U.S. grocery stores lose $18 billion in spoiled food each year.  This is about 8% of fresh food and 8 million tons that ends up in landfills.  After years of observing this inefficiency from the inside, Matt Schwartz teamed up with two of his friends from grad school at Stanford, Nathan Fenner and Volodymyr Kuleshov, to solve this problem in 2016.  These three entrepreneurs spent thousands of hours observing grocery store managers to learn how to build a tool that could be easily integrated into the process.  They use AI to predict how much produce grocery stores should order by analyzing many factors such as customer preference for certain varieties of produce at different times of the year and the effect of weather on areas where produce is growing.  The data engine automates as much as possible, but it also has an interface to easily interact with store associates when necessary.  The AI is also self-monitoring in order to maximize the effectiveness of the tool.

Fresh food is difficult to maintain in proper quantity because of its short life span, but Afresh is helping grocery stores have the right amounts of fresh produce at the right times to minimize waste and have the products that customers want available.  Afresh is a major innovation in an area that had been stagnant for a long time.  As a result, several large grocery stores have expressed in the company, and it has raised $7.8 million in investments.  Many of the stores participating in the development have seen their waste cut in half.  Afresh is now being used by Fresh Thyme, WinCo Foods, and Heinen’s Grocery Store.  Each store pays several thousand dollars per year for Afresh, but still increasing their profits because they have the right amount of fresh produce in the store.

At four years old Mikaila was stung by bee and then a week later she was stung again. These two little bees changed her life. They helped her to create her business Me and Bees Lemonade. After her painful encounter she natural became afraid of them. But she was a curious girl and decided to research them. She grew fascinated by them and all the wonderful things they do for the environment. Her family encourage her to enter a children’s business competition called Acton Children’s Business Fair and Austin Lemonade Day. Around the same time she inherited a 1940s cookbook from her grandmother which had a special flaxseed lemonade. An idea struck her. She would use the lemonade recipe to help honeybees. She combined the recipe and the honey from bees to create her sweet concoction. Me and The Bees Lemonade gives a percentage of its profits to help save honeybees. She started her business by selling lemonade from a stand in her yard. She donated the profits to the local and international organizations. So far the business has been around for over 10 years and continues to grow. It has grown more than 500 percent since it started. Today it has five flavors, is sold in many stores, and is also served in restaurants. Mikaila travels around the country to tell her story and to tell others how to save bees. She also works with some nonprofits. Mikaila also has many social media accounts where people can follow her work. She released her first book in August 2020, which is about her story and of course, how to save bees.

When people think of Texas cuisine, they usually think of good southern cooking and the smoked meats that come from the region, but the Ponce children are taking a sweeter approach to things.

Samantha (19), Adam (18), and Byron (15) Ponce have opened a candy store named Sab’s Candy Shop after first beginning their candy ventures 6 years ago. Samantha began posting fliers around school to promote their new candy business and get the word out about it. Sadly, kids at school bullied her for it, and told her that it was “embarrassing”.  Thankfully though, this skepticism and negativity didn’t stop them from trying to grow their business. They officially opened their candy store in 2018.

Whenever COVID-19 hit the United States many businesses had to adapt, and Sab’s Candy Shop did so in a unique way. When the virus began to spread, the siblings promoted their business through the use of Tik Tok. People who lived 4 or even 6 hours away from the store, saw what the Ponce siblings were doing and drove to experience it themselves. Another issue they had to work around was their employees resigning. The Candy Shop had to shut down for a week to sanitize and prepare for pandemic operation, but when they reopened, their employees elected not to go back to work. As a result, the siblings and their family had to step up to keep things running around the shop, otherwise it is likely that they would have closed down.

The Ponce siblings demonstrated how businesses had to adapt and innovate when the pandemic hit the United States. Their ages and other activities make this even ore impressive as they still had to keep up with school and not fall behind. They were able to innovate upon the idea of marketing their candy shop, by reaching a broader audience through Tik Tok.

https://www.valleymorningstar.com/2020/09/25/young-entrepreneurs-siblings-candy-snack-shop-prevails-despite-challenges/

  How many of you have had a peanut butter jelly sand which in your life? Okay, I’m assuming that most of you said yes to that. Now how many of you got to experience sitting in the kitchen, watching your grandma crank out twenty jars of fresh made jam? Probably not as many of you can say yes to that. Fortunately, Fraser Doherty can. Doherty is the creator of SuperJam. He created this brand at the old age of 16. Most 16 year olds nowadays are caught up in video games or just living out their final years of high school.  Doherty saw an opportunity of making jam 100% from fruit. This simple idea has generated millions of dollars as it has been commercialized and sold all over the world. But Fraser didn’t just take that money for himself. He decided he wanted to help better the world in other ways and has been donating a lot of that money to charity events such as setting up tea parties for elderly people.  Because of his gracious acts, Prince Charles even awarded him the MBE for his services to businesses.

After establishing SuperJam, Doherty went on to create Beer52 which is now the worlds largest craft beer club in the world. He clearly has a knack for business and having success. After creating these businesses, he has wrote books and told his story over many countries through conferences. He shares his story to help other business owners and future owners to have the success that he has had.

Who knew that someone could start a million dollar business from something as simple as homemade jam. It seems a bit crazy but with a good mind filled with innovation, something that simple could change your life and give you a little more green in your pocket.