Author Archive for HeiserKW17

Brennan Agranoff – HoopSwagg

Posted by HeiserKW17 
· Thursday, November 29th, 2018 
· 2 Comments

Brennan Agranoff had always loved basketball and when the Nike Elite basketball socks were on the rise in 2013, he was disappointed at the lack of variety in the apparel. The socks all came in muted tones that didn’t stand out, and Brennan wanted to stand out on the court. People do it all the time with shoes, why not with socks? Searching for the types of socks he wanted proved fruitless after Brennan saw that they would cost upwards of $40 a pair. After noticing this issue, the 13-year-old endeavored to create customized socks that wouldn’t break the bank while still providing the wearer with a vibrant style. He spent almost a full year researching the printing process and the technology required to digitally print designs on socks. Following a $3,000 investment from his parents, Brennan created HoopSwagg – a brand dedicated to providing cost-efficient, custom Nike socks. Premade designs they sell on their website include those of colleges, sports teams, food, video games, and others. Most socks on their site go for about $15, which is the exact same price as a regular pair of the Nike basketball socks the company was originally founded around.

It has been five years since Brennan launched his business. In that time, the company sells over 700 unique sock designs after the purchase of a competitor’s brand and is on track to finish 2018 having made $1.6 million in revenue. Brennan taught himself coding and graphic design, enabling him to run his company’s website. His family has built a massive warehouse on their property for production purposes and they typically ship out around 100 orders per day. Brennan recently decided to forego college for now in order to focus on his company, having just started a second brand that prints socks featuring customer’s pets. This is a move Brennan wants to make in the future for HoopSwagg itself in allowing customers to customize their own socks rather than choosing from premade designs. Within the next few years, he wants to be a brand that is sold in retail stores rather than just online, with a larger variety of customizable apparel such as ties and shoelaces.

Brennan Agranoff’s success is especially remarkable considering that he has never taken a business class and is the company’s only graphic designer despite being colorblind. He says that his business savvy comes from buying things at yard sales and reselling them online, something he has done since he was eight years old. In his own words, “Especially today, with all the information available on the internet, you can’t be too young to learn how to be an entrepreneur.”

2 Comments
Categories : Uncategorized

Robert Nay and Bubble Ball

Posted by HeiserKW17 
· Thursday, November 8th, 2018 
· 2 Comments


One of the most explosively popular iPhone apps in the last decade was developed by a 14-year-old. That’s right, a 14-year-old. An eighth grader from Utah, Robert Nay, created Bubble Ball in 2010, pouring hours of time and thousands of lines of code into what would become an extremely popular physics-based iOS game in which players must manipulate a course to navigate a ball to the end. Nay, an avid math student and video gamer, said that he just took ideas from his favorite games at the time and combined them into one concept. In the first week of being on the App Store, Bubble Ball surpassed 1 million total downloads and quickly overtook Angry Birds as the most downloaded game on the App Store charts.

This incredible rise did not come without some prior programming experience. Nay taught himself how to program in third grade and created his first website shortly after. In middle school, a friend suggested to him that he learn how to code games for an iPod Touch. From there, Robert learned how to use an app development program called Corona, the program he used to create Bubble Ball all by himself. However, Robert himself claims he wasn’t necessarily naturally gifted in programming and learning to code, saying there were times where he seriously questioned his ability to make a working app. However, he pressed on and was able to complete a project that became extremely popular. Since then, Nay Games has released a follow-up in Bubble Ball: Curiosity Addition, but has not released any other games. Bubble Ball is still available on the App Store today. Robert Nay’s drive to see his idea through despite his personal doubts is an example to other entrepreneurs who may encounter similar doubts to continue on and trust in their own abilities.

2 Comments
Categories : App, Smartphone, Video Games

Healthy Candy?

Posted by HeiserKW17 
· Saturday, October 13th, 2018 
· 2 Comments

What if there was candy that was good for you? This question came to Alina Morse, the 12-year-old founder of Zollipops – a candy company that makes products designed to promote the health of your teeth rather than harm them. Alina got her start when she raised the question of healthy candy to her father, who encouraged her to do further research. After consulting with dental hygienists and candy manufacturers, Alina developed a lollipop with natural sweeteners such as xylitol and erythritol which allowed her candy to be sweet without being harmful to teeth. These sweeteners as well as other natural substances affect the pH of the mouth in such a way that bacteria and plaque are unable to form on the surface of teeth, promoting healthy teeth and gums.

After further input from her allergenic friends, Alina went to market with lollipops that were advertised as “sugar-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, and naturally colored.” Morse was then invited to pitch to the investors on Shark Tank, signing an NDA on the terms of any deal she may have signed.

In just a few years, Zollipops have sold over $2 million in healthy candy, expanding their product line to include other items such as taffy. 10% of the profits are donated to oral healthcare education, keeping with the mission of the company to promote healthy smiles nationwide. In recent days, Alina has been working on expanding the product line further but is remembering to stop and enjoy her success.

2 Comments
Categories : Food, Shark Tank, Youngest Entrepreneurs

Eliminating the Need for Plastic in the Bathroom

Posted by HeiserKW17 
· Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018 
· 3 Comments


In recent years, environmental concerns have come to the forefront of many industries. Such concerns arose for 14-year-old Benjamin Stern when he watched a documentary about the plastic-bottling industry and its effects on the environment. Stern saw that a great deal of the plastic used in bathroom products is not recycled and rather thrown into the garbage – a great ecological cost when the nonbiodegradable plastic finds its way to a landfill.

Stern began brainstorming ways to solve the issue of wasted plastic as it pertained to shampoos, conditioners, and other bathroom products. Combining this problem with the existence of soluble detergent pods, Benjamin had his solution. Within two years, Stern had developed a prototype for water-soluble pods containing shampoos and soaps, thus eliminating the need for plastic bottles in the bathroom. Seeing the simple, yet revolutionary nature of his idea inspired Stern to take it further. Personally calling cleaning companies such as Clorox with the desire for partnership did not produce fruit, but Stern did not give up. At age 16, Benjamin pitched his bath product company,Nohbo, on NBC’s Shark Tank, eventually closing a deal with Mark Cuban.

With the help of Cuban’s funds and mentorship, Stern was able to grow his company into a profitable, self-sustaining business. He cites his patience for his ideas to be fully realized as a major factor in his achievements. Stern waited for his solution to be well-developed before continuing and it afforded Nohbo a great deal of success.

3 Comments
Categories : Beauty, Business, Shark Tank

The Quick Rise of Martin Garrix

Posted by HeiserKW17 
· Monday, September 17th, 2018 
· 1 Comment


Martijn Garritsen, better known by his stage name Martin Garrix, has revolutionized the music industry in recent years, specifically the ways in which artists market themselves. In a period of three short years, Garrix went from an unknown DJ and producer to the #1 DJ in the world and a global icon.

Garrix’ career took off in 2013 when he released the club hit “Animals,” a single that jumped to the top of many dance and pop charts in Europe and America. Receiving over one billion views on YouTube to date, this track opened many doors in Garrix’ career, enabling him to work with major artists such as Ed Sheeran, Usher, Avicii, Khalid, and others. Propelling himself into the spotlight at the young age of seventeen allowed Garrix to market himself based on his youth in addition to the strength of his new collaborations. Furthermore, working with mainstream artists created more exposure than Garrix would have gotten from solely doing his live shows.

As he became more popular, Garrix began changing his style to incorporate more elements from pop music, broadening his audience in the process. He started his own record label – STMPD Records – just last year, the mission of the label being to help up and coming artists get their music heard. With a new record label, promised collaborations with more global artists, and his position secure at the top of DJ rankings across the world, Garrix shows no signs of slowing down. In bringing about change in the ways record labels market their younger artists and get them exposure, Martin Garrix transformed the music industry while simultaneously bringing dance music into the mainstream. These effects can be seen in recent years as younger artists are commonly receiving opportunities to collaborate with bigger artists because of the ways in which their management chooses to market their talents. Garrix’ raw talent and business savvy created the perfect storm as he experienced one of the quickest surges in popularity that the music world has ever seen.

1 Comment
Categories : Music
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