Luke Economou is a Greek/American young entrepreneur who goes to UC Santa Barbara. Luke was born in Connecticut but has lived around half of his life in Santa Monica, California, before moving to Santa Barbara this past year for school. I consider Luke to be one of my closest friends from back home as we have known each other for almost 10 years now (ever since he moved to Los Angeles) and have built a brother-like relationship. Luke has always had a passion for fashion and is one of the most innovative and entrepreneurial-minded individuals I have met. Similar to me, Luke graduated high school right after the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. He was originally planning to attend UCSB right away but instead decided to attend a local community college online. It was during this time that he started his designer/streetwear brand, Madman. Luke’s vision with Madman is to provide extremely stylish and luxury clothing that blends the culture of Los Angeles with our inner “madman.” The moto for his brand is, “What’s done in the dark, must come to light.” Luke wanted to establish a culture around his brand so that when people acquired his fashion pieces, they became part of the Madman family. Luke has been selling his product mostly through his online store, https://madmanlosangeles.com/, but has also initiated multiple pop-up stores in various locations around Los Angeles. Most notably, Luke held pop-up stores and events several times in the renowned shopping mall, The Beverly Center, at the Lost Warhol’s concept store. Madman was featured on the Beverly Center’s main attraction screen and has received overwhelmingly positive feedback on his brand’s design, message, culture, comfortability, uniqueness, and much more.
Archive for Great Ideas – Page 3
Sean Belnick is an entrepreneurial genius. At just the age of 14 while attending pope high school he created a website that sold office furniture. The name of the company is Bizchair and Sean’s net worth is 42 million. The way that Sean got into this industry of selling products online all started with selling Pokemon cards on eBay. After he got a passion for this he put money into advertising and created the website himself at just 14 years of age. For a kid in high school to create a fully functioning website is truly spectacular. Even though he was young he still possessed so much ambition to sell things that he figured out how his father’s business ran and created a website off of that model. The reason why Sean’s business took off was because of how ahead he was in using the internet. He saw that it would be easier to sell things if they were out there for the whole world to see them.
In 2006 2o-year-old Sean was making 24 million dollars in revenue. Because of Sean’s ambition, he isn’t content with what he has. He wants to expand and expects his sales to be 50-54 million dollars in 2007. Sean was running a million-dollar company while attending college because he believed that he still had more to learn in the business field. He is also a boss of 75 employees at that time all of whom are older than him. Sean stated that he liked being younger than them because the working environment wasn’t as stressful and the employees came to him more often if they have ideas or concerns. Sean’s story really shows how ambition is a key trait to possess when becoming an entrepreneur. Without it, there would be no reason to try and make anything better than it is.
Adelle Archer, CEO and co-founder of Eterneva, is on both the Inc and Forbes 30 Under 30 lists. In addition, Mark Cuban invested in her business when she went on Shark Tank in 2019. Eterneva is a business that Archer created after her friend and mentor Tracy Kaufman died from pancreatic cancer. The company produces diamonds out of loved ones’ ashes; Archer conceived of Eterneva because at the time, there were not many options for memorializing passed loved ones. Although cremation is at an all-time high popularity, the ashes get thrown away after about one generation. More lasting, however, would be diamonds made by Eterneva. Diamonds, Archer believed, not only allow people to mourn, but they also allow people to celebrate. I love Archer’s view that people should both mourn and celebrate. The idea is one that Christians should take to heart, as we recognize that death is not part of how the world should (and will) work, and yet hold that it is a gateway to the sweet next life with our loving Savior. Archer knows that the seven to eight month process for making the diamonds is not a drawback but a strength because it gives people time to mourn and process the death. The Eterneva team sends videos, pictures, and updates to mourning clients as they wait for the diamonds, which I believe is an innovative way to care for people. On the celebration side, the Archer counts on the diamonds to encourage people to share stories about the people who died. According to Archer, the diamonds help people to lean into the subject of death instead of turning away from it. Archer believes, and I wholly agree, that our culture hides death too much, and that communication about death is vital to caring for grieving neighbors.
Hart Main, age 13
When Hart Main was 13 years old, his little sister Camryn was selling candles for a school fundraiser. He remembers teasing her for the “girly scents” and saying that only women would buy her candles. This jovial teasing turned into a business idea later on when Hart was saving for a $1500 bicycle. In order to reach a larger crowd Hart created ManCans, candles scented to appeal to men as well. Instead of flowery, sweet scents, ManCans candles smell like a “fresh new baseball glove.”
Hart’s business idea was like no other, it was unique, and appealed to a new genre of people; for this reason, ManCans rapidly took off selling more than 300 candles a week. “It started as a Joke; it really wasn’t meant to turn into anything serious” says Hart. Thanks to his mother’s encouragement, his jokes became reality. “Even if it sounds like they’re joking, if their idea sounds like something they can do, by all means, I tell them to go for it,” Amy, Hart’s mom, says. Hart’s little sister also has a dog-walking business of her own, which was sparked by a simple conversation in the car.
Starting off, Hart had high ambitions, a little too high for a startup business; however, he was encouraged by his mom to stick to his main scents and branch out as expenses allow. Right now, ManCans offers eight unique scents such as: NY Style Pizza, Grandpa’s Pipe, Sawdust, Campfire, New Mit, Fresh Cut Grass, Coffee, and even Bacon. Along the way ManCans featured the scent “Money to Burn” but because of low sales has since been discontinued.
Variety of ManCan Scents created by Hart Main
Hart makes all his candles in soup-cans, and although it is a for-profit business, he donates soup to local soup kitchens with a portion of the proceeds. This is a prime example of how you can make a positive influence in the world, without necessarily donating all of your earnings to charity.
ManCans has been a business of trial and error. Hart took something laughable and made it sellable. ManCans serves as a perfect example that products don’t have to serve just one audience, and there is always a way to make things marketable to different groups. Young entrepreneurs should be encouraged by Hart’s story to not reject a product, until they attempt see it from a different angle; in Hart’s case, this meant making masculine scented candles.
When looking for a zone of innovation, few people would first look to the postmortem industry. But that is exactly where young entrepreneur Adelle Archer turned. Her company, Eterneva, creates precious keepsakes out of the remains of loved ones who have passed away. They accomplish this by turning their ashes into diamonds. Archer’s goal was to find a way for love one’s remains to be eternalized, and converting them to an extremely durable and precious mineral, using the carbon within the ashes, was a very effective way of accomplishing this.
The mission of Eterneva goes beyond just making money. Archer created her company around the desire to see the stigma that surrounds death and grieving in the United States go away. She wants to provide a way for grievers to be less isolated and more understood.
In her short career as an entrepreneur, Adele Archer has been extremely successful. She attended the prestigious Acton School of Business, getting an MBA in Entrepreneurship. Soon after, she created Eterneva, and took her company to Shark Tank, where she received an investment from Mark Cuban. In 2019, Eterneva was given the title of Consumer Startup of the Year by the Stevie Awards.
We don’t think much about soap. It’s just a simple necessity for us to wash our hands and keep ourselves clean. But would you be surprised that there are people in the world that have never seen a bar of soap before? Probably not, but in many impoverished countries today, over 800 children under the age of 5 die from diseases as a result of compromised hygiene and sanitation. Erin Zaikis hopes to change all that with her company, Sandara.
Erin’s company Sandara recycles used hotel soap to redistribute across Uganda, India, and Myanmar in an effort to increase hygiene and education as well. She knew that children around the world were dying without access to sanitation products, while big corporations like hotels were throwing out old soap after just one use. Erin saw what a big problem this was and founded Sundara in 2013 to combat this current issue. Sundara first started as a non-profit business recycling used hotel soap, but it evolved into a bigger company that now works across different countries and provides education and work opportunities to single mothers, domestic abuse victims, and widows. Their main values include fostering dignity, building sustainability, agility, and female empowerment. This is shown through Sundara’s two different programs, Rise Fellowship and Emergency Aid. Rise Fellowship provides “mentorship, seed funding, and resources to female entrepreneurs living in low to middle class income countries.” In addition, Emergency Aid is a program dedicated to providing urgent, short-term relief to those who need it immediately. Erin’s company has impacted thousands of women and children around the world and over the past 8 years, has recycled over a million bars of soap and reaches 200,000 people with serious hygiene education every year.
Erin has worked with Sundara for the past several years to help fight the rampant issue of sanitation and hygiene for women and children in poor countries around the world. Her company has changed the lives of many, giving dignity and respect back to those who need it. Erin Zaikis is a true entrepreneur with her company and let’s hope she continues to change the world with her innovative ideas.
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
In 2005, Catherine Cook and her brother Dave were just two normal high school students without any kind of technology or business experience. One day, the two of them sat down to go through their Yearbook, as many students do, when they had the idea of combining their yearbook with the current technology boom. They proposed doing this by digitalizing yearbooks and putting them on the internet to create an interactive experience.
The pair decided to approach their older brother who was already a very successful entrepreneur and was interested enough in their idea to invest money into it and help them get the idea off the ground. I think looking back on this story, and their brother’s belief in this idea, you can see the foresight that these young entrepreneurs had to recognize that the digital age was coming and if they could harness that, it would take them very far.
The business began to grow significantly, and in 2008 it was the fastest growing social media site in the U.S. and had 11 million members. Over the years Catherine has been a huge innovator through MyYearbook and has been constantly brainstorming features to keep it popular and current. The most recent innovation the company has done is a huge rebrand with a new name, MeetMe. A huge takeaway that Catherine has mentioned from this experience is staying true to your vision, if you do this, no one will be able to knock you down all the way, and the growth of your business can be limitless.
Sources
https://vanitystardom.com/founder-of-myyearbook-catherine-cook/
Catherine Cook – How MyYearbook.com Was Founded (businessideaslab.com)
It’s amazing how the simple practice of folding paper has managed to find itself as the hobbies of many nowadays. Origami came from the ancient Japanese practice of folding paper into different shapes and figures. This seemingly simple idea of folding paper was the exact inspiration for Tina Hovsepian and her company.
Cardborigami is a combination of origami and cardboard. Tina’s idea for the company came to her during a senior design project when she was asked to rethink the idea of ‘temporary shelter.’ That’s when she made her first prototype of a temporary, foldable, and cardboard shelter for the homeless. It was immediately a hit, and she started her company in 2010 and it has been successfully running for the past 11 years. The Cardborigami website says, “Our centerpiece product provides immediate emergency shelter to homeless and/or disaster-impacted populations, allowing us to support the work of established partner organizations that offer transitional pathways into permanent housing and other long-term services.” This statement sums up Cardborigami very well and establishes what their goal is. Cardborigami even offers other programs like social enterprise, disaster preparedness, and pop-up homeless shelter sites in addition to their main product.
Carborigami’s mission supports the homeless, which is a big social issue nowadays, and their main product is very clever. Cardboard is biodegradable, so it’s healthy for the environment after it breaks down, and it’s foldable and easy to transport, so anyone can bring it with them for an easy and temporary roof over their heads. Tina even comments on design by saying, “Design fundamentally impacts the daily life of people. Architects are armed with aggressively creative ideas and innovative solutions to complex problems. With more designers taking leadership and focusing their talent on socially responsible design, the world would be a better place.” It is absolutely true that designers bring a lot to the table when it comes to coming up with new ideas and changing the world for the better. “Socially responsible design” could be this company’s mantra, and they are truly succeeding in their mission. It is a wonderful idea to address this issue in the world and I hope to see more Cardborigami products giving shelter to those in need.
Mikaila Ulmer isn’t just a typical young entrepreneur struck by a great idea, she was stung by one!
When Mikaila was just 4 years old, she was stung by two bees within just one week! Finding it strange and interesting, Mikaila began to do tons of research on her own about everything related to bees. While Mikaila was in the middle of her fascinating research on bees, her parents had received an old 1940s cookbook from her grandma which contained many old traditional recipes. Around this time Mikaila was also encouraged by her family to try out for young business competitions in their area.
Thinking of possible inventions in her environment, Mikaila learned about how dangerously endangered bees have become over the years in America and was interested in making a product that could support them. So, after finding a small flax seed lemonade recipe in the old 1940s cookbook, Makaila decided to substitute the unhealthy sugar in the lemonade with all-natural honey from local beekeepers to support bee conservationists. Ever since then, Mikaila’s lemonade business, now called “Be Sweet” (Changed later to “Me and The Bees” due to copyright disputes), has skyrocketed and she was even featured on the famous tv show “Shark Tank”!
Mikaila’s company had started small ten years ago but has grown exponentially by then. Mikaila’s products can even be found in several select retailers and restaurants and is increasing that number almost every year.
Mikaila has also written a book that released in August of 2020 called “Bee Fearless, Dream Like a Kid”, that documents her experience as a young entrepreneur and gives tips to future entrepreneurs like herself.
Mikaila’s story is very inspiring and gives a look at how most good ideas or inventions could come from something you are very passionate about.
Or an old cookbook.
Sources:
Mikaila Ulmer of Me & the Bees Lemonade | Microsoft In Culture
Meet Mikaila: CEO, entrepreneur and bee conservationist – YouTube
BeeSweet Lemonade Featured on CBS This Morning News – YouTube