Archive for Entrepreneurship – Page 12

Langston Whitlock – SAFETRIP

Langston Whitlock is a young entrepreneur who has developed a ridesharing app called, SAFETRIP that allows users to have access to medical transport. These rides can be requested in different forms such as a ride in advance or at the moment when you need it. It also has an important feature that allows users to select if the ride is an EMT (Emergency Medical Transport) or if it is a NEMT (Non-Emergency Medical Transport). Whitlock gives customers different options for paying for rides which even includes using insurance for the ride.

This is an awesome service to provide for those who need transportation to and from medical buildings and services. The transportation offered by some medical groups can be a terribly large expense and many people do not have an option besides paying the fee. I really think so of the greatest ventures are those that set out to serve others. People also trust the business more and want to invest in it when it is honest and service-oriented. This is evident through the $2 million in funding that Whitlock has received as a result.

I see this business as a great innovation of an already existing market and business idea. The rideshare industry has been a really great resource for people all over the country. SAFETRIP targets a specific niche that is in need of transportation dedicated to those with delicate medical needs. I believe entrepreneurs do their best work when looking outwardly, to have an impact on other people’s lives in a positive way. When focused on how to create a money machine entrepreneurs can miss the actual issue they are trying to solve and market to.

Trisha Prabhu: ReThink-ing Online Hate

Trisha Prabhu is a 21-year-old social entrepreneur and the founder of ReThink, a patented technology that detects and stops online hate. In the fall of 2013, Trisha, then only 13 years old, read the shocking story of Rebecca Sedwick’s suicide. Rebecca, after being cyberbullied for over a year and a half, took her own life at only 12 years old. As a victim of bullying herself, Trisha felt heartbroken and horrified. In that moment, she decided to no longer be a bystander and created ReThink, which detects online hate at the source before bullying occurs.

Trisha has received worldwide acclaim for her endeavors. In 2016, former President Barack Obama invited to Trisha to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit to share her story with other entrepreneurs. ReThink also made an appearance on Shark Tank, and not long after, Trisha received the prestigious Elevate Prize, as well as an Adrian Cheng Fellowship at Harvard. Trisha is the youngest honoree named to this year’s Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Social Impact list.

To date, Trisha has spread the message of ReThink to over 30 cities in 3 languages. Trisha is also an avid supporter of empowering women in the entrepreneurial community. Whether volunteering her time to teach young women how to code or finding ways to bridge the diversity gap in entrepreneurship, Trisha is inspiring a generation of fierce young women to tackle the world’s most important issues.

Check out Trisha’s TED Talk below!

Italian Graphic Design Entrepreneur

Do you ever wonder how you can make your social media look appealing? 

    Antia D’Alisera is not merely a successful YouTuber. Born in Rome Italy, and now a freshman at Kings College in London, she was raised by her father who is a movie producer and her mother who is an interior designer in Rome. Her older sister recently graduated from Parsons School of Design for fashion. Anita is surrounded by excellent taste and a beautiful eye for aesthetics. While on vacation, Anita and her family frequently travel to their house on an island off of Greece called Patmos. From growing up surrounded by her parents and sister’s excellent taste in style, art, and design, Anita has found a passion and deep interest for graphic designs, film, beauty and exquisite aesthetics. She is gifted with ideaphoria and can easily put her ideas into practice, since she currently has her own YouTube channel and her own graphic design business.   

    Anita D’Alisera, known as AniDali on Youtube (and for all her social media platforms), is currently a content creator for more than 6 years reaching 26.4 thousand subscribers. She is a young entrepreneur since she gets paid by YouTube, and also started her own graphic design business in 2020. The purpose of her business is to help Youtubers create aesthetic intro, outro, and banner templates for their Youtube channel. She customizes people’s needs based on what their YouTube channel is about and her prices are very affordable. There is a demand for having YouTube channels be pleasing, since the more the effort in regards to how one’s presentation looks the more people will subscribe to it. This is understandable and what a person says in their videos matters as well. 

   On the Fiverr website, an online marketplace for freelancers, Anita mentions that in addition to helping YouTubers create graphic designs, she customizes beautiful templates for clients’ social media as well. Anita has an entrepreneurial mindset because she realizes that not everyone is a YouTuber so she has branched out to help people make their other social media platforms look attractive and beautiful. Anita’s talent for design at her young age promises a lifetime of inspiration to create beauty and make it known.

Here is additional information on Anita D’Alisera: 

https://www.fiverr.com/anidali/create-graphics-for-your-social-medias 

https://www.instagram.com/anidali/?hl=it 

https://www.youtube.com/c/AniDali/featured 

Not your Old Girly Candle-ManCan

A 13 year old boy named, Hart Main began his own candle business. His product is both inventive and creative. Having a sister, he naturally had to find something to pick on her for. So, he decided to make fun of all the scented candles she had to sell that smelled so girly. Most girls love a good smelling candle, so he was not wrong. This sparked an ides in his mind. Why could there not be manly candles? He solved this question by creating ManCan. Manly scented candles made in old soup cans. These candles not only smell good but they look good too. Hart made a creative design.    “Hart’s candles are in stores in every state, with sales exceeding six figures annually.” (NFIB. “NFIB ‘s 2015 Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner: ManCans LLC.” Accessed April 10, 2021.) This young boy is receiving annual success and this is all because he wanted a manly smelling candle. Our small ideas or longings could turn into a success.  Some of the many  scents that he decided to create were “Campfire, Bacon, Sawdust, Fresh Cut Grass, and Grandpa’s Pipe”, and people truly seem to love his manly scents. These scents are not your old girly candles, oh no, they are Hart’s ManCans. https://www.investopedia.com/10-successful-young-entrepreneurs-4773310

Bella Weems: Origami Owl

Bella Weems is a 28-year-old who is the founder of the jewelry company Origami Owl. At just 14 years old, she turned her passion into a business after her parents told her she would have to earn her first car. Her passion for handcrafting jewelry turned into a multi-million-dollar business.See the source image

Origami Owls main product is called the “Living Locket” which is a locket which you can add in your own, personalized charms to. This is unique because each charm can represent the persons hobbies and interests and showcase them when they wear the necklace. Bella also sells bracelets, earrings, and other accessories.

Bella is a busy kid entrepreneur, but she still allots time to give back. She started the “Owlettes Initiative” in which she personally mentors young aspiring entrepreneurs ages 12-17. Bella shares tips with these kids and any advice from her success story. I think this part of her business is truly inspiring because she found a way to help others as well as keep up a successful business.

Bella says the best part of being a kid entrepreneur is, “…being able to encourage kids of all ages to not be afraid to reach for their dreams and never let anyone tell them they’re not good enough or their idea isn’t good enough.” Bella’s business Origami Owl not only lets people express themselves through their jewelry but inspires young entrepreneurs to take the risk to start making something they are passionate about become big.

11 Successful Kid Entrepreneurs Keeping Their Eyes on the Prize

Miracle Olatunji: Helping Students Discover their Passion

The evolution of OpportuniMe, and founder Miracle Olatunji - Technical.ly DelawareMiracle Olatunji is the founder of an OpportuniMe, a platform to connect high schools with opportunities for career development. She started it as a high school student. Olatunji created OpporuntiMe because she wanted to “democratize the process of helping people find opportunities.” Though she knew such programs existed, they were typically too obscure to discover. Olatunji gained her passion for OpportuniMe when she participated in the University of Delaware’s Diamond Challenge. This competition allowed her to see the power of entrepreneurship and how it can be used to instigate fruitful change. Olatunji wanted to start OpportuniMe as soon and as simple as possible; hence, it began as a newsletter. She is now working towards a website that will provide even more resources.

Olatunji is an admirer of social entrepreneurship. As such, she is working on another project called MIRACLE. Although MIRACLE is her first name, each letter represents something unique: Making Impacts, Raising Awareness, and Creating Learning Experiences. She states, “The vision is to create this organization, and under the umbrella of the organization would be social enterprises that meet the goal of creating and launching social ventures that empower, enlighten and educate people.”

Olatunji’s mission for students is clear: discover your passion, execute, and make a difference. She also wants young entrepreneurs to be ambitious, refusing to let their age or background limit them. Olatunji tries to encourage this by adopting Steven Johnson’s idea of a “liquid network,” which permits ideas to collide, connect, and evolve. This idea is evident in her effort to connect students with mentorship and other entrepreneurs. In a Forbes article, she shared: “You can’t really take an idea off the ground without collaborating with people and having mentors.”

Clearly, Olatunji values social entrepreneurship. Her investment in students shows her appreciation of guidance and how anyone, regardless of their age, can be innovative.

https://youtu.be/Hk-XjgRFlvw

Sources


https://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthaharrington/2018/01/16/how-high-school-founder-miracle-olatunji-is-democratizing-opportunity/?sh=706d2fcb2154

The evolution of OpportuniMe, and founder Miracle Olatunji

Pura Vida (live free)

It all started in the summer of 2010. When two friends from Southern California Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman went on a college graduation trip to Costa Rica. Griffin and Paul fell in love with the stunning sunsets, killer surfing, cool beach towns and awesome people, and its laid-back lifestyle.

One day after they caught some waves, they came across two artisans named Jorge and Joaquin. Which they had the colorful string bracelets that captured the simple beauty of Costa Rica. Jorge and Joaquin were sadly struggling to survive on their artisan wages, like living with their family in a single room with three beds. Eventually Griffin and Paul asked the artist to make 400 bracelets to take home with them

So the fun began…Two artisans pounding fists

Griffin and Paul went back to San Diego and displayed the bracelets in a local boutique and instantly sold out in a few days. It hit them that these bracelets are more then just a simple friendship bracelet. There are a movement that is celebrating the simple things in life, or “Pura Vida,” as the Costa Ricans would call it. The saying is more about enjoying life’s little pleasures, slowing things down and living life to the fullest.

To spread the “Pura Vida” spirit around the world, Griffin and Paul teamed up with the artisans  Jorge and Joaquin, to create handcrafted bracelets in endless color combinations for each unique person wearing a bracelet. It all started selling a few bracelets for a week and now has grown into a worldwide movement with millions of bracelets sold each year.Two artisans with Pura Vida's first logo

Pura Vida is always giving back and that’s why they created the Charity Collection. Over the past few years, Pura Vida has partnered with 200 charities around the world to donate $3.8 million to causes. Pura Vida is always striving to do more and they are constantly on the look out for more charities that can benefit from Pura Vida Bracelets.

Entrepreneur Inspiration-APEX 4 Kids: Caleb Maddix

Want to go above and beyond for your kids? Then Apex 4 Kids: Kids For Success might be what you need! Caleb Maddix started Apex 4 Kids when he was only 14 years old and he created this business to steak to kids who want to do more than the bare minimum. He is going out and speaking to kids all over the world so he can express to kids how the could become successful. As a young entrepreneur, he knew he wanted to help people and overall, Maddix wanted to start his own business NOW rather than working for someone else. In an interview with Nick Morgan, Maddix responded to the question of how brave it is to start an ambitious mission at such a young age in this way, “So I live my life by a quote and it’s “the gun that kills the most people is the ‘gonna.’” I meet too many people, especially kids, who are like “OK, I’ll get out of college and focus on my future” or “I’m gonna write a book, I’m gonna start a business …” and all of a sudden they’re 40 years old and unhappy with their life, all because they thought it was just gonna to work out. They end up killing their dream!” The main thing that’s needed to be done for Kids for Success if that he gets to personally coach ambitious students for a year in his business starting and successful ways. This greatly impacts our current students and the future of our economy.60: Making Your First Million by Age 16 | Caleb Maddix - JeremyRyanSlate.com

Now, he started out in a rough patch with his family and the divorce of his parents. He became very shy and insecure with himself. Now, he became ambitious about studying greatness and that’s all he needed to get a spark of creativity. Maddix has now written 9 books, and he was voted most successful young entrepreneuras well. He is also a 14 year old (now 18) billionaire. He now has the joy of waking up and going out and making a change in the world because he wanted to change his way of life and the way that he looked at things. His father was the root of his success because of his father’s push to study greatness and knowledge to become successful in this life.

Caleb Moddix’s craving to help other students become successful is one of his unique qualities. Most young entrepreneurs want to help others, but they most often just want to sell. I admire how he just dove into his dream and made it happen. Like he said, most people wait to achieve their dreams when they have a degree or have licensing when they’re older, but his point is, start now! Don’t wait. In addition, he sees the needs of poorer countries and underprivileged children and he wants to give them the tools to help them strive for a better way of life.

Maddix is creating his own line of books and lectures that encourage people from all over to start businesses and strive for success. When asked the question about what he would say to parents to help their kids seek success is, “Be the type of parent that your kid wants to become because they respect you, but also be the type of person that if they became identical to you, you would respect, as you would respect yourself. That’s the most deep and true thing you can ever say about being a parent. Some parents are so mad with the person their kid has become, but the kid is really just like them.”

Overall, I think this idea is very innovative because we need to be influencing the next generation now of how to live life successfully, no matter what that may look like. This has inspired me to look at students in a different way knowing that they have the exact same capabilities, with a little more understanding of how to accomplish things. Most often people look at kids as inexperienced, but the more they learn how to navigate life, the more impactful experiences they will have.

 

Website Link:

https://apex4kids.com/home

Article Link:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorgan/2016/03/15/caleb-maddix-extraordinary-entrepreneur/?sh=5771a77c34b5

City Bonfires-A Mini Mobile Bonfire

City Bonfires was created and is still produced in Maryland.  It was created by Chris McCasland and Michael Opalski when both of their jobs were impacted because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Because of this, they were both at home a lot more than they were used to and started looking for something to do with all of this time they had recently acquired.  I think that it is really great that they make everything right in Maryland and with American made materials.

City Bonfires sells several different product packages on their website.  They sell just the “portable firepit”, three different smore packs (which include smore ingredients since these are safe to cook over, and scented ones which interestingly you can also still cook over.  I think this is a very interesting concept and something that has been missing on the market.  Yes there have been other little fire makers out there, but none that are made out of food grade wax and plant based materials that makes them perfectly safe to cook things like smores over.

I really like the idea and execution of City Bonfires.  I believe that with innovation cool niche products like this can really make a go of it.  There is nothing quite as perfect and well thought out as this product on the market.  I think it is very fun that this whole company came from the pandemic.

Shop Page – City Bonfires

Floral Farm

Have you ever wanted to create your own flower bouquets? 

      Camden Kidwell is the leading example of a young entrepreneur. He is a recent homeschool high school graduate and instead of going to college this fall he took the entire spring and summer to create his own flower farm and bouquet business. He started Swallowdale Flowers in June of 2021, and named the business after swallows which nest in his family’s barn. Swallowdale Flowers is unlike any florist business due to the fact that the customers can walk around Camden’s garden and create their own bouquets using his flowers. He has provided his customers with the ability for them to customize their own bouquets, which is unlike any other flower farm or floral business since the vast majority offers only premade bouquet arrangements. He does make bouquets though, on a weekly basis which he sells at 6ixNorth, a local artisanal craft store in his hometown. Another unique feature is that he runs his business from home – outside – where customers can be in nature and experience what it is like to be on a farm.

      Additionally, Camden has recently been asked by a local event planning company to collaborate with them on a wedding. An acquaintance asked Camden to make a corsage for his homecoming date at the local high school. Camden continues to grow his business and network through his community. He is an example of why one does not need to earn a degree to become an entrepreneur. Swallowdale Flowers is the definition of a startup business, because he never received any help beyond that from his father. Camden Kidwell’s story shows us that all it takes to become an entrepreneur is a willingness to be disciplined, take risks and have an imagination. He is an inspiration and a role-model. 

Please find Swallowdale Flowers on Social Media:

@swallowdale.flowers

https://m.facebook.com/Swallowdale-Flowers-101528278889912/?refid=13&ref=page_internal&__tn__=%2Cg