Silicon Valley's child soldiers.

I know my comments questioning the background of parents for young startup successes was roundly criticized here a few days ago, but I can't help but bring up those points whenever I see articles like this which substantiate my assertions.

"I was surrounded by tech everyday for so long that I gained a natural interest for it," said Daniel Brusilovsky, an 18-year-old from San Mateo, California, whose upbringing by a software-manager father and Oracle Corp. veteran mother led him to found two startups before he was old enough to vote.

We tend to forget that most of the successes where the "founder" is very young seem to be attributable to parents with significantly more resources than the average person or who are in the industry and have resources and/or also connections.

I don't intend to dismiss the accomplishments of people like this, but these reports often try to present a case that young people are succeeding left and right in ideas simply because of technological advances and easier access to a computer. They don't often seem to make more than a glancing nod toward the fact that the parents are there to provide financial resources to get them started. Or in some cases, connections to get them started and skip ahead of the hurdles other children that you don't hear stories about would encounter.

I'd be more interested in stories where the kid isn't from a family where dad is a wealthy lawyer and the kid has a sure thing at a prominent university ahead of him and where the kid's mom and dad aren't professionals in the industry that are available to encourage, advise, support, and assist on behalf of their child. I'd be more interested in the seeming lack of stories where the kid with an absentee dad and a mom on welfare or toiling in a minimum wage job to provide for them and their siblings while attending a mediocre public school who has no mentor or support or resources creates the next Facebook or Windows or Angry Birds.

The idea that one can never again obtain formal education if he drops out of college is absurd, and I hope the quote about "screwing up one's career" was taken out of context. Many universities require that all credits for a degree be earned within N years of each other, but N is usually a very large number compared to the timelines of 20 year-old dropouts. Furthermore, who would want a "career" where those evaluating you looked negatively upon having once done a start-up.

Are there any universities which, in practice, will not take back a student who left on good terms (passing grades, left at the end of a semester vs. in the middle, etc.)? My guess is that the real risk is that scholarships would not be renewed and the returning drop-out would have to pay full fare.

This headline is linkbait. While there is a quip about "child soldiers" I don't think that's really what the article is about.

Can people under the age of 21 even sign term sheets? I apologize for my ignorance, I'm just unsure of the wisdom of someone seeking VC funding before he can sign the paperwork.(I'm 29, BTW)