Grants for Young Entrepreneurs and Students
The Thiel Fellowship
The Thiel Fellowship, founded by Peter Thiel, provides $100,000 over two years to entrepreneurs under 23 years old who want to build something new instead of (or alongside) attending college. The fellowship is one of the most prestigious and generous youth entrepreneurship programs in the world, and past fellows have gone on to build companies worth billions. The application process is highly competitive, selecting approximately 20 to 25 fellows from thousands of applicants each year.
The fellowship provides the $100,000 in grant funding (not an investment, so you do not give up equity), mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs and investors in the Thiel network, and access to a community of fellow young founders. The program does not require you to drop out of college, though it was originally designed with that provocative premise. Many recent fellows have participated while continuing their education or immediately after graduating. The ideal candidate has already started building something, whether a technology product, a business, or a research project, and can articulate how the fellowship funding and mentorship would accelerate their work.
University Entrepreneurship Programs
Hundreds of universities operate entrepreneurship centers that provide grants, pitch competitions, incubator programs, and mentorship to student entrepreneurs. These programs are among the most accessible grant sources for young founders because competition is limited to the university's student body and alumni rather than the national applicant pool.
Stanford's StartX accelerator provides funding and mentorship to Stanford-affiliated entrepreneurs. MIT's Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship offers grants and competitions including the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. Harvard's Innovation Labs provide workspace, mentorship, and funding opportunities. The University of Michigan's Center for Entrepreneurship, USC's Lloyd Greif Center, and dozens of other programs at large and mid-sized universities offer similar resources.
Do not assume these programs are only for students at elite universities. State universities, community colleges, and regional institutions increasingly operate entrepreneurship programs with grants, pitch competitions, and incubators. Check your university's business school, engineering school, and career services office for entrepreneurship resources. If you have already graduated, many programs extend eligibility to alumni, sometimes for years after graduation. Contact your alma mater's entrepreneurship center and ask whether alumni can participate in current programs.
Youth-Specific Grant Programs
The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) Growth Grants of up to $4,000 are open to entrepreneurs of all ages, including young founders who become members. The Amber Grant awards $10,000 monthly to women-owned businesses, with a separate startup category that is particularly accessible to young women entrepreneurs. The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) provides resources and networking for entrepreneurs under 45, though it is a membership organization rather than a direct grant program.
The Lemonade Day program teaches youth entrepreneurship fundamentals to children and teenagers, and while it does not provide business grants, the skills and confidence it builds prepare young people for grant applications and business competitions later. Junior Achievement and similar organizations provide entrepreneurship education and sometimes seed funding for student businesses through local chapters.
The Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, the Diamond Challenge (hosted by the University of Delaware), and the Conrad Challenge provide pitch competition experiences and cash prizes specifically for high school and college-age entrepreneurs. These competitions award prizes ranging from $1,000 to $36,000 and provide networking, mentorship, and visibility that extends well beyond the cash awards.
SBA Resources for Young Entrepreneurs
The SBA does not have age-specific grant programs, but its free resources are particularly valuable for young entrepreneurs who lack business experience. SBDCs provide one-on-one counseling that covers everything from business plan writing to financial management to grant application preparation. SCORE provides mentoring from experienced business professionals who can guide young founders through challenges they have not encountered before. Both services are completely free and do not have minimum age requirements.
The SBA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program funds technology innovation regardless of the founder's age, and young researchers at the beginning of their careers can apply if they have an innovative technology concept. Several SBIR agencies have created youth-specific outreach programs to encourage applications from younger entrepreneurs and researchers. Our federal grants guide covers the SBIR program in detail.
Accelerators and Incubators for Young Founders
Several accelerator programs specifically target young founders. Y Combinator, while not age-restricted, has funded numerous founders in their early twenties and provides $500,000 in funding in exchange for 7% equity. Techstars, another major accelerator, provides $120,000 in funding and mentorship in exchange for 6% equity. While these are investments rather than grants (you give up a small equity stake), the funding, mentorship, and network access are unmatched for early-stage technology companies.
Non-equity accelerators that provide grant funding include MassChallenge (zero equity, cash prizes for top performers), the Halcyon Incubator (grant funding for social enterprises), and Google for Startups (equity-free funding for underrepresented founders). These programs are ideal for young entrepreneurs who want capital and support without diluting their ownership in the earliest stages of their company.
University-affiliated incubators provide workspace, mentorship, and sometimes seed funding without taking equity. Many welcome students and recent alumni from any university, not just the host institution. Search for incubators and accelerators in your city, as most major metropolitan areas have multiple programs competing for promising founders.
Starting a Business While in School
Starting a business while enrolled in school provides unique advantages for grant applications: you can access university entrepreneurship resources, participate in student-only competitions, leverage academic advisors as mentors, and use campus facilities and technology at no cost. Many university libraries provide free access to market research databases, legal resources, and financial analysis tools that would cost hundreds of dollars per month in subscriptions.
The practical challenge is time management. Running a business alongside coursework requires prioritization, and the most successful student entrepreneurs choose business models that scale without requiring constant attention. Ecommerce businesses, digital product businesses, and service businesses with flexible scheduling work well for student entrepreneurs. Dropshipping and print on demand are popular student business models because they require minimal upfront inventory investment and can be managed in the evenings and weekends around class schedules.
Document your business activities from the beginning, even if the revenue is small, because grant applications and business competitions evaluate traction, and a student business with six months of sales history and growing revenue is far more competitive than a student with an idea and no execution. Keep financial records, track your customer acquisition metrics, and collect testimonials from early customers. This evidence transforms you from "a student who wants to start a business" into "an entrepreneur who has started a business and needs capital to scale."
Building Toward Larger Grants
Most young entrepreneurs will not win large grants immediately because they lack the business history and financial documentation that bigger programs require. The strategy is to start small and build: win a university pitch competition ($1,000 to $5,000), use those funds to generate revenue, then apply for a corporate grant ($5,000 to $25,000), use that traction to qualify for state or federal programs. Each success builds the track record that makes the next application stronger. By the time you have two years of business history and a pattern of growth, you qualify for the full range of grant programs available to any small business, with the added advantage of being young enough to still qualify for youth-specific programs.