Author Archive for brakmg22

Emma Chamberlain

Posted by brakmg22 
· Sunday, November 20th, 2022 
· 3 Comments

Emma Chamberlain is a name that most people are familiar with if they’ve watched videos on the platform of Youtube. She’s an influencer who began her career on Youtube at only 16 years old. An easily relatable high school student, her quirky editing and honest documentation of her life took off in a way that I’m sure she never imagined it would. The fact that she was so honest and open with her life drew a lot of people to her videos, and she proceeded to gain many subscribers. Currently, Emma’s channel boasts 11.9 million subscribers. She used to post frequently, but since her evolution from an influencer to the fashion world’s darling (plus other pursuits), she’s taken to posting perhaps once or twice a month. Of course, she participates on other channels for their content. For example, she recently gave a house tour on Architectural Digest which racked up 7.2 million views. 

Today, she is an ambassador of Louis Vuitton and has attended Paris Fashion Week three times. She was also invited to the Met Gala as a host for Vogue. If some people don’t recognize Emma’s name attached to fashion, they may recognize it attached to coffee. She began her own coffee brand, Chamberlain Coffee, which is committed to giving customers organic, delicious, sustainable coffee in 2019. Her podcast, Anything Goes, began in 2019 as well, in which Emma discusses anything and everything on her mind as the name might suggest. 

There has been backlash about Emma and other influencers being invited to what used to be considered “elite events”. In an interview with V magazine, Emma said this about the changing definition of celebrity and what that could mean for the fashion world: “In a sense, the fashion world itself has been around forever and influencers and digital celebrities are very new and haven’t necessarily earned their stripes yet … I understand that kind of discomfort from people who have been into fashion since they were younger (where) maybe it was before this was all a thing and seeing digital influencers come in feels wrong. At the same time, the world of fashion and fame has to evolve in order for it to grow, so this is a natural part of that and it only makes sense.”

Again, this age of media and her soaring success proves that pretty much anyone is capable of doing great things and achieving unthinkable accomplishments if they just put themselves out there. It may seem difficult to think of influencers as typical entrepreneurs, but they are really just investing in themselves as a business. Some do go on to start more normal types of businesses with the platform of followers that they have built. 

From a normal high school teenager to walking red carpets, Emma has broken past the typical influencer timeline. Many influencers peak in their careers and face a steady decline. They get invited to less events, make less money, and go viral less often as the viewers move on to the next big thing. Emma chose to go big or go home, branching out as far as she can. It took her far, and as she begins to become more comfortable in the elite fashion world, I can see her carving out a unique niche for herself as a self-made influencer to celebrity.

 

articles:

https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/b-side/why-is-emma-chamberlain-the-new-face-of-fashion/

https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/emma-chamberlain#:~:text=Emma%20Chamberlain%20is%20a%20content,and%2011.8%20million%20Youtube%20subscribers.

https://thehowler.org/16265/category-5/the-evolution-of-emma-chamberlains-success/

 

chamberlain coffee:

https://chamberlaincoffee.com/pages/about

 

Emma’s Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@emmachamberlain

3 Comments
Categories : Content Entrepreneurs, Fashion, Teen Entrepreneurs, YouTube

Eitan Bernath

Posted by brakmg22 
· Thursday, November 10th, 2022 
· 2 Comments

This young entrepreneur’s fame began at an early age, but truly started to take off after participating in the famous cooking shows of “Chopped” (at 11 years old) and “Guy’s Grocery Games.” Food and cooking tools is what his life has revolved around since he was young. Eitan Bernath started producing content at 12 years old and has yet to slow down since. He took this love of culinary items and used his passion to spark the start of his own entertainment company, Eitan Productions about 7 years ago. 

Amazingly enough, he’s only 20 as of this year. Named to Forbes’ 30 under 30, Eitan also has a large base of followers on various forms of social media and produces ”food and lifestyle content for more than 5 million social media followers,” according to the Columbian. He has also launched his own cookbook called “Eitan Eats the World this year.” Eitan commented on the wide range of recipes and foods in his book by saying ““Knowledge is power and knowledge is so important. The more you learn about the world around you, the better you can be an informed and kind citizen for the world.” He wanted to insert originality into his cookbook, but had hesitations. In today’s society, it’s hard to create something that someone hasn’t already. In fact, I’m sure many people across the world would argue that there is only what has been created before being reused in slightly different ways. He took basic recipes and some of his favorite recipes from different cultures and combined them to make something ingenious, tasty, and new.  

Eitan, despite many people’s objections, calls himself a chef. He doesn’t need to work in a restaurant to call himself such. “I think a chef is someone who earns money cooking, who works in the kitchen,” he says. “I think at the end of the day, whatever you want to call what I do, whether chef or not, the world is changing.”

I find it amazing that he had one singular passion and decided to go a different route than simply just becoming a chef in a restaurant. He’s exploring the boundaries of what it actually means to be called a “chef.” By utilizing social media platforms, he’s taking advantage of what has been seeming to work for so many other young entrepreneurs and displaying something new on it. 

 

Check out his website here: https://www.eitanbernath.com/2022/10/21/spiced-carrot-cake-with-whipped-honey/

 

The Columbian article:

https://www.columbian.com/news/2022/jun/15/food-star-eitan-bernath-leans-into-world-culture/

 

Forbes article:

https://www.forbes.com/30-under-30/2022/food-drink?profile=eitan-bernath

2 Comments
Categories : Business::Entrepreneurs, Cooking, Food

Zepto

Posted by brakmg22 
· Thursday, October 13th, 2022 
· 4 Comments

Zepto is an Indian company founded by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra. Just like every student who graduated in 2020, they had looked forward to their graduation, but COVID-19 had other plans. Since Stanford had gone completely online, the two of them stayed in their respective homes in India and had a significant amount of time to just think. Grocery shopping, as I’m sure populations across the globe would agree, had become more difficult with the onset of rules that came with the pandemic. A lot of India’s grocery-store apps were lacking, providing neither speedy delivery or accurate deliveries, and the two realized that they could create something better. Zepto is an app that promises groceries that are delivered in 10 minutes or less. According to Forbes, “Today, their company, Zepto, which is just under two years old, delivers hundreds of thousands of orders per day; generates several hundred million dollars in annual revenue; and has raised over $360 million in funding from investors like YC Continuity, Contrary Capital, Glade Brook Capital Partners, and Lachy Groom, most recently a Series D that values the company at over $900 million.”

India is obviously a very dense and chaotic place which makes time extremely variable. The edge over other companies comes from the condensed time within the dark store, from packing to checkout. In the Forbes article they were able to interview Aadit who said, “On the software side, we built things like a navigation system for packers to find the most ideal path inside the dark store; a scanning system to give packers the ability to scan and automatically verify items; a color-coded system on riders’ devices so that they can match their orders faster during the handshake process between packer and rider instead of looking at an order ID.On the operational side, it comes down to the way we designed racks, chillers, freezers, and handover stations. Even the way we designed the SKU maps takes into account having the fastest-moving products near the exit. Everything is built for maximum speed efficiency.”

Similar to what we have discussed in class, the idea of a quick online grocery-shopping app already existed. The two simply took the structure that already existed and improved upon it. They took the time that many deemed unfortunate and transformed prior prototypes into something extremely profitable. Zepto will most likely be making billions of dollars in revenue within the next 1-5 years, according to Aadit. They started small, and now they are scaling their business 3-5x. It really makes one think and look around for the next thing that might need improved upon. This was something that was made necessary by the pandemic, and they filled that need. It’s as simple as that. 

 

Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenli1/2022/10/10/they-raised-360-million-after-dropping-out-of-stanford-and-built-a-grocery-delivery-app-now-worth-900-million/?sh=f7a4aae3e7d9

Zepto website: https://www.zeptonow.com/

 

4 Comments
Categories : Business::Entrepreneurs, Covid-19, delivery

Lirika Matoshi

Posted by brakmg22 
· Friday, September 30th, 2022 
· 4 Comments

Most people who have Tiktok or any form of social media remember “The Strawberry Dress” that took the internet by storm in 2020. It almost seems strange how such a fanciful dress became so sought after and coveted in a time where no one was going out and wearing beautiful clothes. Despite the hardships that quarantine brought, this fairly expensive dress became the best-selling item in Lirika Matoshi’s collection. Women who were software engineers, stay-at-home mothers, nurses, young teenage girls in high school all agreed that the dress was absolutely beautiful, bringing to mind the Tiktok concept “cottage-core,” more easily defined as rural bliss (which was how Vogue described it). “Most of my designs are inspired by my childhood. I feel like the things that make me feel better are the strawberries, the dress, the gowns, nature in general,” Matoshi said about the nostalgic feel the dress evoked. This dress was not practical by any means and there were very few places to which people could wear it in which the dress would make sense…but that didn’t stop the mass excitement over this gorgeous “princess” dress. 

Lirika Matoshi, originally from Kosova, is only 26 years old. A self-taught designer without any formal fashion school training, she learned to make everything she has from her sister, designer Teuta Matoshi. She began with making accessories when she was only 20 and made the courageous leap of moving to New York. Since then, she has only expanded her line of accessories and clothes. In 2020, her business took off with the Strawberry Dress. Now, she outfits numerous influencers and celebrities and her label has a following of almost one million. With her significant platform and accomplishments, she has been added to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. The emergence of social media has been able to push designers and artists to become huge names among influencers who have so much sway over young consumers. As a self-taught artist myself, I’m glad to see that the possibilities truly are endless and the algorithms of social media platforms may be the answer to success. Anyone can put themselves out there. All it takes is one post, one dress for something to take off. 

 

Vogue article: https://www.vogue.com/article/strawberry-dress-lirika-matoshi-popular

Lirika Matoshi’s Strawberry Dress: https://lirikamatoshi.com/products/strawberry-midi-dress

Lirika Matoshi’s website: https://lirikamatoshi.com/

 

 

4 Comments
Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Art, Design, Entrepreneurship, Fashion, Uncategorized

Zach King – The Digital Illusionist

Posted by brakmg22 
· Saturday, September 17th, 2022 
· 2 Comments

Zach King is a well-known media content-creator who began with Vine and then expanded to Youtube and Tiktok as his content began to take off. He is now one of the most followed influencers on the platform of Tiktok. Zach was a filmmaker whose interest in film was sparked when he was 7 years old. His love for creating videos followed him his entire life and didn’t stop when he was denied acceptance to film school at Biola University. Most people would have given up at that point and have believed that was a sign to pursue something else in life. While he did enroll at Biola as a general student, he turned instead to social media to show his videos. Originally, he had sold film editing tips under a different name than he has now, but he began to grow exponentially from there. He won $35,000 from Youtube’s Nextup Creators contest way back in 2011. Advertisements were a big part of how he made his money. King is most well known for his comedic, magical videos that he says function as a “digital sleight of hand.” It takes 25 people to accomplish his videos today, although he had to do a lot of his content by himself during the pandemic. He said that he found his success because: “We’re on the top charts right now on TikTok and our stuff is really different. Hopefully that shows others that you can be really successful, and at the top, by doing something totally left field. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing. In fact, that’s where people are going to find their strength: By figuring out their niche and really owning it.”

I can’t help but agree with that. Following along with the trends and staying within one’s comfort zone might eventually grow a following, but they will only become a micro-influencer, just like so many others who also replicate trends. Doing something different and innovative, utilizing the unique talents that one might possess might be the ticket to success. Instead of being just one of the dime-a-dozen, standing out like Zach King did could lead to unimaginable success. 

 

Zach King: https://zachking.store/pages/about

Insider article: https://www.insider.com/zach-king-explained-tiktok-star-vine-youtuber-2021-8

top videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KDmnwOmtQc

 

2 Comments
Categories : Celebrities, Comedy, Content Entrepreneurs, Design, Film

Jack Bloomfield – a self made millionaire

Posted by brakmg22 
· Saturday, September 17th, 2022 
· 1 Comment

Jack Bloomfield is a self-made millionaire who started a company called Disputify when he was 17 years old. Originally, he ran a smaller business that involved him buying and reselling gift cards. Today he is twenty years old and has raised about 2.25 millions dollars for his disruptive e-commerce fraud detection tool, not to mention the youngest member of the Australian Institution of Company Directors. Most of his team are actually about double his age. There are only about 3 others currently, but he plans on expanding as he continues on this path. He was an e-commerce merchant who “struggled with customer trust” and started Disputify as a way to protect against return abuse. Unfortunately, as seen with his prior business, people were trying to scam him with fake refunds and he realized that it was the same people every time. “We’d spent thousands of dollars on credit card fraud solutions, but these people were using their own details. There are refund forums with thousands of people who talk about merchants that are easiest to rip off.” According to the US National Retail Foundation, these fraudulent refunds cost the United States about $25.3 billion. With his tool, merchants no longer have to fear fraudulent refunds and customers no longer have to be punished for the selfish actions of those who would take advantage of trusting businesses. Behavior patterns are tracked during the transaction of the original person and also when any person requests a refund. Merchants are then notified of any suspicious patterns that might arise. If someone had established a “habit” of buying the wrong size, Disputify also alerts the merchant to talk with this person in order to make sure they do in fact buy the correct size. He wanted to make sure people felt confident and comfortable whenever they shop. Bloomfield even came up with a new product (instant refunds) to reward faithful and proven trustworthy shoppers. 

This young entrepreneur inspires me because he began at such a young age and has grown to astounding heights within only a couple of years. He saw a problem, knew he had a solution, and didn’t stop to think about things that could be obstacles. He just kept pushing forward. He refused to let his age become a boundary that stopped him from pursuing this evidently lucrative venture. I hope that I also take risks and push ahead like he does in whatever journey I choose to take next. “What if” is a powerful question. It is better to just ask than think about what could have been. 

 

jack bloomfield: https://www.jackbloomfield.com.au/motivate

disputify: https://www.disputify.com/about-disputify

the financial review on Jack Bloomfield: https://www.afr.com/technology/blackbird-bigcommerce-founder-back-brisbane-20-year-old-s-start-up-20220520-p5an3c

 

1 Comment
Categories : eCommerce, Entrepreneurship