Mai Lieu is a young entrepreneur who escaped the vietnam war with her parents when she was very young. She knew that she had to prove herself to herself and her parents. She came up with this innovative idea to allow an individual at home to cut their own hair and make it look great with no extra tools. The idea is a form of clip that locks the hair in place and also has a level on it so that the user can confirm that the hair is level before they cut. She decided that wasn’t good enough, so she also came up with a line of products around this idea that do similar things. One that can be used on the eyes to move around eyelashes, one that can be used to line up nail polish perfectly, and others. She is a great thinker who ended up closing a deal with Lori on shark tank and how has that partnership as an asset in her business.
Archive for Shark Tank – Page 3
Heather Saffer is a young entrepreneur who reinvented icing. She notes how traditional icing is very bad for you containing lots of chemicals, aligines, and other unhealthy ingredients. Her non gmo, gluten free, allergen free, icing containing 50% less sugar is a premium product with a price tag of almost three times that of her competition. Despite that she has worked hard appearing on shark tank, cupcake wars, and many other social medias. She has developed cookbooks for her product and firmly believes that she has the best product on the market. At the very end of her college career, just six credits shy from graduating college with a psychology degree, Heather dropped out of school to chase her dream. She reached a deal on shark tank and with the help of Barbra, she is now seeing record sales and growth!
https://dollopgourmet.com/pages/meet-heather
At the young age of 12 Ehan Kamat came up with an idea to relieve foot pain. He found that medical professionals would often recommend rolling a frozen bottle of water on the foot in order to relieve paid. Ehan knew there had to be a better option. He started thinking and came up with the quicker, cleaner, less wasteful solution to this problem call solemender. The product is a refreezable wheel with a sticky base that allows for the user to have a less flexibility testing solution to this foot pain. This product solves both the requirement for cold and stretching in order to relieve pain. Ehan is very impressive. He speaks french and often listens to french music! He has friends who also are entrepreneurs. He mentioned in a comment that they do not do similar businesses to him so that it is not competitive, and just educational and fun!
At the young age of 4 years old Mikaila experienced not one, but two bee stings within a week. She developed a fear for bees as most children do under the circumstances. She then begun her fascination with bees learning all about them and what they do for the environment. Around this same time her grandmother brought Mikaila’s family the recipe for her famous flaxseed lemonade. Mikaliah thought “what if I can combine my love for these bees with my love for this lemonade?!” That is just what she did. From there she began the process of perfecting her lemonade with the sweet addition and next thing she knew she was on Shark Tank making a deal with Daymond John! With her new partner on her side business started to take off. She began having a much easier time getting into large retailers and even restaurants! This business seems to be taking off and I can’t wait to see where Mikaila takes it!
Trisha Prabhu was featured with her business, ReThink, when she was just 16 years old. She could not drive herself to the set, yet she had coded an app that would allow for a pop up message on a phone whenever key words are triggered suggesting cyber bullying. By the time she was featured on shark tank Trisa had also been invited to the white house, awarded by google, given numerous TED talk, and had been contacted by a phone carrier company about her product. On the show she was able to close a deal with Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner. The idea behind the app is that an individual would be attempting to leave a mean message on someone’s post, or text something mean. When this happens they will receive a pop up asking if they are sure they would like to proceed. Trisia claims that this small moment of reflection caused 93% of messages to be reworded in a nicer, more uplifting way. Trisha states on her website that she has reached over 1500 schools, 500,000 downloads, 5 million students impacted and over 1.1 million TED talk advocacy. Trisha is a very motivated young entrepreneur. All you have to do is watch Shark Tank season 8 episode 1 and you will agree with me! She has some big plans for this business, and I’m sure that she will do very well. 
In 2014, two brothers, Brandon and Sebastian Martinez, started their family business called Are You Kidding. Brandon was 14 at the time and has been the director of sales. Sebastian was 12 and is the CEO of the company, and their mom is the president. They turned their passion of socks into a company. Sebastian loved socks and was asked by their mom if they wanted to start a business. The two brothers started unique and creative socks to sell. They wanted to stand out from other sock companies and did so by giving back and making a difference. Their socks raise awareness for charities such as Autism Speak, Stand Up To Cancer, JDRF, Make-a-Wish, and more. They also partnered with schools to help other charities. The two brothers have designed socks for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Be a Hero and Save Lives, American Cancer Society, and many more. They have donated over $300,000 to charities and incorporated a new way for thei
r customers to learn more about the charities they donate to. On each tag, the customer can scan the tag and a video will play, giving information about the charity.
They have appeared on Good Morning America’s Shark Tank Your Life: Kid-Preneurs Edition and pitch their company to Daymond John, an inventor on Shark Tank. Since starting their company and making appearances on GMA and podcasts, they have expanded their business. At first, they focused only on socks because that was their passion but they wanted to expand and build their family business. Currently, they sell long sleeves, t-shirts and socks. On their website, they have a charity collection tab with a pair of socks that are hand drawn for each specific charity. They also have fundraisers to sign up for or by socks for. Their plans for the future include finding retail partners and making hats, shoes, and more apparel.
Building a business is a good lesson for kids. It teaches them how to start, run, and grow a business. Running a business is not easy and it takes lots of time and effort to make it run successfully. Businesses should also be about following your passion. Sebastian said it best. “If you don’t start with your passion, you’re never going to continue the business.”
https://areyoukiddingsocks.com/pages/our-story
https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/337852
Ben Stern is a young individual who appeared on shark tank to close a deal with Mark Cuban in 2016. His product, Nohbo, is a small one time use shampoo drop encased in very thin eco friendly plastic. Ben mentions that he heard “depressing facts” about waste from the bathroom in a science class and knew something had to change. He went home from school to see his mother using a tide pod and the idea hit him! What if he could replicate the tide pod, only for shampoo. Ben did just that. He started with a powdered product, but quickly pivoted to the small ball filled with shampoo. Ben was able to lock in that deal with Mark Cuban for $100,000 in exchange for 25% of Nobho. In an article, Ben states that Cuban has since then invested much more money and also states that business is thriving. This young entrepreneur is someone who is motivated, learns from his mistakes, and wants to make the
world a better place.
At just 9 years old, Moziah Bridges became a ‘Kid-preneur’ and CEO of Mo’s Bows. He appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank at 11 years old and furthered his journey with investor Daymond John. Since then, Moziah has greatly expanded his company.
Moziah fueled his passion for this company based on a need – he couldn’t find any bow ties that fit his style or personality.
Mo’s Bows are unique, hand-made bow ties that “make you look and feel your best while catering to the sometimes conservative, fun-loving lady or gentleman.”
Moziah stated that he wanted to expand his brand to eventually create a clothing line that has blazers and neckties. Currently, his company sells bow ties, of course, neckties, and now face masks. Graduating this past school year in 2020, Moziah dreams of being a fashion mogul and growing Mo’s Bows into a well known public brand.
When going onto Shark Tank, Moziah had sold over 200,000 bow ties. Currently, his company’s net worth is estimated at $2 million.
Moziah says that one of his favorite things about Mo’s Bows is being his own boss and making decisions at every step of the way. His mom is also very active in helping and supporting Mo’s Bows.
Many people can recognize that Moziah is an inspiring entrepreneur because of his young, passionate success. However, they may not know that Moziah also has a redemptive entrepreneurship aspect of his company. His favorite bow tie is the Go Mo Bow because 100% of the proceeds are donated to help kids afford summer camp. Moziah recognized that the summer time is when child hunger is at it’s highest, and he believes in the importance of kids going to summer camp and having a fun time.
There’s a lot to be learned from someone like Moziah. From a young age, he took a passion and turned into a successful business all while having fun.
Potato Parcel is a business that was started by 24 year old Alex Craig, a mobile app developer that had recently graduated from the University of North Texas. The business concept is fairly simple, you can have a potato, with 140 characters or less written on it, mailed anonymously to any address. As it turns out, there was actually a decent market for this service.
After going viral on Reddit and Twitter, Potato Parcel quickly began making profits of $10,000 – $13,000 per month. By the end of the year, the business was sold to Riad Bekhit for $40,000. Bekhit expanded the product line to allow you to ship potatoes stamped with the image of someone’s face. The business was even able to secure an investment on Shark Tank, further growing its market. Potato Parcel has the value proposition of being an alternative to boring greeting cards. The goes to show that if you know how to position yourself in the market, you can build a successful business out of nearly anything.
In 2013 six friends were playing spikeball while on a beach in Hawaii. The game of spikeball was not well known, but was manufactured by Tomy games years ago in the 1980’s and 90’s. These six friends had numerous people come up to them and inquire about the game, how to play, and where to buy it while they were playing on the beach. At this point it was not a well known game. After finding out there was no current patent on the game the six friends were able to get together 100,000 dollars to start the journey of reviving the sport of spikeball. The main player in this journey was Chris Ruder. An ad salesman, Chris would work at his day job until 5pm, spend time with his children and wife until 9pm, and then work on spikeball until 2am. He did this every day for five years. At this point Chris had built the business to earn a staggering 1 million dollars in revenue per year. In 2014, the team was able to work with producers on shark tank and in May of 2015 their episode aired. They struck a deal however, it fell apart before the show even aired because the deal involved creating a Spiderman spikeball set with marvel. Ruder felt like this made spikeball a toy and not a sport. Even though they did not get a deal, they got the popularity. As of 2018, the company was bringing in 15 million in revenue per year. They pay $13 dollars per unit and sell the product for 59 dollars so there is a very high margin to be earned.
I really like how these entrepreneurs saw an opportunity and jumped on it. They really capitalized on this idea that was invented before them. It appears that the quest for money, and the goal of creating something for themselves drives them. The very interesting thing about these guys to me is how they did not invent much of anything rather,, they capitalized on poor marketing and made the sport fun. That is what sold units. They definitely have a drive. Ruder would work into early morning hours while he had a family for five years straight! That and their vision for something to be better than it is makes them perfect entrepreneurs. They inspire me because it reminds me that there is a lot of ideas out there that can be revitalized like this one! What really inspires me about these guys is their drive and effort they put into the sport. Through looking into these entrepreneurs I have found what it means to have determination and not give up!