My guest blog contributor this month is Scott Lange, Managing Partner at Lange Marketing.
Scott and I share a strong interest in improving financial education among young people. I believe that education should go beyond simply teaching young adults how to save, invest, and manage money. We should also help them understand how businesses are created, how entrepreneurs think, and how thoughtful risk taking and innovation can create new wealth.
That is particularly important for families thinking about wealth across generations. Preparing the next generation to become good stewards of wealth should include helping them develop the confidence and skills to create, not simply inherit, financial capital.
Scott recently introduced me to an interesting program designed to do exactly that. I invited him to tell us more about it.
Venture Valley: Learning Entrepreneurship by Doing
The award winning Venture Valley, from the nonprofit Money Confidence Project, is a free online business simulation game available on PCs and mobile devices.
The Money Confidence Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to reducing anxiety around money and helping people build confidence and healthier financial habits.
Venture Valley focuses on young people, primarily high school and college students ages 16 to 24. The game gives students an opportunity to experience some of the decisions involved in starting and operating a business, without putting real money at risk.
That makes it particularly useful for young people who may be interested in business and entrepreneurship but have not yet had an opportunity to experience either firsthand.
Players create and operate virtual businesses while making decisions about money, strategy, competition, and growth. Instead of simply reading about entrepreneurship, they get an opportunity to practice it.
The game has attracted national media attention, including coverage by Bloomberg TV, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, USA Today, and LA Magazine.
At a two day Venture Valley tournament held in Boston in November 2024, students from colleges throughout the area, including MIT, Boston University, and Tufts, participated. Collectively, participants logged 224.3 hours of gameplay and created 2,259 virtual businesses.
More important than the number of businesses created is what students appear to learn from the experience.
In a survey conducted following gameplay at one university's business school:
• 91% of students said Venture Valley helped them reflect on how to improve their decision making.
• 85% said the game helped them better understand business and entrepreneurship in a risk free environment.
• 83% reported increased knowledge of financial decision making.
• 76% said playing the game encouraged them to consider a career in business, entrepreneurship, or innovation.
Those are encouraging results.
I have long believed that one of the best things we can give younger generations is not simply financial resources, but the knowledge, confidence, and curiosity to create opportunities of their own.
Entrepreneurship teaches lessons that extend well beyond business. It requires creativity, judgment, resilience, problem solving, financial discipline, and a willingness to turn ideas into action.
For families fortunate enough to have accumulated significant wealth, those qualities can also become an important part of successful multi generational stewardship.
Every generation should have the opportunity not only to preserve what came before it, but also to create something new.
To learn more about Venture Valley and the Money Confidence Project's other programs, contact Scott Lange, Director of Development, at Scott@mcproject.org.