Archive for Youngest Entrepreneurs – Page 7

Helping to Bring Sight to the Blind

Shubham Banerjee was just 12 when he founded Braigo Labs. This is a company developing Braille printers with the ability to take online text, convert it to braille, and print it out.  More than that, Shubham redeveloped this process for 3D. This cuts the price of the printer by more than 1,000 dollars, which keeps the price in the low hundreds. This allows the impact to reach people in every economic class. Image result for shubham banerjee

Shubham writes about his inspirations for this company on their website. He states that 285 million people are visually impared and 90% live in the developing world. What he likes about his printers is that they are D-I-Y. This allows for an easy adoption process by customers. Image result for shubham banerjee

Truthfully Shubham tells the story and mission way better himself. He is quite young, but extremely entrepreneurial in his thinking. At just twelve he started having extreme impact on the world. It will be neat to see how this technology develops and how people will utilize it.

Tech for First-Responders

Young entrepreneurs are always impressive, but Mihir Garimella is one that really strikes me. He made in on an 18 under 18 list for inspiring entrepreneurs and businesses owns. Mihir is currently a sophomore at Stanford has a passion for working with robotics. His mission is to create real impact. He has definitely accomplished this through his invention of the Firefly.

At the age of 17 Mihir designed The Firefly, a modified drone which is specifically designed for  first-responders. It allows them to explore situations and disasters that could be dangerous and helps to find trapped survivors.

The Firefly is only one of Mihir’s creations. He has started work on projects that included self driving cars, adding scent to the movie theater experience, image processing that will help doctors with diagnosing patients, an app called Series which helps solve complex calculus problems using handwriting recognition and Citelt, a tool for writing correct bibliographies.

Image result for firefly drone mihir

Mihir is a strong example of the left and right brain working cohesively and productively to create new and amazing things. I am excited to see the impact that will come from his hard work and passion.

Teal Drones

George Matus, founder and CEO of Teal

George Matus (18), founder and CEO of Teal

Meet George Matus who is 18 years old and has created and sold the world’s fastest consumer drone. At 12 years old, George had already built his own quad-copter. Now, he is the CEO of his own company (Teal) and has 4 full-time employees. Teal, a Utah based company sells drones and software. As a pre-teen and into his teen years, George flew many drones and was not very satisfied. He then made a wish list of what he wanted in a drone. That list eventually became what is known now as Teal Drones.

The Teal Drone can fly as fast as 70 mph and can withstand wind gusts of up to 40 mph. Matus claims that he as flown the drone as fast as 85 mph and is working on additions to bring that type of speed to his drones on the market. Teal Drones sell for $1,300 which falls in line with the standard pricing of that type of drone. Teal Drones can be used for anything from racing, to taking photos, and even aiding in search and rescue missions. Matus wants to market the product to anyone. He claims that his product works for experienced flyers and those looking to get into the drone flying game.

In 2015, Matus’ company was chosen to be a Thiel Fellow from Peter Thiel’s foundation. Throughout high school, Matus would spend his time in school with his friends, but, whenever he got home, he would go straight to prototyping and fundraising for his company. His dedication and hard work, at such a young age, is incredible. When asked about advice Matus has for young entrepreneurs he said, “The advice I would give to young entrepreneurs is to really find what interests you, and then it doesn’t feel like work.”

For more information on George Matus follow this link: https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/12/meet-the-18-year-old-entrepreneur-who-built-the-worlds-fastest-drone.html

Always More

As a Christian, we are running this race we call life with the end goal of crossing the finish line and into the arms of our Father as he whispers, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” The race is tiring and we sometimes get distracted from where the finish line is. We hesitate, we fall, we get up again and we keep going, because we ALWAYS have MORE strength, endurance, and power in Christ.

Audrey Roloff, the founder of her blog AujPoj started writing the phrase “always more” on her arms and shoes in high school. A dedicated long distance runner, she kept every pair of running shoes she has ever owned and would spray paint them red, fill them with prayers and notes, and finally mark the bottom with the phrase “Always More” to signify the end of an era and the start of a new one. Her inspiration behind the phrase comes from Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine…” As she got older, she started applying the phrase to more in her life beyond just running. “When I get cut off on the road or treated rudely, these words remind me that there is ALWAYS MORE to someones’ story than what I know. When I am filled with joy, these words remind me that Christ will ALWAYS overfill me with MORE joy as I look to Him.”

What started out as a personal mantra for a girl growing up in the Pacific North West has now turned into a national movement.

Roloff started her blog AujPoj as a way to relate running and faith, but expanded it to include DIYs, tutorials, devotionals, personal stories, and more to create a true hodgepodge of creativity and inspiration. She has since expanded her blog into a shop inspired by the phrase, “Always More” where she sells clothes, hats, stickers, and more.

She frequently references her “always more” mantra with applications to her own life experiences to over 905,000 followers on her personal Instagram page. And with almost 75,000 followers on her shop Instagram page, Roloff’s personal motivation has expanded into a full blown business and ministry. Her mission to encourage other women to “ALWAYS believe in the MORE that is within them through Christ,” has reached young women all over the world. She’s also included an Always More Devotional which involves weekly text messages filled with encouragement, prayers, scriptures, and more to inspire and motivate you to always believe there is more to be found in Christ.

Audrey Roloff has created more than just a business. She’s created a movement. There is always more hope, love, and joy when we seek Christ, and she invites anyone and everyone to come alongside her to live out this truth.

Instagram.com/AudreyRoloff

Instagram.com/ShopAlwaysMore

https://www.aujpoj.com/always-more/

https://www.aujpoj.com/shop/

Mikaila Ulmer

With a list of achievements that most 80 year old’s would envy, Mikaila Ulmer, the founder of Me & the Bees Lemonade, has achieved a lot in just 14 years of life. At only 9 years old she took the nation by storm by getting a $60,000 investment deal with Daymond John on Shark Tank. Then only 4 years later, she was features in Time magazine’s most influential teens of 2017. Mind you she was only 13! For those of you that may not realize it, that’s like being a first ballot hall of famer. The lemonade company is based out of Austin, Texas, and uses wildflower honey, flaxseed, and mint in their products. Her idea came from combining two things that came into her life at the same moment. Her grandmother sent her a recipe for flaxseed tea and then she was stung by a bee twice. She was scared of the bees and started looking into them. This is where Mikaila learned about bees and took a particular interest in saving them. Now the award winning product has swept the nation and the proceeds from the lemonade sales go to saving the bees She attributes a lot of her success to her parents driving her to work for things from a young age. If she wanted something she had to earn the money to get it. She has also written a children’s book on how to start and grow a business. At 20, I think I could probably learn a lot from this book.

Noa Mintz

Noa Mintz was only 12 years old living in New York when she started her first business, Nannies by Noa. The 2012 founded nanny agency that she thought of through her own family’s struggle to find a reliable babysitter. After helping her mother find a better babysitter, she started helping her mother’s friends and the idea just took off. The agency is almost like a dating app in which Noa matches up families and babysitters. She hires all of her own sitters, and puts them through a rigorous vetting process, including phone interviews, in person interviews, and background checks. All of which are run by herself of course. But in 2015, Mintz actually hired a CEO to run her own business. Can you imagine in being 15 years old and hiring someone to run your own business? She hired a 26 year old woman to run her company, and they even have their own office space in New York. Noa did this because the business was becoming too time consuming for her to keep up with her school work. That’s right, Noa is only entering high school, so the 40 plus hours a week that she is putting into the company will be too much for the rising high school freshman. Nannies by Noa grew its customer base over 300 percent from 2014 to 2015. The company also has a secure financial backing from Noa’s father’s private equity firm. Noa plans on graduating from high school before launching her next business venture.

 

Young Tech Brothers for Good

The country of India has been one of the hottest emerging markets and with that has come the rise of many young entrepreneurs as technology and the overall wealth of the country has been on the rise.

Shravan and Sanjay brothers age 17 and 15 are the youngest of these entrepreneurs in the country of India. They are the brain behind the company GoDimension. It is a simple technological solution for the digital world. Not to mention, the digital world and digital banking has been given the credit for a lot of India’s wild economic growth. They have a vision to do good for society. Their latest app GoDonate helps facilitate the donation of food to local charities that would otherwise go to waste. I do believe we had a student in the Elevator Pitch competition who hoped to do something like this to negate the waste that is created in the restaurant industry.

These two individuals have a mission and a vision to make this world a better place. After developing 11 apps and 60,000 downloads across 60 countries the two brothers were listed in 2017 Forbes 30 under 30.

 

Never fully dressed without … a Bow Tie

Attention all men, I have a question for you. Have you ever felt like your personality has been restricted by the professional clothes you wear? When it is the time to suit up, do you feel like you look like every other man putting on a suit? I would like to introduce to you Moziah Bridges, the designer of Mo’s Bows.

Moziah had always appreciated good taste in clothing, even at a young age. Before he was 10 years old he would casually wear a suit and tie around his neighborhood. He found the uniqueness of suits alluring, though Moziah wasn’t completely satisfied. He could never find the right tie, or bow tie to match his outfit. He went to his grandmother, learned how to sew, and that led to the beginning of Mo’s Bows.

Mo’s Bows is a company that designs any bow tie in whatever fabric, color, style you would like. He has made over $700,000 in sales, appeared on the famous Shark Tank, and signed onto a one year contract with the NBA to make specialized bow ties for basketball teams.

Mo’s Bows Website

Moziah has demonstrated true qualities of an entrepreneur, or a ‘kidpreneur’. He started with something he was passionate about and found a pain that he wasn’t comfortable with. He then moved to the next step and sought out a solution for that pain. Moziah then shared what he cared. He was determined to make an impact on the world. Moziah has mentioned of

I am inspired to find what makes me smile and learn to make it better. I especially liked how big Moziah’s idea grew. I do not think the goal was to be known worldwide, but look how far a nine year old boy can go.

Ritesh Agarwal

Ritesh Agarwal is an unconventional entrepreneur from India. He was not fond of the traditional path his peers were taking so at the age of 17 he dropped out of college in order to pursue his own start up company. He had the idea of opening an affordable hotel chain which provides bed and breakfast services. Ritesh opened Oravel Stays shortly after and at the age of 18 he started his company with 11 rooms in a Gurgoan hotel. Today, his company has 65000 rooms in about 5500 properties across 170 cities in India and it worth over 5 billion dollars. Other accomplishments for Ritesh are a monthly revenue of 3.5 million dollars, a network of 2,200 hotels in 154 cities across India, being named among the top 50 entrepreneurs by the TATA first dot awards in 2013, he was a finalist of the global student Entrepreneurship Awards in India, he has been named one of the 8 hottest teenage startup founders in the world by a Business Insider in the year 2013, and he was the World’s youngest CEO at 17. These accomplishments have allowed his story to become one of the most successful entrepreneurial ventures in all of India.

Source: https://medium.com/@riyanair161991/top-10-young-entrepreneurs-achievers-young-indian-entrepreneurs-of-2018-64c1f83f59f4

Corporate Beekeeping

Leigh-Kathryn Bonner is a 25 year old entrepreneur who loves bees. Yes, you read that correctly. Bees. She is a fourth generation beekeeper who grew up on a farm in North Carolina. While she was in college, she was unsure about whether she wanted to continue her family’s business or pursue a different career. However, one day while she was studying abroad, she read an article about the decline in bee populations. She was astonished that this was a problem that affected not only her own country, but the whole world as well. She realized that she wanted to be a part of a solution that saved bees all across the world, while continuing her family’s legacy.

Bonner was able to take her family’s beehive business to the next level by creating Bee Downtown. Bee Downtown is a company that installs beehives on the grounds of large corporate headquarters. Its mission is to help save honeybee populations which ultimately helps agriculture. For example, Burt’s Bees, Chick-Fil-A, and Delta are among the many companies that have already signed up to contribute to this mission. Each company that partners with Bee Downtown will host numerous beehives on the properties of their headquarters locations. They will host these hives without doing any of the hard work that normally comes with beekeeping. Instead, Bee Downtown will train each company’s employees to maintain the hives as part of a corporate perk. This corporate perk has not only shown to raise morale of employees, it also helps to foster an environment that promotes social impact within companies.

According to Bonner, surveys have shown that 85% of employees who work at companies that have partnered with Bee Downtown have said that the hives have caused them to feel proud of the companies they work for. Another 95% have said that beekeeping was their favorite employee engagement activity each year. Bonner has successfully found a way to make a profit while also providing a way for people to become involved with a sustainability initiative.

Leigh-Kathryn Bonner is an inspiring millennial entrepreneur. She incorporated her background, passion, and talents into a sustainable business that encouraged social impact. If other millennials looked to Bonner as an example of a successful entrepreneur, they would be inspired by her story and may even want to turn their own passions into a business. I believe that with Bonner’s ambition and work ethic, she will be able to expand Bee Downtown all across the globe.