15 Most Successful Teen Entrepreneurs
In today’s advanced world, we have reached so far in technology. By using such advanced technology, today’s entrepreneurs are enjoying huge benefits that past generations did not. Now, teen entrepreneurs have taken the market. Decades ago, when there were limited resources, entrepreneurs had to put in a lot of effort and resources by themselves to earn profit. Also, there were high risks involved in such businesses where all of the money invested by a single person in one business could be sunk.
Now, things have changed. Present entrepreneurs have more resources to gather all the relevant information before starting a new business. They can use internet connections to collect huge amounts of information worldwide. They can get more new and innovative ideas to start their business.
If you want to become a successful entrepreneur, you must be well aware of the advanced technologies and also you can take motivation from the world’s successful entrepreneurs. To help you out we are going to discuss the 15 most successful entrepreneurs in this article.
Who is an Entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is a person who starts his own business while keeping in his mind all the risks associated with this. Entrepreneurs often start their businesses with unique ideas.
They find a new problem that is arising and then start to find a solution for it. An entrepreneur is a market leader who creates his own market. Today the market is crowded with teen entrepreneurs.
We can get abundant new ideas from these talented entrepreneurs. They have more time and effort to put in because of their zeal and enthusiasm to do something new and bigger.
Difference Between Entrepreneur and Businessman
The terms Entrepreneur and Businessman are often used reciprocally. But they are distinct from each other. Both of them define two different persons with different goals and objectives and with the least similarities. A businessman is someone who runs a business that is already established and which is running on existing business ideas.
On the other hand, An entrepreneur is a person who starts a new business on his own by generating his own new and innovative ideas. Businessman runs his business by using traditional methods of business, he avoids changes in his business. He likes to work with his old business methods. While an entrepreneur is always ready to adapt to changes. He tries to find new ways to do things in a more advanced way.
An entrepreneur is very creative and he is very keen on using new methods while running his business. Now, teen entrepreneurs are taking ownership of the market and they love to make things innovative because they want to bring a change in society. Businessmen enter an existing market and are market players, while an entrepreneur because they enter a new market and become market leaders. A risk factor is very high in entrepreneurship because they are starting something new. While the risk factor involved in the business is low as businessmen are working on an already tested business.
Types of Entrepreneurs
Below are the different types of entrepreneurs that will help you to understand how entrepreneurs are distinguished according to their qualities:
i. Innovators
Innovators are individuals who turn their knowledge into something new. They develop a new and innovative product or service with their useful knowledge. They bring a positive change in the society.
ii. Creators
They produce new products by focusing on problems which are not getting solved by anyone else or those problems which no one is focusing on.
iii. Market Makers
They are the ones who remake or innovate their own market by looking at the current market situation and anticipating future trends in the market.
iv. Expanders and Scalers
They expand their business by taking new opportunities and adapting to changes in their business.
Successful Teen Entrepreneurs
Starting your own business is not something that can only be done by adults in the present world. Because now kids of 12, 15, and 17 years of age are becoming successful business entrepreneurs.
All you need to have an innovative business idea and the right way to do it. Your idea should be so good and innovative that it could blow up in the market.
Here, we’ll discuss some popular and successful teen entrepreneurs who are booming in the market and enjoying huge profits because of their successful businesses.
So, let’s have a look at them.
1. Cory Nieves
Cory Nieves has been very brilliant and talented since his childhood. He wanted to change the world by doing something good. He wanted to help his mother by financing his household expenses. They were living in Englewood, New Jersey. Lisa Howard(Cory’s Mother) was finding something new to give his son a better lifestyle.
Cory along with his mother searched for a perfect cookie recipe. They started selling cookies in front of their door and with the passage of time, their small business started growing rapidly. He was just 6 years old when he became the owner of his cookie business Mr.Cory’s Cookies.
Now, their business has expanded and they have 14 different flavors of cookies. And Mr.Cory has started working with some Huge businesses which are Mercedes-Benz, Ralph Lauren, and Whole Foods.
Coray has enjoyed the successful growth of his business. His future goals are to start a new business after his college graduation. After doing a lot of hard work Cory Nieves became a successful teen entrepreneur.
2. Kenan Pala
Kenan Pala was 13 years old and lived in San Diego, California. He was in 7th grade at Francis Parker Middle School. When he launched Kids4Community. Since his kindergarten he was taking active participation in volunteering for homeless people, he was very kind-hearted.
But one incident happened which provoked him to take the initiative toward these homeless souls. When he was out with his father on the beach for a holiday. And on his way home while he was sitting in the car, he saw a sick baby seal. And the baby seal was crowded with a lot of people who were feeding it, trying to cover it with a blanket. Then he saw a sick homeless old man. No one was helping him out. At that moment, he mustered up all the courage and started his own non-profit organization which will give shelter to these homeless people.
Kenan’s organization provided $5000 to the homeless souls for shelters and also he provided them meals to 2000 individuals from a soup kitchen. Kenan also won the Guinness Book of World Records by making the world’s largest mosaic from 400 boxes of cereals.
After his victory, he donated these boxes by adding 2000 more in them to Interfaith Community Shelter. That’s how he added his name in the list of Successful teen entrepreneurs.
3. Langston Whitlock
Langston Whitlock was only 12 years old when he launched his first messaging app. He invented that app when he was trying to contact his father. Later on, when he was 16, he became the co-founder of the SafeTrip app.
He developed this app when he came to know that patients are facing trouble while visiting doctors for their appointments. Patients could not make it on time because of a lack of transportation in Georgia(area of Atlanta).
This app allows users to book their Emergency Medical Transport and Non-Medical Emergency Transport. This app also allows users to give feedback about the drivers and their arrival times. Users can also pay fares with their credit or debit cards.
4. John Feinsibler
John Feinsibler was just 19 years old at that time, when he launched a quiz app which is called Gimkit. This app is a learning app that permits teachers to make quizzes for their students.
John decided to develop this app while he was brainstorming for a project which was assigned to him. And he invented Kahoot App and then he determined that he will improve it.
The future goal of John is to let Gimkit keep growing and see how far it can go. Although he is already a fortunate teen entrepreneur of his time.
5. Jeremey Miller
The success story of Jeremey Miller’s life is not actually a teen anymore because now he is officially a successful entrepreneur. Miller started his own company of Void Longboards when he was just 16.
After some time, he suffered a failure in his business. After going through this failure, Miller motivated himself once again and established a new company named J R Miller Group. This company is a social media marketing company.
Miller was extremely successful in this business, even though he inspired Blue Media. He also did marketing for NASA, Subaru, and SnapSheet. He earned a lot of fame with his achievements and became a victorious teen entrepreneur.
6. Mikaila Ulmer
Mikaila Ulmer was just 4 years old when she got stung by honey bees. Mikaila became frightened of honey bees, and whenever anything which can fly and can create buzz comes near to her she becomes very scared. But she was a different child. She decided to convert this fear into her strength. She did thorough research on honey bees. She came to know that honey bees are an important part of our environment. She also learned that honey bees are rapidly decreasing in high numbers. Then, she decided to help and save them.
She decided to save bees by inventing a product. So, she took a recipe for lemonade from her grandmother’s cookbook. She decided to add moderation in it by adding honey to this lemonade instead of sugar so as to raise people’s attention towards the declining rate of honey bees. That’s how her own company BeeSweet Lemonade came into being.
And now she’s selling almost 1,40,000 bottles of lemonade every year. Now, her lemonade can be found on the shelves of almost every store in Austin, Texas. Mikaila made history with such a unique idea of saving bees and at the same time, she made herself called a successful teen entrepreneur,
7. Erik Finman
Erik Finman was just 12 years old when he decided that he could change his destiny by adopting a different way other than normal students of the US. He asked his parents to let him quit college so that he can pursue an unorthodox education. He made a deal with his parents that he would make a lot of money from successful investments.
Then, he purchased cryptocurrency for $1000 which was given to him by his grandmother. At that time one bitcoin was only $12. And he received an impressive payoff of $1 million. At the age of 15 Erik developed an online education platform Botangle by selling a small portion of his cryptocurrency.
Investors became keen on this platform and they offered him to sell this for $100,000. With the passage of time, Bitcoin’s value increased to more than $2700. At the age of 18, Erik became a teen millionaire.
8. Benjamin Kapelushnik
Benjamin is also a teen millionaire who changed his own destiny. He was studying in middle school when his mother gifted him Nike Sneakers. Because of his new sneakers, he draws people’s attention toward himself. Then, he started taking an interest in sneakers.
He bought several pairs of sneakers with his own money which he received in the Bar Mitzvah ceremony. Benjamin was only in 8th grade when he bought a pair of MVPs for $400. And he sold them for $4,000. His life changed when DJ Khaled purchased 3 pairs of Air Jordan.
Later on, he introduced him to other celebrities in the industry like Drake, Traviss Scott, Kevin Hart, Floyd Mayweather, and others. Now, he is known as Sneakers Don.
9. Isabella Rose Taylor
Isabella Rose was the most talented child of her age. She was just 3 years old when she started painting and at the age of 8, she sold her paintings.
After some time, she made her self-titled brand Isabella Rose Taylor. By the age of 12, she became the youngest designer of her age to sell her own designed clothes to various Nordstrom Stores.
She got a degree in fashion marketing from the Parsons School of Design. She received numerous national and international awards for Poetry and Art.
10. Rachel Zietz
Rachel Zietz is the most successful teen entrepreneur of her age. She was just 15 years old when she started working hard for her dreams. She spent the days and nights of her youth making business calls.
Rachel loved lacrosse very much and she was playing it since 4th grade. One day while playing she noticed that the rebounders and goals are not strong enough. They can be easily broken and torn into pieces.
She was in middle school when she established her own business namely Gladiator Lacrosse. Later on, she won the award of Florida’s Young Entrepreneur. The firm earned a revenue of $7 million in 2020.
11. Moziah Bridges
Moziah Bridges was in a rush, he could not wait to grow up and start his business. He started his business of bow- ties at the age of 9. His grandmother instructed him how to sew.
Then, he decided to start his own business of bow-ties with the name of Mo’s Bows. He first introduced his business in New York during a Fashion Week of Mercedes-Benz.
He also took part in many charity events for underprivileged kids. He wants every kid of his age to fulfill their dreams. Now, he is the sole owner of $200 million.
12. Zandra Cunningham
In childhood, we often get refused by our parents for different things which we want to have. Zandra also got such a refusal, when he asked his father to get a lip balm. She used this refusal in a meaningful way. She said no worries I will make my own lip balm.
She was just 9 when she made her own lip balm. That’s how she became a teen entrepreneur. This act of self-support made her able to grow her business. Now, she is 16 and the sole owner of her company.
Her company sells more than 30 different homemade products. She prefers to make her products organically. She generates sales of $100,000 almost every year.
13. Ben Pasternak
Ben Parker was an extremely skilled child of his age. Once, he was getting bored in school. So, to get rid of boredom he made an app. He made a gaming app Impossible Rush. His game became popular in less time.
Soon, it was introduced on the App Store and it was downloaded a million times. It caught everyone’s attention. Then, after some time he launched his game impossible dial which also got the same popularity.
He started planning more and more bigger things for his future. Then in 2016, he launched two more apps SIMULATE and Nuggs.
14. George Matus
George Matus was just 12 when he created his own quadcopter which he built by himself. He was also working with many drone companies and testing their drones.
At the age of 18, he became the CEO of a drone company Utah-Based Teal. His company has the world’s fastest drone.
He always wanted to fly a drone that is not restricted to only taking pictures or only making videos. Teal can fly at a speed of more than 70mph.
15. Logan Guleff
Logan Guleff was 3 years old when he started cooking. He says nothing is more satisfactory than cooking a nice meal. At 9 years of age, Logan cooked a famous recipe for a Jiff sandwich.
To promote his talent, Logan used different TV shows and Reality shows. He was 11 years old when he joined the famous Junior MasterChef.
Then, with his great skills and talent for cooking, he won this show. And now, he owns his own Food Brand and he has a net worth of $9 million.
In a Nutshell - Teen Entrepreneurs
The success stories of all these young entrepreneurs made us believe that age is just a number. You don’t need to be an adult to start your business. You don’t need to wait for years and years to fulfill your dreams.
The examples we described above are clear proof that all you need is an opportunity and then the pursuit of this opportunity while believing in yourself and your capabilities.
All the successful teen entrepreneurs are motivated by their families, social trends, or any personal experience which led them to pursue their dreams by following the right opportunity at the right time.
