Author Archive for smithag20

IdeaPaint: Dry Erase Walls

John Goscha founded IdeaPaint, in the early 2000s. He and several friends, Andrew Foley, William Gioielli, and Alex Galperin, developed this idea through their college years. Seeing a need for dry erase walls first, when John and his entrepreneurship hall mates posted large sheets of paper up and down the walls of their hall. They eventually ran out of space on their idea sheets and had to continually replace them. Goscha decided to try and find some dry erase paint to make their lives easier. To his chagrin, there was no such thing!

John, Andrew and William started developing the business plan for IdeaPaint, and researching options and paints to test their product out. They made the walls dry erase and when students and faculty started using the walls, they realized this had an actual market. IdeaPaint received seed money for Babson, and the team began working to creating their product. After graduation, the team split up, but John Goscha kept at his idea. IdeaPaint has several setbacks finding a paint that would actually work commercially. They eventually found the perfect product, and received investors and are now a very successful company. Many large companies and universities, including Chick-fil-A, MIT, Go Daddy, Evernote, Welch’s, Google and more use IdeaPaint around their campuses.

John Goshca, came up with an incredible product idea, when he and his entrepreneurship buddies found a pain they were experiencing. He joined together with a few other classmates, realizing that working together would help him find a better solution, than if he had been working on his own. John did not let setbacks keep him down, but pursued his idea throughout the decade until he reached success. He has benefited so many individuals and companies through his hard work.

IdeaPaint now have many different options and products, including magnetic surfaces, dry erase + projector surfaces and others that allow lots of flexibility, and it all stemmed from the need to stop replacing paper on the walls of John Goscha’s dorm hall.

The Bagel Rebellion

Milena Pagan is a self-proclaimed “corporate-retail-strategist-turned-bagel-maker.” Pagan was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Massachusetts to get her degree at MIT. Milena Pagan graduated from MIT with a degree in chemical engineering, followed by a job with CVS Health as an Omnichannel Strategist, but after several years she needed to share her passion for homemade bagels after finding it hard to get New York style  bagels that she really enjoyed. Pagan experimented for several months to create the perfect recipe, then quit her job at CVS and launched Rebelle Artisan Bagels.

Milena Pagan is an incredibly determined person. She identified a problem, and found a way to profit and satisfy that need. Pagan held pop-up shops and promoted her bagels to everyone she could. She has found a way to put a twist on handmade, New York style bagels that differentiates herself from the rest of bagel makers in Providence, Rhode Island. Her success with a Kickstarter campaign granted Rebelle Bagels to pursue a storefront in Providence and they were able to open  their doors in the summer of 2017.

Milena Pagan earned a Entrepreneur of the Year Award New England recently and she deserved it. She has done an amazing job pursing a goal and has achieved great success.  Melina has shown her perseverance and resilience in times of challenge. During COVID she and Rebelle had to be incredibly flexible in order to continue pr0viding customers with the value and quality they were accustomed to.

Customers rave about the fun and interesting flavors that Rebelle Bagels creates on a daily basis. These unexpected flavors are not limited to just bagels, they extend to their very own line of cream cheese, lox, and lunch items.

Located in Providence, Rhode Island, Rebelle Bagels hand make their bagels, cream cheese and lox daily. They experiment with flavors and offer lots of vegan options.

 

Misfit Veggies Might be the Next Best Thing

 

Do you like getting your vegetables shipped right to the door? Maybe you are a fan of how Amazon or other stores are shipping vegetables to homes around the nation. Are you passionate about helping the environment and limiting food waste? Well Abhi Ramesh is here to make that a reality. In 2018, Ramesh founded Misfits Market, becoming so successful he was featured on Forbe’s 30 under 30.

At many supermarkets and grocery stores around the United States, produce is wasted because it looks “weird” or due to overstock. These stores also give farmers guidelines for how produce should look, and if it does not line up, then the farmers toss it into a different pile, a pile of waste. Misfits Market fights the food waste problem by outsourcing produce that is extra or is a “misfit” veggie from local farmers. These misfit veggies are sometimes misshapen or discolored, however they taste just as good as a normal looking veggie from the grocery store.

Misfits is a subscription based service, you can choose how often you want veggies delivered and how much produce you want. Because farming is a seasonal occupation, at different times of the year, the boxes come with different veggies. There is a large variety of fruits and veggies that Misfits sends with each box.

Customers can put suggestions in for what they want or do not want, but for the most part, receiving the boxes are a fun mystery. With Misfits, my family has been able to try a lot of new fruits and veggies I had never heard of before. Some are great, and others are not. Misfits also provides some recipes for how to cook some of the more interesting and less common veggies.

Ramesh took a prevalent problem and made a great product. He identified the problem (food waste), and who the target customers were, and then created a service that provides vegetables at the click of a button.

https://www.misfitsmarket.com/

Kelce (Singer/Songwriter)

A Massachusetts native, Kelce, is a singer/songwriter who is pursuing her passion to create music that is relatable to her listeners. Born into a musical family, she was exposed to music at a young age and always loved it. She began song writing at the age of 13. At the age of 14, realizing her talent was an incredible gift from God, and taking the opportunity presented to her by Him, Kelce got connected to a musical mentor. Her mentor trained her and strengthened her songwriting abilities, as well as got her connected to a local producer.

Kelce is a determined and passionate entrepreneur, she is not afraid of failure, knowing that working in the music industry is a not going to be easy. She took her passion for music, combined it with the need to create music that is relatable to listeners and uses her music to create her brand, Kelce. Her, “favorite aspect of the creative journey is the writing…’ Kelce brings value through her lyrics that are not only relatable to listeners but are connected to her music to allow the listeners to really feel what the words say. She hopes to impact the way people will be able to process life through her lyrics the way she does as she writes the amazing songs.

Realizing that the music industry is not a piece of cake, Kelce is always finding ways to engage her listeners, and build up her follower base. She takes advantage of the tips and tricks that are provided by Spotify about finding the right ways into the algorithms and onto discovery playlists. She engages her followers through social media by providing content on a regular basis. She creates personal and active connections with her listeners, in ord er to grain traction and build her brand.

 

Her latest EP, Perspective, just came out, but my personal favorite is New York at Night!

Follow her @kelce_m (Instagram) and give her a listen on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QLwaRmbePjpI243zQEg2L?si=qY37IixVQmqIlpTGgaD-WQ

Knoq. Knoq. Who’s There?

Kendall Tucker. Kendall Tucker who?

Kendall Tucker, the founder of Knoq, a community outreach technology company. Knoq, which was launched in 2018 and has its headquarters in Boston, Mass uses representatives of the neighborhood to reach their own neighbors. The Knoqers, as they are called, canvas their own neighborhoods forming relationships and discussing products that can make homeowner’s lives easier, from scheduling a MassSave Evaluation to teaching people about home security systems.

Knoq, trains and recruits people on canvasing and door-to-door sales before sending them out into their own neighborhoods. The focus being on their own neighborhoods, because Knoq wants to reemphasize and encourage people to connect with their neighbors, as was commonplace in the past century. Google Fiber, NRG, Fluent Home Security, and Inspire Energy all use the services Knoq provides.

Prior to founding Knoq, Kendall Tucker worked in the political realm, managing a State Senate race, and working for political campaigns. After she graduated, Tucker worked at a management consulting company where she gained important skills in analyzing data. She then founded the company, Polis Politics, where she was CEO for three years. Polis was also a Massachusetts start-up, founded in 2015, it is also a door-to-door outreach platform. This company sells data to political campaigns in order to help them canvas for voters much easier. The data from Polis creates profiles for citizens regarding their political history. After it launched over 150 organizations used Polis.

Tucker has valuable skills is community outreach (a very important aspect of her companies), data analysis, and research. She was a finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year in New England, as well as being featured in CNBC’s Upstart 100: World’s Most Promising.

I have learned from Kendall Tucker that sometimes you know you want to achieve something, but in order to do that you need to gain skills and take sometime before you start your dream. This was from her job at the consulting company where she learned data analysis in order to create Polis with the best system to benefit political campaigns.

 

Beautifully You

Hailing from Massachusetts, 12 year old Hannah is a successful entrepreneur, selling beauty products . Hannah started BeYOUtiful in 2016. Her father challenged her to start creating and selling some of her favorite beauty products by herself. Hannah decided on selling bath bombs, which she researched and learned how to create. Within a few weeks she had accomplished her goal and had started selling them online at her website, HannahGraceBeYOUtiful and at several gift shops and retail stores in Massachusetts. Hannah has donated over $5000 to charities and has dedicated 20% of her web sales to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

As a baby, Hannah was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, however that did not stop her. Hannah is a determined and passionate young woman. Her father challenged her to start her own business, and she became extremely motivated to pursue that goal. Regardless, of the fact that she was just 12 years old when she began the journey to create BeYOUtiful, she did not let that stop her. This brings to mind the verse in 1 Timothy 4:12, that says not to let anyone look down on you because you are young.

BeYOUtiful products are handmade by Hannah and use natural ingredients. Her inspiration comes from her love of beauty products, and more specifically, bath bombs. Hannah named her start-up BeYOUtiful, because she believes true beauty is found within and by truly being YOU. Being a forward-thinking entrepreneur, she has partnered with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. Hannah is an optimistic person and hopes to help organizations find a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. She has donated 20% of her web profits to them, as well as donating part of her total profits to other organizations that pursue a cure for Type 1 Diabetes, to achieve this goal of hers.

Hannah, challenged by her father pursued a goal and successfully achieved that goal. She has used her business to bless others through charity work, showing her compassionate spirit. As a driven, passionate young women, Hannah has been successful in selling her bath bombs with her brand, BeYOUtiful.