Amy Mucha began her caking pop adventure in 2011 when her mother-in-law bought her a cake pop book. It all began with a Koala cake pop, which transpired into making cake pops for friends and family as a fun hobby.

It wasn’t until 2016 that this hobby was resurrected. Amy needed preschool teacher gifts, and her cake pops turned out to be a big hit with her friends. Upon their suggestion, she started selling her cake pops. In 2018, she created the Daisy Pops social media page and logo. However, at this point, she was still teaching and cake popping was only used as a small side job.

Covid year in 2020 helped her to move on to full-time cake-popping. The individually wrapped deserts became popular due to protocols and health risks of the Covid season. And due to virtual learning, Amy’s decision to retire became easier. In 2021 she retired from full-time teaching and transitioned to full-time cake popping.

In 2023, Amy opened the Daisy Pops store in Kent Ohio. She is now shipping internationally.

She is being innovative by focusing soley on selling cake pops. Many stores sell cake pops, but few stores focus on it. This gives her leverage because she has numerous exciting flavors, not just chooclate and vanilla. She also transofrmed the look of the cake pop to look flatter as opposed to rounded.

Being able to follow Amy’s expansion year by year, it was cool to see her continually get bigger and be more innovative. I love her story and her creativity. For example, she has a “PopCycle” which is a bike that can go indoors and outdoors for vending purposes. The PopCycle is a great way to make heads turn and get attention, since its a unique idea. Even the name “DaisyPops” is intruguing and fun. Named after her youngest daughter, the name offers a cute story. The logo is fun and welcoming.

A bee sting sting is what started it all for young entrepreneur, Mikaila Almer. She was just four years old when she started her little lemonade business.

After being stung by a bee twice, she began to research bees and became intrigued by their important role in the ecosystem.

Coincidentally, she was encouraged to make a product for the Acton Children’s Business Fair and Austin Lemonade Day. She was inspired by her great grandmothers 1940’s cookbook in which she discovered a recipe for flaxseed lemonade. She came up with the idea of incorporating her interest in bees and her grandmother’s unique lemonade recipe. Instead of sugar, she tried adding honey.

She began selling her lemonade at young entrepreneur events and out of a stand outside her home. By donating a percentage of the profits to a local organization to help save the bees, she came up with the mantra, “Buy a bottle, save a bee.” Eventually, her lemonade was bottled and sold in stores.

Her business started in Austin Texas and eventually reached major grocery stores around the nation, including Whole Foods Market and World Market.

Mikaila’s story is very inspiring. She used her curiousity at such a young age to come up with something unique and special. She used her new interest in bees and paired it with a sentimental recipe to create something unique.

As an entrepresnuer, I think she was sucsessful from the beginning because of her boldness. She was willing to not only enter the competitions but she began to sell her lemonade outside her home and in grocery stores. She also was on sharktank, which is no easy task.

From Mikailia, I have learned how to incorporate meaningful things and create something unique. Consumers love her lemonade because it offers something different and because of the story behind her prouduct.

Lily Born’s idea of a three-legged cup was created to help her grandfather with Parkinson’s disease. She noticed that he often accidentally tipped over his drinking cup and made a mess that her grandmother would have to clean. At age 8, she thought of coming up with a solution to this problem. She wanted to create something more stable that wouldn’t tip over as easily as a regular cup.

Lily sketched out several ideas for a spill-proof cup. She eventually settled upon a design with 3 equal-sized legs. Thus, the “Kangaroo Cup” was created; the name refers to how a kangaroo uses its tail like a third leg for stability.

With a little help from her dad, the first Kangaroo Cup, made of ceramic and made in China, was introduced on the market. About 2,000 cermaic Kangaroo Cups were sold.

Now, the Kangaroo Cup is sold as a plastic cup sold in the US. The new plastic design allows the cups to be stacked and prevents the use of a coaster due to its elevated base.

Lily received the Young Wonder Award in 2014 and participated in the White House Science Fair in 2015.

Lily is a great innovator because she saw a problem that no one else saw. She was not only observant enough to recongnize that there was a problem, but she set out on a journey to solve it before anyone else did. She took a risk. This is inspiring to me because at such a young age she was patient in the process of coming up with a solution. She sketched out ideas and went through a series of changes and drafts before the final product was established. She takes a pre-existing product and modifies it for individuals who need something more stable to hold their drinks.

Her store reminds me to be patient in the design process.

Cassidy Crowley created “The Baby Toon” for an elementary school science fair project. At the age of 7, she scoured her home in search of a problem she could solve. She noticed that her baby sister Emily always played with her spoon. Her mom was always worried that Emily might hurt herself with the spoon because of its long-ended handle. She noticed that the design of a long-handled spoon was not ideal for babies, as they could scratch the inside of their mouth or throat. Due to her care and concern for her little sister, she set out to change the design of a regular spoon and make it more suitable for infants.

Her new design eliminates the traditional design of a regular spoon and can also be used as a teether. Due to the rectangular shape, babies can easily feed themselves. The Baby Toon is made out of 100% soft silicone, making it gentle on babies teeth and gums. As an added bonus, it can also be attatched to a pacifier clip to prevent babies from throwing their spoon on the ground.

Cassidy’s idea is great because she transformed the design of something that seemed set in stone. Nobody had ever thought to change the design of a traditional spoon. Her idea is also great because it serves as both a spoon and teether, giving consumers more for what they pay for.

Cassidy demonstrates innovation, risk taking, and motivation. One of the most important traits she demonstraits is curiousity, without it she would have never came up with such a thoughtful design. Her appearance on Shark Tank at the age of 7 shows her confidence and persistance that her design was something worth sharing with the world.

Cassidy gives me the courage to think outside the box and reminds me not to ignore everyday problems I see.

Moziah Bridges’ is unique because he started his business at such a young age. He wasn’t afraid of failing; he knew other people liked his unique style and wanted to make it available to everyone. He first started wearing bow ties to be like his dad. However, he struggled to find bow ties that fit his own style. He wanted something different than what was offered on the market, so he acted on this dissatisfaction. In this way, he created something new and exciting for others who shared in this dissatisfaction with boring bow ties. His idea is great because he invites a new group of people into a style trend. Younger kids can now wear bow ties because Mo’s Bows offers fun colors and patterns that attract a younger audience. Bridges demonstrates taking risk through learning how to sew and creating his own website. He demonstrates innovation through coming up with an idea new to the market. He innovates the bow tie business by putting a new spin on something already created. Bow ties were once rigid in design, but Bridges introduces a new bow tie that is fun, exciting and eye catching.

Bridges inspires me to be unique in my style. I love how he wanted to be like his dad in wearing bow ties- but he didn’t forsake his own style. He wanted soemthing to match his personality and preferences while following after his dad. He wasn’t afraid to be different and created his own trend that other people admired. I have learned through his story to be creative with my own style trends. To wear things that I like, without thinking about other peoples opinions. He also taught me to not be afraid of failure. He had a great idea; he didnt know if it would work, but he went for it anyway and saw the benefits.

Hart Main had a unique idea because he utilized his perspective as a male looking at a product that was innocently and discretely centered around female consumers.  Main’s drive emerged from his desire for a new bike, forcing him to devise a creative way to raise the money. His idea was great because he was able to look at a product through a different lens. If he did not appreciate the feminine-scented candles, certainly other guys had the same problem too. Thus, he solves a problem. He gives men a way to enjoy candles in scents they can relate to and enjoy. He saw the problem of too many feminine-scented candles and acted on it before anyone else did. Main demonstrates innovation in coming up with a new idea unheard of. He demonstrates creativity through the name of the brand (ManCan) and the packaging (In a soup can). This creative touch draws people in through humor and cleverness. He also demonstrates risk-taking by using his own money to buy supplies and experimenting with scents in his home. He didn’t know if people would like his product or scents, but he tried and experimented with the idea anyway. He is innovating by using an already invented product and transforming it into a new product suitable for a different group of people. He also expanded the idea for females as well, only making a small change to the title (SheCan) and creating a different variation of scents. Hart Main inspires me to question products that are tried and true, yet have components missing that people overlook.  Through his story, I have learned how to be more adventerous and experimental. His story also taught me how to capitilize on things that I personally dislike, because chances are people deal with the same frustrations.