According to Pela Case’s website, they have a “big, hairy, audacious goal” where they want to create a future without waste, and it is that mission that informs their goals and business-practices. The founder of Pela, Jeremy Lang, says that he had the idea for the company when he was in Hawaii with his family and his son dug up a piece of plastic on the beach. This led Lang to think about the impact of plastic and waste on the environment, and from that the impact on human life and community.
Lang decided that he wanted to craft a company that combated this waste, while also raising awareness about it. This led him to found Pela Case, a company that produces eco-friendly recycled phone cases. The idea was to create something environmentally-focused and sound that you would hold in your hand every day. Their phone cases are durable and biodegradable.
The company is founded on and focused around four core values: community, creativity, consciousness, and courage. All of these are reflected in their business’ values and practices, but also in the culture they wish to inspire in their product.
This company interests me because I think it is an awesome example of an entrepreneur seeing a very specific need and finding a way to connect it with something tangible and very “human.” It’s a company that does not ask much of people–everyone needs a phone case, so why not get one that looks nice and also supports environmental causes? The company still seems like it’s pretty small, but I’ve seen a lot of ads for it on social media and I have begun to see more people with their product.
other taught her to cook when she was five years old. In 2008, her father was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Since then, she and her family became devoted to living a healthy life, in their eating and lifestyle choices. Since then, they have been able to reverse her father’s diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
Although not a millennial, Milton S. Hershey is an inspiring young entrepreneur, just of a different century. Hershey encompasses the spirit of a true entrepreneur in that he worked hard for what he wanted, persevered through failures, and sought the good of others not simply for personal gain. Working from the bottom up, Hershey was born in a small farming community in central Pennsylvania, was primarily raised by his mother after his father fell out of the picture, dropped out of school by 14, and became an apprentice to a confectioner. By 18, Hershey had set up his own candy shop with $150 he had borrowed from his aunt. After this business failed to take off, he headed West where he learned the art of making caramel with fresh milk. The entrepreneurial spirit within him struck out again, and Hershey tried twice more to set up candy shops with this new addition. His ventures in Chicago and New York may have failed him, but he was not discouraged. Returning to Lancaster, Hershey gave it one more shot and that perseverance finally paid off. The name we now know for chocolate really began in the caramel business!
Milton S. Hershey’s story didn’t end with the successful establishment of the Lancaster Caramel Company, instead, he continued to explore ways to improve the world around him within the realm of what he knew best-candy. At the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago he was introduced to chocolate making which inspired him to make this then delicacy accessible to the general public. He sold his caramel company for one million dollars, and founded the Hershey Chocolate Company which (as we know) became even more successful than his prior endeavor. The amazing part of Hershey’s story is not his drive, nor his multiple successes, but what he chose to do with these blessings. Instead of leading the life of luxury he had earned, Hershey chose to live modestly and cultivate his community to create better opportunities for those around him. He built churches, parks, housing, transportation, and other amenities for his workers, and with no children of his own, he founded a school to give other boys and
