Author Archive for Erin Sixt

Technology and Toys

Evan, a nine year old entrepreneur, has it made. It’s estimated that he will make $1.3 million a year. Doing what? Reviewing toys. His channel, Evan Tube, has over 2.8 million subscribers and over a billion people have viewed his videos, and it’s easy to see why. After visiting his YouTube channel, it’s clear that Evan Tube is the ultimate kid fun zone. There’s videos of him at Universal, doing the “Chubby Bunny” challenge, reviewing the new whip cream in your face game, this kid does it all. Oh, and he’s been doing this since he was five.

This young man has created a brand for himself that has been so successful. Moms and kids know they can visit his channel to get reliable unbiased information from a fun kid perspective. It is the perfect package.

Who knew that technology and toys is all you need to create a successful business? I didn’t. I’m so astonished that a child can create this amazing story for himself all through using technology that was accessible to him and playing with toys that he was already using anyway. Evan, you are a true success!

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Harvard Student and Entreprenuer

Olenka Polak, a daughter of polish immigrants, would frequently find herself at the movie theatre with her family. She and her brother, who had grown up in the states and knew English, understood exactly what was going on in the movie. Her parents, on the other hand, really struggled to enjoy their experience at the cinema due to the language barrier.

During Polak’s time at Harvard, she decided to pursue the solution to this problem. myLINGO allows for non-English speakers to listen and understand a movie in their own language. All you have to do is download myLINGO on a smart phone and bring a pair of headphones to the theatre. Once you’re at the cinema you select the movie you are seeing and the language you want to listen to the film in.

At age nineteen, Polak chose to take time off from Harvard to grow and develop this business. She was featured in Forbes “30 under 30” and seems to be growing into a quite the success story.

We all have something to learn from Polak. Whether it’s her recognition of a problem, or her ambition to leave Harvard and pursue her dreams, she is an inspiration to us all.

 

 

The Friends You Have on Facebook Really Do Matter

When Evita Robinson graduated from college, she identified herself as an artist, hoping to one day be an entrepreneur. As a new graduate, she started traveling. Paris, Tokyo, and Thailand were all places she had visited by the time she was 25. During her worldly adventures, Robinson, like many other millennials, shared her adventures with social media. Soon, she decided to create a group of a few friends she had on Facebook, in order to connect city people to a travel lifestyle. This small group she had created blew up and led to the formation of her business, Nomadness Travelers Tribe.

Nomadness Travelers Tribe is known as, “‘the first group to spearhead targeting diverse millennial travel,”‘ says Robinson. This group is comprised mostly of African American women, living in cities around the world. Some are in poverty, while others experience lavish lifestyles. Yet, they are connected with a love for travel.

Nomadness creates a family between its members with conferences, meetings, and trips that happen worldwide. The trips that this organization puts together are created for the rich and poor through different selling points based on your economical status. To prove just how popular these vacations are Nomadnessx, one travel experience they offer, has an average sell out time of 5 minutes.

Robinson proves how a passion for something, coupled with technology can, in fact, create a business. She says, ‘”If the Internet was a geographic location, Facebook would be the capital. It is where everyone is. If you can start someplace where everyone is and then push out from that point, you have the opportunity to do something special.”‘ Even though her enterprise came to her on accident, she is still a success story. She created a specific environment for a niche audience that has become extremely popular, all through social media.

Codie: The First Coding Toy

Whether we like it or not, technology is becoming more and more a part of our everyday lives. It is shifting from an accessory to your day to day functions, to a necessity. It appears to be doing the same thing in the professional world as well. Websites, emails, apps, social media, etc. are all words that are becoming part of a business’s vocabulary.

Children are entering into this world needing to work with technology in order to survive. Adam Lipecz, a twenty-four year old entrepreneur, saw this need and created the most interesting toy on the market, Codie. This gadget is a small wooden robot that connects to a mobile device wirelessly to work with an app. The app allows the robot to move by teaching children how to code on an elementary level. From my understanding, there are “blocks” on the app the child would drag and place to get the robot to move a specific way. It seems to be a tangible way to show kids how to code on a very small level.

 

 

Double Trouble

When I was a little girl, my dad would call my twin sister and me “double trouble.” She and I both were constantly doing things together, especially bad things. I believe many other parents with twins can attest to that title being very accurate for the same reason too. I’m sure the parents of twin boys Ryan and Adam Goldston felt the same way.

I cannot attest to how well behaved they were as children, but both Ryan and Adam as young entrepreneurs seemed to cause some trouble. As mere 28 year olds, they had already created a product that had been banned from the NBA. As you can imagine, that created some interest in their company. So much interest that they sold out of nine months of inventory just 72 hours after their banning was announced.

I guess, you have to ask what an entrepreneur has to do to get his product banned from part of the sports industry. The answer to that would be to design the first pair of sneakers that allows you to jump higher and run faster. They call it “Load ‘N Launch,” and it is the first patented technology of its kind.

This duo got their idea from sports they had played all throughout high school and college. Once they graduated they started tinkering with the possibility of a shoe that could help the user. Eventually, they came up with this technology and the name of their company, Athletic Propulsion Labs or APL. These fancy shoes come in all kinds of colors, styles, and modifications for specific purposes. APL recently launched a clothing line too.

Ryan and Adam, partnered with each other to revolutionize the old industry of sneakers. They bring a new youthful fun flare to what appears to be a stagnant marketplace. It seems to me that they are a force to be reckoned with and already are becoming successful.

For more information, visit the site below

http://www.athleticpropulsionlabs.com/

 

 

 

Zollipops: Problem Solved

Nine-year-old Alina has heard her parents say more than once, “Sugar is bad for your teeth.” To her, it seemed like a constant problem she and many other kids were facing, especially in this growing health conscious world. Alina’s father understood this as well, but had a different parental perspective on this sugary subject. As the parent he was frustrated with the ingredients in candy that is frequently around children and understood the dilemma parents faced in giving their children sweets. The problem had finally peaked in Alina’s family after she was offered a lollipop from the teller at a bank and her father told her she could not have it. She turned to her father and suggested the idea that Zollipops would be created on; orally health conscious candy.

As an inventor, who has put many new products on the market, Alina’s father coupled with Alina’s idea to make a successful product. Together, they created a lollipop with all natural ingredients that lowers pH in the mouth leading to better oral health. An acidic pH will result in the decomposition of teeth. Zollipops is the perfect solution.

At such a young age Alina could recognize a problem and create a viable solution. Because of this, she is making money and making a difference through her health conscious product. Just last year she had over $70,000 in sales and was featured on the kid’s edition of Shark Tank. Truly this little entrepreneur has achieved something great with Zollipops.

http://zollipops.com/