It is safe to say we all have heard that we will never have to work a day in our life if we love what we do. George Matus took those words to heart and did just that. At the age of 12, while everyone else was hunched over on social media, he built a flying quadcopter. For those who do no know what a quadcopter is, a quadcopter is a mini helicopter with 4 rotors. He had a passion for drones and fast flying technology. Matus flew everything that the drone companies made, and he was confronted with multiple problems with how restrictive the technology was. At that age of 16 he became an entrepreneur, whether he knew it or not, and decided to invent a drone that met his standards. He saw a problem and decided to do something about it, a great demonstration of what every entrepreneur some day hopes to do. Matus is the CEO of his own drone company, and had not even graduated yet. He has big goals for his business and plans on growing and expanding what other possibilities he can do. Matus says ,”The advice I would give to young entrepreneurs is to really find what interests you, and then it doesn’t feel like work.”
Archive for Business – Page 23
Bow-ties? Not exactly a revolutionary idea, but this was the business that one young, well-dressed boy decided to pursue. Growing up in Memphis, Moziah Bridges always had a love of fashion. Even at a young age Moziah, or “Mo,” could always be seen in a well-designed suit and bow-tie, a trait that he claims came from his Dad and grandpa, who were very dapper men themselves.
At age nine, Mo decided that he wanted to move beyond just dressing nice. He wanted to create his own fashion, specifically his own bow-ties, an article of clothing that he felt needed “spicing up.” So, with the help of his grandmother, Mo began sewing his own hand made bow-ties. He continued this venture with himself, his grandmother, and mother until the company reached roughly $55,000 in sales. Mo then decided that he wanted to take his business to the next level, so he and his mom went on Shark Tank expecting to raise some capital, but what they actually got was much greater. Mo and his mother were offered a cash deal by some of the sharks, but it was Daymond John’s deal that stood out the most. Daymond told Mo that he would not give the company any money, however he would offer Mo free mentorship to help the company reach new levels. Mo accepted this offer and received more benefits than any amount of capital would have provided.
Daymond helped Mo and his mother better understand the fashion business that they were in, and greatly expanded their capabilities. He helped them find a factory to help create the bowties to fill orders and he assisted Mo’s Bows expansion into Nieman Marcus, a clothing store which he claims is the “gold standard” of luxury clothing. This all happened by the time Mo Turned twelve.
Three years have gone by since this event, and Mo’s Bows is going stronger than ever. Mo recently acquired a contract with the NBA, a deal which will bring the company seven figures of income.
Mo’s Bows certainly has a bright future ahead of it, but Mo knows that all of this success was due to the high-quality mentorship that he has received throughout his young life. Articles in Business Insider and CBS have cited Mo in personal interviews, saying that he is very grateful for all the help that he has received. Whether it was the business guidance from his mother and Daymond, or his grandmother simply teaching him how to sew, this fifteen-year-old recognizes the value in having great mentors who know your field and want to see you grow. I believe that this is an important lesson that any successful entrepreneur has to learn. Mentors are extremely valuable and act as guides for you as you try and turn your idea into reality and perhaps avoid some of the pitfalls that they had to overcome.
Attached below is a link of Mo’s Shark Tank Update where he talks about how much Daymond’s mentorship has allowed his company to flourish.
Lindsay McCormick created a better product that you wouldn’t think needed changing. McCormick created toothpaste pills that come in glass bottles. She created toothpaste bits because 1 billion toothpaste tubes end up in landfills every year. The glass bottle is meant to be reused for refills and the pills become foamy like toothpaste right away after biting. This young woman took a problem and passion she had and ran with it. She created a product that saves people money on toothpaste, and reduces toothpaste tubes that end up in landfills yearly. Here is a link to a video to hear more on her story and the product, https://www.businessinsider.com/this-toothpaste-pill-comes-in-sustainable-packaging-bite-toothpaste-bits-2018-9?r=UK&IR=T
A very successful millennial entrepreneur who has far surpassed all expectations of his peers is Benjamin Kapelushnik, also known as “Benjamin Kickz”. He is an 18 year old who has amassed $1 million reselling sneakers by the age of 16. As a result, he has been noticed by various news outlets which leveraged his fame. Benjamin has also formed relationships with many A-list rappers and artists thanks to a mutual friend who had connections with DJ Khaled. Since then, he gained massive exposure from appearing on DJ Khaled’s Snapchat story on a regular basis. This also boosted Ben’s sneaker sales, which led to him launching his own online store to sell sneakers more effectively. As time went on, he started selling sneakers to his celebrity friends and now he supplies them with any sneakers they want, no matter how rare or expensive they are. 
Benjamin Kickz is an unusual success story, especially for being such a young age. When it comes to selling sneakers, Ben realized that reselling a product to a passionate market had lots of potential, and he capitalized on that. He says the hustling mentality coursed through his veins all his life. In elementary school he sold pencils, candy, erasers, you name it. That money-making mindset evolved with perseverance and commitment for years to come. The future is looking bright for this young entrepreneur, and he continues to inspire others who want to follow in his footsteps and achieve greatness. I see Benjamin’s story as a textbook example of why age is irrelevant in business, even if society says you can’t do something because it does not follow the status quo. More young entrepreneurs need to hear this story so they can realize it doesn’t take a grown up to achieve big things.
Ed Hollands: DrivenMedia
Picture a rainy-day commute through the city; traffic piling up, staring out your window at all the other cars and trucks. You can’t even enjoy your favorite view of the city because there are too many tall trucks and vans in the way. This is where 23-year-old Ed Holland found himself and then suddenly it hit him. What if you could turn a profit off the view that is blocked; more specifically what if he could find a way to sell unique advertising on all those blank trucks and vans? He took this thought and ran with it, creating a startup called Driven Media.
There was an unrecognized opportunity by many businesses that Ed had uncovered. His company will wrap trucks with advertisements. The innovation around Ed’s business comes in the form of tracking the impressions the vehicle advertisements have. DrivenMedia contracts with companies whose drivers are on the road at least 5 days a week and uses their GPS trackers to ensure the ads are being seen. Each day a typical trailer or truck is seen by an average of 55,000 people. When you break down the cost per 1000 impressions, it is quite a valuable deal for the companies that contract with DrivenMedia. Ed’s company sells 12-month packages and it has proved to be a very profitable niche.
Reading about Ed’s story it affirmed to me the simplicity and excitement that lies in the everyday life in respect to the possibility of innovation. Even when you are not necessarily looking to innovate thoughts can just materialize in your head and change your life completely. It has reminded me to not only recognize problems in life and complain, but to then continue those thoughts into forming possible solutions. No pain, no sale. Never underestimate the power hidden in your problems.
Click above to be directed to DrivenMedia website
I am sure nowadays everyone either knows or has in some way heard the name Airbnb or personally used the app. This app has completely revolutionized to travel and hotel industry and was created by some of the youngest entrepreneurs. The co-founder of Airbnb is only 37 years old named Brian Chesky .When he first got started with his business he was only 27 years old. I found him and his business interesting because he completely innovated the hotel business with his business. Before his business if you wanted to stay somewhere you had basically three options. You would have to stay in a hotel, motel, or with a friend or family. If you didn’t have any friends or family in the area you were forced to settle with spending the money. Airbnb changed that.
So far, about 44.8 million adults are using Airbnb worldwide. In 2014 their website surpassed 800,000 listings. That means they have surpassed Hilton Worldwide, the InterContinental Hotels Group or any other hotel chain in the world in logging numbers. The business is only getting bigger and bigger each year as well.
When asked about what he credits his success to he said, “childlike curiosity and wonder…[is] probably the most important trait you can have, especially as an entrepreneur.” His promotion of the importance of a young perspective is inspiring because it gives me hope that I could possibly come up with a successful idea just like he did.
I am also inspired to look for the mashups. He saw people who needed places to stay who also didn’t want to pay a ton and placed them with people who were willing to rent out their own property. They found a way for people to make money using things they already own and to satisfy the need for travelers to have a cheaper more homelike stay.
People like Chesky are helping to inspire young thinkers everywhere to believe in their ideas and try to make a difference in the world every day.
In 2011, Garrett Gee saw a need for a simple QR code scanning app. Many of the ones available at the time were clunky and hard to use. The iPad 2 was being introduced in February, and he thought there might be a blog that showed the top ten apps for the new tablet. He wanted to be the first one with an easy-to-use QR code scanner for the
iPad 2. A few days after the release of the device, Garrett launched Scan. It found a place in the blog like he was hoping, and gained a large amount of traction. Three months later, there had been over one million downloads of the app, and 25 million downloads by the end of 2012. The app and website were updated often with new features, including the ability to scan different types of codes and make QR codes to link to your Instagram account.
Scan was able to acquire $1.7 million in investments by 2013, including money from Google Ventures. Garrett also presented on Shark Tank in 2013, but did not secure any investments. Their revenue came mostly from advertisements on the app and website, and in May, 2012, their advertising revenue had risen to over $1,000 each day.
Scan was sold to Snapchat in the fall of 2014 for $54 million. Once this happened, Garrett and his wife Jessica decided to take their (at the time) two kids and travel the world, but they also said that they would not spend any of the money made from the Scan transaction. They put the money away, and pretty much started from scratch again. In the fall of 2015, they sold almost all of their belongings, which totaled to $51,500. They were going to live off of that money from August to December, then figure out what to do from there.
At the end of the time period, they decided to keep traveling, but only if they could find a way to have it be self-sustaining or profitable. From the beginning, Garrett had been working on creating a brand for the family
(The Bucket List Family) with things like their blog, YouTube videos, and Instagram. They worked hard to find companies to work with who would support them in exchange for promotion. At the beginning, they had trouble breaking even since they were small, but eventually they started making a good amount of money. Now they get paid anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 for a sponsored YouTube video, and $5,000 to $8,000 for an Instagram post. Companies they have worked with include hotels, clothing brands, Airbnb, and GoPro. They have been able to have some amazing experiences on their travels.
The Gee family, specifically Garrett, put in lots of time and effort to become successful. He did it with Scan, then started all over with a new idea to support their family passion for traveling. There is much that can be learned from him and his family.
Berkshire Hathaway has been the leader in acquiring large, profitable venture. But, with Warren Buffet nearing 90, what is in store for the billion dollar company? Buffet has set up a succession plan for the next few years, according to Lorie Konish at CNBC. But what does that mean for the entrepreneur’s empire?
I think it will look something like this: Investing at Berkshire Hathaway is supposed to change drastically when Buffet leave. Although, the company claims that all habits implemented by Buffet are to stay in place. What will this do to the raging stock now nearing $32o,000 per share? My guess is this stock will fail.
Look out entrepreneurs, it might just be our turn to take a chunk out of this billion dollar monopoly! Take a look at the CNBC article and let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Cole Plominski
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.
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!
“Business is boomin’” for 19 year old entrepreneur Benjamin Kapelushnik. It all started when he was around 13 years old and started becoming what is known as a “sneaker head.” Around 15, he began to buy and sell a lot of shoes to people he knew, online, through social media, as well as to celebrities. Benjamin “Kickz” Kapelushnik makes his money from reselling rare sneakers. The market value of resale sneakers has steadily increased in recent years and is now valued at around $1.2 billion. He is able to get some rare sneakers before they even hit the market and he resells them on his SneakerDon website as soon as he gets them. He is able to get all the shoes in all the sizes, which sets him apart from other resellers in the market because they generally only have a few sizes. This gave Ben an advantage over his competitors and attracted a lot of business.
Some of his most well known customers include DJ Khaled, P Diddy, and Travis Scott. Benjamin’s family recently moved to Los Angeles and he believes this will help his business to grow. Currently, he has near $1 million in stock shoes waiting to be sold and buys more almost every day. He makes around a million dollars a year reselling sneakers online. That money is not even including the money he makes from selling to celebrities. The celebrities tend to buy the more high-end sneakers too. All this is possible because of his great marketing skills. He gets the sneakers from resellers that don’t have the customers that Ben has.
