Tyler Simpson and Vince Paddon, both 13 and Madison Middle School 7th graders, and former Madison student, Brandon Keller, 14, now a Sealth High School freshman, are friends, colleagues and entrepreneurs. You might say the youngsters are starting up before they start up a company. Together they attended the prestigious annual DEMO Conference at the Hyatt in Santa Clara, CA, Sept. 12-14.

Over 1,000 attend the event where startup companies pitch their ideas to large tech companies including Microsoft, Apple, and "angels"- millionaire and billionaire investors, all searching for the next Groupon or Facebook. The press was there, too, and that's where these three West Seattle teens come in. They obtained press passes and interviewed 20 of the 80 business reps there for their tech reviews on their YouTube series thatapplegeek and their website. www.theintek.com.

"We film our reviews in my house down in this studio where we built this really nice set," said Simpson, who lives near the South Seattle Community College. "We all work together writing reviews and blog posts on our sites. We're very young and our reviews are professionally done."

"There is a niche community of YouTube tech reviewers," said Keller. "About half our followers are those kind of people. Tyler has about 250 followers on twitter, and we have 200 subscribers who watch our content regularly on YouTube, and about 300 who see our (theintek) site."

Tyler's father, Terry Simpson, also an entrepreneur, in video production, with www.tvisions.tv and has directed episodes for Nancy Guppy's ArtZone show on the Seattle Channel. He said he "gave them a little workshop on handheld camera technique and using monopods before they went to Santa Clara."

"I let them use my studio and helped build their news desk," said Terry, obviously a proud parent. "Early on, I told Tyler I had a teleprompter and green screen studio, and he said, 'It takes too long the way you do it, Dad. I like to put these out fast.'"

DEMO CONFERENCE

"We met Tim Reha of New Media Synergy at a tech conference in Seattle this summer called gdgt (pronounced gadget)," said Tyler. "He was really impressed with us and helped us get down to DEMO which is a large tech conference where start-ups pitch their ideas. He got us press passes."

They were chaperoned by Simpson's mother, Jean Hamilton, also an entrepreneur, who operates www.speakingresults.com and specializes in helping those in the corporate world with public speaking. She said that the boys had no trouble speaking up to tech movers and shakers, something some grown-ups might find intimidating.

"They had no problems walking up to adults and handing out their business cards and introducing themselves," said Simpson's proud mom. "At first they asked, 'What are these kids dong here?' but by the end they asked the kids to interview them. They realized the boys gave good interviews and were speaking to their target market."

They interviewed Scott Case, cofounder of Priceline, who was just named CEO of the Startup America Partnership, a Presidentially-sponsored program that seeks to get entrepreneurs, corporations, foundations, and other private sector leaders working together to increase success of startups in the U.S., according to Business Insider.

They grabbed an interview with Phillip Nelson, Senior VP Strategic Development of Newtek. They also spoke to a then-unknown doctor who won an award at the event. He developed a sensor-equipped app you place on your back. You view your Smart Phone and a graphic, a stick figure, indicates when your posture is properly aligned, for those stranded for hours at their computer desk. The device vibrates, not to massage your back, but to alert you to sit up straight.

While the teens had to pay for their airfare and hotel, Reha's press passes were valuable. A basic admission pass cost $1,875. For a start-up entrepreneur to pitch a product on stage cost them $18,500...for six minutes!

Such exposure may pay off big, even for the press.

Hamilton recalled, "Tyler and his friends were talking computers, and about the conference the whole flight home, and when our plane landed and everyone stood up to leave, the woman in the row in front of them and a man seated behind them handed them cards and said they were recruiters for Xbox. While some of us are digital immigrants, they are digital natives. It's a whole new world out there."