At ten-years-old, most of us are just excited about graduating from elementary school, but Mikaila Ulmer, a ten-year-old girl from Texas is excited because her company just got a $60K investment on Shark Tank.
That’s right. Not only does a 10-year-old have a successful business, but she just got more money than you can conceivably dream of having. Ever. Now that’s what you call a #girlboss.
It all started when she was only four. After getting stung twice by bees, Mikaila did what any kid would do in that situation: she cried and got really freaked out. However, instead of developing a life-long fear of bees and their stingers, Mikaila turned her fear into curiosity and began studying bees and the vital role they play in the world’s ecosystem. Not long after, her Great Granny Helen sent her a recipe from a 1940s cookbook for Flaxseed Lemonade.
Why the lemonade recipe? Well, even though Mikaila was only four, her parents, thinking it’s never too early to start pushing your child into entrepreneurship, encouraged Mikaila to develop a product for the Action Children’s Business Fair and Austin Lemonade Day. Being the exceptional child that she was, Mikaila decided to combine her fascination with bees with her Great Granny’s recipe, and lo and behold, BeeSweet Lemonade was born.
Sweetened with local honey instead of sugar, and using 100% freshly-squeezed lemon juice, BeeSweet Lemonade is all-natural, aids digestion, and is already being sold nationwide at Whole Foods and other distributers. When Mikaila’s not working at her stand or busy working towards a high school education that she’s clearly not going to need, Mikaila leads workshops on how to save honeybees. Again, this is a 10-year-old child. Oh, and did we mention that a portion of BeeSweet’s profits go towards aiding a variety of local and international organizations dedicated to preserving honeybees? Blake Shelton would be so proud
Mikaila recently went on Shark Tank where FUBU CEO Daymond John was sold on her sweet product, and even sweeter business acumen, investing $60,000 in BeeSweet for a 25% stake in the company. This investment will allow Mikaila’s company to make larger batches of lemonade and meet growing customer demands. To answer the question posited by the Fox game show Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, absolutely not.
