Author Archive for richardsonlg20

Sustainable Ocean Alliance

Daniela V. Fernandez

Daniela V. Fernandez, an inspiring young entrepreneur, founded the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) when she was just 19 years old!  The SOA is a worldwide community that connects young people with innovators and experts in the field of protecting our oceans.  It’s goal is to create solutions, form leaders, and build a community that can protect and restore the ocean. The alliance has reached of 6,000 people in more than 150 countries, and has grown tremendously in just the past seven years.

In 2015, Fernandez took action on her idea while she was still a student at Georgetown,  and today has been able to lead her organization to raise over $3 million.  The Sustainable Ocean Alliance has managed to support 45 ocean startups, all leverage unique ways to protect, conserve and sustain the world’s oceans.  In 2019, Fernandez received a spot on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, along with becoming a member of the World Economic Forum Friends of Ocean Action.

Some of Fernandez’ other accomplishments include being a contributor to National Geographic and Sustainable Brands, being interviewed by Ocean Radio and Voice of America, and being a keynote speaker at multiple prestigious events such as The Economist World Ocean Summit and the United Nations!

Diamonds from Ashes

When looking for a zone of innovation, few people would first look to the postmortem industry.  But that is exactly where young entrepreneur Adelle Archer turned.  Her company, Eterneva, creates precious keepsakes out of the remains of loved ones who have passed away.  They accomplish this by turning their ashes into diamonds.  Archer’s goal was to find a way for love one’s remains to be eternalized, and converting them to an extremely durable and precious mineral, using the carbon within the ashes, was a very effective way of accomplishing this.

Adelle Archer

The mission of Eterneva goes beyond just making money.  Archer created her company around the desire to see the stigma that surrounds death and grieving in the United States go away.  She wants to provide a way for grievers to be less isolated and more understood.

Memorial Diamonds from Ashes or Hair | Eterneva

In her short career as an entrepreneur, Adele Archer has been extremely successful.  She attended the prestigious Acton School of Business, getting an MBA in Entrepreneurship.  Soon after, she created Eterneva, and took her company to Shark Tank, where she received an investment from Mark Cuban.  In 2019, Eterneva was given the title of Consumer Startup of the Year by the Stevie Awards.

ZUCC

Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most famous company founders in American history, but his story is more than just that of a successful businessman.  Zuckerberg was also very young when he started Facebook.  Amazingly, Zuckerberg was just 19 years old when his idea came to life, which has become one of the largest companies in the world.  In 2004, Zuckerberg, along with Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, who were also students, made Facebook a reality.  The idea for Facebook came in 2003, when Zuckerberg created a short lived website called Facemash.  Facemash ultimately fizzled out quickly, but its successor, known as The Facebook is a different story.  The site allowed college students (specifically at Harvard) to create public profiles with pictures and personal information, allowing for online connections between students.

The Facebook Movie Told Us What We Needed to Know About Mark Zuckerberg - The New York Times

The site quickly took off.  Soon, students from Yale and Stanford joined, and Facebook spread from there, initially to only students.  In June of 2004, there were more than 250,000 profiles on The Facebook.  Off of this foundation, Zuckerberg grew his company and his website exponentially.  From 2004 to 2006, Zuckerberg’s website, now known simply as Facebook, gained features such as the Wall and the ability to tag people in photos.  Additionally, in 2006, Facebook moved beyond being a service exclusively for students, and added the ability for anyone 13 or older to join.  Facebook went public in 2012, when Zuckerberg was just 28, and soon had a market value of $102.4 billion.  After it’s Facebook’s first day on the market, Zuckerberg was worth over $19 billion.  Today Zuckerberg is 37, and is the 5th richest person in the world.

9 Facts That Show How Wealthy Mark Zuckerberg Really Is

Fraser Doherty: SuperJam

Fraser Doherty, founder of SuperJam, began his business venture when he was just fourteen years old.  From the UK, Doherty learned how  to make jam from his grandmother.  Doherty’s genius idea was a way to make jam exclusively with fruit, with zero additives.  He started by taking local orders and making the jam himself, but word soon spread, and demand greatly increased.  Eventually Doherty dropped out of school to focus entirely on his business.  His next move was to rent out a factory for a few days a month to begin to take bigger orders.

Awesome Companies Built By Teens: Fraser Doherty –By the age of sixteen, he had presented SuperJam to a major UK supermarket, Waitrose, and his jam was on shelves in 184 stores soon after.  In 2007, SuperJam reached $750,000 in sales, and it has continued growing since.  Today SuperJam can be found in stores all around the world and the company has sold millions of jars.  Through SuperJam, Doherty has also given back in multiple successful charity projects.  He runs free tea parties for the elderly an has established hundreds of community beekeeping projects.  Beyond selling jam, Doherty has also written books.  His first, The SuperJam Cookbook, was published in August of 2010.  He has since published two more books on entrepreneurship, titled SuperBusiness and 48-Hour Start-up: From idea to launch in 1 weekend.  

For his success, Doherty has received countless awards, such as the Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2007 and the Bighearted Scotland Business Person of The Year in 2009.  Doherty is an inspiring example of what happens when a young person has a good idea and is determined to put it into action.

Young Entrepreneurs: Jeremy Miller

20 year old entrepreneur Jeremy Miller has a story that few can match in inspiration.  He began his escapades into the world of business when he was just 16 years old.  Miller started a company called Void Long boards.  He soon realized that he had an astounding skill for brand building.

untitled image After just ten months, miller’s company had received over 100,000,000 impressions across his accounts, all by leveraging the power of social media.  Despite the wide reach of his company, Void Long boards ended up failing.  But that didn’t stop the young entrepreneur.  He had discovered an incredible ability that he possessed for reaching potential customers through the internet.  His next undertaking was to begin a social media marketing company by the name of J. R. Miller Group.  At J. R. Miller group, Miller put to work everything he had learned from his previous attempt at starting a company.  This time, Miller had not only a wide reach, but was extremely successful.  untitled imageShortly after, Miller moved on to an even bigger undertaking when he started Inspired Blue Media.  His company took off.  In a few short years, Miller has done marketing for the likes of Subaru, SnapShfyt, and NASA, all before his 21st birthday.

Jeff Cripe, Founder of Cargo

Entrepreneur Jeff Cripe, who is 29 years old, is an impressive example of a young innovative thinker.  Cripe began as an employee at Birchbox where he was first introduced to the world of startups.  Not long after, Cripe had an idea, and decided to take a shot at his own startup.  Cripe’s idea was to piggyback off of already existing rideshare services and add a vending component.  By adding a box full of snacks, along with a scannable QR code that allows riders to make a payment, Cripes company, known as Cargo, added an entire new way to generate profit within the ridesharing market.  Already, Cargo has partnered with Uber, Grab, and Go-Jek, all leaders in the rideshare industry.  Part of what makes Cripe’s idea so effective is its simplicity.  Cargo didn’t require the invention of anything new.  Ridesharing has existed for almost a decade, and vending machines much longer.  It was simply the combination of these two concepts that was so revolutionary, and allowed for Cargo’s success.  Cripe’s story offers inspiration for how simply seeing the potential for a combination of two products in a way that no one else has seen before can lead to the creation of a successful company.