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Gladiator Lacrosse – Rachel Zietz

Posted by guentterjj21

· Sunday, September 25th, 2022

· 1 Comment

Rachel Zietz began her company at the age of 13 with the desire to provide lacrosse players with quality, affordable practice equipment. She created Gladiator Lacrosse after observing a lack of reliable and inexpensive products in the marketplace. This company’s unique value proposition lies in its mission to provide youth lacrosse players with value-maximizing equipment. Rachel is an excellent example of a problem solver, taking an observation based on her own experience and then capitalizing on the market for more affordable gear. The reason that Rachel serves as an inspiration to other aspiring entrepreneurs is that she was able to create her company while she was still in High School and from there was able to scale the company into a profitable and respected organization.

With the cost to play lacrosse and purchase equipment that is necessary for improvement and skill progression being among the highest of any sport, it is remarkable that Zietz was able to alter the reshape the lacrosse market as we know it and provide great products at even better prices. Zietz’s decision to start the company showed that she had what it took adapt and overcome a variety of challenges, from sourcing products, to building her marketshare. It is inspiring to see what she was able to accomplish with Gladiator Lacrosse.

1 Comment

Categories : Athletics, eCommerce

Jack Bloomfield – a self made millionaire

Posted by brakmg22

· Saturday, September 17th, 2022

· 1 Comment

Jack Bloomfield is a self-made millionaire who started a company called Disputify when he was 17 years old. Originally, he ran a smaller business that involved him buying and reselling gift cards. Today he is twenty years old and has raised about 2.25 millions dollars for his disruptive e-commerce fraud detection tool, not to mention the youngest member of the Australian Institution of Company Directors. Most of his team are actually about double his age. There are only about 3 others currently, but he plans on expanding as he continues on this path. He was an e-commerce merchant who “struggled with customer trust” and started Disputify as a way to protect against return abuse. Unfortunately, as seen with his prior business, people were trying to scam him with fake refunds and he realized that it was the same people every time. “We’d spent thousands of dollars on credit card fraud solutions, but these people were using their own details. There are refund forums with thousands of people who talk about merchants that are easiest to rip off.” According to the US National Retail Foundation, these fraudulent refunds cost the United States about $25.3 billion. With his tool, merchants no longer have to fear fraudulent refunds and customers no longer have to be punished for the selfish actions of those who would take advantage of trusting businesses. Behavior patterns are tracked during the transaction of the original person and also when any person requests a refund. Merchants are then notified of any suspicious patterns that might arise. If someone had established a “habit” of buying the wrong size, Disputify also alerts the merchant to talk with this person in order to make sure they do in fact buy the correct size. He wanted to make sure people felt confident and comfortable whenever they shop. Bloomfield even came up with a new product (instant refunds) to reward faithful and proven trustworthy shoppers.

This young entrepreneur inspires me because he began at such a young age and has grown to astounding heights within only a couple of years. He saw a problem, knew he had a solution, and didn’t stop to think about things that could be obstacles. He just kept pushing forward. He refused to let his age become a boundary that stopped him from pursuing this evidently lucrative venture. I hope that I also take risks and push ahead like he does in whatever journey I choose to take next. “What if” is a powerful question. It is better to just ask than think about what could have been.

jack bloomfield: https://www.jackbloomfield.com.au/motivate

disputify: https://www.disputify.com/about-disputify

the financial review on Jack Bloomfield: https://www.afr.com/technology/blackbird-bigcommerce-founder-back-brisbane-20-year-old-s-start-up-20220520-p5an3c

1 Comment

Categories : eCommerce, Entrepreneurship

Fixing Financial Planning

Posted by blendermannkj20

· Monday, September 27th, 2021

· 6 Comments

Do you know how to pay off student loans? Buy a home? Pay taxes? Well, that’s exactly what Rebecca Liebman was concerned about when she started LearnLux.

Personal finance isn’t covered in school, so young entrepreneur Rebecca Liebman came up with a solution to teach people about how to manage your money. LearnLux was started back in 2015 and is an online learning tool to explain different aspects of personal finance to anyone wanting to learn. Rebecca and her brother, both co-founders, came up with this solution after graduating college and wanting to relieve the stress that came with developing a financial plan. On the LearnLux website, it talks about their customers and says, “They are navigating the murky waters of the financial system alone, falling prey to predatory practices, and sinking deep into the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle.” This demonstrates that many people are worrying about finance in the modern world and shows the lack of education regarding this issue.

Their services include understanding equity compensation, funding emergency savings, building credit, and more. LearnLux also offers 1 on 1 calls with a certified Financial Planner in an unbiased manner. They advertise unbiased guidance, a configurable learning experience, and holistic teaching environment. They even have high quality lessons with digital planning for your financial plans, interactive content, and incentive and reward tools to keep you coming back!

Overall, this is a very clever idea and benefits both a common social problem as well as being a for-profit model that aims to make money. Rebecca saw a very clear need in the world and, along with her brother, developed a simple solution to help. Their primary drive was the lack of education regarding financial planning and how to communicate about these issues. Not only is LearnLux a creative solution to a common problem, but it includes different features to keep customers coming back and engaging with their product.

LearnLux is a great example of innovation and having entrepreneurial impact on the world. Rebecca saw a social problem, addressed it, and came up with an original way to help fix it. Everyone needs to learn how to manage finance, so maybe I’ll start using LearnLux too!

6 Comments

Categories : eCommerce, Education, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Social Entrepreneur

Andrew Mason – Groupon

Posted by hasseea20

· Sunday, December 13th, 2020

· 2 Comments

The story of Groupon and its main entrepreneur is a dramatic one. Andrew Mason was a web designer paid by tech billionaire Eric Lefkofsky to drop out of grad school and start a business. With his prior experience and classic dropping-out-of-college storyline, Andrew was heading down the road of successful entrepreneurship.

Although he had built enough reputation to warrant a million dollar investment from a former employer, Mason was still in uncharted territory. In an interview with the Gimlet podcast, Mason had said “In the early days we would buy a bunch of academic books on collective action, and me and the other people there would just sit around and read.” The book learning was effective, but there were still some trial and error steps along the way.

While still figuring out what genre of value Groupon would provide its users, Mason and his partners had a few tries and guesses and trips. The original point was to provide an area for people to come up with an idea and go into it together. “I have a plan, but I’m not going to go through with it unless a lot of people do it with me.” Early on, they would seed ideas out to the public and see if they would take. Business was slow, and eventually the users started coming up with their own ideas.

This caused Mason to risk losing his funding; unless he could find an avenue that would provide steady usage and income, Groupon would be shut down. Mason eventually landed on group discount. Groupon sold retail discounts, giving a cut of each sale to the business providing it. Starting off by manually distributing and building relationships Groupon ended up growing faster than Apple, Google, and Facebook. Though he is no longer a part of Groupon, Andrew Mason continues to work as a successful entrepreneur.

2 Comments

Categories : App, Business, College, Content Entrepreneurs, Creating, eCommerce, Investing, Male Entrepreneurs, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Podcast, Shopping, Startups, Websites

WE – Women in Entrepreneurship

Posted by MantzellBL18

· Thursday, December 3rd, 2020

· 1 Comment

Youngstown, Ohio is a smaller city on the outskirts of Ohio that has circulated entrepreneurial ventures in and out of storefronts for decades. A company called the Youngstown Business Incubator developed a program they like to call the WE Program, short for Women in Entrepreneurship. The WE Program “creates economic opportunities for women through entrepreneurial education and training, mentoring, and networking.” Their focus specifically on women branched from a mission to promote “minority-owned enterprises,” which they hope will bring personal and community growth.

The WE Program emphasizes three phases – WE Create, WE Launch, WE Grow – that women can apply for, according to whatever stage in the entrepreneurial startup women find themselves. The WE Create phase is a “four-week program that offers four workshops and educational sessions to help women who are ready to enter the world of entrepreneurship but need help developing an idea.” This phase is for the imaginers, the ones who have the ideas but have no clue where to start and need some structural workshops. The WE Launch phase “includes ten weeks of classes that teach the fundamentals of owning and operating a business.” The primary focus of the WE Launch phase is to take already-started businesses and aid them in launching their product or service into the market. The WE Grow phase, phase III of the Accelerator Program, “gives women four weeks of marketing strategy and tools to grow their existing businesses.” Each phase has an application that can be completed on the Youngstown Business Incubator website, and any woman can apply. Each program applicant is reviewed and applicable to win a grant award from each program, which has significantly changed the course of many women’s businesses within Mahoning Valley. Check out the program for yourself!

Youngstown Business Incubator

Find the website here: https://ybi.org/we/

1 Comment

Categories : Business, Coaching, Content Entrepreneurs, Creating, eCommerce, Education, Great Ideas, Marketing, Mentorship

Erik Finman & His Coins

Posted by ParaccaJS20

· Tuesday, December 1st, 2020

Many teenagers will consider whether they want to continue learning through higher education, or if they would prefer to go another direction. In 2011, Erik Finman decided that he wanted to continue learning but he did not want to go to college. At just 12 years old, Erik asked his parents if he could skip college and pursue higher education through different means IF he was able to successfully invest money. They agreed to his proposition, and the rest as they say is history.

See the source image

Using funds that his Grandmother had recently gifted him, Erik bought $1,000 worth of Bitcoin at around $10-$12 per coin. Erik had invested in Bitcoin just in time, as just a short time later, it skyrocketed to around $1,100 per coin. Using money he made from his investment, Erik sold $100,000 worth of his Bitcoins to start Botangle, a tutoring service that matches students with teacher via virtual video call/chat. Erik’s big break though came when he sold Botangle. The buyer offered Erik either 300 Bitcoin or $100,000. Guess which one Erik took… today at a value of $6,500 per coin, Erik is pretty happy he chose the Bitcoins.

See the source image

While tutoring services are nothing new, the thing that makes Erik’s story unique is how he knew about and invested in Bitcoin at such a young age. There are many people who still don’t understand Bitcoin or how it works today, but for a kid to know about and invest in it Bitcoin 8 years ago, that is truly special.

Categories : eCommerce, Education

More Than Just a Quiz

Posted by WarrickCB20

· Friday, November 13th, 2020

· No Comments

Throughout school, memorization is a key theme for many classes. People use everything from flash cards to repetition methods to remember key terms from different courses. While these ways have worked for decades, there has always been a demand for universally accessible and easily creatable material concerning this subject. These two main ideals were instrumental when Andrew Sutherland created the online quiz platform called Quizlet. While this website is now a household name, at its creation in 2005, this idea was revolutionary. You could now easily create online flashcards that could be shared and viewed across the internet.

Sutherland originally created Quizlet to assist him with his French homework as a sophomore in high school. After receiving attention and popularity concerning his first site, Sutherland began to realize the potential of such an idea. Over the next 15 years, Andrew studied computer science at MIT and scaled his business incredibly. The site now has over 300 million quiz sets and over 30 million monthly participants. For many, Quizlet is a life saver for studying and memorizing. Sutherland found a pain in his own life and realized it was a universal need for students across the world.

No Comments

Categories : App, eCommerce, Technology

The Story of Shopify – Tobi Lutke

Posted by ThompsonNS20

· Thursday, November 12th, 2020

· No Comments

Background:

Tobi was born in 1981 in Germany. At a very young age, he found a love for technology. Just at the age of 11, he began rewriting the code of the games he played and modifying computer hardware as a hobby.

Just after tenth grade, Lutke dropped out of school and entered an apprenticeship program at the Koblenzer Carl-Benz-School to become a computer programmer.

The Birth of Shopify:

A few years after moving to Canada in 2004, Tobi and his partners, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake, launched Snowdevil, which was an online snowboard shop. Lutke built a new online business platform for the site, using Ruby on Rails. Then soon after, the Snowdevil founders shifted their focus from snowboards to e-commerce and launched Shopify in 2006.

Shopify is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company. It is an e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems.

Shopify Now:

The Globe and Mail named Lutke “CEO of the Year” in November 2014 and his company has been growing ever since. Sell Successfully on Shopify – Vdezi

Now, Shopify is worth over $1.8 billion and is very philanthropic. In 2019, Lutke donated over a million seedlings to Team Trees because as much as he loves technology, he also loves the environment.

Entrepreneurial Lessons:

It always amazes me when I hear stories of people dropping out of school to start businesses. I don’t think my parents would appreciate that too much and it sounds scary leaving your comfortable life to journey into the unknown at such a young age.

This is why Tobi Lutke was such a great entrepreneur, he wasn’t afraid of failure or the business world.

No Comments

Categories : App, eCommerce

ASRV

Posted by HangliterTA19

· Sunday, November 8th, 2020

· 2 Comments

ASRV is a premium sportswear company that was founded by Jay Barton. Barton always had frustration with the quality and functionality of sportwear. ASRV has become a well known brand in the sportswear industry and it is known as one of the highest quality brands that you can buy for training. ASRV prides themselves with creating on new textile technologies to create the most versatile and unique sportswear on the market. ASRV continues to innovate their products with new technologies that relate to everyday needs, such as moisture wicking material for sweat, to their Viral Off, which is built to shed viruses off.

Barton says ever since the age of 9 years old he had a salesman mentality and loved to sell anything. In middle school Barton started his first “business,” buying beads from flea markets and weaving them into necklaces to sell to girls at his school. In high school he launched his own t-shirt company, making t-shirts to sell to his friends and groups at school. Barton launched two sperate ecommerce companies in his early 20s, a sunglass and a watch company. Neither company was successful however, because they were both lacking one thing, authenticity. Barton started his company, “ASRV,” with a whole list of “do’s and don’ts” for creating an authentic brand. ASRV launched six products to a super targeted market and did almost $1 million in sales.

ASRV sets themselves apart from all other major sportswear companies because they focus their designs on sportswear mobility and functionality with a streetwear fashion look. Barton says their company spends a majority of their time researching and spotting fashion trends outside of the sportwear industry so that they can keep innovating to match the needs of their consumers. The company has time and again innovated and catered to the specific needs of the targeted market that they have identified.

2 Comments

Categories : Clothing, eCommerce, Fashion, Fitness, Uncategorized

Potato Parcel – An Unlikely Success Story

Posted by zeislerzt1

· Monday, November 2nd, 2020

· 6 Comments

Potato Parcel is a business that was started by 24 year old Alex Craig, a mobile app developer that had recently graduated from the University of North Texas. The business concept is fairly simple, you can have a potato, with 140 characters or less written on it, mailed anonymously to any address. As it turns out, there was actually a decent market for this service.

After going viral on Reddit and Twitter, Potato Parcel quickly began making profits of $10,000 – $13,000 per month. By the end of the year, the business was sold to Riad Bekhit for $40,000. Bekhit expanded the product line to allow you to ship potatoes stamped with the image of someone’s face. The business was even able to secure an investment on Shark Tank, further growing its market. Potato Parcel has the value proposition of being an alternative to boring greeting cards. The goes to show that if you know how to position yourself in the market, you can build a successful business out of nearly anything.

6 Comments

Categories : eCommerce, Great Ideas, Shark Tank