Brothers aim to turn teen peers into entrepreneurs

The Guberti brothers from Scarsdale, Michael and Marc, met us at the gate to Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx. Chauffeured by their parents in the family SUV, they led us across the campus to a parking lot at Fordham Prep, where 17-year-old Michael is a senior and 16-year-old Marc a sophomore.

Their school, like the college, was closed for Easter recess. But enterprise takes no spring break with these teens.

We strolled across the quiet greening campus to Hughes Hall, a mansard-roofed, 19th century gray stone building that is home to Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business. The building was closed, but Michael pointed to tall windows on the second floor.

“That’s the classroom where we’ll run the boot camp,” he said. He said it as if to offer physical proof and dispel any doubt their interviewer from Westchester might have that these freckle-faced teenagers from Scarsdale were legit.

Yes, a boot camp. A summer camp, but not your ordinary summer camp. “This is one of a kind,” Michael said.

Sponsored by Fordham, the Guberti brothers are starting an “entrepreneurial academy” for students between the ages of 12 and 19. They expect to teach about 20 protégés in each of three one-week sessions in July and August. (Teen readers, take note: that’s July 7-11, July 14-18 and July 28-Aug. 1.) It’s an extension of Teenager Entrepreneur, the online training site the brothers co-founded last year at home in Scarsdale to help other teens “package passions into profits” – their business slogan at teenagerentrepreneur.com.

“We wanted to do something in our lives that we would enjoy doing,” said Marc, tracing the origins of their youthful entrepreneurialism. The brothers first shared their passion for sports on blogs they created at marcguberti.com and michaelguberti.com. They’ve since branched out to write and sell digital books and offer online training in business and social media on their sites. They’ll also do motivational speaking gigs if you ask.

Kid brother Marc, a budding social media maven, led the way in discovering that one’s passion could generate profits. He began sharing his wider range of interests on Squidoo, an online publishing platform and community of fellow enthusiasts. He recommended books that he had read to others with like interests and linked them to Amazon, a Squidoo affiliate, “and when people buy it, I make 4 percent” in commission, he said.

“I was making a good income from Squidoo.”

How good?

A businessman with discretion, Marc smiled, and pondered an honest but not too revealing answer. “Several thousands of dollars,” he at last said.

As a published author, Marc Guberti’s prolific output would put many an older professional writer to shame. On his own blog, the 16-year-old peddles Kindle editions of his oeuvre priced in the teen-friendly $2 and $3 range. “How To Be Successful On Twitter.” “365 Ways To Improve Your Business in 2014.” “Honest Ways To Make Money Online.” “Keep The Ball Rolling: How To Stay Motivated While Writing An eBook.” “Fool’s Gold: Not Everything In Business Is As It Seems.” All that and high school homework, too.

The media maven also offers a mixed-media Twitter Domination Training Course. For $47, an online student can learn the tactics Marc has used to increase his blog traffic by more than 300 percent and reap a sixfold increase in his Twitter followers. “I have 65,000 but it keeps on growing,” he told us. “I expect to hit 100,000 by midsummer.”

Marc said he’ll soon be coming out with his sixth Kindle book. “My book is designed to teach people how they can write more words in a given day.”

“I’ll be using that book,” said his older brother.

“I’ll give you a free copy; you don’t have to worry about it,” said Marc. “I’ll print it out and sign it.”

Michael Guberti has published one digital book, the 32-page “SAT/ACT Guide To Success From Mindset To Mathematics and Clock Management to College.” “I came up with that two years ago” when taking those college entrance exams, he said. It’s designed to supplement those hefty College Board test guides.

Michael is working on a second book that advises ambitious high school students on “how to dominate on an Ivy League interview,” he said. With the book he’ll offer an online training course spread over five days in 30-minute segments.

Interviewing for an Ivy League college is “torture,” said Michael, who has endured it. “I’m less concerned with the profit than with how I can help” a student step into that torture chamber “with increased confidence.”

At Fordham Prep, the senior from Scarsdale is doing an internship this spring for his Advanced Placement class in macroeconomics. He led us off the campus and across East Fordham Road to the Fordham Foundry, a 2-year-old small business incubator run by Fordham’s Center for Entrepreneurship in partnership with New York City’s Small Business Services. Michael’s internship there proved opportune for the Guberti brothers and their dream of turning their teen peers into entrepreneurs.

“They’ve got to know and think and live that they’re entrepreneurs,” Michael earnestly told us at the Foundry office, “so that people come to see them as such.” The goal of Teenager Entrepreneur is to change the way teens see themselves and change too “this global perception” of teens, he said.

Fordham Foundry’s co-director, Christine Janssen-Selvadurai, also directs the entrepreneurship program at the Gabelli School of Business. “I pitched her the idea” for the summer boot camp, Michael said. “She agreed that she likes the entrepreneurial fervor and that’s when the deal was done.”

It’s a pretty sweet deal for the Gubertis. Michael said Fordham won’t take a cut of the $997 fee for the boot camp. (The Teenager Entrepreneur online training course is priced at $797.)

Michael said the brothers will sponsor a seat at their summer camp for one underprivileged teenager with a passion for the entrepreneurial life. And he further pledged to provide “nutritious snack options” for those summer students hungry to learn how to package their passions into profits.

Those nutritious snacks might have been inspired – or ordered – by the enterprising Gubertis’ enterprising mother. A holistic nutritionist and functional medicine specialist with a private practice in Greenwich, Conn., Nancy Guberti about 15 years ago gave up a lucrative, personally rewarding career at Goldman Sachs – “the golden handcuffs,” she said with a smile outside Fordham Prep – for the sake of her son.

Marc said he suffered from multiple food allergies in his pre-authorial days as a 1- and 2-year-old. “No one knew what was wrong with me. My mom went into nutrition to find a solution and she found a solution – and that’s why I’m here today.”

Marc’s 65,000 Twitter followers might want to tweet their thanks to Nancy Guberti.

“She loves being a nutritionist,” Marc said. “She does what she does because she loves what she does and she makes money at it at the same time.”

“She was the role model for us.”