Ryan Hickman may well be the youngest entrepreneur in the market today. At only 3 years old his whole life changed with a little consideration for the environment. As a 3 year old he had more entrepreneurial creativity than many people do in their thirties. He began by picking up bottles around his neighborhood because he didn’t like the look of the trash in the streets and parks. This began an explosion of ideas and only 8 years later he is a worldwide sensation. An 11 year old kid has his own recycling and clean up business including weekly beach clean-ups, donating money to marine mammal rescue efforts and raising awareness for the environment. His drive comes from his love and passion for the environment which is more noble of a cause than many, and that should be an inspiration to anybody looking to be an entrepreneur. He is an 11 year old kid doing more for our world than just about anybody, let alone 11 year old kids.
Ryan owns and runs “Ryan’s Recycling” but also just released a new non-profit “Project3R” which is focused on recycling education. At only 11 years old this kid has multiple companies, both commercial and social and is only growing. Ryan is the perfect example that a small idea can build a huge company. His quick action of picking up some trash out of the street led to multiple well known companies spanning across the entire nation helping make our world a little cleaner. His business plan includes the expansion from recycling is an incredibly safe plan, as the recycling business is still being explored. Branching out has allowed him to get grips on other markets so he doesn’t rely on recycling alone. However, with his foothold in the still unexplored business of recycling he can forge a new path and be the first to revolutionize and change the business for the better. Ryan is an incredible kid, being only 11 years old with two separate businesses, cleaning up the Earth piece by piece.
19-year-old engineer Langston Whitlock is the co-founder of Safetrip, the world’s first healthcare transportation app geared towards helping the homeless & elderly. The app allows patients, caretakers, and health care providers to book non-emergency and emergency medical transportation. Users are offered premium vans, cars, wheelchair accessible vehicles and ambulances and have the option of paying with insurance. Safetrip, based in Georgia, is changing the game for healthcare.
Brian Chesky created Airbnb in his own house, supplying an Airbed and Breakfast to guests for only $80 a night. Being unemployed, this allowed him and Joe Gebbia to pay for their rent. Chesky believed the idea of Airbnb could evolve into a digital platform. After launching it the first time, he and Gebbia noticed it struggled to gain trust and traction. Chesky has publicly shared this was a stressful time for him. He remembers having a binder full of credit cards, an enormous amount of debt, and trouble attracting investors. During the Democrat National Convention in Denver, however, Airbnb started to gain success. This was mainly because a level of trust existed between Obama supporters opening up their homes for other Obama supporters.
