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SIRUM – “the Match.com for unused drugs”

Posted by Lizzie Parsons

· Wednesday, December 2nd, 2015

· 4 Comments

Every year in the United States, $5 billion (yes, billion with a ‘b’!) of unused and unexpired prescription drugs are destroyed. At the same time, 50 million Americans don’t refill their prescriptions because of the cost. A group of Stanford graduates wanted to find a way to easily connect the surplus and the need. In 2009, Kiah Williams, Adam Kircher, and George Wang created SIRUM (Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute Unused Medicine), a non-profit dedicated to deliver unused medicine to people in need.

SIRUM works in 4 easy steps. SIRUM first gets companies and hospitals to stop destroying unused medicine. This is fairly easy because the companies often have to spend a large amount of money to have the drugs destroyed. Instead, donating the drugs is free and less of a hassle. The company or hospital then enters the surplus via SIRUM’s technology. The company packs up the unused medicine and adds a pre-paid shipping label. SIRUM picks up the package the next day and distributes it to those in need. The company or hospital is then able to track the package door-to-door.

This entire transaction is a win-win for everyone involved! It is much easier and cheaper for hospitals or companies to donate the surplus medicine than to destroy it. And people who need affordable or free medication can easily get it. Like cofounder Kiah Williams said, SIRUM is “like the Match.com for unused drugs”. SIRUM was able to meet the needs of two different groups, with no downside to either group. To learn more about SIRUM, click here.

4 Comments

Categories : Medical, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Online Companies, Social Entrepreneur, Technology

Brian Wong

Posted by Boyce Cubarney

· Tuesday, November 17th, 2015

· 5 Comments

Imagine a world where apps and websites offered prizes instead of pesky advertisements. Well, our sought after technical advances have become a reality once again.

Brian Wong, a young entrepreneur, tackled this idea at the age of 23. It all began when he started to pay in-depth attention to the people around him and their mobile use habits, especially with application based game play. He then saw the opportunity, stating that “I remember noticing that there were these achievements that people would be hitting, like leveling up or hitting a high score … but then what struck me was that in those moments of happiness people were actually not being appreciated but rather slapped in the face with a pretty terrible advertisement.” The over all idea in a nutshell is to replace traditional advertisements with prizes after the user has accomplished something in the game. Its brilliant, and an incentive that is way more powerful than random advertisement 95% of users will immediately ignore or even find annoying.

Below are some examples of his prize based advertising. Check out his website at www.brianwong.com

5 Comments

Categories : App, Great Ideas, Online Companies, Restaurants, Uncategorized

Arjun Rai: Teen Battling Google

Posted by Stephen Weaver

· Monday, November 16th, 2015

· 1 Comment

When we hear the word “Google” most people think of the monopoly that runs the internet. In a lot of cases this is true, they have complete dominance in the industry of web browsing and most of the advertising. Who would think that an 18 year might combat this multi-billion dollar company? Well, Arjun Rai did just that. After working with and becoming the COO of an online advertising company, Arjun had gained enough experience to start his own online advertising company. This business venture led him to create a company named odysseyAds. OdysseyAds is an online network with a focus on catering to 21st century marketer needs. As a young entrepreneur myself I find this story to be very inspiring just because of the fact that we do have people out there who aren’t afraid of these market dominating companies.

1 Comment

Categories : Great Ideas, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Online Companies, Technology, Websites

Syed Balkhi

Posted by Lindy Bowser

· Tuesday, November 10th, 2015

· 1 Comment

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We all know the importance of story, well, Syed has a story worth reading. Everything he needed to develop his entrepreneurial skills simply fell into place. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Syed started his first business making greeting cards for a Muslim holiday at the age of 7. With the funds coming from his mom, he was able to triple her investment within the first month. Loving this, Syed began selling flags for Pakistan’s Independence Day celebration- also, profitable. However, he was not satisfied with selling just seasonal products. At the age of 9 he opens his own snack shop with his neighbor gaining extremely high profits. When he turns 12, his life is flipped upside down- his family immigrates to the United States.

With a whole new culture, language, and home, Syed found it extremely difficult making friends. In his spare time, he began gaming. During lunch when all the other kids were socializing, Syed would sit in the library playing games. But, because school is prison, the firewalls blocked majority of his favorite websites. He began toying around with codes and sketchy back doors to avoid the security walls. The other kids started to notice Syed playing all the popularly blocked games and he saw the opportunity. His web directories spread like wildfire as he began to develop his own web development business.

Skip a few awkward years, Syed attends the University of Florida. During his 4 years there he realizes he could not keep up with the demands of his online business. So, he migrates all his clients to WordPress sites. Next thing he knows, people are asking him about how to maneuver WordPress. To answer all the questions, he creates WPBeginner- the largest free WP resource site.

After college he continues innovating in the online world. List25, OptinMonster, Themelab, and Envira Gallery- to name a few. Looking at the big picture, if Syed had not moved to the states he would have never had issues with making friends, he would have never sat in the library during lunch, and he would have never become the web developer he is today. The story itself is inspiring, but the components of the story are what make Syed’s life special. We may not all be born entrepreneurs, but we

can remember that for every challenge we face, there is always an opportunity.

To hear his web wisdom:

1 Comment

Categories : Millennial Enrepreneuers, Online Companies, Technology, Websites

Blue Apron: A better way to cook

Posted by Lizzie Parsons

· Monday, November 9th, 2015

· 1 Comment

In 2011, investment firm associate, Matt Salzberg, and his computer programmer friend, Ilia Papas, decided that they wanted to create a business. After quitting their jobs, they tried to establish several different start-ups, but they were all unsuccessful. It wasn’t until they drew upon their combined love of food and cooking that they found success. As Salzberg stated, they both “liked trying new ingredients, new recipes, new techniques, but [they] found it really inaccessible to cook at home. It was expensive, it was time-consuming and it was difficult to find recipes that [they] trusted.”

Blue Apron

Their company, Blue Apron, named after the aprons French chef apprentices wear, was able to solve these common problems associated with cooking and trying new recipes. Blue Apron develops delicious new gourmet recipes for its subscribers to try and creates videos on how to make the recipe. The ingredients needed to make the meal are measured and sent to the user so there is no waste involved. All of the food comes delivered that day in refrigerated boxes. Some examples of recipes for this week are North African-spiced shrimp and couscous or mushroom brown butter cavatelli – food most people wouldn’t dare try to make on their own. Check out their website and other menu options here !

Salzberg and Papas had no experience in the food industry, so they enlisted the help of a family friend, Matthew Wadiak. Wadiak had worked as a wholesaler of truffles and avocados and was familiar with the food industry. He became Blue Apron’s food expert and COO, while Salzberg became the CEO and Papas the chief technical officer. This diverse founding team was key to the company’s success. Each person had very different backgrounds and talents, which allowed the company to pursue more opportunities early in the founding process. It also allowed them to access very different networks in which to market their idea.

Since its start with only some family and friends as customers, Blue Apron has expanded significantly. They now ship more than 5 million meals per month across the United States! After being in business for only 3 years, Blue Apron is worth more than a billion dollars! Clearly, they were able to identify a common problem and provide an easy (and delicious!) solution!

1 Comment

Categories : eCommerce, Food, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Online Companies, Websites

Chalk it Up

Posted by Lindy Bowser

· Wednesday, October 28th, 2015

· 3 Comments

William Zhou, born in 1992, always assumed a teacher’s job was easy. They taught out of the book, handed out papers, and had three months of the year to lay on the beach. Not too bad, right? He began observing his high school teacher’s lesson planning and grading of papers when he noticed how not so simple it was to run a classroom. He first creates Planboard to help lesson planning easier. Extremely successful, Planboard later wins $25,000 from the University of Waterloo Velocity Venture Fund and a partnership with Ontario Teachers’ Federation. With a growing user fan base, Zhou expands the service to Chalk.com, a Microsoft-like software tool for teacher collaboration, lesson planning, and assessment.

Chalk.com aims to make it easier on teachers to provide a beneficial learning place. The goal is to encourage a personalized education for student success. Browsing on their site, it is easy to pick up on how youthful the service is. All the company leaders are under the age of 40 and along the side of the page are quotes of co-founders Zhou and Fleming who have experienced the power of education through amazing teachers and family members. Just out of school themselves, these leaders know first-hand the work that goes into a great classroom lesson.

Students complain all the time (especially in high school) about not getting a grade back fast enough. We groan and whine at our teachers asking juvenile questions like, “What else do you have to do during the year? You have the entire summer off!” Zhou thought the same thing, until he started exploring. If Zhou had not looked closer at what a teacher does to create a great classroom atmosphere, he would have never noticed the struggle teachers go through on a daily basis. Chalk.com looks to lighten the burden of lesson planning, grading, and assessing through an easy-to use software system approved by over 20,000 schools worldwide.

See Chalk.com

3 Comments

Categories : Education, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Online Companies, Youngest Entrepreneurs

Sword & Plough – Bridging the Civil-Military Divide

Posted by Lizzie Parsons

· Sunday, October 25th, 2015

· 4 Comments

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Emily Núñez and her sister Betsy Núñez grew up in a military family, so for them, living on military bases and eating Thanksgiving dinner with hundreds of soldiers in a military mess hall was the norm. However, when Emily went to Middlebury College, she realized the huge divide between military life and civilian life. Most of her friends had never met someone in the military and had no idea what military life was like. During this time, both Emily and Betsy began to realize how difficult it was for veterans to find work as they transitioned from military to civilian life.

These two problems culminated into a business idea when Emily attended a social entrepreneurship symposium at her college, where the speaker talked about incorporating up-cycling into a business. Emily had the idea of recycling military surplus into fashionable bags and accessories. Emily quickly brought her sister, Betsy, on board and Sword & Plough was born. The name, Sword & Plough comes from the phrase “to turn swords into ploughshares” from the book of Isaiah. For Emily and Betsy, this means taking military technologies and materials and applying them to peaceful, military applications.

Every stage of their business (from design, to production, to quality control, to sales) is done in the U.S.A. and done by veterans. They even buy their supplies from companies owned and operated by veterans. Emily and Betsy want their company to empower veterans and help in their transition back to civilian life. They donate 10% of their profits to support veterans. They also want to have their bags be a conversation starting point to strengthen military-civilian understanding and to bring to light veteran issues. In fact, on their website, they have a “Wall of Heroes” to feature a different military personnel every week.

So far, Emily and Betsy’s idea has been a huge success. They’ve been featured on shows like Good Morning America and the Today Show, and on sites like Business Insider and Forbes. I encourage you to check out their website (click here!) to learn more about Sword & Plough, its products, and its mission. I think that this company is poised to make some really important impacts in the near future.

4 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Great Ideas, Military, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Online Companies, Recycling, Social Entrepreneur, Upcycling, Websites

Watsi – Radically Transparent

Posted by Lizzie Parsons

· Monday, September 28th, 2015

· 2 Comments

A few years ago, Chase Adam was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when a woman boarded the bus and began asking for donations for her child’s medical treatment. Because panhandling is so prevalent in that area of the world, Adam was shocked to see all of the natives give the women money for her child. He realized the natives believed this woman because she had the child’s information and had established a sense of trust with them. Inspired, Adam returned to the United States with the goal of starting a non-profit to provide healthcare around the world.

However, when Adam returned home, he realized that many non-profits weren’t very efficient and were underfunded. Adam decided to start a company that was built with an emphasis on impact, efficiency, and transparency. Watsi, launched in August 2012, is a “global crowdfunding platform for healthcare” – basically a Kickstarter for medical treatments. People can donate any amount of money to fund medical treatment and care around the world. Once a patient’s funding goal is met, the patient receives the treatment. Watsi then updates all of the donors with the patient’s treatment outcome.

Watsi is different from most non-profits because 100% of the money donated goes directly to people in need. All of Watsi’s operating expenses are paid for by optional tips or other philanthropists. Watsi prides itself on being “radically transparent”. In fact, all of their financial information in public knowledge and can be seen on their Transparency Document on their website (check if out here!). That way, you can see exactly where your money is going.

After a slow start, Watsi was the first nonprofit to received funding from Y Combinator, a tech company incubator program. Watsi took off and, within 2 years, raised more than $2 million, all of which went to patients in need. In 2014, Adam was listed on Forbes list of 30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs. Inspired by the woman on the bus, Adam was able to take an idea he was passionate about and use it to help thousands of people about the world.

2 Comments

Categories : Great Ideas, Medical, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Online Companies, Social Entrepreneur, Social Justice, Technology

Top 5 Coolest Young Entrepreneurs

Posted by Lindy Bowser

· Friday, September 18th, 2015

· 2 Comments

1. Matthew Mullenweg – estimated wort: $250 million

After dropping out of college, Mullenweg invented Automattic, the brains behind web software such as WordPress, Akismet, Gravatar, VaultPress, IntensePoll Debate, etc. There is no doubt the system is effective for entrepreneurs, mommy blogs, and Grove City Students- WordPress alone powers 22% of the world’s top 10 million websites, netting $160 million.

www.wordpress.com

2. David Schottenstein – estimated worth: $52 million

Starting at age 12, David began innovating with his own cigar business. After being shut down (dads ruin everything) he continued looking for his passions in life while attending a private school in Venice. David noticed his fascination for men’s business ware. He opened Astor & Black, a company selling custom made bespoke clothing- only 21 at the time. Today, his suits are typically $895 and are sold all over the world to corporate executives, famous athletes, and celebrities.

www.Astor & Black.com

3. Sean Belnick – estimated worth: $50 million

Bizchair, an office furniture manufacturing company, began in the 14 year old Sean Belnick’s bedroom. Once graduating college, Sean could take the reins as CEO to expand Bizchair into the fastest growing, privately owned company. Environmentally friendly, it is predicted Bizchair will decrease carbon monoxide emissions by 757.4 tons/year and 3.0 tons/year of sulfur dioxide emissions.

www.bizchair.com

4. Catherine Cook – estimated worth: $20 million

Catherine and her brother, David, played together in their small New Jersey home by setting up pretend libraries and renting out the books to their parents for a small fee. By the time she was 15, Catherine and David had created myyearbook.com, an online, interactive yearbook for high schoolers to meet new people. By 2011 the company grew from 400 active members to 32.7 million. In 2011 Catherine and David sold the site in a merger for $150 million.

www.myyearbook.com

5. Susan Gregg-Koger – estimated worth: $15 million

As a freshman in college, Susan partnered with her now husband Eric to create Modcloth, an online retailer specializing in vintage-inspired and indie clothing, accessories, and decor. Seven years later, Modcloth was the fastest growing retailer in the country and employed 350 people. By 2012 the site had over $100 million in retail sales. In 2014 it was the first clothing retailer to sign an anti-Photoshop, promising to avoid using Photoshop in company advertisements.

www.modcloth.com

2 Comments

Categories : Millennial Enrepreneuers, Online Companies, Youngest Entrepreneurs

MyYearBook:Catherine Cook

Posted by Grace Hovis

· Friday, September 18th, 2015

· 1 Comment

At the young age of 15, Catherine Cook and her brother came up with a great business idea. Having just moved to a new school, they decided to flip through the yearbook in an attempt to meet other kids from their school using the only resource they had. While flipping through the pages, they realized how ineffective this method was. This got them thinking. What if they could somehow put the yearbook online so that they could socialize with the other kids?

So this is exactly what they did. With the help of their older brother, Geoff, a web entrepreneur, and his $250,000 investment, Catherine and her brother began their venture into the business world. Working with a team of developers in Mumbai, they were soon able to bring their idea to life. In April of 2005, Catherine and her brother were able to launch their website within their school. Aimed at high school students, this website allowed students to interact and meet online; taking fun quizzes and participating in ice breakers. Within the first week, myyearbook.com had its first 300 members. From there, their company grew rapidly. In 2011, MyYearBook joined with Quepasa, a company that runs social networking sites aimed at Latinos, in a $100 million deal. This event completely changed the company. Today, Catherine’s older brother is the CEO, and Catherine is the Vice President of what is now known as MeetMe.com. MeetMe.com focuses specifically on the experience of people branching out and connecting with new people. They have become a more versatile site, catering to all ages, and leading the public market for social discovery in the US.

It is truly amazing how someone so young can come up with an idea so big. Catherine Cook is an inspiration to young entrepreneurs everywhere, showing how dedication and a little luck can take the simplest of ideas and turn them into a reality.

1 Comment

Categories : Millennial Entrepreneurs, Online Companies