Archive for millennial entrepreneur

Nannies by Noa: The Unique Nanny Service

      Noa Mintz is a fascinating and truly inspiring millennial entrepreneur, who is currently a senior at Brown University. She grew up in the Upper West Side in Manhattan; at the age of 12 she created her own business, “Nannies by Noa”, which is currently a member of the Association of Premier Nanny Agencies. Her business serves affluent NYC families seeking well-educated and well-trained nannies on a regular basis. There are many different positions for the nannies ranging from part-time after school babysitting, to full-time 40 hours per week, Monday through Fridays.  

    According to a CNN Business article, Mintz’s idea came to her after her mother told her to “find a better babysitter.” Since Mintz didn’t like her own babysitter, she started looking for another one and later helped her friends find nannies too. She designed a thorough application process and started interviewing people for nanny positions. 

    Nannies by Noa’s application process is extensive. Understandably the application process requires multiple background checks, drug testing, but also includes three years in-home childcare experience requirement, two childcare employment references, a resume, an interview, and the requirement to be able to commit for at least one year. For example, there are a couple of active positions where some families have requested the nannies to speak French fluently. In many instances healthcare is also paid for by the families, which is unlike other major nanny services in the New York City area. Also, some families make arrangements for the nanny to have four weeks off for a vacation as well as the major federal holidays. Mintz has created a variety of different positions and services to best accommodate nannies as well as the families. 

   Nannies by Noa continues to thrive; even as Mintz is finishing up her last year studying Cognitive Neuroscience at Brown University, she continues to manage her childhood business. 

To learn more please check out…

https://www.nanniesbynoa.com/about/

https://money.cnn.com/2015/02/06/smallbusiness/nannies-by-noa/index.html

Mobile Advertisements: Innovation in the Marketing World

Ed Hollands DrivenMedia

Creator of DrivenMedia, Ed Hollands (23)

One day, while in traffic, Ed Hollands had a “light bulb” moment. He saw three commercial trucks with completely blank sides and thought about how to utilize that space. The idea he came up with has made him a lot of money, 7,800 pounds per truck to be exact. On an average day in the UK, 55,000 people will view the advertisements that Hollands has placed on commercial vehicles. His startup, DrivenMedia, collects the, already mentioned, 7,800 pounds per vehicle plus VAT for a twelve month package. In addition to that, production costs for each vehicle is around 5,500 pounds. Hollands idea has proven to be very lucrative.

When questioned about his age, Hollands responded, “When making deals there have been some people who have doubted my capabilities because of my inexperience. In fact, the reality is quite the opposite, I am willing to bend over backwards to make opportunities work for my clients and investors.” He has taken on the stigma surrounding young entrepreneurs regarding experience and has flipped it on its head. Instead of focusing on the problem of inexperience, he has focused on his vision of innovating marketing in the UK. Traditionally, advertising done near transportation is on stationary platforms such as billboards. Hollands has innovated that industry by mobilizing advertisements. Companies now have the opportunity to advertise over a larger span of land, allowing for more people to view their advertisement.

Hollands has inspired me to think and work beyond the stigma that young people are too inexperienced. Rather than looking at that inexperience, I see youth as a new perspective to be brought to a situation. Clearly, Hollands displays self-belief in that he believes in himself and what he’s doing. He is motivated and is determined. His flexibility is displayed through his willingness to bend over backwards for his clients and investors. Hollands has found a niche in an industry for himself and has utilized his innovation to make money. His leadership and innovation are both impressive.

A “Seven Nation Army” Could not Hold Jack White Back

Jack White, famous for being the lead singer of the White Stripes, still impacts the world with his music and brilliant mind. Despite the early 2000’s band breaking up, Jack White continues to crank out his own solo albums, one of which he released this year and climbed to the top of the US 200 Billboard.With deep, often strange lyrics, and screeching, distorted guitar melodies, Jack White tops his performances off with color coordinated clothes, instruments, and lights. Along with producing his own albums, he opened up Third Man Records in 2009, a combination of a record store, studio, and concert venue. After opening up another branch of Third Man in Detroit in 2015, White felt inspired to extend it into a large vinyl-pressing factory in 2017 called Third Man Pressing, making it the only place where records can be made-to-order. Ben Blackwell, co-founder of Third Man Pressing and nephew of Jack White, says that “For Detroit to continue moving forward, you need to have different ideas. [Manufacturing] is a field that’s driven by creativity. That’s something this city has always been flush with.”

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Jack White, while often considered an acquired taste, is one of the most creative and innovative musicians of this decade.  Not only does he have a creative mind, but also a business-like one. Throughout White’s career, he has faced many struggles and criticisms, but he still held his head up high and worked his way to fame. “There are many people out there who will tell you that you can’t,” White says,”What you’ve got to do is turn around and say, ‘Watch me.'” Jack White’s passion is to turn music back into the raw, emotion-filled expression that it used to be, and no one can get in-between an inspired man and his dream. White not only revolutionized the rock n’ roll industry, but he also demonstrated the flexibility of the title of ‘entrepreneur’. Jack White is a living example of where creativity, hard work, and talent can take a person.

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Me & the Bees – A Sweet Story

Two random events in Mikaila Ulmer’s life at just 4 years old have sparked an entire business. First, she got stung by two bees. Second, her Great Granny Helen sent her family her 1940’s cookbook, including a recipe for flaxseed lemonade. As Mikaila’s interest in bees grew, she began to think of ways she could contribute to help honeybees, knowing all that they contribute to our ecosystem. She ended up using her Granny’s recipe and adding honey, creating Me & the Bees Lemonade.

Her sweet lemonade soon grew into more than just a lemonade stand. What started as an idea for a children’s business competition grew into a business that sells out at youth entrepreneurial events, and donates a percentage of its profit to organizations that fight to save honeybees. Mikaila’s idea hit rapid growth after she was featured on Shark Tank at just 10 years old. Her passion and success lead her to receive a $60,000 investment! Me & the Bees Lemonade is now sold at a variety of restaurants and food delivery companies, as well as in Whole Foods Market.

One of the contributing factors to Mikaila’s success is her content. She doesn’t only sell lemonade, she provides her customers with information and an experience. She recently created a Facebook page that shares interesting facts about bees and honey. She also shares recipes and other fun information on her website, and she has a Beelieve blog. These all ensure that customers aren’t just buying lemonade, they’re learning about the mission of Me & the Bees, and are building a good brand image in their minds. The simplicity of Me & the Bees Lemonade, drives by Mikaila’s creativity, can be an example to all aspiring entrepreneurs.

Better Life Bags

What started as a personal craft project grew to an Etsy store, to a Pinterest phenomenon, and then to a full-scale business- helping people all along the way.

Rebecca Smith made herself a diaper bag, posting the images on Facebook; she was very unaware of what an impact those images going public would have. She received many compliments suggesting and inspiring her to start an Etsy shop selling these bags. The shop is called Better Life Bags, in reference to 10% of profits being donated to people in third world countries helping them start their own businesses. The bags, in addition to being practical and cute, allow the customer to pick from a wide variety of fabrics and leathers letting one totally customize the accessory.

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BLB allows you to chooses the leather and fabric colors to create a bag perfectly matching your style. [via]

When a well-known blogger, and then her  many followers, saw the brilliance of this customization and pinned one of her bags, orders flooded in. The number of orders far exceeded what Rachel’s one-woman operation could fill.  Faced with the decision to either quit the business or expand, she rejected the idea of moving production overseas reaching out instead to women in her neighborhood. Smith lives in a neighborhood swirling with diversity and filled with women who have “various barriers to employment,” whether they be cultural or religious. A neighbor from Yemen, Nadia, who is unable to leave her home to work, became Rachel’s first employee. As the business has grown, Rachel has been able to hire many other local women allowing them to provide simple necessities like food and furniture for their families.

These charming bags with cute, customizable colors & choice craftsmanship really live up to their name. Not only will they make your life better, they help Rachel Smith employee those in her community with barriers to employment.

Are You Thinking of the Children?

Alain Nteff was, and he was thinking about the mothers too when he created his lifesaving app Gifted Mom.

In 2012, at a twenty years of age, Alain Nteff visited a rural hospital to see his friend Conrad Tankou at a medical practice. At this hospital, Nteff was shocked to learn about the high number of deaths of both mothers and children during the process of birth. Many of these tragedies would be preventable with proper antenatal care. Both Nteff and Tankou set out to see how they could to minimize this affliction in their community.

“The problem of maternal and infant death is not a woman issue — it’s a humanitarian issue. Everybody should take seriously. We all have mothers, we all have sisters, and it’s not just a problem for women or girls.” – Alain Nteff

Nteff and Tankou’s part in solving this problem is an app called Gifted Mom. Gifted Mom offers the following services to women in Cameroon and Nigeria:

– Weekly Antenatal care guide and notifications for pregnant women.
– Vaccination guide and notifications for mothers with children under 5 years.
– Breastfeeding guide for mothers and Career Women.
– Pregnancy Calculator for calculating the expected date of delivery.
– Guide for first time pregnancy and teenage mothers
– Send your concerns to a Doctor and get instant reply.
– Journal your journey

This is a free app and the information it offers is crucial in minimizing unnecessary deaths of mothers and children. If moms have a question, all they have to do is text it to Gifted Mom and they will receive immediate, reliable information. This app also tracks vaccinations in an effort to minimize the 4,000 deaths babies suffer from vaccine-preventable diseases. So far 13,300 mothers and children have been registered through this app. That day trip to the hospital turned into a project that’s give life and hope to many.

It’s Really Quite Pinteresting

Co-founded in 2010, Pinterest is a relatively new company that revolutionized the discovery aspect of social media. With 176 million registered users, it’s clear that millennial founders Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp, and Paul Sciarra (aka Cold Brew Labs) had a stellar idea in the concept of Pinterest.

Pinterest is a visually-driven website that allows users to collect and sort ideas, articles, pictures, and other inspirations. Every “pin” is a photo, and if you like what you see, you can double click to see the pin’s origin or click the repin button to save it to one of your boards. It’s like a virtual scrapbook or file folder- but beautifully designed and much simpler. Additionally, users can add their own content to the site to share their own ideas and work.

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This wildly successful site was the phoenix that rose out of the founder’s previous app failure, Tote. Part of the reason Tote failed was people hadn’t really begun shopping through apps yet; the main way people used the app was to send product images to themselves. They were image collecting. The recognition of this behavioral trend was the key for Cold Brew Labs’ next innovation. They took this new insight and transferred it over to the web to avoid one of the big potholes Tote had, and voila, Pinterest was born. Its monstrous success is a testament to what can happen when failure is looked at as a learning experience rather than defeat.

Although some have call Pinterest’s CEO somewhat “socially awkward,” it’s clear that his creation is a work of social genius.

[Read more about Pinterest’s origins on Business Insider!]

IdeaPaint

Whilst looking for a way to be able to brainstorm on the walls of his dorm, John Goscha stumbled upon the concept for IdeaPaint, a product that turns any surface into a dry erase board. Through the help of several partners and friends and over the span of four years, IdeaPaint came into commercial existence and revolutionized the process of innovation.

IdeaPaint sells dry erase paint in both clear and white colors, as well as their product PULL, which is a magnetic wall covering that combines with the dry erase paint. The truly unique thing about the paint is it allows you to turn anything into a dry erase board; we’re talking table, doors, and even a camper!

Customers from all over are having IdeaPaint products infused into their offices, businesses, and even their homes. Wayfair, an online home furnishing company, has featured this innovative creation in some of their design creations. TED even had an IdeaPaint coated wall at their 2015 Vancouver Convention Center. It was a prominent place for the TEDsters to collaborate, reflect, and add to artist Cascio’s designs.

IdeaPaint calls their product “the ultimate idea tool” and they hope that they can be a part of their customer’s best ideas. Their innovations are centered around the idea of helping others be innovative, and that’s pretty neat.

Warby Parker

When picking a product, I often hear people toss around the words “fashion” and “function” to describe their purchasing priorities. For me, there’s a third category that warrants equal consideration: the fiscal element. Luckily, one brand that has a tremendous impact of my life discovered how to ace every single one of these divisions. Warby Parker literally affects how I see the world. Yes, literally- not figuratively. They are an eyewear brand whose goal is to provide modish, high-quality eyesight for significantly less than other brands and to impact the world positively while doing it. 

The problem that commenced the creation of this company was the outrageously high price of a crucial product: glasses. The co-CEOs discovered this issue when one of them lost his frames while backpacking, and due to the (previously) expensive nature of the product, had to complete his first semester of grad school in the haze bad vision creates [see the rest of the story here]. They identified that one company had a monopoly on the industry and was creating, “artificially high prices” for the public’s only option. Solving this problem, the team now offers designer eyewear at substantially lower prices whilst simultaneously providing eyewear for those in need with every purchase. Their process is a win for the customer, a win for those in need of eyewear, and- through the buzz it’s created- a win for the company.

Although their number of stores is increasing, online is still a large contributor to Warby Parker’s sales. Glasses, which must be looked at in correlation to each individual’s face, are difficult to pick without having them there in front of you. Warby has two ways to workaround this. The first is a virtual try-on system where you upload a photo and and get to see the glasses on you virtually. The second is Warby offers their customers (and even just potential customers) a service where they send five frames to your home to try them on in person. These innovative methods make online glasses shopping possible and a highly-effective alternative if there isn’t a Warby store near you.

Another key elements of their brand is the atmosphere and community they’ve built. Everything about the brand, whether it be their packaging, website, store, or social media feeds portrays a unique blend of hipness and innovation. The are frequently community events, such as button making parties and concert series, hosted in their quaint and quirky storefronts. It’s very obvious Warby Parker thinks that fun should be a part of the glasses buying process, and honestly, the promotion they do of these events makes me want to be best friends with every single one of their employees. And the community! When I see people in Warby frames I can’t asking about them which without fail has always led to a pleasant, friendly conversation. This cool company has a lot of cool customers.

The best part about Warby Parker’s is that they wrap up fashion, function, social consciousness, and fun, into one neat looking and fiscally-responsible package. What more could a girl with poor eyesight ask for?

 

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Livelihood

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another exciting episode of  “Young Entrepreneurs who know what’s up.”

Today’s episode will be featuring Arthur Kay, the innovative noggin that founded Bio-Bean. You see, young Kay was developing a coffee bean roasting plant at his college that was powered by the school’s waste disposal system, when all of the sudden, a (metaphorical) light bulb shattered agains his cranium. Kay realized that coffee shops produce an exorbitant amount of wasted grounds (especially when you’re in the UK, mate), so he devised a system where he would cycle around the shops, collect their grounds, and convert them into biodiesel and biomass pellets which would then be sold to transport and heating industries. It’s all in his daily grind. That’s the sort of idea that causes young entrepreneurs to beat their heads against a wall in envy and frustration.

Kay gained a large amount of funded euros (I don’t know how they convert and you probably don’t either, so we’ll just leave it at “a large amount”) by snagging first place in a 2013 British pitch competition. One could say that he is good at…espressing himself (that wasn’t funny). And he beans business. Since its birth, Bio-Bean has gained a latte of outside funding and support from various large British business. Kay’s natural energy company is on a roll and will surely remain above grounds in the projected future.

This just goes to show that eco-friendly business ideas in this day in age make the general public (as well as investors) go nuts. They won’t be able to stop themselves from throwing fistfuls of money at you. As we continue to convert our planet into an industrial garbage dump year by year, anything eco-friendly seems like a glass of water in the desert. It would seem that we as a society have figured out how to operate efficiently with technology, but not yet in a way that’s mindful of the world inhabit.