Archive for Kid Entrepreneurs

Cary Huang, a Mind Behind Battle for Dream Island

Posted by morganni23 
· Tuesday, October 29th, 2024 
· 2 Comments

Cary K Huang is a creator whose journey started sooner that most would expect. Cary, in collaboration with his twin brother Michael, created an animated web series called Battle for Dream Island. Their first entry in this series, “BFDI 1a: Take the Plunge”  was released to YouTube, beginning the story of the original twenty living objects and the host and establishing that the contestants would battle to win a beautiful island. It did not receive a wide viewership at first, as it was through the steady persistence of their uploads that their audience would grow. Cary and Michael were twelve when the first episode was released on the first day of 2010, and over the course of exactly two years and twenty-four episodes totaling nearly four hours of animation, they gained more than a thousand subscribers.

The fans of Battle for Dream Island and a similar YouTube show known as Inanimate Insanity would come to be called the Object Show Community. This online community, as is the case with others like it on the net, produces large amounts of fan made content. Some may consider the OSC, especially as it exists today, to be a self-sustaining vortex of inspiration, animation, and creativity. 

The brothers’ journey in online animation had a good early chapter. It was followed by several false starts in the form of sequel seasons that did not get far off the ground. Through most of his time in high school and college education at Stanford, Cary was too busy to focus on animation. During this time, he was able to experiment with code in some interesting projects. It was not until a flurry of new episodes releasing in 2017 and 2018 that Battle for Dream Island was ready to return, this time with a far larger production team and renewed art style. Following a hiatus that can be attributed to a lack of time at the end of Cary’s college career, Battle for BFDI (aka. BFB) was able to release episodes regularly until it reached its conclusion. 

The BFDI team is still active today, and is currently producing the prequel season Battle for Dream Island Again and the sequel season The Power of Two simultaneously. Each new animated episode receives millions of views. Though the world and the scope of their creation has expanded greatly, Cary and Michael’s original vision from when they were twelve years old still persists in their modern efforts.

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Categories : Animation, Art, Comedy, Content Entrepreneurs, entertainment, Kid Entrepreneurs, Kids, Male Entrepreneurs, twins, Websites, Young Entrepreneur, YouTube
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Shubham Banerjee: Founder of Braigo

Posted by krummelva24 
· Saturday, October 26th, 2024 
· 2 Comments

Shubham Banerjee - Ringside News

12-year-old Shubham Banerjee’s interest in Braille and Braille printers evolved out of his love for science. While doing research for an engineering project to enter for a science fair in January of 2014, he discovered that less than 10% of blind people can actually read Braille. This was, in part, due to the extremely high prices of Braille printers, costing around $2,000. Additionally, technological advancements such as the development of voice-to-text software significantly impacted the lives of the visually impaired. Banerjee realized that many visually impaired people were not able to afford the extremely expensive Braille printers, or the technology needed to efficiently communicate without one. Therefore, his new goal was to significantly reduce the cost of a Braille printer.

Banerjee worked for weeks to create a working prototype. After seven attempts, he finally successfully created a prototype using a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robotics kit and some small electrical components. Banerjee and his father, a software engineer, would often stay up until 2 a. m. working on the project together. At 13 years old, a high school freshman, Banerjee founded Braigo, the company name combining the words Braille and Lego. Braigo was a low-cost, portable printer and embosser that prints out raised bumps on paper. Banerjee also co-founded the company Braigo Labs to further develop the printer. Banerjee was faced with a lot of criticism and uncertainty because many Silicon Valley startups had tried to undertake the same project without success. He did not let this affect his work and research, however, and persevered through the difficult times. “Some [people] said that the market is not that big, or [that this is] a specialty product,” Banerjee says, unfazed. “I just went ahead with what I thought was right.”

The Braigo printed proved a success even while in its early stages. Banerjee entered his product into the 2014 Synopsis Science Fair and took home the top prize for a science or engineering breakthrough. It was also endorsed by Henry Wedler, a PhD candidate in organic chemistry who was honored by Barack Obama as a Champion of Change for his work leading a chemistry camp for visually impaired students. As Wedler puts it, “Inventors have been attempting to do what Shubham has done with Braille embossers for many years. Sometimes, it takes a young, fresh imagination and a will of iron to be truly innovative. This is the energy and quality that Shubham’s knowledge and passion as an inventor bring to Silicon Valley.” Banerjee and his company, Braigo Labs, managed to bring in venture capital to ensure the success of his company, becoming the youngest person ever to receive venture capitalist investment, according to CBS. Banerjee’s innovative spirit helped to better the lives of the visually impaired, while also encouraging and promoting others to follow in his footsteps.

To learn more about Shubham Banerjee and Braigo , click here.

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Categories : Business::Entrepreneurs, Engineering, Kid Entrepreneurs, Male Entrepreneurs, Social Impact, STEM, Technology, Uncategorized

Hart Main of ManCans Candles—A Spark of Inspiration in Innovation

Posted by Ana Geike 
· Friday, October 25th, 2024 
· 1 Comment

Thirteen-year-old Hart Main’s inspiration for manly-scented candles struck when his sister Camryn sold candles to raise money for their school and he thought this selection was lacking in appeal to the male population. Straying from normalized scents like Egyptian cotton and toasted vanilla that Hart considered more feminine in nature, he dreamt up candles smelling of New York Style Pizza, Grandpa’s Pip, Sawdust, Campfire, New Mitt, Fresh Cut Grass, Coffee, and Bacon, the current breadth of the ManCans line. Hart turned a spiteful spin on his older sister’s production to a full-fledged business venture with the encouragement of his parents and a heart set on a $1,500 bike.

While this transformation required initial investments on the Harts’ part, a primary drive behind its growth has been how ManCans gives back to the community before the candles are even made. As indicated by the name, the candles are made in cans—soup cans, in fact, which Main buys, donating the soup to local soup kitchens and keeping the cans to package the candles. The business’ growth has led to several demands in production—the need for a larger space than the Mains’ kitchen and more hands on deck.

Main—who is now 26—eventually shifted production to the Beaver Creek Candle Company of Lisbon, Ohio, another effort to give back the community as a manufacturing company employing people with developmental challenges. ManCans are sold across the nation, and the vigor Main has demonstrated in driving his venture this far and into the hearts of people in his hometown and beyond show that it will be a long time—if ever—until this thriving business kicks the can.

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Categories : Bootstrap Business, Business::Entrepreneurs, Candles, Gen Z, Kid Entrepreneurs, Social Impact, Young Entrepreneur

Mo’s Bows

Posted by passaroca22 
· Monday, October 14th, 2024 
· 1 Comment

One young entrepreneur saw a pain in the world of men’s fashion: a lack of personal style and flair, specifically in the area of bowties. He decided to match his passion with the pain he saw, starting his own business to fill that gap. A nine-year-old native of Memphis, Tennesse, Moziah Bridges set out to create bowties with handcrafted, intentional style. Upon not being able to find a suitable bowtie for himself and realizing that many other style-conscious men struggled with the same problem, “Mo’s Bows” was born. The founder developed his sewing skills to make the ties from his grandmother’s scrap materials. Creative, determined, and passionate about his work, Moziah eventually hired tailors to handle the manual side of the business while he focused on the creative designs.

A pivotal moment in “Mo’s Bows” occurred when Moziah appeared on the hit entrepreneurial show, “Shark Tank.” The show gave “Mo’s Bows” great publicity and helped Moziah learn how to take his business to the next level. The company has sold almost $1,000,000 worth of handmade bowties and accessories (including a personal bowtie designed for Barack Obama). Mo’s products are carried by such noteworthy brands as Cole Haan, Bloomingdale’s, and Neiman Marcus. His company also supplies bow and neckties for the entire NBA.

Mo Bridges took his passion for creative, handcrafted style, fit it into the market’s gap, and built a large, successful, and impactful enterprise from the ground up. You can visit Mo’s business here.

Mo's Bows

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Categories : Bootstrap Business, Business, Business::Entrepreneurs, Fashion, Kid Entrepreneurs, Uncategorized

RJ Duarte: The Founder of Green Worx Landscaping

Posted by krummelva24 
· Monday, October 14th, 2024 
· 1 Comment

Based out of Golden, Colorado, RJ Duarte was only eight years old when his entrepreneurial ventures started. Motivated by his desire to buy himself candy, Duarte started his lawn mowing business in 2008 with one lawn mower, a red wagon, and five weekly lawn mowing clients. He began to take his business seriously by his third season and invested his savings back into his company. Duarte’s dedication, commitment, and incredible work ethic as an entrepreneur are evident as his income tripled every year since he began his business.

As Duarte began middle school, his business had grown too large to handle himself. He chose a friend from middle school, Owen Johnson, to be a partner in his landscaping business. Two years later, Duarte and Johnson decided they needed a name for their company- they eventually landed on Green Worx. Green Worx had grown much larger than the mere neighborhood lawncare service it started as. After working with Green Worx for over five years, Johnson decided to part ways with the company in order to pursue a college education after graduating high school. Duarte and Johnson, however, still frequently meet as friends to discuss Green Worx and life in general. As Duarte was contemplating going to college and running his company from school, Green Worx was pulling in six figures from annual revenue. He decided to focus on growing his company and work on creating a full-scale landscaping business.

One way that Duarte demonstrated he was an excellent, young entrepreneur was through his willingness to take risks. After high school, in 2019, Duarte made the decision to drop Grenn Worx’s small clients and, instead, rebrand as a premium landscaping and maintenance company. This meant that he would be undertaking large-scale, intricate landscaping and construction projects. Green Worx added two construction crews and lots of new equipment to the company. Duarte knew how risky the shift in scale would be for the business but decided to continue with it anyway. “It’s higher margins for more risk,” he says. “That comes with headaches, but without headaches, there’s no reward.”

Green Worx was incredibly successful throughout the years. In 2015, Duarte and Johnson had won first place in the Celebration for Young Entrepreneurs and also won the Young Americans Bank Business Award. In 2016, the newsletter, The Golden Informer, wrote an article about the success of Green Worx and put Green Worx on the front cover. In that same year, Green Worx was nominated and won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award By Ernst & Young Foundation. By the end of 2016, Green Worx was 300% bigger than the year before. Green Worx continues to steadily grow. In 2019, the company brought in $750,000 in revenue. Duarte was never afraid of the workload and was always searching for new ways to expand and grow his business. Green Worx’s success is built off of his hard work and devotion to his craft.

Click here to read more about Green Worx.

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Categories : Business, Small Business, Business::Entrepreneurs, Construction, Kid Entrepreneurs, Landscaping, Male Entrepreneurs, Manual labor, Outdoors, young entrepreneurs

Plushies With Pocket Powers

Posted by orlandoam23 
· Friday, October 11th, 2024 
· 1 Comment

In 2013, two sisters set out to create a product they never would have seen themselves selling. Sydney and Toni Loew are the founders of Poketti. What is a Poketti? A Poketti is defined in their website as, “A plushie with pocket powers.” According to their website, Poketti means many pockets. The family business started when Sydney Leow took an entrepreneurship class in 7th grade. Sydney and her team had brainstormed the idea of a plushie in that class. But the plushie kingdom did not stop there! Sydney was inspired and wanted to create her own plushie with a pocket for convivence to store treasures. She consulted with her parents, who are designers, and her sister, who became her business partner. The small idea in a 7th grade entrepreneur class became a family business idea. Each plushie has its own name and style. For example, Sydney the Penguin, Toni the Bunny, Roxi the Kitty and Baxter the Puppy are all part of their series 1 launch, and the first four plushies they created. In the summer of 2013, they launched a 30-day Kickstarter campaign and raised $20,000 for the initial order of Poketti plushies. Since 2013, they have continued to be successful. Poketti has attended several trade shows and direct sales events. They have even produced a tv commercial. Poketti has spoken at many schools and clubs, inspiring young kids their age to chase an idea. Poketti has also received multiple awards. In 2016, Sydney and Toni were named Wonder Girls at the annual Women in Toys award gala. Sydney represented Poketti at the AGG Silicon Valley Grow Awards at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Poketti also received an honor for Innovative Branding at the annual ICON HONORS event. Throughout the years Poketti has been growing and growing. They even expanded their company to Walmart! Who knew that lives would be changed from a 7th grade class. Poketti Plushies with Pocket Powers Series2 Parker the Owl

Check out the Poketti website here!

 

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Categories : Animal, Business, Business::Entrepreneurs, Design, Entrepreneurship, Kid Entrepreneurs, Women Entrepreneurs
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Kenan Pala- Founder of Kids4Community

Posted by Ryan Principe 
· Thursday, October 10th, 2024 
· 2 Comments

Kenan Pala, a fifteen-year-old kid who simply always wanted to help out. Pala was from San Diego, and during his time there, he would spend a lot of time volunteering at soup kitchens, and beach cleanups. Through this time when Pala would help, he would also have the struggle of getting to support these causes due to the fact that these nonprofit organizations were not allowing the kids under the age of 18 to volunteer. After Pala had said this, he was convinced that he could start something that would allow any kid who wanted to volunteer could volunteer. In 2017, Pala founded the nonprofit organization Kids4Community. He said this about his foundation, “All our events are open to anybody of any age,” and “If you have the passion, you can come.” This was unbelievable for a kid like Pala to identify a problem of wanting to help, but due to age restriction he couldn’t always do it. Through this, he innovated in so many ways to create this nonprofit organization to just give back to his community. Also, Pala has raised $1 million so that he can help the local homelessness causes. He did all this while taking kids to help with 5k runs, dinner services, and backpack drives. For Pala this is quite impressive, while he is preforming these events, he is raising a ton of money when doing it. Although, he is getting to the age where college is becoming a decision, and when he enrolls, he hopes to help one last kid, and this is his ten-year-old brother Arden. Kenan Pala, being the inspiration he is, when he goes to college, he would like to hand this organization off to his brother, who is very interested in volunteering, this will leave his brother in the same shoes when Pala started the nonprofit.

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

Kenan Pala’s Organization Website: Kids4Community: A nonprofit organization run by kids for kids San Diego

 

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Categories : Business, Kid Entrepreneurs, Kids, Millennial Enrepreneuers

Gavin Batarse – Glove Wrap

Posted by kuscevicke24 
· Monday, October 7th, 2024 
· 2 Comments

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

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Categories : Baseball, Business, Entrepreneurship, Kid Entrepreneurs

Children of Passion – Pocketti Plushies – Sydney and Toni Loew

Posted by bonaquistmr23 
· Sunday, September 29th, 2024 
· No Comments

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.

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Categories : Business, Business, Advertising, Business::Entrepreneurs, Creating, Entrepreneurship, Great Ideas, Kid Entrepreneurs, Teen Entrepreneurs, Toys, Women Entrepreneurs, Young Entrepreneur
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Martinez Brothers – Are You Kidding Socks

Posted by Alayna Dorst 
· Monday, September 23rd, 2024 
· No Comments

Brandon (17) and Sebastian Martinez (15) are the founders of the sock-selling business, Are You Kidding Socks. Their business sprouted from Sebastian’s obsession with fun, patterned socks when Brandon was 8 years old and Sebastian was 6. In 2014, Sebastian started designing his own socks and, with the help of their mom, had them manufactured professionally. Their company has sold well over $1 million worth of socks and continues to grow as they reach more and more of the sock market.

Their purpose for their company now is to help grow awareness for local and national charities like Stand Up to Cancer, Autism Speaks, Amigos for Kids, and more. Their sock designs themselves raise awareness for many conditions and illnesses like pediatric cancer, autism, and breast cancer. They are now in partnership with 13 charities and work every day to make socks that help raise money for people in need.

These kids didn’t come up with a unique, problem-solving product that changes how we live day-to-day. No, their innovation was how they designed their business and their purpose behind it. What started out as just a six-year-old coloring sock designs for fun has now turned into a massive non-profit business that supports many different causes and seeks to change lives for the better. They inspire me with their passion for kids and people with illnesses, mental handicaps, special needs, etc. to look for ways I can support and give back to the community that serves me. They have also shown that you don’t have to make a life-changing technological breakthrough to have an impact on people.

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Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Art, Business, Business::Entrepreneurs, Charity, Design, Gen Z, Kid Entrepreneurs, Kids, Nonprofit, Socks
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