Author Archive for abi.renee

Hannah Grace – Founder of BeaYOUtiful

Posted by abi.renee 
· Thursday, December 8th, 2022 
· 1 Comment

In 2016, young Hannah Grace was challenged by her dad to make her own beauty products. This challenge was brought up because Hannah was growing an interest in bath bombs and her dad encouraged her to make them herself. Right away, Hannah jumped on the opportunity to make her own. 

When Hannah Grace was 11 months old, she was diagnosed with Diabetes type 1. Her parents were worried about how she would grow up with her health issues, but they never stopped Hannah. She grew up to be a determined young girl and eventually became a CEO of her own company with her bath bomb-making skills. Now only 14, Hannah is doing whatever she sets her mind to and is still a successful young entrepreneur. 

1 Comment
Categories : Beauty, Entrepreneurship, Female Empowerment

Nathan Mroz – The BFLO Store founder

Posted by abi.renee 
· Monday, November 14th, 2022 
· 3 Comments

From a small photography business owner to the founder of the largest locally themed retailer in Western New York, Nathan Mroz has become quite the successful entrepreneur and was recently awarded the “2022 Buffalo District Young Entrepreneur of the Year U.S. Small Business Administration” award. 

This 28 year-old had humble beginnings. Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, Nathan made his first step towards being an entrepreneur through selling his award-winning photography in a kiosk at the Eastern Hills Mall in Western New York. In 2015 during Mroz’s senior year of college, the BFLO Store was launched in the same building where it all started – the Eastern Hills Mall. The following year he graduated from Buffalo State college with a bachelors in science. 

The BFLO Store had humble beginnings, but very quickly sprouted. After a few years, the business added another location in a larger mall in the Buffalo area, which had more traffic. In 2019, Mroz expanded his Eastern Hills location with a $2 million investment, which created the “BFLO District” and added new life to the dying mall. 

As of 2022, Mroz has 4 different locations in Buffalo, NY. These stores sell a host of different Buffalo themed items, such as apparel, home decor, gifts, and more. Despite the growing popularity, the business isn’t done growing. Mroz has more plans for the BFLO Store and will continue to invest in his business. 

 

Click here for more. 

3 Comments
Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Business, Business::Entrepreneurs, Clothing, Entrepreneurship

SAFETRIP

Posted by abi.renee 
· Tuesday, October 18th, 2022 
· 2 Comments

SAFETRIP is a wonderful app designed to book non-emergency and emergency medical transport for the elderly, veterans, homeless, and anyone else in need. Surprisingly, this revolutionary idea was co-founded by young engineer Langston Whitlock. 

At 12 years-old,  Langston was learning to code and fell in love with it. Eventually, Langston used his newfound knowledge to make an app to contact his absent father. With these skills, Langston was later brought on to the SAFETRIP team by Ja’Nese Jean. 

Ja’Nese Jean, a co-founder of SAFETRIP, birthed the idea when witnessing a homeless veteran not having access to healthcare or transportation. Knowing Langston’s skillset, she invited him to the developing team to collaborate together and make the revolutionary app come to life. 

This app allows its users to book emergency or non-emergency transportation. Vehicles include premium cars, vans, wheelchair accessible vehicles, and ambulances as needed. 

Since its creation, SAFETRIP has raised over 2 million dollars in funding because of Langston’s technology. Although it’s currently based in Georgia, the company hopes to soon expand into other parts of the country and make an even bigger impact. 

2 Comments
Categories : App, App development, Health, Programming, Teen Entrepreneurs, Transportation

Avi Schiffmann – Self-Taught Website Developer

Posted by abi.renee 
· Sunday, October 2nd, 2022 
· 2 Comments

No one could have predicted that there would be a need for his website, but now it has become an important website during the COVID-19 era. 

Avi Schiffmann is a 19-year-old high school student in Washington State, USA. He gained a spotlight in 2020 because of a website he developed on his own to track COVID-19 cases throughout the world. Just a few months later, Avi’s website was getting 30 million visitors each day, which added up to over 600 million visitors. 

When he was 17 years old, Avi was looking online for the COVID-19 case numbers online and all he could find was a slightly sketchy website in Chinese that he couldn’t understand. Because of this, Avi decided to create his own website which could display COVID-19 information in an unbiased and user-friendly way. With his experience with coding and website development that he taught himself, Avi was able to build the website and code it himself. 

The website was released in January 2020 and made it possible for millions of families to stay up to date on the condition of the world during those difficult times. 

The website shows a number of different types of numbers, including total confirmed cases, total of deaths, total recovered, and total vaccinated. The website also shows cases in each country and has a map to show data per country. The website is continually updated and shows accurate data. 

 

Click here to visit the website. 

2 Comments
Categories : Coding, Covid-19, Health, Websites

SoundMind – an App for a Better Future

Posted by abi.renee 
· Tuesday, September 27th, 2022 
· 1 Comment

In a world full of stressors and increasing anxiety, two students from the University of Southern California decided to address the situation in a new way. 

Brian Femminella and Travis Chen, the creators of SoundMind, were 20-years old when their idea was born. With extensive research on music therapy and neuroscience, these entrepreneurs created an app to aid in the fight with a multitude of mental disorders. The main goal of the company was to bring awareness to this rising issue, especially with the impacts of COVD-19 on mental health. Thus, the app was born. 

The app’s design is unique. Femminella and Chen use the power of binaural beats and soundscapes to help users deal with stress, anxiety, or trauma. The music has been developed specific to the app by different artists on the SoundMind team. The more you listen to the music, the more the app tailors the music choices to you. It keeps track of the music you find most relaxing and the AI sound recommendation remembers your choices. Since the app’s release, it has also shown that users sleep better, focus better, and feel less suicidal. This app has had an amazing impact so far. 

 

The SoundMind website highlights a few other benefits of using their app:

  • Health security and compliance
  • Analytics and Insights
  • Music customization 
  • Integrations
  • 24/7 support 
  • Rapid Response and Intervention

 

The integration feature allows you to link your SoundMind account to the Apple Health app so you can keep track of how you feel and your improvement. 

 

The brilliance of this app aligns with a lot of scientific research on our brains and how they react to music. If you constantly feel overwhelmed by your anxiety, this app can help calm your mind and help you refocus. If you are interested in trying out the app, you can go to their website to check it out.

 

https://www.soundmind.app/

1 Comment
Categories : App, mental health, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Music, Young Entrepreneur

Lily Born – A 7-year-old with a Desire for Innovation

Posted by abi.renee 
· Monday, September 26th, 2022 
· 3 Comments

Lily Born, founder of the Kangaroo Cup, was only seven-years-old when she had her initial idea for the business she now runs. Young Lily had a grandpa suffering from Parkinson’s disease. This disease attacks one’s central nervous system and causes muscle stiffness, difficulty with balance, and trembling hands, neck, and jaw. Lily noticed her grandpa’s issue with holding cups steady and felt bad for her grandma who always cleaned up after him whenever he spilled something. After noticing this, Lily decided to develop a cup that would stop the spillage. 

Over the next three years, Lily perfected her design. Lily and her father even traveled to China to inspect the company and materials her business would eventually use. At age ten, Lily was prepared to officially launch her company “Imagiroo”. Her company made a specialty cup called a “Kangaroo Cup” which featured a design with three legs to add stability. Her cups are made with ceramic and plastic and made in multiple colors. 

Lily Born has been able to sell ten of thousands of cups globally through her idea. She has gone on to win a multitude of different awards and has been recognized on many different platforms. This young girl is inspiring because she took a need she experienced first hand and made a solution herself. Her innovation is remarkable and she has the ability to impact the world with her solution. Not only was she able to help her grandpa, but she is now able to help others in similar situations. 

3 Comments
Categories : Cups, Engineering, Young Entrepreneur