Archive for Health

Ben Francis: Gymshark

Ben Francis is one of those rare entrepreneurs who didn’t just build a brand—he built a movement in fitness culture. As the founder of Gymshark, he took a simple idea from his garage and turned it into a global brand that’s now competing with giants like Nike and Adidas. But unlike those big names, Francis started as a regular gym-goer who saw an opportunity to make workout gear that actually fit well, looked good, and felt like it belonged to the modern bodybuilding community.

Francis’ journey as an entrepreneur is relatable because he started young, balancing college classes and a job delivering pizza. His days were ordinary, but he had this intense passion for fitness and technology. So in 2012, he and his friends started Gymshark, literally printing t-shirts in his parents’ garage. Their goal wasn’t just to make money; it was to create workout gear that stood out from what mainstream brands were offering. Traditional brands didn’t focus on the tight, fitted clothing that lifters wanted—stuff that would show off hard-earned muscles but also be functional.

What really set Gymshark apart was Francis’ approach to marketing. Back then, social media was just starting to blow up, and Francis was one of the first to realize that influencers could make a brand cool. Instead of spending money on traditional ads, he sent free Gymshark gear to fitness influencers on Instagram and YouTube, making Gymshark gear a kind of badge in the online gym community. Suddenly, Gymshark wasn’t just a brand—it was a symbol of the fitness culture that valued authenticity and dedication over big budgets.

Even when Gymshark blew up, Francis kept focusing on what his audience wanted. He stepped down as CEO for a few years to let more experienced managers lead the brand’s growth. But in 2021, he returned as CEO with a vision to make Gymshark not just bigger, but better, aligning the brand with sustainability and other values important to younger generations.

Ben Francis’ story shows that entrepreneurship isn’t just about making money—it’s about understanding people and culture. His journey proves that a simple idea, driven by passion and creativity, can go head-to-head with industry giants if it truly connects with a community.

Scaling Medical Technology with Dr. Aengus Tran

In the world of medicine, very often to hospitals and medical care facilities find themselves unable to treat and prevent diseases because of short-staffed operations. Radiologists can be swamped with work because of the sheer volume of scans they need to review as well as people they need to meet with. Aengus Tran saw this problem arise when he was visiting his home in Vietnam while studying for his degree at the University of New South Whales in Sydney, Australia. The problem of healthcare in the modern world isn’t recognizing and treating diseases, it’s finding a doctor who has enough time on their hands to do both.

Thats why after finishing his degree and postgrad, Dr Tren and his brother Dimitri began developing a way to expand medical diagnosis up to modern needs.

Using A.I. technology and knowledge of medical science, the two developed programs that scan and identify points of interest in chest and CT results. This allows radiologists and other physicians to essentially have a fully functional assistant that finds the most important scans on the most critical patients, placing their cases on the top of the physician’s bucket list so they can manage the crushing workload just a little faster and easier.

What they created, they called Hundson.ai, a machine that is capable identifying, inspecting, highlighting, and learning diseases. Dr. Tren went to school to become a cardiologist but has now found himself running a company as an entrepreneur with his brother and cofounder Dimitri. With eyes looking to the future, they look to expand on the ways their A.I. can assist medical professionals in their work in the most trustworthy and effective way possible. Their expandable and multimodal model is now helping people around the world, and they aim to even transform the way the healthcare system spots and diagnoses disease.

Developing new systems and partnering with healthcare companies and officials (such as Sonic Healthcare), Aengus and Dimitri Tren provide their service to over a million clinicians around the world. To check out their website, click here and read more about it for yourself.

 

Hart Main – Boy Entrepreneur Now Famous

This story is about a boy who found success due to an improbable reason: for teasing his sister. The general assumption may be that sibling rivalry often unleashes creativity; in this case, it indeed does. Hart Main, 13, did not like the floral attributes of the scented candles his sister made for a school project. He said with sarcasm that there was a need to have male candles that did not smell lavender. The mum was attentive, and she kept nagging him to make these male-smelling candles. Hart took up the challenge and made it a successful brand with support from both parents in all ways.

Hart Main was unique in many ways. First, when his mother insisted that he develop an idea born of a joke, he pursued it instead of laughing it off. Second, the Mains were a family motivated by curiosity to see how their idea would unfold. Third, Hart was one to embrace opportunity at each turn of his life and to take what had been a joke to become a major invention. The Hart family is the epicenter of curiosity-driven by hope and possibility. His mom, Amy Main, said, “I do that with all of my kids—I listen to them. Even if it sounds like they’re joking, if their idea seems feasible, I encourage them to pursue it.”

What was so spectacular about Hart’s idea? He had found a niche; he knew fragrant candles were marketed to women, and he wanted to create a product for men. He had the keen ability to identify a need and fill it, making that need a successful business opportunity. His question was the start of an idea that then became a successful company.

However, what I want to suggest is that the protagonist of this story is not Hart but his mother. The difference between him and many children is minimal; what places him into a different rank is the growth environment his mother provided for him, in which curiosity was allowed to be pursued and ideas were developed. Without that, he would have never been able to figure out that producing candles was his future.

This story has taught me many things, but the one main thing that it taught me was to always pursue your dreams and never give up on yourself. Hart always believed in himself to be great, and so should I.

To read more about Hart Main, click the link here

Frenshe by Ashley Tisdale

In 2020, well known actor actress Ashley Tisdale, most known for her role as Sharpay Evans in High School Musical, created her first perfume line, Frenshe. Frenshe has taken over the perfume isle in all Targets, but what is Frenshe and why did Ashley create it?

The brand started when Ashley was trying to understand her relationship with wellness but got overwhelmed with how much information and products there were on the market. She says, “I found myself overwhelmed by how much I didn’t know—what’s in the products we’re using every day, how our gut health affects the rest of our body, and how to live a toxic-free life without going bankrupt.” Through asking this question her new brand was formed. She met with experts and really narrowed down what goes into a perfume and how can we make it better?

Frenshe has a variety of scents for just about anyone, with their most common scents being lavender cloud and casimire vanilla. As well as coming in lots of scents, the perfumes come in many different shapes and sizes to match whatever you may need.  One of Ashleys main goals was to make sure her brand was healthy and affordable. One 5 FL. OZ bottle of perfume costs $14.99, which in comparison to Bath and Body Works having similar products being 18.99, its obvious she achieved her goal of making her brand affordable.

Along with affordability, Ashleys other main goal was to make her products, “formulated with clean ingredients and rooted in the emotional power of scent, so feeling good is as simple as taking a breath.” She achieved this goal as well by using clean ingredients and only putting in what is needed into her perfumes. I personally have used a number of her products, and will absolutely continue to keep using, and promoting her brand!

 

Being Frenshe Unwind & Rest Lavender Cloud Collection

https://frenshe.com/being-frenshe/

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.

Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz – The “Cereal” Entrepreneurs

 

Gabi Lewis (left) and Greg Sewitz, cofounders of Exo, the cricket-protein-bar company they sold last... [+] year, are launching Magic Spoon, which offers monthly subscriptions for high protein, low carb cereal that riffs on childhood classics.

At the ripe age of 28, Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz decided to come up with a cereal brand that was both healthy for you and provided feelings reminiscent of those childhood cereals that we used to love and enjoy.

As children, they ate sugary cereals all the time to nourish them and start their day off right. The thing is, they realized as they got older that the sugary cereals they had been consuming all this time were not actually nourishing and didn’t have a great impact on the human body. Thus, they set out to discover a way to fix this problem and create a cereal that reminds them of their childhood while also being high in protein and offering other benefits along the way, such as being keto-friendly, grain-free, gluten-friendly, and low-carb.

They came up with Magic Spoon through hard work and dedication, putting in over a year’s worth of research and experimentation, trying hundreds of different combinations along the way, trying to overcome the obstacle of creating a high-protein cereal without grains. They also smartly decided to stay away from sugar and instead resorted to stevia, monk fruit, and allulose – three natural sweeteners.

They are an inspirational pair because they decided to try and break into a market where the big names were already well-established by innovating and creating something that the market really didn’t have by focusing on nostalgia and health. Today they are known for leading the pack of young cereal-related startups and they have over 750,000 5-star reviews on their website.

One thing that they wanted to share with the world of entrepreneurs is that you shouldn’t spend years trying to perfect your product until it’s 100% ready to put out on store shelves. Get it to maybe 95% of the way and get it into the market! Then you can see how it does, get lots of feedback, and learn how to continuously improve it and push it into broader markets.

Bloom Nutrition by Mari Llewellyn

Most likely, if you’ve been in the drink aisle of any grocery store in the past couple years, you may have spotted Bloom, a new and upcoming health brand. Bloom is a high-quality health supplements brand for women founded by 30-year-old Mari Llewellyn. Mari, who was born in England, founded Bloom alongside her husband Greg. Mari wanted to take control of her health after, “[she] hit rock bottom mentally and physically.” After this she decided it was time for a change, Mari was able to lose 90 pounds and through this journey was able to grow in self-love as well. From this she was, “inspired to help other women do the same… to help everyone bloom into their best selves.” 

Bloom is consistently improving and shaping the women’s health industry every day. With their business growing everyday there’s no doubt they will stop anytime soon. With Mari’s Instagram having 1.5 million followers and counting, and Blooms having just over 500k its obvious Bloom has consistent customers. Mari and Greg both made Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2022 as well. Alongside having consistent products in store for customers to buy, Bloom has also partnered with lots of influencers and other major companies like Erewhon and Vita coco to get their name out into the market. 

Bloom offers a variety of supplement options in a way that no women’s health company has before. They have specifically crafted their supplements to fit women’s needs and are made from some of the best ingredients on the market. Bloom has dozens of options to choose from, coming in over 10 flavors and in a variety of different forms. From daily pills, portable drink packets, canned energy drinks and pre-workout their vast range of products meet the needs of any customer! 

If you would like to check Bloom out for yourself, click here.

 

Langston Whitlock- Co-Founder and CIO of SAFETRIP

Lanston Whitlock is a self-made entrepreneur that grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. Whitlock started coding at the age of 12 when he built a anonymous messaging app that would allow him to contact his absent father. Whitlock talks about how his first project helps guide him into his future and what he wants to accomplish.  The idea for SAFETRIP came along when Co-founder Ja’Nese Jean saw and talked to a homeless veteran who said people around Atlanta don’t have transportation to get to medical appointments.  She quickly brought on Whitlock just at the age of 17 who she had met years prior working at local events. Above all, she brought Whitlock on due to his coding experience and creativity to make the app. In 2018, they launched SAFETRIP as the world’s first healthcare transportation mobile app and digital health platform. SAFETRIP allows users to harness Whitlock’s patented technology to book non-emergency and emergency medical transport. Users are offered premium cars, vans, wheelchair accessible vehicles, and ambulances with the option of paying for services with insurance. The app itself launched in 2018 and in 2019 and made $3.4 million in revenue; also, it currently has $2 million in funding. SAFETRIP found a way to help the community around them. Whitlock talks about how his faith has played a role in his journey “Whatever you’re good at is likely what you’re called to do, and never give up. Even if your dad walks out of your life, pray to God and try to move forward with your life. God will provide resources”. Whitlock acknowledges that if you put God first in your life the rest will follow.  Additionally, Whitlock has never let his age get in the way of his purpose and journey. He continues to inspire millions of people around the world.

Sources:

Meet The 16-year-old Genius Behind SAFETRIP’s Technology – AfroTech

Meet 16 Teen Founders Who Are Building Big Businesses — and Making Big Money | Entrepreneur

 

 

Nohbo-Ben Sterns environmentally friendly product

Ben Stern’s passion for nature and worries about the environment drove him to start Nohbo. This company creates technologies for consumer goods products that fully dissolve and leave no trace behind. Stern decided to target the issue of plastic pollution at the root by trying to eliminate plastics. He figured out how to encapsulate your favorite personal care products in a fully water-soluble film. For example, you can have your shampoo in a fully dissolvable film.

Ben founded Nohbo when he was a freshman in high school after he discovered the harm that was being caused by single-use plastics. He was later featured on Shark Tank where he was able to land a deal with Mark Cuban. His company also gained a lot of visibility because of all the viewers that tune into the show. Nohbo has grown quite a bit since the show and is currently based in Palm Bay, FL.

They sell 3 dissolvable products which include, Drops, Hydrofill, and slips. Nohbo has found a big market in the consumer-packaged goods industry and hospitality industry as well. New legislation has been a large factor in how they found out about Nohbo. The push towards being environmentally friendly and sustainable has been a positive for Stern’s company as his product can help serve those who believe in that.

Nohbo owns and operates another company, Sunrise Session. As you could guess, it is a single-use, plastic waste-free self-care innovation brand. Their single-use remedies free you from your plastic obsession and deliver the same quality as other brands.

I appreciate the true problem solver that Stern is. He wasn’t afraid to jump in and tackle a huge problem which has allowed him to create a huge impact with lots of potential for growth.

Tim Moxey & “Nuun”

At 26 years old, Tim Moxey came up with the basic idea for his now multi-million dollar business: Nuun hydration. While taking an entrepreneurship class at the Tuck School of Business, he was tasked with developing a product idea and a fictitious business plan. As an avid cyclist and triathlete, he had recently become frustrated with the lack of electrolyte drinks that could adequately replenish the electrolytes lost during extended periods of intense exercise. At the time, most stores only carried Gatorade, which Moxey found too sweet with its huge amounts of added sugar. For the project, he decided to explore a product that could solve a problem he was facing regularly.

As a solution, Moxey developed the concept for Nuun: a self-dissolving, portable, sugar-free tablet packed with electrolytes. At the time, Moxey had no intentions of ever building Nuun into a real business. After graduation from Tuck, Moxey held several corporate positions, but Nuun always resided in the back of his mind. Eventually, in 2004, he decided to officially launch the company.

Nuun has been extremely successful among endurance athletes all over the world; it turns out, many other athletes were in search of a better electrolyte drink, just like Moxey. After many prototypes and trials, Nuun grew into the product it is today: a hydration tablet containing essential electrolytes that you simply drop into a glass of water. The tablet dissolves into the water on its own, leaving you with a delicious, refreshing electrolyte drink. Since Nuun avoids excess amounts of added sugar, it is also a healthier hydration alternative to popular hydration drinks like Gatorade.

Today, Nuun comes in over a dozen different flavors, from Strawberry Lemonade to Orange to Fruit Punch. Nuun also offers a variety of hydration types, including ‘Sport,’ ‘Daily,’ ‘Immunity,’ ‘Energy,’ ‘Vitamins,’ and ‘Rest.’ With its wide array of products, Nuun offers a hydration option for everyone.

Tim Moxey is an excellent example of a young entrepreneur who used a problem in his own life to inspire a business idea that could solve the problem. He is also an ‘accidental entrepreneur’ who never planned on owning a business. Instead, his passion for the problem led him to success. Young entrepreneurs can look to Moxey as an example of someone who harnessed his own passion to solve a problem through a new product.