Cofounder and CEO, ScholarMe Four years ago, at 16, Femi Adebogun was building his first startup. He hired five remote employees — and because he wasn’t sure how they’d react to working for a teenager, he just decided to omit that piece of information. “I was really good at hiding my age,” he says. But […]

Founder and CEO, SmartCane When Riya Karumanchi saw her friend’s visually impaired grandmother struggling to move around her own home, she knew there had to be a better way. The white cane — that simple tool that helps the blind identify obstacles — hadn’t really changed in nearly 100 years. “I thought that was insane,” says the […]

Cofounder and CIO, SafeTrip It sounds like the windup to a punchline: a techy teen and an opera singer walk into a community outreach event and…stumble upon a million-dollar app idea. But that’s what happened when Langston Whitlock and Ja’Nese Jean — who met years prior working at these kinds of local gatherings — learned […]

Director of sales, and CEO and head designer, Are You Kidding Socks “We always have disagreements,” says Sebastian Martinez, CEO of Are You Kidding Socks, a Miami-based business he founded with his older brother, Brandon. “We argue about whether we should make this sock or that sock. And the compromise is: Make both socks!” The […]

Founder and CEO, Maya’s Ideas  At the age of 8, when Maya Penn told her mom she wanted to build a sustainable fashion collection, she got a response that would serve her well throughout her entrepreneurial journey: “Figure out how to do that and what you need to accomplish that goal.” She used old clothing found […]