When Mikaila Ulmer was 4, she was stung by a bee twice in one week. This made her very interested in bees. After studying them more, she found that bee’s population were dying and set out to help them. Around the same time this happened, an event called Austin’s Lemonade Day took place. Mikaila decided she wanted to make something for the event and took her grandmothers lemonade recipe and innovated it by adding honey to it instead of just sugar. After that, she began selling the lemonade at a stand in her neighborhood and was eventually asked by a local restaurant if they could sell it there. She began bottling the lemonade, and a percentage of profits to help save bees, naming her company ‘Me & the Bees’.
At age 11, Mikaila went on shark tank and received $60,000. At age 12, Mikala signed a $11 million deal with whole foods to sell her product in their store, and soon after was invited to Washington D.C. to meet the president. Mikala is now 17, a freshman in college, and a millionaire. In the last ten years of her business, she has made millions in revenue, released a book, started a nonprofit, and donated over 1.3 million dollars towards saving bees. Me & the Bees has one multiple awards and is now selling in over 1,500 stores nationwide. Mikaila travels the country for public speaking events, holds workshops to teach more about helping bees, and participates in many entrepreneurship panels.
Mikaila’s story is particularly inspiring because her product took of so fast and became so succesfull. It shows she carries strong entrepreneurial traits, because she took something she loved and turned it into a business that helped the community, and she stayed dedicated to her business. I think it’s inspiring that she has and continues to do so much while being a student. Her story shows principles of dedication, inspiration, and compassion.
This is a great story! It really highlights how entrepreneurial Mikaila has been since a young age. It also is really cool how she was inspired from an experience to adapt the current recipe of lemonade. This is exactly what Professor Sweet talked about, for innovative ideas do not always have to come from a brand new idea or product, but, often, sometimes the best ideas stem from adaptations of current products or services.
It is interesting to see how this business started and where it is now. I was shocked to read that she is a college freshman and a millionaire. I love that she combined ideas to come up with her own unique lemonade. This is a very encouraging story that you can take something simple, put a twist on it, and make a large profit.
It is amazes me how someone so young can create something so profitable and impactful. Who knew that getting stung by a bee could cause someone to get passionate about helping them.