Born in Texas in 2005, Mikaila Ulmer has had more success in her young life than most adults will ever have. When she was four, Mikaila got interested in bees after suffering several bee stings in a relatively short period. The more she learned, the more enthusiastic she got, until all she wanted to do was help the bees do what they do. At the same time, Mikaila’s parents encouraged her to send in a product for a couple different competitions in her city, one of which was the Austin Lemonade Day. After doing some thinking (and with some help from her Great Granny Helen), Ulmer’s idea was born: a lemonade sweetened with honey, not just sugar. With the combination of her great grandmother’s recipe and the innovative addition of honey, Mikaila set about creating a business that would donate part of its proceeds to saving the bees. Starting at a lemonade stand in front of her house, Ulmer’s catchphrase was “Buy a bottle, save a bee.”
As her business grew, Mikaila’s parents began to get involved. In 2015, she appeared alongside her father on SharkTank, where Daymond John put up $60,000 to support her business. Later that year, Ulmer was invited to meet President Barack Obama. From there, things only sped up – in the ten years since the start of Me and the Bees Lemonade, the business has grown over 500%. In February of 2020, Mikaila’s lemonade was being sold in 1,500 stores across the United states, and in March, Ulmer landed an $11 million deal with grocery giant Whole Foods.
Mikaila Ulmer is just 15 years old with an $11 million business to her name. Along with being the lemonade giant that she is, Mikaila works hard in school and loves rock-climbing. Along with this, she released her first book in August of 2020, called Bee Fearless, Dream Like a Kid, based off of her experiences as a kid in the business world.
What an amazing story!! I really love that Mikaila’s entrepreneurial spirit hasn’t wavered. Not only is she changing the world through her lemonade, but I’m sure she can inspire other young kids to take their interests and turn it into a business. It certainly was no small task to turn this idea into a multi-million dollar business – it’s even cooler to know it was done by a young entrepreneur.