Author Archive for MantzellLB20

Kanati Taxidermy

A side of the world that a lot of people forget about or do not even realizes exists is the art and business of taxidermy.  Taxidermy is a skill where an individual creates a life long lasting “stuffing” of an animal killed buy a hunter that can be then “showed-off” within the hunter’s house.  Wes Good took this skill to a whole new level in creating one of the worlds most known taxidermist companies around.

The StoryKANATI TAXIDERMY | TROPHY EXPEDITIONS

Wes Good was just a young guy recently out of college that was big into the outdoors and hunted a lot himself.  He originally took up taxidermy as a hobby on the small animals he would kill himself but soon fell in love with the skill and created Kanati Taxidermy.  Kanati taxidermy now tackles some of the craziest mounts that a hunter could possibly dream of.  Mounts of elephants, giraffes, mountain lions, turkeys, deer, and so much more they can do it all.  Since Kanati was started with Wes Good, his team has grown into an 18 person team that works year round on taxidermy of animals shot all around the world.

Entrepreneur?

Wes Good did not necessarily see a problem in his life and created a solution that fixed but more got curious with a certain skill and because of it he found what he absolutely loved.  An entrepreneur has to find something they are going to be passionate about if there is going to be any chance of success.  The more someone loves it the more they are going to work for success and that is exactly what Wes Good did.  He created a company that is known all over the world and makes millions all because of a simple hobby he fell in love with.  Entrepreneurs take the things they love and create it into something much bigger and with substantial value towards other people.

Dr. Squatch: A New Way of Clean

Bar soap has been around for forever; A simple bar of different ingredients that people have used over the years to clean their body, but a young man has created a new twist to the bar soap industry.  31 year old, Jack Haldrup, started creating bar soaps with natural smells in his garage in San Diego and called the idea “Dr. Squatch.”

What is “Dr. Squatch”

Dr. Squatch is a bar soap company that solely makes bar soap off natural ingredients that create natural smells in the soap.  Haldrup’s soaps are made from the natural ingredients of lye, vegetable oil, and then many different kinds of essential oils.  With this mixture of ingredients, Squatch soaps have smells titled “Pine Tar, Bay Rum, and Spearmint Basil.”  These are obviously all very outdoor and nature smelling names for soap but that is why the company is named “Dr. Squatch.”  The companies main focus is a market of bar soap that solely focuses on guys so why not make a guy feel more like a man with all natural, manly scents.

What’s so Different?Amazon.com : Dr. Squatch Men's Soap 4-Pack Bundle – Cedar Citrus Scented Natural Bar Soap for Men – Skin Exfoliating and Body Nourishing – Organic Handmade in USA (4 Bar Set) : Beauty

The biggest key difference and success of “Dr. Squatch” bar soaps is because Jack Haldrup focused in on selling bar soaps specifically for guys.  Most bar soap companies have the very nice smells of lavender or flowers and focus more towards women as the buyer.  Women have always been the ones to go out to the store and buy that kind of stuff.  However, Haldrup took a new perspective on the market and found a way to target men in a very profitable way.  There are many other bar soap companies found from big companies like Proctor and Gamble but Jack Haldrup truly found a hole in the market of bar soap to where he became very successful.  He did not necessarily fix a problem but found an opportunity that presented itself in an already very developed market.

Harry’s Razors: Shaving Made Simple

“We created Harry’s to be different from other shaving companies” is the first line I read as I took a glance at the Harry’s about page.  This had myself asking the question of why is Harry’s so different from all the other shaving companies?  What makes them so special?  Well, Andy Katz-Mayfield (33) and Jeff Raider (34) created a shaving company that offers a great shave with great products that do not have all kinds of fancy gadgets or expensive razors.

What was the Problem?

Andy and Jeff were two gentlemen that obviously always had to shave but when it came to shaving everything was so expensive to get a nice razor with good shaving products.  Once they thought of this problem they asked around to many different gentlemen who shave and to their surprise, many of the men they talked to agreed.  This birthed the idea to create a shaving company that does not require all kinds of fancy gadgets that go into a razor and keep it all at a very affordable price.  On top of selling the razors and many shaving products along with them, Andy and Jeff cared a lot about Mental Health Care.  This is why 1% of the sales Harry’s makes goes to nonprofits across the country helping men access all kinds of health care resources.

Entrepreneur Kind of Minds3 Ways Harry's Redesigned Modern Shaving | Inc.com

Andy and Jeff were two young entrepreneurs that discovered a problem and did not run from it but tackled the problem and created a very successful business because of it.  However, the cool part about their business is they did not just help solve one problem but two.  They helped make shaving much more affordable while still producing great products but also they are helping the mental health of men all around the world with their donations from their profits.

Mous: Protect your Phone for Good

Imagine scrolling through Instagram or twitter and seeing a video of an two individuals dropping the newest iPhone off of a 40 foot crane without the phone shattering or cracking; wouldn’t you be interested?  Well, James Griffith and Josh Shires did just that with a newly designed phone case.  These two gentlemen had a problem in their lives that traditional protective phone cases were too bulky so they set out to create a slim and very protective phone case.  Through discovering the new material now called “airoshock” these gentlemen created the Mous phone case.

Mous makes powerfully protective cases for the iPhone X and other smartphones.The Story

James Griffith and Josh Shires are two gentlemen that were originally from the UK.  The team for designing the phone cases started out as just the two of them but eventually grew in size to James Day, Will Mullen, and Lucy Hutchinson.  Griffith, Day, Mullen, and Shire all moved out to China to really get the idea of designing phone cases going.  After a few years they brought their office to the UK where they teamed with Hutchinson to get the idea marketed.  This group together discovered the material now known as “airoshock” which is basically tiny air pockets within the case that dampen the effect of a fall or drop of a phone.  The coolest part of their story is how they get their product out in the worlds eyes; through extreme video and live in person demonstration.  Griffith went to a crowd of people in front of an Apple store, bought the newest iPhone, and asked a person from the crowd to throw the phone.  The case performed and the phone was untouched with bumps or bruises.

Why are they Unique?

This group of entrepreneurs found a problem, a solution and a way to get this solution out to the world but they did it in a pretty special way.  Through the countless number of YouTube videos of dropping phones with their cases off buildings or cranes, they found a way into the electronics market with new technology and new product.  After these countless videos went viral, Mous had raised $2.5 million dollars from close to 50,000 supporters making them the largest crowdfunded phone case company ever!  With this kind of backing and now millions of dollars of success, Mous has made many accessories (car mounts, wallets, wireless chargers, etc.) to add to the already successful phone case launch.

 

Christian Kroll: Ecosia

Ecosia.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christian Kroll is an entrepreneur who was looking for an idea that could have a positive, social impact on society when he came up with the idea “Ecosia”.  Ecosia is a search engine that makes profit from the ad searches that individuals all around the world make each day.  The income collected all goes toward buying and planting trees worldwide in over 9,000 locations.

Why Trees?

Christian Kroll, early on in his carrier, traveled many places worldwide for business ideas.  Eventually, as he was staying in Argentina after studying reforestation, Christian was motivated to use his business idea to impact the world by planting trees.  The question is though “why trees?”; why raise money to plant so many trees worldwide?  In his studies, Christian came to the realization of how much trees could impact the connection between globalization and climate change.  In planting trees, the CO2 emissions could be neutralized on a large scale.  Finally, in December of 2009 in Berlin, Germany,  Ecosia was officially launched and quickly became the largest not-for-profit search engine.

What is so great?

Christian Kroll was just a young guy looking for business ideas as he traveled the world and learning more and more about things he was passionate about.  A simple idea of a search engine that could raise money and help improve environments worldwide that turned into the biggest not-for-profit search engine.  Now this is an awesome sounding idea but many people have the question of “how legit is this” or “is the money actually going to buying trees”?  Fortunately, the Ecosia team posts monthly financial reports and tree purchase receipts so that people can see and develop a trust for the company.  Since 2009, the search engine has raised enough money to plant over 100 million trees and they have over 8 million people that use the search engine.