As the weather grows colder, I thought it was fitting to explore the great minds behind the growing brand, Love Your Melon. Zachary Quinn, 26, and Brian Keller, 25, met when they were both attending the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. On the second day of their entrepreneurship class, Brian and Zachary decided to join forces to create a project that would see a profit at the end of the semester. They decided to create a company that would sell beanies, and their reason was that it’s always cold in Minnesota. After raising $3500 in small loans from family and friends, Zachary and Brian sent their beanie design to a knitting mill in Portland, Oregon, and the embroidered logo was designed and created by a local business.
Once Brian and Zachary had their product, they decided to add a nonprofit element because Zachary was influenced by his mom’s contributions to homeless shelters. Brian and Zachary decided to donate one beanie for every beanie purchased to patients suffering from cancer. During their first round of sales, Love Your Melon sold 200 beanies in front of Zachary’s parents’ restaurant, so Brian and Zachary donated 200 beanies to oncology patients at a local children’s hospital.
Zachary was impacted greatly by one patient they donated a beanie to, and that inspired him to take a gap year so he could focus on growing the business. Pretty soon they were traveling and spreading the positive brand on a bus tour. During their adventures in 2014, they decided to create their college ambassador program because a lot of students were interested in deliverin
g the beanies to cancer patients. Today, Love Your Melon has 13,000 students at 850 schools delivering beanies to kids with cancer, and they have expanded their product line to scarfs, blankets, and gloves.
This is an inspiring story and another example of how a great idea has started within a classroom. I think this proves that minds coming together can create a stronger company because Zachary was familiar with nonprofits but needed Brian to help create a product that can serve his mission. What really impressed me about this story was the passion that Zachary and Brian had. They didn’t stop at getting an A in the class, they were impacted by the patients they were serving, and that drove them to continue growing Love Your Melon. Finally, Love Your Melon is a great example of a company that started with a simple product/niche but eventually expanded into a larger market.
Although not a millennial, Milton S. Hershey is an inspiring young entrepreneur, just of a different century. Hershey encompasses the spirit of a true entrepreneur in that he worked hard for what he wanted, persevered through failures, and sought the good of others not simply for personal gain. Working from the bottom up, Hershey was born in a small farming community in central Pennsylvania, was primarily raised by his mother after his father fell out of the picture, dropped out of school by 14, and became an apprentice to a confectioner. By 18, Hershey had set up his own candy shop with $150 he had borrowed from his aunt. After this business failed to take off, he headed West where he learned the art of making caramel with fresh milk. The entrepreneurial spirit within him struck out again, and Hershey tried twice more to set up candy shops with this new addition. His ventures in Chicago and New York may have failed him, but he was not discouraged. Returning to Lancaster, Hershey gave it one more shot and that perseverance finally paid off. The name we now know for chocolate really began in the caramel business!
Milton S. Hershey’s story didn’t end with the successful establishment of the Lancaster Caramel Company, instead, he continued to explore ways to improve the world around him within the realm of what he knew best-candy. At the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago he was introduced to chocolate making which inspired him to make this then delicacy accessible to the general public. He sold his caramel company for one million dollars, and founded the Hershey Chocolate Company which (as we know) became even more successful than his prior endeavor. The amazing part of Hershey’s story is not his drive, nor his multiple successes, but what he chose to do with these blessings. Instead of leading the life of luxury he had earned, Hershey chose to live modestly and cultivate his community to create better opportunities for those around him. He built churches, parks, housing, transportation, and other amenities for his workers, and with no children of his own, he founded a school to give other boys and
proud CEO while his mother served as president. A few months before becoming official, the Martinez home as well as close friends and families’ homes were bursting at the seams with boxes full of wacky socks. The company become a family bonding experience as Sebastian’s older brother Brandon used his socializing and presentation skills to market the product while Sebastian’s father Fabian’s excitement and energy kept the whole family involved and encouraged.
