Archive for Entrepreneurship – Page 4

Gavin Batarse – Glove Wrap

Gavin Batarse is a baseball enthusiast and entrepreneur from Orange County, California. Gavin loves playing baseball, and he learned that the secret to catching a ball is by breaking in and shaping your glove. When you buy a new glove, it is very stiff, rigid, and hard to close. From t-ball players to professional baseball players, everyone needs to break in a new glove when they get it. People have tired so many different ways, such as driving a car over their glove or putting in under their mattress to try and make their glove less stiff. Gavin saw that this was a problem and knew there needed to be a better way for baseball players to break in their new gloves. This led to the creation of Gavin’s invention, the Glove Wrap.

Glove Wrap is an elastic band with the exact width, length, and thickness needed to break in and shape your baseball glove while forming a perfect pocket. You simply put a ball inside your glove, wrap Glove Wrap around the entirety of the glove, and then leave it be.

Gavin appeared on season 15 of Shark Tank, with his older sister Morgan and their dad and coach Jon, when he was just 8 years old. They were seeking $50,000 for 20% of their company. When Gavin came onto Shark Tank, Glove Wrap had sold over 1,000 products and had over $19,000 in sales. The Sharks were very impressed with his knowledge and his invention at just 8 years old! Gavin got an offer from Mark Cuban and Michael Ruban for $50,000 for 22% of their company. Gavin proudly took their offer, and he is hoping to grow his company so that Glove Wrap is used across the country, from little league to Major League Baseball teams!

Glove Wrap Breaks in Baseball Gloves Shark Tank Season 15

Kaitlyn Kuscevic

A 13-year-old’s Manly Candles

Hart Main’s entrepreneurial career started with a sibling rivalry. Hart used to tease his sister’s highly feminine and flowery smelling candles. Then Hart found a bike he really wanted but he ran into one small problem: the bicycle cost a whopping $1500. Inspiration grew in Hart’s middle-school brain, and he set out to design a manly-scented candle, tapping into an unreached market with creativity and intuition. Combining ingeniously repurposed soup cans, diligently crafted scents, and a creative brand name, ManCans was born.

The young teen sells strongly nostalgic, relaxing, and masculine candles. His scents include Campfire, Bacon, Sawdust, Fresh Cut Grass, and Grandpa’s Pipe. Hart’s candles are handmade in Lisbon, Ohio by a workforce largely comprised of people with special needs. His business has grown greatly exponentially, bringing his candles to every state and regularly makes six figures annually. Hart’s dedication and passion in his entrepreneurial venture is displayed in the compassionate aspects of his business. Committed to his local communities and the unmet needs of the poor, Hart donates part of his revenue to soup kitchens in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Michigan. You can learn more about his impressive business here.

Main man behind ManCans

Adam Guild – Owner.com

Adam Guild is a 24-year-old who never finished high school and opened his restaurant-software startup called Owner.com. He co-founded Owner in May 2020 and is the chief executive of the company. Guild grew up in Los Angeles and has been an entrepreneur since high school, which he quit during 10th grade to pursue his business idea. He has received the Thiel Fellowship grant, which is a program created by venture capitalist Peter Thiel for young people who drop out or never attend college. Guild was extremely dedicated to the business and says he has worked 15-hour days, seven days a week, without taking a vacation or sick day for the past six years.

Owner.com is used by independent restaurant owners to create websites with online-ordering features, as well as for other tasks such as running marketing campaigns and improving placement in online search results. They charge a $500 a month fee for the use of the software. It is based in Palo Alto, California and serves thousands on customers in the U.S. Through the use of this software, restaurants save money compared to orders placed through sites such as DoorDash and Uber Eats. This startup has reached a $200 million valuation and, in a job posting a few months ago, the company said they had $15 million in annualized revenue. They said they have since been growing at a rate of 30% month-over-month. Investors in the financing brought Owner’s total raised to $58.7 million.

Overall, I think this is a great story about Adam Guild and his success. This goes to show that with great dedication, you can be a very successful business owner without even finishing high school. They even risked years of their lives, their families, their saving all to pursue their dreams and I think they do a great job of showing that owning a business is possible.

The Seiders: Breaking Through the Unbreakable Market

I will start this off with a disclaimer: it is unclear whether the Seiders brothers are “millennials,” but they have heavily impacted both the Millennial and Gen X generations. Ryan and Roy Seiders grew up in Texas, where they were avid enjoyers of the outdoors. Spending many weekends in the Texas heat catching fish, they knew there was a problem with their coolers. That is when the Seiders came up with the idea to revolutionize the cooler and drinkware market with their idea, Yeti.

The cooler and drinkware market has long been dominated by many different companies, and it is a very easy market to make your way into. However, it is a near impossible task to become the leader of that market, and stay there for over 10 years. The Seiders revolutionized the way drinkware can be personalized and classy, while still remaining completely functional. The Yeti brand has become a staple in the cooler and drinkware community, and has been regarded as the best coolers money can buy. Every year, Yeti creates something new and innovative that nobody thought would be useful or worth it, and it instantly sells out.

These brothers are so inspiring because they found a problem in their own lives, and created a solution that has helped hundreds of thousands of people. Tailgates, parties, fires, and gatherings have all been revolutionized by the Seiders brothers invention of Yeti.

The Man Candle

Main man behind ManCans

Have you ever thought of candles smelling too girly? Do you think the candle market would explode (fragrantly) if men had a candle that made them feel even more masculine? Well, young Hart Main thought the same thing. Hart Main is the founder of ManCans. One day his twelve-year-old sister was selling candles for a school fundraiser. At the age of thirteen, Hart stated that the candles his sister were selling were too girly. He teased his sister about it. Unlike a normal sibling tease that fades away after a couple hours, this tease stuck with Hart. That was not the last time he thought about candles. After the initial tease, Hart realized that he had addressed a real issue. There are no manly candles! He started to think about it more and more and eventually conducted some research on the candle market. There was no one who had thought or created this idea before. He had a spot in the market! In 2011, Hart set out to create ManCans, the manly scented candle. With the help of his supporting parents, and money he had saved up, they created candles. They manufacture scents like bacon, dirt, campfire, sawdust, and fresh cut grass. These candles are not decorated the normal way. Instead of being properly placed inside a refined glass container, Hart placed his candles in old, recycled soup cans. Which gives them a rustic and homemade look. Hart donates part of his proceeds to soup kitchens in nearby states. Hart had massive success with his candles. He now sells his manly candles internationally. Who knew that a simple tease between siblings could turn into a revolutionary idea that is sold around the world.

ManCans - Manly Candles - Buy Man Things | Man scented candles, Man ...

Check out Hart Main’s website here!

Children of Passion – Pocketti Plushies – Sydney and Toni Loew

Meet Sydney and Toni Loew, two sisters whose lives changed right in Middle School. Their product was inspired by an entrepreneur class Syndey had in 7th grade, which allowed her to write out a business, even create a prototype, and then she got to pitch the idea. Her target was 11-14 year old kids, so she chose to go down the toy route, where she created her business, Pocketti Plushies! She wanted something that would differ from other plushies, and decided to add something functional to the plushie by giving it a pocket to hold a phone in. Because her product did so well, she was able to get her plushies launched into a business.

With a rocketing business, Sydney and her sister Toni began their career, creating unique plushies, with powers as they called it. Each plushie was uniquely designed and made with different personalities. They were able to attend several sales events and create television commercials, as well being able to pitch their ideas to schools. They were also awarded several prizes such as Wonder Girls by Women in Toys in 2016.  They were also able to get Walmart as a client!

While their business is run by them and their mother, they also attended school. Sydney is now a graphic designer intern at Disney’s Yellow Shoes internal advertising agency. While her sister goes to USC’s Thornton School of Music, where she is in two music bands! Their love for all things creative is truly inspirational as they continue to grow their business across the world.

Despite their successes, even they have had rejections. They participated on Shark Tank 3 times and got a no each time, but that hasn’t stopped them from continuing their business!

With their creativity and passion for innovation, they have created a business they hope to grow across the world. For now, we can appreciate how young these girls were when they began their journey, representing that even in Middle School, anything can be done if you put your mind to it. Success isn’t defined by the number of statistics, but by the satisfaction it gives to the customers and to you.

Intertwined

Intertwined is a business that helps people with the resources to learn about financial literacy.  Kerry Ao and Naina Muvva are the cofounders, and they found that 80% of Americans do not have the know about financial literacy.  Therefore, they created Intertwined to help people learn about this through a tailormade education platform using artificial intelligence.

Naina Muvva was just a junior in high school when she identified this need.  Her and Kerry Ao were both in their business club, and they would teach their peers about stocks.  They realized that they could expand this through using simulations and games by AI creation to teach more people about these concepts.  The use of AI allows for questions to be rephrased to help the user learn information.

In two years, there were over 2,800 students nationwide using Intertwined.  She further advanced her education by going to Washington University.  Ms. Muvva majored in medical anthropology, but also used the WashU entrepreneurship program.  She found much needed support and help there.  She and her cofounded were named in Forbes “30 Under 30.”

In an interview with WashU, Ms. Muvva gives advice to other young entrepreneurs.  She says that there will be setbacks, but those need to be expected.  She also says the growth will not be all at once, but rather “wobbly,” still it needs work poured into it.

Check out Intertwined here!

Riya Karumanchi: Founder and CEO of Smart Cane

Riya Karumanchi was only 15 years old when she came up with an idea to revolutionize technology to improve the well-being of visually impaired individuals. One day while visiting a friend’s house, Riya was introduced to her friend’s visually impaired grandmother. She empathized with the woman as she struggled to navigate and move throughout her home. Riya didn’t understand how over the years, the traditional white cane that aids in guiding the visually impaired, hadn’t been replaced by newer technology. She recognized the massive effect that technological advancements have on a society and the people living in it but did not believe changes in tech were being distributed equally in all communities. She came up with an idea to apply that to the standard white canes. Her idea was to integrate technology to the white cane by adding ultrasonic sensors that work to identify objects on the ground that may not have been detected before. This new device, the Smart Cane, is able to detect obstacles that may be in one’s path and alert the user of their location with vibrations. Another feature of the Smart Cane includes a GPS navigation system which helps the user to travel safely and efficiently. This is also made possible by the use of vibrations: One buzz to turn left, and two buzzes to turn right.

Riya’s innovative idea had proved a success. Smart Cane had initial funding from many large companies such as Microsoft, Arrow Electronics, and Inertia Engineering. She raised over $85,000 in funding. Next her attention will turn to user testing. Riya recognized the importance of input from the prospective users themselves. She met with the visually impaired community and listened to the problems they encountered with the standard white cane. She then came up with innovation solutions and developed the Smart Cane. Smart Cane’s mission, she says, is to empower the visually impaired and create for them a better, safer way of living. “Instead of [building] a company that has a valuation of a billion dollars, it’s the person that can impact a billion people,” she explains. “It’s ambitious, but that’s my goal.”

To learn more about Riya Karumanchi and Smart Cane, click here.

Dude Perfect; A Multimillion Dollar Business

Dude perfect is a YouTube channel that many of us have grown up with. From the trick shot videos to the stereotype episodes, Dude Perfect never fails to entertain people of all ages.
This athletic and creative group of friends started out as a few college students doing trick shots in their backyard. One video quickly collected millions of views, and using their platform of fast-growing fame, they didn’t stop at making videos. Now they have launched different product lines and continue to develop their brand and video style.

How Dude Perfect turned a trick-shot YouTube channel into a sports ...
One thing about Dude Perfect that is unique is they have never lost track of their original brand look and identity which is why viewers love them.

They now have Streaming Platform which is advertised as family friendly content perfect for all ages. They’ve been intentional about sports industry involvement and have a share of the premier league football club. This connects them to digital content creation and traditional sports. Dude Perfect goes on tours that sell out extremely fast. These live tours are fun for their fans and are an opportunity for growing their fan base. They recently announced their plans for Dude Perfect World, this ambitious project will have trick shots and games in person.

Dude Perfect's Plan To Build $100 Million HQ Leaves People Baffled
Dude Perfect is so successful because of their reliable authenticity. This is a lesson for entrepreneurs to stay committed to their passion and principles in their vision for their business or idea.
The Dude Perfect group has also exemplified great innovative principles, they constantly look for new opportunities in the developing society and technology. They successfully balance this with staying true to their authenticity. They show us not to be afraid to imagine the seemingly crazy or impossible but to pursue opportunities with courage and strategy.

Ben Pasternak’s Entrepreneural Journey

Ben Pasternak was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1999. Like any young kid Ben was always playing video games, using his phone, and always on technology. But what separated Ben was that he was interested in how these apps were made and how they worked. At just the age of 15, Ben was bored in school when he thought of an idea for an app. The idea of the app was a game which involved a rotating square that players needed to match with the corresponding-colored balls. didn’t take long for it to get recognized. Only in a few weeks the app reached a million downloads. The viral app was called Impossible Rush. Ben soon dropped out of high school to pursue his work in the tech world. Ben started to work more on the social side of the internet with his next to creations being Flogg which was a app for teenagers to buy and sell Items. The Next he co-founded Sup which was an app to help find friends and meet up with them in real life. Lastly, in 2019 he co-founded NUGGS, a company that produces plant-based chicken nuggets. Even in the food industry Ben uses his technology expertise to constantly work on their recipes based on customer feedback. This approach led to rapid growth once again. Today, Ben Pasternak continues to create and push the boundaries. He rebranded NUGGS as Simulate, into a broader range of plant-based foods. He continues to find ways to innovate with his tech driven solutions. One thing I love about Ben’s story is that he never became complacent. He made a viral app and instead of being satisfied. He kept working and made 3 more businesses. Bens’s journey is far from over.

 

References:

The Extraordinary Rise of Ben Pasternak: From Teenager to Tech Mogul | by Rubye Johnson | Medium

How Aussie 16-year-old Ben Pasternak became CEO of his own start-up Flogg Inc (smh.com.au)