Pakistan’s first Startup Weekend Youth will kick off today, with talented youngsters pitching their innovative ideas to a room full of future entrepreneurs.

Young attendees between the ages of 11-16 will get a chance to learn from local entrepreneurs during this weekend event.

“It is important for children to know at an early age that entrepreneurship is also an option - that they can grow up to be job creators and not necessarily only job seekers,” commented Jehan Ara, President P@SHA and the founder of The Nest I/O.

“I’m a strong believer in teaching children about entrepreneurship at a young age, because as we all know, chances are you wont be successful with your first startup, or even the next one."

Teaching children about entrepreneurship gives them more time to better understand how to build, sustain, and expand a startup. I hope Startup Weekend Youth will be the first step towards entrepreneurship for many of our young attendees and instill in them an entrepreneurial mindset so they grow up to be tomorrow’s leaders and innovators,” she added.

The young participants will work on the shortlisted ideas during the weekend and develop working business models with the help of mentors and coaches.

Some of the coaches who will be participating in Startup Weekend Youth Karachi include Saba Khalid, Founder of Aurat Raaj, Sameer Ahmed Khan, Founder of Social Champ, Muhammad Waqas, Co-Founder WonderTree, Amna Asif, Founder Relive Now, and many other successful entrepreneurs.

Startup Weekend, powered by Google for Startups, is a non-profit entrepreneurship education event where participants learn how to pitch ideas and form a team or join someone else's team, do market research, build a product, and demonstrate business in front of judges and potential investors.

Startup Weekend Youth Karachi will focus on children of age 11-16 and give them an opportunity to get a glimpse into the stressful yet exciting life of an entrepreneur.

Startup Weekend demands teamwork, creativity, determination, and focus from all participants, forcing the young minds to dive right in.

While each team will have access to an adult coach, every team will be expected to manage itself in order to optimise time.

The final judging will be done on Saturday evening and the star startup will be awarded a trophy.