When he was a little kid, Gabe Jaffe looked up to the teenagers in his life who were positive role models, thinking that one day he, too, would do something great.
His day has arrived with the launch this week of Teen Hampton, an online community of young adults who want to work as babysitters and sports coaches this summer on the East End.
"We've built this network of qualified and vetted teenagers," Gabe, a 16-year-old student at the Horace Mann School in Manhattan, said. "We interview teenagers who want to work this summer so that clients can go on the website and look for different instructors and babysitters."
A longtime summer visitor, Gabe worked at East Hampton Indoor Tennis last year. The money he earned there is what he used to begin the Teen Hampton business, including starting a formal limited liability company, buying insurance, and hiring employees. He has about a dozen peers from different schools helping him out with marketing, graphic design, social media, and other aspects of running a business. The only help he got from grown-ups was from the website development company he hired.
"I would definitely say I'm an entrepreneur in general," Gabe said. "I've always had big ambitions and I want to do cool things. I've committed a lot of time and dedicated a lot of effort to this. . . . It's important to me."
Here's how Teen Hampton works: People who would like to book sports lessons and babysitters can visit the website, teen-hampton.com, and browse through detailed profiles of teenagers — a combination of local kids and summer residents — who are looking for work, along with the days and times they are available and their rates. Besides babysitting, lessons in soccer, swimming, baseball, basketball, flag football, golf, lacrosse, surfing, dance, and tennis are available, with the possible addition of other sports.
Anjali Budhram, a summer resident of Sag Harbor who worked at Sportime in Amagansett last summer, eagerly signed up to babysit and coach tennis after she heard about Teen Hampton through a friend of a friend. She said she looks forward not only to working with kids, but also making new friends.
"It seems like it will be a really good experience," Anjali, a 16-year-old student at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, said.
More than 60 teens have signed up to take part so far, Gabe said. The business serves people from Westhampton Beach to Montauk.
"It's something that I hope will help the community this summer," he said.