a stage stalls out. The AI cofounder also checks in along the way and flags when a gate is at risk.
A business class teaches concepts. Make First requires your teen to actually do the thing: talk to ten real strangers, ship a live product, and get a stranger to pay them, with an AI cofounder coaching instead of doing it for them.
Apply for the founding cohort, or ask a question first. Either way, you are the account holder.