Archive for Kid Entrepreneurs

Mo’s Bows

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

RJ Duarte: The Founder of Green Worx Landscaping

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.

Plushies With Pocket Powers

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!

 

Kenan Pala- Founder of Kids4Community

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

 

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

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.

Martinez Brothers – Are You Kidding Socks

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.

College Dropout to Millionaire-Ryan Trahan

A Youtuber and Entrepreneur, Ryan Trahan started at 14 to become an entrepreneur. He started a simple water bottle business that would later help make him into a millionaire. Starting his YouTube channel in 2015, Ryan posted about his daily life at college as a student athlete. However, he quickly gained followers due to his creativity and humor within his videos. Having adopted just 30,000 YouTube followers and juggling his business, Ryan was pressured with his college or his business. His school had set a tight rule with him, as a student athlete, making it so he couldn’t brand himself properly while in college. Because of this, Ryan had to choose between a high-risk endeavor or the college route, and he chose the entrepreneurial side. Ryan had the same mindset Peter Thiel speaks of, saying, “I view creating as entrepreneurial. Creating something from nothing has always been ingrained in me.” Thus, his career rocketed. His small water business became a great part of his revenue. The business, known as Neptune, was built to create sustainable water bottles which would reduce plastic waste. With his social enterprise, Ryan also used his business to support several organizations centered around cancer.

While Ryan had Neptune blooming, he also opened up a clothing line called Hydra Collection, which became his personal merch on his social media accounts, as well as another clothing line, Howdy Howdy, and a candy company, Joyride. Creating innovative videos on YouTube and establishing his businesses across the world has made Ryan Trahan into a wealthy, young entrepreneur. From going on live television to creating television series of his own, Ryan meets every corner around the world to grow and engage with his audience.

Ryan is known for his penny-to-a-house series and simply racing people in airports. Through his creative and entertaining work, he has amassed 17 million followers on YouTube with over 3 billion views worldwide!

Age Is Just a Number

Ava Yuergens (@avayuergens) on Threads

Ava Yuergens

Young entrepreneur Ava Yuergens demonstrates that age is just a number. Ava and her soon to be fiancé acquired 900,000 dollars and residential real estate before she even graduated high school. She is currently 19 years old, married, and has started another business where she helps businesses and entrepreneurs grow and sell on social media. How did she become this successful? The answer is within her daily routine, discipline, and determination. Waking up early in the morning is no problem for her, so she wakes up at 2 am and starts her day. A day in the life of Ava Yuergens is the definition of productivity. You can watch her daily routine here. She works for an average of 15 hours a day and uses the nights to relax and do something fun with her fiancé. Her habits in high school were similar. Before school started, Ava would awake from her slumber at 4 am and read before school started! Ava has a thirst for knowledge, and she lets it consume her. When Ava was in high school, she would read books constantly. She would read about business, marketing, investing, and sales. At age 15 she started a real estate investing company with her boyfriend. The two of them got engaged when they were 16. Ava Yuergens is a fantastic example of where ambition can lead you. Ava’s Instagram profile is packed with business strategies, self-improvement hacks, and hundreds of ideas to help build your business. You can check out her Instagram profile here.  The best part is that Ava isn’t done. She wants to become more successful and read more books. Ava is a model for what young entrepreneurs could be. All you need is discipline, ambition, and determination to prove that anyone of any age can do anything.

Lily Born: The Kangaroo Cup

Lily's Grandpa with his Kangaroo Cup

Lily Born is a great example of someone who sees a problem and seeks out the solution. At 7 years old, she noticed her grandpa knocking over and spilling drinks due to Parkinson’s disease. This led to her grandma constantly cleaning up after him. This inspired her to create a product called Kangaroo Cups. This cup consists of three legs that prevents it from tipping over. She made a prototype for her grandpa with plastic mold and a year later made one for her dad using ceramic. Lily and her dad traveled across the world to refine the models and find a manufacturer to get this product on the market. They got financial support from crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. She was listed as Business Insider’s top 11 year old in tech and Mochi’s “25 game changers under 25.” She has also made various headlines. Lily Born is now 16 years old and has sold tens of thousands of Kangaroo cups worldwide. Lily is not only an inspiration for her innovative idea, but for her determination despite being a timid young girl.

To learn more about Lily and her story click here

 

Lily working on the cup in China