Author Archive for marstonew20

Caroline and Isabel Bercaw: Da Bomb Fizzers

The story of Da Bomb Fizzers is a story of the young eleven year old Caroline and the twelve year old Isabel Bercaw. They recognized a problem with the bath bombs that they used to help them recover after exercise. Because of the products that they used, the girls had to shower after their baths because the residue from the bath bombs would not wash off. The two girls also mentioned how sad the nature of using a bath bomb is, which is the fact that it disappears after use. While this part of the story is not extraordinary, what these two girls did next truly is. Caroline and Isabel proceeded to get their hands dirty and tried to create a superior bath bomb. After the long process of experimenting with different recipes over a year, they came up with Da Bomb Fizzers. These bath bombs are made of very few, natural ingredients, and some bombs contain surprises in the middle.

Caroline and Isabel have become very successful entrepreneurs at such a young age. Right now, they have two hundred employees and have sold over ten million bath bombs. How does this happen? The key to these girls’ story is how they went to action. It must have been simple to these two girls. They lacked a satisfactory bath bomb, and so they made one that was! Readers of Caroline and Isabel’s story can be inspired to change their perspective of entrepreneurship from something that has to be perfect to simply taking action.

 

FireHUD: Protecting our Protectors

FireHUD has created a wearable tool that monitors the vitals of first responders, military personnel, and industrial workers to communicate to commanders their status, whether they are in danger or in need. For FireHUD, the saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” explains their vision for their business. They want to “Protect our Protectors” with their technology to avoid injuries that would otherwise not have been foreseen.

Junior engineering students, Zack Braun and Tyler Sisk, cofounded FireHUD during their time at Georgia Tech. FireHUD started out to improve awareness of firefighters via a heads-up display. With this vision, they put their business in motion by building products for trial. Braun and Sisk were probably excited and satisfied with their ideas, but this was not the end of their innovation. While they were testing their products, the two engineers attended a Nation Fallen Firefighter Foundation conference. They showed their FireHUD to fire chiefs from all over the country and then sat for a presentation by one of those fire chiefs about the struggles of monitoring the physiologic conditions of first responders. This feedback was crucial in the development of Braun and Sisk’s business. Based on the feedback, they were able to empathize with first responders and change the design of the FireHUD, making it easier to use. The evolution of FireHUD is an example of the benefits of a liquid network, where the hunches of the engineers and the firefighters were able to collide, creating more meaningful value.

https://www.firehud.co/about-us/

https://www.forbes.com/profile/firehud/?list=30under30-social-entrepreneurs&sh=99188e124718

Erik Zamudio: Re-imagining How Brands Connect With Their Customers

One day in May of 2015, Erik Zamudio and Gregg Morton came up with the idea of their company Fooji during lunchtime. They were debating what to get to satisfy their hunger when they came up with a solution of using emojis to randomly select popular meals from local restaurants. This duo wasted no time and filed for a patent the very next day. Fooji started working with large brands such as Verizon, and with their growing success then pivoted to working only with other businesses. Erik and Greg came to the realization that Fooji could be used to reinvent social media marketing. The way Fooji does this is through hashtags paired with emojis on social media platforms to trigger the delivery of products, which creates an interaction that effectively connects brands and their customers. Fooji has worked with many famous clients such as Disney, Amazon, Adidas, Kohl’s, and Lay’s.

One example of how Fooji has implemented their innovative solution is their Silicon Valley project. They partnered with HBO to help promote season five of the show Silicon Valley. Fans who tweeted #Sliceline and a pizza emoji would via drone be delivered a pizza in a box designed to resemble one of the companies in the show, Sliceline. Fooji targeted fans of the show, relevant influencers, venture capitalists, journalists, and actors form the show. This movement reached #1 trending on Twitter in the U.S., and Fooji was praised for it’s distinctive deliveries and innovation.

Fooji started out with a purpose to solve a specific problem (indecisiveness in choosing what to have for lunch), but later pivoted when they recognized an opportunity that they could take advantage of. This is an example of entrepreneurial thinking, which includes constant evolution and the liquid nature of ideas. Erik Zamudio and Gregg Morton did not have this grand vision of revolutionizing social media marketing from the start, but their original idea lead to what Fooji is now.

Erik Zamudio said in an interview, “Reinvention is really breaking something down and completely revisiting what it meant originally.” Fooji took a look a the current state of social media marketing and questioned if things have to be the way they are. This is evidence that the solution Fooji struck upon is truly innovative. The story of Fooji is a reminder of the vast opportunities for innovation everywhere you look.

 

https://www.forbes.com/profile/erik-zamudio/?list=30under30-marketing-advertising&sh=3ab589c22cce

https://fooji.com/about

https://blog.fooji.com/the-story-of-fooji-%EF%B8%8F-1937df3159c4

Rachel Zietz: Gladiator Lacrosse

Founder of Gladiator Lacrosse, Rachel Zietz embodies the very essence of entrepreneurial thinking. Rachel founded her business in 2012 at the age of 13, spurred on by her dissatisfaction with the lacrosse training equipment she used (or lack thereof). Her pursuit of excellence called for excellent resources. Gladiator Lacrosse is an e-commerce store that provides a wide selection of high quality and reasonably priced equipment for lacrosse players. One of the products is a more durable rebounder with an expanded thickness of the net and bars. Gladiator Lacrosse also partners with Amazon, which improves it’s sales nationally and internationally, bringing in millions of dollars of revenue.

Because of Rachel’s passion for lacrosse, she is personally involved in each step of the creation of her products. This is how her products are so successful and deliver such good value. As a player who cares deeply about performance, Rachel is able to create a product that customers will resonate with.

Rachel’s innovation at such a young age is inspiring. She experienced this problem of lackluster equipment and was not satisfied. Instead of settling, she did something about it. She realized the opportunity in her difficulty. Because she sells products that she is passionate about, she is better able to achieve success. Through Rachel’s Gladiator Lacrosse, players all around the world can now pursue greater heights.

Teens are building million-dollar businesses with Amazon

https://www.forbes.com/profile/rachel-zietz/?list=30under30-retail-ecommerce&sh=4ba24de57bf1

Tehzeeb Lalani: Redefining Heath Using Scale Beyond Scale

Tehzeeb Lalani is a young woman with her degree in Clinical Nutrition and Food Studies from the University of New York. She is the owner of Scale Beyond Scale (SBS), a consultancy service which specializes in Mumbai-based health and nutrition. Scale Beyond Scale helps clients keep their focus beyond the weight scale to the full picture of their health and lifestyles. Tehzeeb has seen hundreds of clients with ailments from diabetes to heart disease. Her business does not only cater to patients. She has also helped make a successful interactive and challenging curriculum for other nutritionists and dietitians.

Her idea for Scale Beyond Scale started to develop after she received her degree from New York when she returned to her home in India. She already knew that she wanted to help people improve their lifestyles to inevitably improve their health. The question was how. The problem she realized that held people back was that they are too fixated on their weight and short-term goals. With this problem identified, she then longed to be a part of changing people’s perceptions about weight. Tehzeeb challenged these widely believed perceptions, and then presented a better solution to the issue of wellness. This is an example of innovativeness that instead of expanding the horizons of heath, reintroduces how health was originally intended to be. Tehzeeb not only hit upon a good idea, but her success is shown through all the lives she’s helped change.

Article: https://ideamensch.com/tehzeeb-lalani/

Website: https://www.scalebeyondscale.com/

Alyssa Hunt, Founder of The Life Hunt

               Alyssa Hunt is the founder of The Life Hunt, a blog for helping people to balance their dreams of running a business with their everyday lives. The focus of the blog is how to manage money with tips on saving money and making money. Some of the topics discussed are profitable side hustles, the creation of blogs, and frugal living advice.

                Alyssa came up with the idea for her blog when she was struggling to balance her full-time job with her writing ventures. As anyone would, she looked up advice for her problem on the internet, but she could not find what she was looking for. Then, showing a marked trait of an entrepreneur, she created her own website to satisfy this need of balancing dreams and work. Since many people are now attempting at side hustles and business ventures, this need of learning balance is growing. Alyssa took advantage of this using her own experience to make an easy way to access this information.

One of the things inspiring about Alyssa is that instead of giving up on her dreams, she made a way for herself to achieve what she wanted. Even if you might not be as talented or as wealthy as another, there are simple steps that you can take in your everyday life to bring you closer to success. Sometimes fear and lack of support are the biggest things that holds us back from growth. However, Alyssa overcame these and found balance in her own life and now shares her wisdom with others.

Article: https://ideamensch.com/alyssa-hunt/

Blog Website: https://thelifehunt.com