The Startup Squad

Girls mean business in a brand-new middle grade series about friendship and entrepreneurship!

All the great leaders had to start somewhere. And Theresa (“Resa” for short) is starting with the lemonade stand competition her teacher assigned to the class—but making it a success is going to be a lot harder than Resa thinks.

The prize: line-skipping tickets to Adventure Central. The competition: Val, Resa's middle school nemesis. And the biggest obstacle to success: Resa's own teammates. Harriet is the class clown, Amelia is the new girl who thinks she knows best, and Didi is Resa's steadfast friend—who doesn't know the first thing about making or selling lemonade. The four of them quickly realize that the recipe for success is tough to perfect—but listening to each other is the first step. And making new friends might be the most important one...

The back of each book features tips from the Startup Squad and an inspirational profile of a girl entrepreneur!

An Imprint Book

Brian Weisfeld has been building businesses his entire life. In elementary school, he bought 95 pounds of gummy bears and hired his friends to sell them. As a teen, he made and sold mixtapes (ask your parents what those are), sorted baseball cards (he got paid in cards), babysat four days a week after school, and sold nuts and dried fruit (and more gummy bears) in a neighborhood store. As an adult, Brian helped build a number of well-known billion-dollar companies including IMAX Corporation and Coupons.com. Brian is the Founder and Chief Squad Officer of The Startup Squad, an initiative dedicated to helping girls reach their potential, whatever their passions. Brian lives in Silicon Valley and can often be found eating gummy bears with his wife while watching his two daughters sell lemonade from the end of their driveway.
Visit thestartupsquad.com to email Brian directly and sign up for his newsletter.
Visit and learn more about Brian on Facebook at @chiefsquadofficer or on Twitter at @weisfeld. You can also learn more about The Startup Squad at @thestartupsquad on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and more!

Nicole C. Kear grew up in New York City, where she still lives, with her husband, three firecracker kids and a ridiculously fluffy hamster. She's written lots of essays and a memoir, Now I See You, for grownups, and The Fix-It Friends series for kids. She has a bunch of fancy, boring diplomas, and one red clown nose from circus school. Seriously.