Emily Weiss founded Glossier, a beauty company that seeks to “celebrate real girls, in real life.
Weiss grew up in Connecticut to hardworking parents. Her dad “lived the American dream” — he didn’t graduate college, created his own business cards, and worked his way up. Her mom was a stay-at-home mother to raise the family. She learned the value of hard work from her parents and carried it on throughout her life.
Spotify has been around for many years, but it especially rose to dominance in the last few years. However, it hasn’t always been success and diamonds for the two Swedish founders and entrepreneurs, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
Once upon a time (back in 2005), they were two guys fiddling and working on the development of Spotify from Ek’s apartment. It was so hot inside because of all the servers running– and the two founders were said that they were forced to sit around half-naked to avoid sweating to their death.
But let’s back up.
Daniel Ek has always had an unparalleled love for music… and technology. The young Swedish boy was without a biological father in his life and was given the chance to combine music and technology in his studies at secondary school. After completing IT college where he graduated with top grades, he landed a job at Europe’s largest advertisement company and rapidly became successful. At that age, 23, he was financially independent, owned a red Ferrari Modena, and owned a VIP card to the hottest clubs in Stockholm, Sweden. Source
SparkVision is a business that helps other businesses, such as associations, corporates, non-profit businesses, and more. Seeking to build a healthy, thriving, environment for team members and employees, SparkVision helps businesses connect their members through interpersonal connection.
“The end result?
Teams that are better able and more willing to
collaborate, empathize,
and achieve together.”
http://www.sparkvisionnow.com/life-lens/
MaryBeth Hyland, founder of SparkVision, didn’t always have a vision.
Growing up, she suffered abuse from her father, who told her that she was never going to amount to anything. The abuse that she endured from her parent has stayed with her throughout the rest of her life– it still affects her to this day– and she has a hard time coping with “success.”
However, using the pain and emotional abuse she experienced has led her to gain insight into minds of others. She is able to empathize and connect with others. Her past experiences has allowed her to culminate a business that is centered around connecting with others.
While I had not heard of SparkVision until recently, I find it inspiring that Hyland used her past experiences to cultivate a business that would give others the emotional connection and benefits that she never had. She ensures that business organizations would have teams full of connection– because where there is connection, there is purpose, and the organization thrives from happy, connected members.
Lemonade stands for children are so old school. There has been quite a buzz about the story of a 4-year-old who took lemonade stands to the next level.
At 4 years old, Mikaila found a recipe from her family’s 1940s cookbook. Using her great grandmother’s recipe for flaxseed lemonade, Mikaila decided to use local honey as a sweetener– thus creating a lemonade/honey drink. Determined to help save the dwindling bee population, Mikaila decided that a percentage of the profit will go to international organizations fighting to save the honeybee. How sweet of her!
Throughout the years, Mikaila has sold her product at youth entrepreneurial events, garnering attention attention from numerous media and big bee-zinesses. At around 11 years old, Mikaila pitched BeeSweet, one of her products, on Shark Tank and piqued the interest of a CEO who invested $60,000 in her business. Not only that, but she scored a contract with WholeFoods which sells her products in stores.
She doesn’t only sell and create products, however. She also leads workshops and educates others on how to save the honeybees, as well as participating in social entrepreneurship panels. She attended a kids’ state dinner at the White House one year. She’s even helped her friends start up their own businesses. And while leading a purposeful life, she’s also currently a middle school student.
This young lady is inspiring. She came up with an idea at the age of 4. That isn’t shab-bee at all. One thing to note, however, is that she wasn’t passionate about bees from the start. On their website, she says that she got stung by a bee. Twice. And was fearful of them. Yet, she didn’t let her fears get in the way of anything. Instead, she amassed her courage and built something worthwhile, something that would help the little buggers.
Here is the link to Mikaila’s website. Don’t bee afraid to buy some lemonade for your honey.
Garrett Gee is, in my opinion, one of the most inspirational millionaires alive today. His story is quite enthralling– he was a college freshman when he (and 2 other guys) came up with the innovation of an app called Scan.
Does the black and white pixel-y looking mural look familiar to you? Gee and the other 2 creators incorporated the QR code into an app that would allow for users to easily and efficiently scan codes with their smartphones.
However, that’s not all.
Gee was a college freshman when he came up with the innovative idea, and he entered his idea in a student competition at Brigham Young University. The trio continued to grow their company in 2011, calling it Scan, Inc., and released their iOS application shortly after.
That’s still not all.
While Gee loved being an entrepreneur, he wanted to quit while he was ahead. His co-founders complied but had one condition, “that he help them raise the numbers before his exit” (source). This led them to Shark Tank.
…where he was rejected.
However, Snapchat strolled along in 2014 and bought the company for $54 million.
Recognize this?
Snapchat used Scan Inc’s technology to create the Snapcode.
There’s still more. While all 3 founders received a hefty amount of money and are millionaires, Gee decided that he would not make a dent in his funds. Instead, he and his wife sold all of their belongings, grabbed their two kids (aged 3 and 1, respectively), and hopped on a long excursion around the world. The family launched a blog as well as a social media profile where they raise a substantial amount of revenue.
So basically they’re living my dreams of traveling the world and making money while doing so.
Garrett Gee’s story is inspirational. He was fairly young, a freshman college student, when he came up with the idea. Like ENTR 101 students will be doing, he entered a competition for the idea and continued to build on it– creating a flourishing company and selling it. Not only that, he decided to keep his mitts off his funds and be smart about spending.
It’s heartening to hear that a college freshman underwent a long journey to success. Sometimes it can be discouraging when thinking about the long path ahead, but Gee proved that it is possible to achieve success while saving the millions and millions of money in the bank. Personally, I’m jealous of his life, but I’m also encouraged. He didn’t enjoy the office life, but enjoyed productivity and creation. Therefore, he decided to follow his passions– creating and traveling, as well as serving (they raised $75,000 to fund a school in India). He encourages others to follow their passions as well and is an embodiment of a wise millionaire.
Not only is Cerise Tea an amazing non-profit, fashion organization launched by a young entrepreneur, the name is fantastic as well. You may be wondering what even is “cerise.” Cerise is French for “cherry.” Now go back and take a look at the first picture on top of this post. And keep reading it (aloud) until you get it.
Jessica Lee, the founder of Cerise Tea, has many notable achievements as a current college student. Launching the company in 2014 as a high schooler, she has seen immense growth and excitement surrounding her start-up, non-profit organization. Cerise Tea sells clothes online geared towards teenage girls, which then donates its profits to the American Cancer Society. Realizing her love of fashion and her desire to give to those in need, Lee combined her two loves to be the driving passions behind a flourishing business. Cerise Tea’s mission to help others; the simple but trendy clothes; and the cheap prices amassed together were ultimately the factors in the success of the business.
https://www.instagram.com/ceriseteaclothing
While not much is known about Jessica Lee, her online resume lists that she attended high school from the years 2013-2017, and she first enrolled in college in 2017. Her resume doesn’t say it explicitly, but readers can inference that Lee is merely a college freshman.
A college freshman who owns a company…which has raised over $450K in sales.
Lee is truly an inspiring figure who not only developed a business derived from her passions, but also continuously works hard to learn more and more. She is presently studying business economics, and though her company keeps her busy, she has also been an intern, an ambassador/leader for various organizations, and created and pitched to Venture Capitalists at UPenn.
Sources:
https://jessicacarrielee.carbonmade.com/about
https://www.instagram.com/ceriseteaclothing/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/ceriseteaclothing
https://www.instagram.com/ceriseteaclothing