[uberman]

Open source contributions are one thing (and thank you for yours). Working at/for/on behalf of a startup is completely different.

Disguising work on a startup as "open source contributions" would be fraud. The type of fraud that might lead to violations of child labor laws with hefty fines particularly since the original poster is fully aware of the status of the out of state minor making it a "willful violation".

[xenoterracide]

right, but what if it is open source code? even though it's something the startup would use.

Also it's not clear to me if a minor can actually contribute to an open source project legally as they have to be able to accept a contract legally I would think.