Archive for young

Jack Kim- Co-Founder Benelab

Jack Kim is a 25 year old entrepreneur who co-founded the search engine Benelab advertising for Websites. This idea has generated a lot of revenue for charities in the area, and has sparked a new way of advertising and created revenue. Not only did he start this, he is also a helper for many other companies and is a CEO of Ember Labs. Kim started Benelab while he was still in High School where he made ads for websites that he created himself. Kim went to study computer science at Stanford University. This was something very beneficial and he continued to learn more about technology. The education he received helped him start him own business called Duo AI which helps develop household education system with AI. The charitable causes never went away and they contribute directly to fighting hunger and medical needs.

In 2013 Kim started another business called Visionary Systems which was helpful for emerging intelligent parking systems based in Seoul, Korea. The technology developed here really took off and created a lot of potential and a breakthrough in the technology world that created viral campaigns.

Kim proves to the world that you can never be too young to be an entrepreneur and to follow your passions. Kim used so much creativity and knowledge to develop many systems that change the way where normal concepts are taken to a whole new level. His talent and motivation is something that is unmatched and very inspiring to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

 

 

Me and the Bees

At just four years old, Mikaila Ulmer’s parents encouraged her to enter a children’s business competition. So, little Mikaila put her thinking cap on. She said, two significant things happened in that time period. She got stung by a bee twice and her grandmother sent their family her cookbook, which included the grandmothers lemonade recipe.

At first, Mikaila was scared of the bees, but then she became fascinated with them. She started researching them and realized that bees needed help. She thought, “What if I could help the bees by using my grandma’s lemonade recipe?”. Thus, Me and the Bee’s Lemonade was born.

At first, the venture was small and endearing, but now, at 14 years old, Mikaila is participating in large social entrepreneurship panels. She is also educating the public on how to better protect the honeybees. A percentage of her profits goes towards helping organizations fight to save the bees.

Me and the Bee’s Lemonade is now being sold at places like Whole Foods (an 11 million dollar deal) the world’s leader in natural and organic food. There are also a growing amount of restaurants serving her lemonade. Through connecting two very different ideas, Mikaila has been able to create a thriving business while striving to raise funds and awareness for the struggling bee population.

Snap Clips, Founded by a 17 Year Old

If you want to be inspired then look no further. This is somebody much like us who took entrepreneur classes and entered competitions. Martin Dimitrov was a junior in high school at the time and graduated a year later in 2015. The idea started as a class project, much like the one we had a week ago, and he ended up taking it to District 214 Startup Showcase. The product is an easier, more versatile clip for barbells. Much like the hot trend of slap bands at the time, this product simply slaps on to the bar. He won $400 and was given another $2,500 to further advance the product. He then crowd-sourced with a goal of $8,000 but ended up exceeding that by about 3 times as much.

Martin took it to Shark Tank and won $150,000 for 30% stake in the company. Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, and Alex Rodriguez all joined and noted that the product could be used for holding together cables or wires as well.

“It’s kind of funny. Entrepreneurship isn’t about whether you’re 16 or 50, it’s more about having the spirit of an entrepreneur,” Martin said. He has inspired many as well as myself because of his willingness and action to get it out in the market while in school. I now know it is possible to do both simultaneously with a lot of hard work.

Slap Clips are still in business and seem to be doing well. They haven’t marketed it as a wire/cable holder yet after airing in 2018. Dimitrov was encouraged to stay in school by the sharks. I must admit, I saw a very similar product my first time in the Grove City weight room. Instead of a spring loaded clip, it acts like a metal watch wristband that folds over itself. I thought it was ingenious and I’d imagine that Snap Bands has a bit of competition.

https://snapclips.com/pages/about-us

https://allsharktankproducts.com/shark-tank-products-sports/snapclips-barbell-collar-weights/

https://gazettereview.com/2018/08/snapclips-after-shark-tank-update/