An entrepreneur named Sofia Overton who is 11 years old started a company started WisePocket products because she wanted to make life easier for active kids and kids in need. She got the company idea when she saw her older cousin put her phone in her boot because she did not have any pockets because she had leggings on. This lead to her first product which were socks with a wise pocket. Her idea is that there are lot of active kids that need a safe and stylish way to store there phones and any other medical items they need like an inhaler or an epi pen.

This is a classic example of innovation at its finest. Sofia saw a situation where she could capitalize and she solved a problem. She was able to identify the need of a particular market that she was included in and created a product out of it. This then lead to other products after she realized her market and the problems she was trying to solve.

Hart Main is 13 years old and he came up with idea of manly scented candles. He came up with this idea after he teased his sister about the girly scented ones that she was selling for a school fundraiser. He realized that there was something missing in the candle game as candles mostly appeal to woman and not many men buy candles. Hart landed on ManCan for the name of his manly candle business. Some of the scents of these candles include, campfire, fresh cut grass, sawdust and these were made using soup cans. Hart is also charitable as he donates some of his profits to kitchens in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Michigan.

Hart’s idea was very interesting as it started out just him making fun of his sister for having candles but he realized that men do not like candles because it seemed like a feminine product. He used his entrepreneurial spirit to find an opening in an industry that was destined for innovation and capitalized on it. This inspires me to look at other feminine products and see if turning it into a male product would work. They would perform the same function but one would be more marketable to the male population.

Cory Nieves at six years old told his mom that he was tired of taking the bus and wanted to save money to get a car. Cory always loved making baked goods with his mom, Lisa and therefore decided to try to sell cookies and hot cocoa. Through his love for treats and entrepreneurial spirit he started Mr. Cory’s cookies and his business only boomed from there. Once Lisa realized how successful the company was actually becoming, she wanted Cory or “Mr.Cory” to start saving money for college. With the company succeeding, Cory wanted to expand by creating more than just the perfect chocolate chip cookie and found an opportunity in the field and make more flavors from the highest quality ingredients. This led to the company partnering and interacting with several companies such as Pottery Barn, Whole Foods and such more.

Cory has simply found a way to turn a hobby into a profitable business. Cory just wants to make the world better and he does this through his hobby. It is amazing how someone so young can innovate like he has by simply making a hobby into a business opportunity. He displays many entrepreneurial traits such as innovation, commitment, drive and has the right mission behind his business by doing something he loves and making other people around the world happy because they just deserve a cookie.

Timo is a great example of starting a business by yourself and starting from the ground up. Even before going to college, Timo did not let his lack of technology knowledge limit him from starting his own business. He self taught himself to not only start his website but also how to tutor. He saw an opportunity after college with his business Fanbytes and saw how broken marketing to GenZ people has been. Timo showed great innovation by taking advantage of that opportunity and then implanting his business into that spot. Timo probably did not need to go to college because he already had two successful businesses and obviously has the mind of an entrepreneur; he used his computer science major to launch is next business and was able to use the information from his major to pursue other interests. I have learned from Timo that you can always be learning even when you have other successes, you can always continue to learn and finding opportunity is key.

Jahkil Jackson is a wonder child and at only nine years old he found a way to give back to the community. Jahkil handed out cans of food to the homeless with his aunt and through that has found his passion of helping homeless people. He took it to another level by not only giving any food but other necessities such as toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant. He has impacted over 50,000 homeless people in the world and has emphasized the need for donations and has impacted so many lives and it is really inspiring to see that such a young kid has such an effect on people’s lives. Jahkil showed strides of innovation by pursing a simple idea that he enjoyed doing with his aunt. Jahkil Jackson has made me realize that a simple idea can turn into helping others on a larger scale and that no idea is too small.

-Dylan Sim

Mikaila Ulmer is a 15 year old entrepreneur who is running her own multi million dollar lemonade business. When you thinking about a teenager running a lemonade business you might not think anything of it because as a kid we all had lemonade stands outside our house. Mikalia showed everybody that her lemonade business is for real and was able to reach major markets and stores by being different. That difference is honey and the drive to protect the population of bees. Mikaila’s origin story is like no other, when she was four she got stung by two bees in a week and this forced her to have the entrepreneur curiosity of why bees existed. She realized that bees were really important to the environment and decided that by using honey in her grandma’s lemonade she could also save the bees.

Mikaila is showing everybody that is does not matter how young you are, you can still have the entrepreneur traits to run a business. For Mikaila she is really passionate about bees and saving them for the betterment of the environment. Her business is unlike any other because she is able to take such a simple idea and separating herself from the competition by using a good cause to sell her product. This inspires me personally because she used her personal experience to help a cause that is important to her with such a simple idea. I have learned that even from a young age people can have bright ideas and the qualities that an entrepreneur needs to be successful.

-Dylan Sim