Ever since he could remember, Luke Gilligan was always an entrepreneur. From making lemonade stands to selling head rubs at family reunions, business was always in his back of his mind. When Luke was an eighth grader, he knew that he wanted to pursue entrepreneurship in some form or fashion, so he decided to attend a public school that allowed many opportunities and business classes. Surprisingly enough, it was his English class that inspired him to start his first business. That summer, Luke was lucky enough to attend the teenage Entrepreneurship academy which was an international entrepreneurship competition in Orange County, California. Over eight countries represented and he was one of 50 students that were allowed to participate. During this competition he learned how to run, start, and organize a business as well as compete in front of real investors for a chance of starting a business venture. Luke , was elected CEO of his team, and they were lucky enough to go on and win second in the competition. That summer gave him the knowledge, but also motivation to go and pursue his own business venture at home. Then when he attended freshman year of high school he was in a English class where the teacher showed a video of a young boy using his talents to help a local hospital in need. Luke has always been a crafty person and was truly inspired by this video. This is what started Huggable Happiness corporation. Luke knew that in Fishers, Indiana, there were not very many opportunities for teenagers like him to learn how to run a business. So, after forming a board and getting a few members involved Luke founded his first nonprofit called Huggable Happiness corporation. The mission of this corporation was to influence, inspire, and inform teenagers to make a tangible impact on society through philanthropic and entrepreneurial means. With Huggable Happiness Luke would teach kids how to use their talents and gifts and start programs that benefited the community in a charitable way period some of these projects included cuddly copies which were handsome pillow cases stuff with toys that were donated to local children’s hospitals and other projects such as Serving Impoverished Children in Indiana (S.I.C.I) which provided meals and lunches for underserved impoverished children that wouldn’t get them otherwise. This program became a large program which was soon adopted by the government of indiana. Once Luke turned 18, he decided to turn the nonprofit over to new leadership and pursue college in which he would study entrepreneurship at Grove City college. However, during this time Luke also ran a consulting company in which he was a technical editor and designer for many fashion companies designers including Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Tommy Hilfiger. He was also very involved in the handknitwear industry and was asked by Vogue and Vogue knitting to be in their magazines and also headline conferences, teaching many classes for them. Over the course of high school, Luke amassed over 200 clients and grew his technical editing company into a very profitable business. Wool Enthusiast company, has continued to grow and has started to focus on creating professional men’s knitwear patterns and designs. Luke is always looking for a new business opportunity, but currently he’s focusing on the fiber industry and growing his fan base. With around 2.5 thousand followers he has started to gain a name in the knitting industry and hopes to pursue that in the future.
www.woolenthusiast.com
I’ve seen a lot of entrepreneur stories where students dropped out of school to pursue their business startup. Aside from the amazing ventures you talked about, the fact that he worked for several different companies while studying is pretty awe inspiring to me. Also how he was in charge of so many things at such a young age. There are some talents you can’t teach and some that come natural and leadership and ambition are two of them.