u/suckstosuckies

i'm a high school sophomore and my goal has always been entrepreneurship, and I'm looking to go to school for engineering then business school. I have strong cs/programming skills, math skills, and data analytics skills. I'd love to work at a startup to learn the business aspect of it while gaining more experience of the technical side but I've never done it before, and I don't really have any connections or people that could introduce me. What is the best way to find startups like these that would be happy to let me be apart of the team?

I want to get into business, but I honestly don't know what business or how. I'm starting to work for small business owners who are expanding their existing income, and it's definitely a step in the right process, but I also want to learn from those who really took a risk and have the ambition to do something bigger.

Problem is I have no idea how to find these people, and even if i do I don't know how to reach them. I've tried connecting with some of these people from linkedin but I never get accepted, just ghosted. I also don't have any connections, mainly because of my age and not knowing anyone in the scene.

Where do I start? Maybe in person events/meetups? Or should I slow down and work my way up from where I am now

I feel so lost. I've always wanted to do business but the fact that I have a really competitive chance at college, which would then give me a good chance at jobs, really makes it difficult. My parents often try and push me into stability, and while they don't say it it often feels like they judge me for dreaming too big or wanting too much.

I've also tried taking action, here's what I've done:

1. Start a web design business, I honestly do believe I'm good at this, but I have no local connections (I'm a 1st gen immigrant) and cold outreach has never worked. I could make 100 calls and not even land a single consultation. I understand I probably need better value proposition, better sales, but these are things I am trying to learn.

2. Now I'm transitioning to working for a small firm like this, it's a side hustle for someone working corporate. I'm providing a lot of value, and I am getting paid very fairly for what I do. I make so much more than if I would've gotten say a summer job at a pool or country club, and honestly more than I could think of making while fully in school. However, this isn't my final goal, and while the onwer is happy to help me establish my own business in the future I likely run into the exact same problems as before, since skill isn't my biggest issue.

Here's what I want to do:

I want to learn more about business by being fully immersed, I've landed shadowing experiences with founders of local businesses, working for free but hopefully learning a lot.

However, what's more important to me is reaching the people that really have it figured out for themselves (1-2mil+ profits), and more is obviously better. I don't know how to reach these people. I tried linkedin but they don't really seem to be active or responding to requests, and at this age I don't really know anyone who could refer me to them.

What should I do? To be clear I am 100% going to college, I want to go to business grad school after college, but I also want to be building, learning, and improving while I am in school.