According to Inc.com, Gerard Adams was the second most influential millennial entrepreneur to watch in 2017, only behind Mark Zuckerberg. Adams has started and invested in a number of businesses, many of which have become huge successes. He spent
one semester at Caldwell University before dropping out and going off on his own. His father worked at Prudential Financial which grew Adams’ interest in the stock market. He started several companies in the financial industry. One of these was called StockSpot, which he says grew to a revenue of $10 million before the 2008 stock market crash. In recent years, Adams has invested in or started nine companies, all of which have made over a million dollars.
The business Adams is most well known for is Elite Daily, a news platform for millennials. The site reached over 80 million monthly visitors. In 2015, Adams and his two co-founders sold the company to Daily Mail for $50 million.
Adams calls himself The Millionaire Mentor. His goal is to inspire millennials in their passions. He does this through a few avenues. The first is his website (GerardAdams.com). On this he has blogs, videos, and other information to help entrepreneurs. He also has a business called Fownders, which has classes, articles, and other things that encourage social entrepreneurs.
Gerard Adams is very passionate about helping entrepreneurs, especially millennial ones, in pursuing their passions. It is great to see a successful person using their gifts to help other people who are starting out just like he did at one point.
Archive for Social Entrepreneur – Page 11
Liz Forkin Bohannon founded Sseko in 2010 and took the business idea to Shark Tank. The business left Shark Tank with no investors but realized that they believed in the traditional form of philanthropy. The investors of Shark Tank, according to Liz Forkin Bohannon,
Sseko means laughter in Lugandan, this is seen through Sseko’s mission. Sseko’s mission is to break the cycle of poverty in Uganda and create opportunities for women to pursue higher education. Sseko has sent one hundred and six women to college through their program and plan to send many more. The company also partners with local artisans in Uganda and create transparency between the customer and the company. Liz Forkin Bohannon says that Sseko seeks to create a new standard of transparency and connection between the customer and who made the product.
Sseko has been featured in Vogue and Cosmopolitan as well as Shark Tank and been seen on numerous celebrities. The goal for growth in 2015 has obviously been a success. The brand is booming and sending their largest class to college. Sseko shows how setbacks, like leaving Shark Tank without an investor, can still lead to great things. Sseko is completing their mission of sending women to higher education. Liz Forkin Bohannon’s perseverance is something that all entrepreneurs need and she is a great example of pushing through despite setbacks.
https://vimeo.com/36069709
Young entrepreneur, Jordan Robbins, at the young age of 23 began her own business; REVLY Sport. Robbins, who graduated from La Costa Canyon High School in California found herself on the beach quite frequently. She recounts memories of her confidence being shattered by the surrounding beach bodies. Robbins had one goal: to push back against body shaming.
Robbins created the swim suit company REVLY Sport that symbolizes self confidence with your own body. REVLY strives to help women feel comfortable when they’re in their swimsuits. They provide a mix of two-piece and one-piece bathing suits to pick from. Robbins tells customers to feel free to mix and match her suits (if you purchase two-piece suits) because each is designed to match well with the other suits.
Robinns started REVLY not to just sell swim suits but to begin a revolution. REVLY allows women to recognize the brand they wear on other women and know that each of them are part of this revolution. The brand is not just a stylish fashion choice, it’s a lifestyle choice. The people who wear REVLY suits are claiming that they will not stand for body shaming and will be determined to stand up for other women who feel poorly about their image. Robbins not only began her own business she began a positive social revolution for all women.
Troy Kumprey created a Ladder Lockdown saddle after one of his employees fell from a ladder while working. Kumprey saw the dangers that normal ladders have so he wanted to create something that would make ladders safer and guarantee his employees would return to their families each night. So Kumprey created a versatile setup that accommodates extension ladders up to seven meters and most A-frames up to 1.8 meters. Ladder Lockdown is adaptable to hard soft surfaces, from concrete to wood to snow. Ladder Lockdown reduces lateral movement. Kumprey saw a problem and need that should be filled, he took a problem and created a solution. Kumprey also found a niche market for his product; construction, homeowners, and firefighters can relate to ladder safety. Ladder Lockdown saves lives and forever changed how ladders are used. Kumprey turned a dangerous tool into a safer for everyone to use. Here is a link to Ladder Lockdown website to learn more about the product, mission, and Troy Kumprey’s story:
Veterati
Beginnings
The Problem and Solution
Success
Personal Opinion
John Jones and Elliot Young were just freshman at Wheaton College, located just outside of Chicago, IL, when they decided to start a company benefiting diabetics around the globe.
Jones, a Type 1 diabetic himself, was all too familiar with the day in day out struggle of protecting his supplies an
d the shame that was brought upon by carrying a large medicine bag. Diapack is a product that refrigerates and stores medicine for diabetics in a safe, functional, non-eye catching way.
John Jones ’21.
These two students brought their idea to Wheaton College’s Shark Tank competition and Elevator Pitch competition. They won Shark Tank and was mentored by some of the world’s biggest medical startups. After the Elevator Pitch competition Jones and Young were offered $30,000 by a VC, which would fund 30% of their company.
However, the boys said “No thank you.”
They said “by declining the offer we believe we gave ourselves the opportunity to rethink what it means for us to be entrepreneurs. I also suppose, deep in our hearts, we did not feel prepared to be full-time entrepreneurs while going into our sophomore years at Wheaton” (Wheaton College).
Even though the boys turned down a once-in-a-lifetime offer, they had their priorities straightened out. And who knows, Diapack might start up after the young men graduate. However, I admire Jones and his ability to see an issue, and instead of sitting back, to act upon it. The innovation that came from a problem affecting thousands of people because one college freshman was fed up, is deeply inspiring. I personally struggle with letting the fear of the unknown get in the way of innovation. But Jones and Young did not let the fear of the grandeur of the medical world stop them from creating a product that could reinvent how diabetics live everywhere.
I believe that college students here at Grove City College, and around the world, could take a few notes of what these young men have done. There are problems all around us, we just need to develop the ability to see them, feel the pain, and make a change. I think another thing we can learn from Jones and Young is to not let our potential future fog what is right in front of us. The men had a great idea that can make a huge difference in the medical world, but they believe God has them where they are right now for a specific purpose and decided to embrace that.
Am I saying their decision to turn down the VC funding was the right one? Not necessarily, however, I am saying that we have been called to live in the moment and not worry about tomorrow. God has given these men a talent and a passion that could turn into a successful career, but He has also blessed them with the opportunity to go to a well respected College, to learn, and to grow, and they are taking a hold of that.
Seek out pain, make a difference, but do not forget where you are and what you are being called to right now.
Wheaton College. (2018, September 17). A Different Kind of Growth. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from https://www.wheaton.edu/news/recent-news/2018/september/a-different-kind-of-growth/#.W50lUHq2Fqw.facebook
Andrea Sreshta and Anna Stork were just two ordinary grad students pursuing their degrees at Columbia University when they had a “bright” idea. In 2010 while they were still in school, a terrible earthquake hit Haiti. One of their class assignments was to develop and design a product that would aid in the relief of this struggling nation. Thus, LuminAID was born.
These solar powered lanterns solved a massive problem which is commonly over looked in relief efforts. The under-developed state of Haiti already suffered from its lack of electric lighting. However, especially in times of crisis good lighting is a necessity and Sreshta and Stork noticed this gap and optimized its potential. Their first prototype was made after several hours of tinkering. The next three weeks of their class was spent refining the idea. Once they saw the amazing potential for the product they filed for a patent.
This brilliant duo teamed up with several relief teams in Haiti and tested out their new idea. It was an absolute success and proven to get the job done. The LuminAID was so successful they decided to start a real for-profit company selling them for commercial and recreational use. Their market development strategy has caught a lot of traction and the LuminAID lantern has shown stunning growth. Officially back by Mark Cuban from Shark tank, The LuminAID team is well on their way to impacting the world and making people rethink lighting.
Christopher Gray grew up in poverty in Birmingham, Alabama. He had a single mom, and two younger siblings. None of his family had ever gone to college, but he was hoping to be the first. He did not really have anyone to help him pay for college, since his mom had lost her job during the recession in 2008. He was determined to find out how to get to and pay for college, so he started looking for scholarships. He did not have a computer at home, so he used the library computers where usage time was limited. He would also write his application essays on paper at home, then type them into the application on his phone. All of his hard work paid off, though. In the end, his total was $1.3 million in scholarships that he had earned.
Christopher could have stopped there and been satisfied with just going to college and living his own life, but he did not. He knew that there were thousands of other people just like him who wanted or needed scholarships, but there was not a good process out there for finding them. He also learned that about $100 million in scholarships go unclaimed each year.
So, he started Scholly, an online program to match students with scholarships. He developed a patent-pending algorithm to select the scholarships that fit each student, based on information about them. His major breakthrough came when he appeared on Shark Tank in November, 2015. Within the first few hours after the show was aired, Scholly received 80,000 requests. Scholly now has almost two million users. It has also connected students with over $100 million in scholarships to further their education.
Christopher Gray is an excellent example of someone who saw and experienced a problem, and figured out how to fix it. He has made the lives of many future college students much easier, and he looks forward to continuing to do that with further innovations to the program.
Grove City freshman and young entrepreneur, Justin Corbin has already made his headway, deep into the political scene. Born and raised just outside of Pittsburgh, Justin was inspired at a very young age by his brother David- who made and sold his own Duct Tape wallets. Justin was initially driven to make his own money to buy what he wanted without the help of his parents. His sense in independency led him to selling 150 para chord bracelets at five dollars a piece which he simply bought for cheaper at local stores. Pressing on to his Boy Scout days, Justin furthered his ability to sell by raising over $5,000 worth of popcorn.
Justin thought he always wanted to be a chiropractor but after a Patrick Henry College political science camp he found his interests shift to getting involved in the political scene. He then discovered a problem, having a hard time as a young American, getting active in the political world so him and his brother created an outlet serving many of his piers getting their voter registration which would later evolve drastically to become his largest company as of now.
Justin’s work ethic and talent with people was prevalent in his senior year of high school when he took a job with Dunkin Donuts (now just Dunkin) in January and by July he was managing the store along a with a Baskin Robbins. Also, by that time he had an internship set up with U.S. Representative Tim Murphy which developed after a random encounter with him at a local Macy’s. That fell through after a short time due to him dropping out of his campaign from a discovered affair he was having. Through another encounter with a customer at his Dunkin Donuts, he got connected with republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Mike Turzai who was soon to run for Governor and gave Justin and his brother David the job of running his campaign social media outlet, Snap Chat. And that was the first job and the beginning of Jumpstart Strategies which exists now to engage Americans as informed voters. Jumpstart quickly spread in awareness as it took over running the social media tactics for many major political campaigns in Pennsylvania. Justin Corbin discussed his success in discovering that, “Every campaign is won online” and later said that he found, “a niche that no one else has covered.” When asked about the potential problem of his age running such large accounts he said, “I actually had a much easier time selling this to politicians as they know my aged people know how to work social media because we are on it all the time.” Jumpstart has found itself facing little competition but heavy opposition from the other side of the aisle as they decided to protect their name serving only the Republican party. Unfazed by these attacks, Justin has discovered traits about himself he picked up from his hostage negotiator father, Brian Corbin who taught him how to stay level headed and non-emotional in high pressure situations. Jumpstart has led him to interactions with President Donald Trump and numerous occasions with VP Mike Pence.
Young and fearless, Justin Corbin is driven to set himself apart from the pack and to be successful at whatever he does. This has led him to coin his company as ‘Winning Decisively’. Justin says he tells himself every morning, “You didn’t wake up today to be mediocre.”
The world of charity has remained a sleepy industry for decades. Much of the general population is oblivious to the numerous opportunities available for monetary donation. A young man, Jack Kim, came up with a solution to this problem.
Benelab is a web-based non-profit organization founded by high-school student, Jack Kim as a means to provide foundations with the support they require. Through the creation of a new search engine, people can donate directly to various organizations. Although similar search engines exist, almost all of them are designated for-profit organizations that take a percentage of each donation for themselves. This platform was designed to create significant impact through what can be boiled down to crowd funding.
Featuring a unique practice of donating 100% of their search engine advertisement revenue to a unique cause every month sets them apart by making guaranteeing significant impact, creating a greater sense of community. Additionally, Benelab is made up of high-school volunteers exclusively.
Kim is pursuing a remarkable idea through Benelab. Very few millennials have the ability to take on the charity industry like he has and pivoted to solve a problem in a new, innovative manner. His tenacity and confidence inspires others to take action and pursue their entrepreneurial ventures, even if the timing isn’t perfect.
