Author Archive for SpicherJM18

Gladiator Lacrosse and Rachel Zietz

Rachel Zietz was only 13 years old when she created her company, Gladiator Lacrosse. While she had been playing she has found that her equipment was extremely expensive and not that durable. So she set out to do something about it. While attending the Young Entrepreneurs Academy in Boca Raton, Florida she pitched her idea of inexpensive and durable lacrosse gear to investors. She received $2,700 for the development of her idea! After her first year of being in business she achieved over $200,000 dollars in sales. And after two years, she had reached over $1 million in sales. This is an awesome idea in which I can very well relate too. I have been playing lacrosse for many years and one of the main barriers that stop new players from joining is the expensive price of lacrosse equipment. I hope that Gladiator Lacrosse can continue to help with taking down that barrier and inviting many new players into the sport.

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Teal Drones: World’s Fastest Commercial Drone

George Matus was only 12 years old when he created his own flying quadcopter. As he got older he became frustrated with the drone options that were on the market. They were restrictive for they were either only racing or only for taking pictures and video. So, he created his own “wish list” of things that he wanted in a drone and went to work making prototypes. After dozens of versions of drones and hours of test flying and crashing he was able to create his dream drone at the age of 16. The drone is capable of flying faster than 70 mph and can withstand wind of up to 40 mph. The product is yet to be released but Matus has plans to release the drone next year with a starting price of $1,300. To date, Teal Drones has raised over $3 million in fundraising and has an extremely bright future ahead.

CNBC: George Matus, founder and CEO of Teal

 

Article Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/12/meet-the-18-year-old-entrepreneur-who-built-the-worlds-fastest-drone.html

 

Benjamin Stern and Nohbo

Benjamin Stern was only 17 years old when he secured an investment from Mark Cuban on Shark Tank for his company Nohbo. Benjamin started his entrepreneurship journey all the way back in middle school, where he started his first venture. Stern would buy his own coffee beans at a wholesale price, from a roaster in Seattle, and would go around his neighborhood selling his own coffee. Part of the sales would go to the Wounded Warriors Project. After this he wanted to create an idea that would go beyond his own neighborhood.

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Using his company Nohbo, Benjamin Stern is trying to eliminate the need for plastic bottles in personal car products. Such as shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and shaving cream. His product is a single use, water-soluble, apparatus that dissolves 100 percent. It is either a ball of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, or shaving cream that you just rub on your hands under water and lather up. Moving forward Benjamin is trying to work with top hotel distributors to create a custom line for them. With an increasing consumer demand on the emphasis of cleaner, greener, and healthier products, I have no doubt that this product is bound to really change up the health and body care industry.

Article Link: https://www.newhope.com/business-resources/walk-you-run-interview-benjamin-stern-17-year-old-founder-nohbo

Grove Labs: The House’s Greenhouse

Meet Gabe Blanchet and Jamie Byron, cofounders and CEOs of Grove Labs. Those that live in the city tend to struggle growing their own food or finding locally grown and organic foods. This is because cities are so full of building after building that there is no room for anyone to make there own gardens or for farmers to use land to farm. Grove Labs is trying to solve this problem.

Grove Labs has developed a device that lets you grow fruits and vegetables hydroponically. The entire setup includes the hydroponic chamber and the mobile app that lets you keep track of the growing conditions. It will also link up to vendors to replenish your materials. Best of all the unit blends in to your kitchen decor and appliances.

Before they could even developed this amazing product they have had to raise funding, so they asked family and friends, as well as took part in the MIT Global Founders’ Skills Accelerator and raised $120,000 to help start there concept. After presenting at an event called R/GA’s demo day they raised another $2 million in funding. Since raising this money they have been able to set up their own office outside of Boston. They aim to manufacture in house on a small scale, but right now they are still in the product development phase. It is amazing to see the many new kinds of inventions that young entrepreneurs are coming up with and creating. Helping make solutions to current problems a reality.

 

Hubble Contacts, The Harry’s Razors of Contacts

Two young men named Ben Cogan and Jesse Horwitz have completely disrupted the contact industry with their contact delivery service, Hubble Contacts. For just $30 a month the company will send you fresh daily contacts in the mail. Think Harry’s Razors but for contacts. The contacts are produced by St. Shine and are FDA approved. The reason the company can get you fresh daily contacts for so cheap is because they have skipped the middle man and go direct to consumer.

Ben grew up in New York City and worked as a Senior Customer Insights Associate at Harry’s where he “helped to build the Customer Insights Team where I surveyed and interviewed customers, modeled new business opportunities”. Jesse also grew up in New York and invested his own money in private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, and real estate. Both met at Bridgewater in the summer of 2011. After they met Ben spent time on the Hubble idea and with input from his fellow workers at Harry’s made the move to start the company and called Jesse for help in the start up.

Hubble Contacts has had wild success because they are the first direct to consumer contact lens brand that is both affordable and high quality. They are able to achieve there affordability part of their business model by having the direct to consumer business model and they also take less than a 80% margin that most company’s in the industry are at. As of 2017 the Hubble team has acquired more than 20,000 customers.

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Article: https://ownersmag.com/hubble-contacts-ben-cogan-jesse-horwitz-interview/

 

Shark Tank Star Mo’s Bows

Moziah Bridges was only 12 years old when he become the CEO of his own bow tie company, Mo’s Bows. Inspired to start his company at the age of nine by his dad, who he would see dress very nice every day, Moziah asked his mom and grandmother for help on learning how to sew. This led Moziah to making his first ever hand-crafted bow tie. Believing that he had a good product, he started to sell his product online and in retail stores throughout Memphis. From there his business started to gain traction and the demand for his bow ties started to go beyond his local town, “I think the reason Mo’s Bows first caught on among consumers is the same reason it’s successful today. Every bow tie is hand crafted and made in America, and they’re all extremely colorful. There’s a lot of personality behind my line,” says Bridges. Throughout Mo’s Bows growth Moziah has stayed extremely involved in the entire process. He picks and approves all of the fabrics and patterns that go into making every bow tie. Of course everything is not solely run by him, his family helps out in every way that they can.

Mo’s Bows and Moziah Bridges become so popular that he started making TV appearances on a variety of different shows. Shows such as, the Steve Harvey Show, Today, and Good Morning America. He wanted to inform as many people as he could about the brand he was building. Things really started to explode after he made an appearance on an episode of Shark Tank in April of 2014. Moziah did not land a deal with one of the sharks but was offered mentorship by Daymond John. Moziah Bridges still is working with Daymond to help grow his business to this day, “Working with Daymond has really helped me take Mo’s Bows to the next level. He guides me through the practical aspects of running and growing a company”. Moziah’s goal is to grow into a full blown fashion line domestically and internationally. This growth has provided Mo’s Bows with amazing opportunities. These opportunities have involved being a fashion correspondent at the NBA draft and receiving an invitation to the White House where he was able to present Obama with his own blue tie.

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The reach of Mo’s Bows company was growing, and Moziah wanted to do something good with it. This led him to start Go Mo which were bow ties where 100 percent of the proceeds went to send troubled Memphis children to summer camp in the summer. To date the charity has sent over 50 kids to summer camps in Memphis. Now Mo’s Bows has sold over $300,000 worth of bow ties and Moziah Bridges is still only in high school. Incredible!