Archive for Academia

 Buzzing with Purpose: The Inspiring Journey of Mikaila Ulmer and Me & the Bees Lemonade

Emory freshman saves the bees, one bottle of lemonade at a time | The Emory  Wheel

Don’t be discouraged by life’s little stings. Get back up and spread your wings – Mikaila Ulmer

It’s not often that our greatest adversity can become our biggest success. But that was the case for 4 year old Mikaila Ulmer. At that young age she started on a journey that would conquer her fear of bees. In the process she but also lead to the creation of a purpose-driven brand. Inspired by a serendipitous encounter with a bee sting and her great-grandmother Helen’s 1940s recipe for flaxseed lemonade, Mikaila founded Me & the Bees Lemonade. Adding honey to the mix, she not only created a delicious beverage but also initiated a mission to save the honeybees.

For over a decade, Me & the Bees Lemonade has been producing refreshing lemonades. Mikaila’s journey is not just about entrepreneurship; it’s a commitment to environmental stewardship, 10 percent of the profits dedicated to bee conservation. The company has seen remarkable growth. With a staggering 500 percent increase since its humble beginnings in Austin, Texas

Mikaila’s entrepreneurial spirit was evident from a young age. Starting with lemonade stands and entrepreneurial events she built an aptitude for buisness. The brand’s success story extends to national retailers such as Whole Foods Market, The Fresh Market, World Market, H-E-B, and Kroger. Me & the Bees Lemonade can also be found in restaurants, food trailers, and natural food delivery companies.

Mikaila Ulmer is not just a business magnate; she’s a social entrepreneur with a heart for the environment. When she’s not leading workshops on bee conservation or participating in entrepreneurship panels. Her favorite nonprohit,Healthy Hive Foundation, amplifies her mission to save pollinators.

Despite her business and speaking engagements, Mikaila remains a dedicated high school student. She juggles classes in Spanish, science, and rock climbing while actively participating in her buisness. Her commitment to education and advocacy showcases the importance of a balanced and purposeful life.

She gained national attention when she appeared on Shark Tank in 2015, securing a $60,000 investment from Daymond John. In 2016 she was invited to the White House, where she met President Barack Obama. She introduced Obama at the United State of Women Summit, earning praise as an “amazing young lady.”

Me & the Bees Lemonade has expanded its reach beyond beverages. In February 2020, the brand was available in over 1,500 stores nationwide. She is now selling throuh major retailers like Whole Foods, Cost Plus World Market, and Kroger. The product line has expanded to include lip balms made from beeswax, showcasing a commitment to sustainable products.

Mikaila’s journey is not just confined to beverages and balms; it’s now chronicled in her book, “Bee Fearless, Dream Like a Kid.” The book delves into her adventures as a social entrepreneur. She offers insights into her purpose-driven brand and the lessons learned along the way.

Me & the Bees Lemonade | LinkedInFrom a bee-sting-inspired idea to a nationally recognized brand, Mikaila Ulmer’s journey is a testament to the impact of a young mind. Her dedication to saving the bees, commitment to education, and entrepreneurial success make her a true trailblazer. As Me & the Bees Lemonade continues to flourish, Mikaila’s legacy inspires us all to dream big, stay fearless, and create a buzz with purpose.

 

Elon Musk: Modern-Day Model for the Entrepreneur

Elon Musk is a modern-day entrepreneur and visionary. He is the founder and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink. He is also the chairman of SolarCity and OpenAI. Musk is known for his ambitious goals and his innovative approach to solving problems.

Musk’s entrepreneurial journey began in the early 1990s. He co-founded Zip2, a web software company, which was sold to Compaq for $307 million in 1999. Musk then co-founded X.com, an online financial services company, which merged with Confinity to form PayPal. PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company. SpaceX has developed a number of innovative rockets, including the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy. In 2020, SpaceX became the first private company to launch astronauts to the International Space Station.

In 2004, Musk joined Tesla as chairman and product architect. Tesla is an electric vehicle and clean energy company. Tesla has developed a number of popular electric vehicles, including the Model S, the Model 3, and the Model Y. Tesla is also the leading supplier of solar panels and energy storage products.

In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company. Neuralink is developing brain-computer interfaces that could connect the human brain to computers. Neuralink has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with technology and the world around us.

Musk is a visionary entrepreneur who is changing the world with his innovative companies. He is a role model for entrepreneurs everywhere, and he is an inspiration to anyone who dreams of making a difference.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy logo (2018).svg

Founded in 2008 by Sal Khan, Khan Academy is now a household name that assists minions of students every day. When he began tutoring his cousins in 2004, Sal found it helpful to record video versions of his explanations. These video explanations soon became the foundation for his educational YouTube channel. This channel soon grew in popularity and Sal quit his job to make educational content full-time in 2009.

Since 2009 Khan Academy has grown to cover a myriad of subjects and educational levels and the content now resides on the free-to-use website and mobile applications. These platforms allow users to complete personalized study plans in the areas of choice and track their progress and mastery.

Khan Academy has received millions of dollars of funding from sources including Google, AT&T, Elon Musk, and the Gates Foundation. In 2018 the company reported $31 million and $28 million in 2018 and 2019 revenue respectively.

Khan Academy is now a well respected name in education and has official partnerships with standardized tests including the SAT, LSAT, and MCAT. With new content added continually, Khan Academy has grown from a one-man operation and adapts to help students with the new challenges they face daily.

John Feinsilber: Gimkit

When John Feinsilber was in high school, he was assigned a class project, which today became more than just that. John took his idea and developed an education-based quiz platform. This platform is a mobile app where teachers can create quizzes in the form of games as a resource in their teaching. Students also can create questions that they submit to their teachers who then can accept. The game allows students to compete with one another to place on the leaderboard. John’s educational game also involves imaginary currency that students can win, and lose if they miss a question, to purchase upgrades and powerups.

 

John was driven by the idea of making learning more interesting and created a solution based on his own experiences. He states “Games really helped me become engaged in school. That’s why I built Gimkit — to be the kind of game I’d want to play in class.” This demonstrates the entrepreneurial mind of John seeing something missing in his experience and changing it for others. It shows a level of empathy in his innovation. The idea sprang from his own learning and now helps many with the same issue.

 

I am inspired by John’s product because the idea started from a class project. It shows how innovation can start anywhere, as long as you have the motivation to continue pursuing it. John saw a need in his life that is also shared among many other high school students and solved the problem by creating his app Gimkit.

The man behind Navio Group and the new form of Managing

Carlos Castelan added a new approach to the management process when he started The Navio Group. Castelan was the previous founder of organizations and consulting firms such as Conlego, and Noma Consulting partners. His experience in the field gave him a first hand view at the different problems that many companies have with internal hierarchical management. When he saw these problems he quickly took action and found a solution to this. He opened The Navio Group consulting firm to help companies address the internal management issues that they were having. This is a true example of entrepreneurship in a way that is not normally seen out right as entrepreneurship as most innovations will be seen as products. Castelan created a service to help many companies, in a relatively open market. While many consulting firms have employees who are doing their role as their first job and don’t have much experience in the problems that these companies are facing.

I think Castelan’s work is a true inspiration, he saw a problem and took action to solve that problem not only for himself but for many companies. His vision was to create a company that helped clients navigate change and chart a new course from what was seen as traditional. He wants clients to explore the unknown and expand their companies in new ways that no one has really expanded to or tried before. I really like Castelan’s story and how inspiring his innovation was to this market. He is a firm believer in jumping right in when trying to bring new ideas to life which is a true explanation of being innovative and an entrepreneur. He believes that being good at only one thing (something that was seen as important in the old days) is becoming increasingly less important and instead being diversified is becoming more and more important.

 

Overall, I think Castelan’s idea of consulting companies to navigate in new ideas and areas will continue to be extremely successful. Read more here

Andrew Sutherland – Quizlet

Learning tools & flashcards, for free | Quizlet

Andrew Sutherland created Quizlet which is a study tool that almost every student in high-school and college has used. Andrew saw an opportunity where students needed a better way to study and catalog information they need to look over. Andrew made Quizlet when he was in high-school, what’s really interesting is the fact that he made this business while he could’ve used his business. What makes his idea so interesting is that it is the perfect studying tool for students and it was made by a student.

Quizlet founder Andrew Sutherland talks about its origin story at  AlligatorZone. - YouTube

Andrew clearly is able to recognize pains and come up with a new idea to solve that pain. Andrew is very innovating and is able to create a whole new way for students to study. The fact that someone could come up with a new innovating thing for students to use as a student is very inspiring and gives me hope that students like me can succeed as an entrepreneur. I have learned that even high-school kids can come up with almost essential products.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/author/andrew-sutherland

Khan Academy- Salman Khan

 

In 2004 Salman Khan, a millennial entrepreneur, began remotely tutoring his cousin whom was lacking behind in one of her subjects. Khan started by tutoring her through phone calls and texts, but migrated to using Yahoo Doodle, a device that allows him to draw and demonstrate how to work through problems. His cousin, Nadia, improved dramatically in class, so much so that the tutoring grew into several cousins. This created a problem though, Khan didn’t have enough time to do his job then go and tutor each cousin individually. Khan adapted, he decided to make recorded videos and post them on Youtube so that his cousins could go on whenever worked best for them and watch and learn.

Khan’s videos started becoming a hit, people from all over the world were trying to get outside help on their subjects and his videos explained everything clearly. Khan realized that there was some potential with this business idea, and Khan Academy was born. He decided to get off of Youtube, and create his own website and nonprofit learning platform. The videos helping any age with almost any subject, explaining it step by step so that anyone could understand. Khan recognized that there was a problem in teaching and decided to make tutoring an easy task for the student. They are able to get ahead and get different views on how to solve the problems because of this idea. Khan has delivered world class education to anyone, anywhere.

Chalk . com

Chalk.com lists their mission as this:

“Giving every child an equal opportunity to participate in the future”

And that is more or less what Chalk.com does. It is a company that saw a disparity between the opportunities given to students in our education system, and their actual abilities. They saw how a child that was given more opportunities in education tended to perform better, and have better opportunities, the later they got in life. More doors opened for them, if you will. As their website says, “the [education] system needs to accommodate your needs to give you the best chance to succeed.” And their goal is to shape the system to do that.

Chalk.com strives to do this by starting at the source: the teachers themselves. They argue that good teaching is not something that is “mass-produced” but cultivated through people who care. Chalk wants to empower teachers in order so that they can better empower their students.

They attempt to do this by teaching teachers about what it means to learn well, to learn and act on knowledge with responsibility, to care about what they teach and who they teach, and to be persistent in all things. Though all of this might sound a little heady and nebulous, they live out these missions by scheduling meetings with teachers, helping them plan out curricula and game plans, developing holistic strategies to meet students and educators wherever they are.

Redesigning the Way We Study: Andrew Sutherland

Get to know Quizlet on Android: Learning apps & games for ...Our education system has stayed pretty much the same as it was two hundred years ago. This is not a bad thing, considering that there are only a small amount of proven ways to actively engage student’s learning abilities. As technology advances, educators are now trying new techniques to improve the ways that students learn in the classroom. With this increase in technology, students are finding it easier to memorize terms and concepts thanks mostly to one of the fastest growing education sites in the world, Quizlet. Quizlet was founded by Andrew Sutherland in 2007 when he was 22 to be a resource to help student study for test and exams. His initial idea for Quizlet came when he was 15 when he created a platform to help him for a quiz. Since then, it has grown to be one of the top 100 sites used around the world. Not only does the company bring in over $10 million per year, it has seen exponential expanses in its user base year over year with a 2 million user increase every month.

Sutherland’s story is one that many young entrepreneurs seem to face. By creating something that either a small group of people want or that they are passionate about, they realize that they can turn their idea into a large business. After creating Quizlet in high school, Sutherland saw its success and made the difficult decision to drop out of MIT in order to grow the business into what it is today. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to do both well,” he says. “I saw how big Quizlet was getting, how many people were using it and how big an impact it could have for millions of students.” Not only does the platform target students like it did back in 2007 at launch, it has introduced teacher tools that can be accessed through various subscription models. Sutherland’s willingness to bring an idea that he had into reality has created him overwhelming amounts of success and the difficult choices that he has made throughout his life continue to drive him to make Quizlet the best platform it can be.

 

Sources:

www.studybreaks.com/college/talking-andrew-sutherland-founder-quizlet/

www.mogulpedia.com/person/andrew-sutherland/

Quizlet- Andrew Sutherland

Have had a last-minute cram? Tried to Google answers to a quiz (not that any Grover would)? or Tried needed to make and catalog flash cards online?

At 15 years old Andrew Sutherland started Quizlet. This online, and now app-based, service allows students to create, share, and view series of flashcards. These cards can be grouped be class/course number as well as a general topic title. As the service has grown- several subscription services are available to both remove adds and not limit content. Sutherland furthered his education by attending MIT for three years. Sutherland dropped out to further his venture. Quizlet, now approaching 40 Million Users, raised $30 Million in it’s last round of financing.

The new ‘Quizlet Pro’ gives users unlimited access and storage for a fee of $20 a year. This platform continues to expand, now offering ‘Quizlet Full’ in seven languages.

I find this platform intriguing as, aside from serves, the company does not have large physical assets- rather, the information and content is created and cataloged by users themselves. This self-perpetuating model is scale-able and long-term, as the more users, the more content, more content means appealing to more users, so on and so forth.