Rachel Zietz was a teenage entrepreneur who was an all-region lacrosse player from the state of Florida who received many accolades. While continuing to improve her skills she became fed up with the quality of her lacrosse rebounder(Bounce Back). She designed a new structure including a thicker net and stronger brace bars, which ultimately made a significantly more efficient product. This new design was adopted by the lacrosse community and became very popular. She made this product a reality and created the company, Gladiator Lacrosse. Her successful product led her to Shark Tank Season 7, Episode 28. Now her company is worth more than 5 million. Rachel even made Forbes Magazine’s, Shark Tank 7 of the Brightest and Youngest List. Through her huge success, she now has a flourishing business with various lacrosse-related products sold in lacrosse stores all across the county.
Archive for Manufacturing
Hart Main went from a 13 year old with some soup cans to an entrepreneur making six figures annually. It all started when Hart wanted a $1,200 bike, and in lieu of mowing lawns and shoveling driveways like every other kid, he decided to pursue a business instead. His idea arose when a confrontation with his sister lead to his discovery of a hole in the scented candle market. He discovered this hole could be filled with a more masculine take on scented candles, and thus he created the company ManCan. After some R&D, Hart nearly perfected his product and began selling in his community. Soon, his story got so big that he got picked up by the Associated Press and thus sales boomed.
Hart Main’s product always had a philanthropic angle. When just starting out, the soup cans needed to make the candles were consumed by his family and friends, however production increased and thus the soup followed suit. He eventually had enough soup to donate 200 units to a soup kitchen with the stipulation that the empty cans were to be returned. Later, instead of soup, ManCan began donating 75 cents from the proceeds of every candle sale to soup kitchens in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Michigan, thus continuing Hart’s philanthropic venture. As of July 21st, 2015, ManCan has donated $35,000 to soup kitchens in the United States, and thus that number is likely significantly larger now that it’s 2021 and ManCan is still in business.
After years of hard work and creativity, Hart Main has contributed to the economy as well as communities beyond his own. In four years, he went from packaging cans in his kitchen to a rented warehouse space with five employees. In his time as a teenager, Hart managed to create a product that is currently in stores in all 50 states as well as online as a part of Beaver Creek Candle Company.
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Much of the information regarding Hart Main, as well as this photo, can be found here and here, and you can check out his candles for sale here.
Bravo Company Manufacturing is a firearms manufacturer that was started in 2003. After serving in Iraq and being part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, former United States Marine Paul Buffoni began Bravo Company Manufacturing in his garage in Hartland, Wisconsin.
After 9/11, there was a massive increase in the demand of riffles and other firearms from people in the United States that were looking for tools to defend themselves and their families. At the time, there was only one large manufacturer that was making AR15 and M4 riffles for the commercial market, which was the legendary gun manufacturer, Colt.
Buffoni quickly recognized that there was a need in the commercial market for riffles that were professional quality and that people could rely rely on in literal life or death situations. This is exactly what bravo Company USA provides: they rigorously test each riffle, barrel, and upper-receiver that they produce in their factory, and if any one of their products does not meet 100% of their specifications, they immediately scrap the product and will not sell it to any customer.
Bravo Company has been based in Hartland, Wisconsin since 2003, and they are one of the largest employers in that area. Interestingly enough, Buffoni focuses on hiring people that thing more like mechanics or engineers, since they are able to help the company develop better, more innovated products to bring to the market. Bravo Company spends years developing new parts for their weapon systems, with the focus on making these products lighter and stronger than previous versions.
Paul Buffoni was able to recognize a real need in the firearms industry and used his expertise in this field to create high quality, affordable products that the market desperately wanted. Buffoni also helps out other veterans through some charitable efforts of his company, and he loves to spend time giving back to the great community of veterans that we have here in the United States. Bravo Company is an excellent company, with a great founder, that accomplishes it’s mission of being a premier gun systems manufacturer in a simple, and customer friendly way.
Ben Wolfgram is an entrepreneur and engineer. He is the founder of a company in Philadelphia called WE Automation that designs and produces industrial machines for extrusion and blow molding, material handling systems, and packaging systems. Why might he be of interest to me? Because of a different company he started called BenShot.
BenShot is a handmade glass company in Wisconsin that makes unique glasses that feature bullets, shotgun shells, arrow heads, golf balls, and fishing lures embedded in the side. Benshot was started in 2015 when Wolfgram wanted to make it easier for his glass-making parents to sell their wares. Before Wolfgram started BenShot, his parents were traveling around the country to various craft, vendor and art shows. Wolfgram thought it would be easier if his parents had an eCommerce store to connect with their customers instead of traveling around the country all the time. His parents loved the idea and are now selling to an international customer base.
Wolfgram’s father manufactures the glasses along with a resident designer and glass worker in a historical furniture factory that was formerly owned by Thomas Edison, in rural Wisconsin. The packaging, etching for the glasses, and wood etching for coasters, are done in Wolfgram’s WE Automation factory in Philadelphia. Everything they design and manufacture is made and sourced in the USA. Before creating their own glass factory, Wolfgram and his parents approached many different manufacturers and were told that their idea would never work and the only way to get an object to stay in the glass like Wolfgram wanted, would cause glass to break. That did not stop Wolfgram and his father, they experimented with different and unconventional methods. They figured out that if you make a dent in the glass while the glass is still soft, then glue the bullet, golf ball, fishing lure, or arrow head into the glass after it has slowly cooled off in a kiln, the glass will not shatter.
BenShot has also partnered with several companies to etch the company’s logo onto their glasses. They have also made several limited runs of glasses raising money for various charities. One of their most recent charities was Project K-9 Hero, a non-profit that provides assistance with medical costs, food, and end of duty services for retired police and military dogs.
Ben Wolfgram, and his company BenShot, is inspiring because he saw a need with his parents to connect with their customers without traveling all over the country, and combined it with the resources of his manufacturing company to create a unique eCommerce business. Wolfgram and his father also had to create a new method of getting objects to stay securely in glasses without shattering the glass. Due to their success, they are now able to give back to their community and country by partnering with various charities and non-profits as well.
Rosie’s Workshop was founded in 2016 by Blair and Jen Koss. At Rosie’s, you can find unique “lighting and home decor made with vintage finds,” as founder Blair puts it. Examples of the vintage pieces include instruments and old cameras.
Rosie’s Workshop is the perfect example of a business dedicated to design and storytelling. Each camera used for the light has a story attached to it. For example, one of the cameras is the same type that was used in one of the Harry Potter movies. When buying the light, one can read the backstory located near the camera. These backstories let the customer c
onnect more directly with the product.
The workshops offered at the store are another example of how Rosie’s excels in the experience they offer to their customers. There are workshop opportunities for customers to make their own lights using their own cameras, which adds to the special connection they have with the products.
The name behind Rosie’s comes from Jen’s grandmothers who worked during World War II. The style of the 20s is very prevalent in the designs, in the metal and fabric chosen for the pieces.
Rosie’s takes the left-brained skills of engineering and combines it effortlessly with right-brained storytelling and design. Rosie’s is located in Ross Park Mall in Pittsburgh, PA. You can find them at www.rosiesworkshop.com to learn more about their workshops and products.
A simple issue that eyeglass customers often face is a cosmetic one: they do not know if they will like the eyeglasses they purchase, or if the glasses will look good on them. When trying on glasses at the eye doctor, or at an eyeglass store, it can be hard to tell what the glasses will look like when you where them out. It can also be hard to even know where to start with glasses. There are so many options but a customer does not always know what will look good on him or her.
Warby Parker wanted to address those issues. What if there was a company that allowed you to try on the glasses before you had to commit to them? What if the company helped you figure out what glasses would look best on your face? The Warby Parker business model was born. The company is primarily an online business, doing most of its business through its website. The website in its current iteration begins with a short quiz of sorts that asks the customer various questions from face shape to their preferred material of glasses. From there it will give the customer a series of suggested eyeglasses and from that list, the customer can select five different eyeglasses that they would like to try on. A few days later in the mail they will receive a box in the mail. This box will contain those five eyeglasses, and they have a week to try the eyeglasses on and then return them.
This model allows the customer to get a feel for the glasses, to decide if they like the look, the feel, and the function of each pair. There is no pressure to make a quick decision with Warby Parker, unlike at an eyeglass store. Customers are encouraged to take their time before committing to a pair.
Though Warby Parker is primarily online, they have begun to recently add some brick-and-mortar stores, with these popping up in the United States and in Canada, though they still strive to adhere to the same business methods.
The founders of Warby Parker did not want to simply create a business that helped people with figuring out which pair of glasses to wear. Though this is an important niche and they have found a smart way of addressing it, they wanted to add something deeper to their business: an element of social entrepreneurship–entrepreneurship that gives back. With that, they began this model: for every pair of glasses sold, they would donate a pair to a company that distributes eyeglasses in developing countries to encourage forward-thinking for individuals and startups there. This way they would not just be giving something away in the form of charity, but they are empowering individuals by providing certain resources (eyeglasses and reading glasses) that promote an individual towards autonomy and self-direction.
Warby Parker is a good example of a business that saw a problem–in their case, an insufficient method of trying on and fitting eyeglasses–and established a new and thoughtful solution. They are also a good example of then taking that new business model and making it into something that gives back to communities in need, in a way that does not harm these communities more.
Turning plastic into clothing came from a brother-sister duo at Colgate University. Growing up right by the beach, the brother and sister noticed a waste problem. They realized they wanted to do something about the problem and came up with a solution. The duo pitched an idea to turn plastic bottles into swimwear, earning them $20,000 at a mock Shark Tank. After winning, they raised nearly $25,000 more, and ended up launching the company, Fair Harbor Clothing. The concept is very neat and is quite simple, bottles are broken down into polyfibers which are then spun into yarn and sewn into clothing. The duo started selling by going to over 200 Trunk Shows. Today, the business has grown greatly, Fair Harbor worked with the Brooklyn Fashion and Design Accelerator to create board shorts and woman’s swimsuits using 11 plastic bottles and a little bit of cotton and spandex for shaping. 
The plastic to clothing design is very innovative and is a great idea. I think this idea is a great way to help with global cleanliness and waste reduction, a large problem in the world today. They take and use 11 bottles for clothing and the company is continuing to grow their inventory and options which helps to use even more recycling. I think it would be cool if they took bottles and other plastics straight from the ocean and helped to clean the earth by recycling and actually cleaning the ocean. However, the company is a great idea and is great for the planet and society.
Kyle Vogt was a student at MIT, during his Junior year he left to go join the start-up team that would form Justin.tv and Twitch. Through that process he was the company’s main programmer, he was called a “creative genius” for his work in the company. After Twitch was sold to Amazon, Vogt left to form his own company, Cruise Automation, which works on autonomous cars. This was a passion of his ever since he was a younger. Cruise was bought by GM in 2016, for 1 billion dollars. Vogt along with his co-founder Dan Kan are the youngest senior directors at GM.
Cruise Cars,
https://getcruise.com/
Info on Kyle Vogt,
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylevogt
https://www.crunchbase.com/person/kyle-vogt#section-overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Vogt#Cruise_Automation
Jack White, famous for being the lead singer of the White Stripes, still impacts the world with his music and brilliant mind. Despite the early 2000’s band breaking up, Jack White continues to crank out his own solo albums, one of which he released this year and climbed to the top of the US 200 Billboard.With deep, often strange lyrics, and screeching, distorted guitar melodies, Jack White tops his performances off with color coordinated clothes, instruments, and lights. Along with producing his own albums, he opened up Third Man Records in 2009, a combination of a record store, studio, and concert venue. After opening up another branch of Third Man in Detroit in 2015, White felt inspired to extend it into a large vinyl-pressing factory in 2017 called Third Man Pressing, making it the only place where records can be made-to-order. Ben Blackwell, co-founder of Third Man Pressing and nephew of Jack White, says that “For Detroit to continue moving forward, you need to have different ideas. [Manufacturing] is a field that’s driven by creativity. That’s something this city has always been flush with.”
Jack White, while often considered an acquired taste, is one of the most creative and innovative musicians of this decade. Not only does he have a creative mind, but also a business-like one. Throughout White’s career, he has faced many struggles and criticisms, but he still held his head up high and worked his way to fame. “There are many people out there who will tell you that you can’t,” White says,”What you’ve got to do is turn around and say, ‘Watch me.'” Jack White’s passion is to turn music back into the raw, emotion-filled expression that it used to be, and no one can get in-between an inspired man and his dream. White not only revolutionized the rock n’ roll industry, but he also demonstrated the flexibility of the title of ‘entrepreneur’. Jack White is a living example of where creativity, hard work, and talent can take a person.
Private space exploration technology corporations are rising fast and are getting closer to commercializing space flight. SpaceX, currently the most successful company in the field, is an American manufacturer with the highest ambitions. They have plans for helping the human race in colonizing the solar system. There first crazy objective is to safely transport humans to mars in hopes of colonization.
SpaceX was founded in June of 2002 by the same entrepreneur who founded Tesla and PayPal, Elon Musk.
On April 8th 2016 the falcon 9 successfully launched and landed. This was a huge step in the right direction, successfully landing with propulsion methods will prove useful for landing on any and all sorts of surfaces within the solar system. A new age of space exploration is almost in reach.
See Musk’s plans in more detail here