This company, Gladiator Lacrosse, was founded by the then 13 year old entrepreneur named Rachel Ziets in 2012. Gladiator Lacrosse specializes in providing high quality lacrosse practice equipment with a strong attention to detail. They pride themselves in producing products that will improve a player’s lacrosse game, as well as withstand the outdoor conditions for an extended period of time.

The founder, Rachel Ziets, prides herself in being involved in the product details. Rachel is personally involved from the product concept to the selection of raw materials in equipment such as lacrosse rebounders and lacrosse goals. This idea came from her passion for the sport of lacrosse and her disappointment in the low-quality products that she was purchasing from other vendors, they either would not hold up to the weather or they were simply too expensive.

The company’s mission revolves around the players’ needs. They acknowledge that the players goals are to improve their game, and the company emphasized Rachel’s own frustration in the low-quality lacrosse products that are ont he market. Their website reads, “Not satisfied by the quality and cost of traditional back yard rebounders and goals that could not withstand the punishment that competitive lacrosse players deliver on their equipment as well as the outdoor effects from mother nature, our Founder designed our products which on average are over 20% stronger than our competitors.” Today, the company continues to have financial success, and the founder, Rachel Zietz, continues to use her love for the game to fuel her passion for the company.

Me & the Bees Lemonade is a company that uses natural ingredients such as flaxseed and local honey to create a fresh, clean lemonade that is sold in retailers such as Whole Foods and Wegmens. A portion of their profits from the lemonade goes to organizations that are dedicated to saving honeybees from extinction.

This company was founded by a girl named Mikaila at the age of 11. She combined two very unlikely things, her experience getting stung by bees and her Grandmother’s flaxseed lemonade recipe, to create her product and this business idea. She began researching honeybees and what they can do for our ecosystem, and she became determined to make an effort in saving them.

Mikaila continues to sell out of her Me & the Bees Lemonade product, and continues to make a difference in the efforts to save the bees. At the current age of 13, she leads workshops on how to save the honeybees as well as participates in social entrepreneurship panels. In addition, she launched her own Facebook page that contains different facts about bees, honey, and the company.

Years ago, when Noa Mintz was a twelve year-old girl living in Manhattan, she decided to create a fun and engaging way to fulfill the constant need of finding the right nanny. She named this ‘nanny matchmaking’ company Nannies by Noa, and continues to be the brain and chief of the operation at the age of 17 from New York.

Noa and her CEO, Jo Barrow, place a high value on the importance of matching the right nanny with the right family. These two combined their experiences (Noa as a child who lived with nannies growing up, and Jo as a professional nanny herself) to create this value-inspired company. It continues to thrive in New York and provide families with a guaranteed safe, enjoyable nanny experience for their children.

She has appeared on national television shows, such as the Today Show, Squawk Box, and on Fox Business and the Steve Harvey Show. Her journey as a young, creative, and innovative entrepreneur has been covered by publications such as The New York Post, Time, Forbes, and Entrepreneur. Unsurprisingly, she was named one of Fortune’s “18 Under 18 Innovators Who are Changing the World”.

In January 2017, three men with a passion for environmentally friendly transportation pursued an idea that led to the founding of their company, Lime. Toby Sun, Brad Bao, and Adam Zhang created Lime, a company that runs bicycle and scooter sharing systems in cities around the world. These systems utilize dockless vehicles in conjunction with a mobile app to unlock the vehicles, where users can pay about one dollar for a 30-minute ride on a Lime bike, or $1 to unlock an electric scooter and 15 cents per half hour.

Their first location launched in June of 2017 in the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. They began with 125 bikes and found immediate success, which inspired their expansion to Florida, Indiana, and California the following month. Their scooters and bikes are lime green and each is equipped with 3G connectivity and GPS units. The bicycles include a front basket, a smart lock, and a solar panel. The three founders of this company highly valued the principles of environmentally friendly transportation, and aspired to share these values with others. Their website states, “Lime is founded on the simple idea that all communities deserve access to smart, affordable mobility”; it is inspiring to hear of entrepreneurs who are highly interested in benefiting the future of the planet and those who live on it.

Currently, Lime Scooter and Bike Sharing Network for Cities is located in over 100 cities around the world. In addition, the company has recently reached an astounding 13 million customer rides, with that number continually increasing. I am looking forward to following the future growth and success of this company!