Under 30 and unstoppable young entrepreneurs breaking all the rules

Key traits of young entrepreneurs

Business owners in their teens and twenties don’t think like their parents did. They bring different skills and priorities to the table that reflect growing up in a world where smartphones, social media, and global connections have been normal since childhood

• Digital-first thinking: They don’t just use technology; they breathe it. These entrepreneurs instinctively see opportunities for automation, connection, and scaling that might be invisible to others.
• Purpose over profit: Making money matters, but it’s rarely the only goal. Most young founders build their businesses around causes they genuinely care about, whether environmental sustainability, mental health, or social inequality.
• Comfort with uncertainty: Growing up during economic shifts and global challenges has made many young entrepreneurs surprisingly comfortable with risk. They’re often willing to try, fail, learn, and repeat without the fear that holds back many seasoned professionals.
• Community-centered approach: Rather than creating products in isolation, they actively involve their users in the development process. Social media feedback, beta testing, and customer communities shape their business decisions from day one.
• Global perspective: National boundaries mean little to entrepreneurs who grew up connected to peers around the world. They build internationally-minded companies from the start, not as an expansion afterthought.
• Authenticity as strategy: Being real isn’t just a personal value, it’s good business. Young founders tend to build brands that reflect genuine values rather than manufactured corporate personas.

List of 8 young entrepreneurs

These seven entrepreneurs didn’t wait for perfect conditions to start their businesses. Each one began with whatever they had on hand but tons of determination, working on problems they actually cared about instead of just trying to get rich quickly.

They’re a diverse bunch from all over the map, working in everything and what makes them special besides that they were young is how they’re completely rethinking what businesses can do and stand for today.

Ben Francis

Ben Francis started Gymshark at 19 in his mom’s garage while juggling college and a Pizza Hut delivery job. What began as a small screen-printing operation selling supplements quickly shifted when Francis noticed a gap in the fitness apparel market. Instead of copying established brands, he designed form-fitting clothing that showed off the results of working out, something nobody else was doing. 

His early strategy of sending free products to fitness influencers paid off massively, creating a cult-like following on social media before influencer marketing was even a thing. By listening to his customers and staying true to his fitness community roots, Francis built Gymshark into a billion-dollar brand without outside investment until 2020, proving you don’t need industry experience to disrupt it.

Mikaila Ulmer

At just four years old, Mikaila founded “Me & the Bees Lemonade,” her lemonade business started with a bee sting and a flaxseed honey recipe from her great-grandmother’s cookbook. After getting stung twice at age four, Mikaila became fascinated with bees instead of fearing them. Learning about their crucial role in our ecosystem and their endangerment, she decided to make lemonade with honey rather than sugar, donating a portion of profits to bee-saving organizations. 

What’s remarkable isn’t just starting a business at such a young age, but her pitch to Shark Tank at 11 that secured a $60,000 investment. Now a teenager, Mikaila has built Me & the Bees into a nationally recognized brand while balancing school, speaking engagements, and her non-profit that teaches youth entrepreneurship. She’s living proof that age is just a number in business.

Alina Morse

Seven-year-old Alina Morse asked a simple question: “Why can’t we make candy that’s actually good for your teeth?” Instead of dismissing this as childish curiosity, she took action. After experimenting with ingredients in her kitchen and consulting with dentists, Alina created Zollipops, lollipops that clean teeth by raising mouth pH and reducing acid. Her persistence convinced retailers to take a chance on a product created by a child. 

By age 14, she was running a multi-million dollar company while doing homework between business calls. Alina’s company now includes a full line of tooth-friendly treats, sold in thousands of stores worldwide. She’s used her success to donate over 250,000 Zollipops to schools for dental health education programs, showing that kid entrepreneurs can build profitable businesses while creating positive change.

Patrick Collison

Patrick Collison wrote his first software program at age 10 and sold his first company for $5 million while still a teenager. But that was just the warm-up. Frustrated by how difficult it was for small businesses to accept online payments, Patrick and his brother John created Stripe in 2010, building a solution that could be implemented with just a few lines of code. 

What set them apart wasn’t just technical skill but their focus on developers’ needs when everyone else was focused on merchants. Stripe quickly attracted investments from Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, fueling its expansion. Now valued at over $95 billion, the company processes hundreds of billions in payments annually. Despite his billions, Patrick maintains a low profile, reading voraciously and remaining deeply curious about how the world works.

John Cronin

When John Cronin finished high school, he told his dad Mark he wanted to go into business together, selling crazy socks. Having Down syndrome didn’t stop John from believing in his low-cost business idea or his ability to make it work. Starting with just $3,000 in inventory stored in their living room, John brought personality and creativity while his dad handled operations. Their formula was simple: wild designs, personal notes with every order, and giving back by donating 5% of profits to the Special Olympics. 

John’s Crazy Socks quickly grew to shipping thousands of orders daily, hiring many people with disabilities along the way. Beyond selling colorful footwear, John has testified before Congress about employing people with disabilities and showing the world that different abilities can be business superpowers rather than limitations.

Boyan Slat

During a diving trip in Greece at 16, Boyan Slat couldn’t believe what he saw, the water was filled with more plastic trash than actual fish. This shocking experience stuck with him. By 18, he was on a TEDx stage pitching his fix: giant floating systems that would use ocean currents to gather plastic waste. When so-called experts laughed off his concept, Slat quit his aerospace engineering program to focus on making it real. 

The road wasn’t smooth, early versions broke apart in storms, collected plastic would escape, and technical problems kept popping up. But Slat and his team refused to quit, tweaking designs after each setback. Today, his organization The Ocean Cleanup is pulling massive amounts of plastic from both oceans and rivers, even turning the recovered trash into new products. His work has not only inspired global environmental efforts but also sparked innovative recycling business ideas that turn waste into sustainable solutions. Slat proved that sometimes being too young to know something “can’t be done” is actually an advantage.

Anya Doherty

While studying at Cambridge University, Anya Doherty became obsessed with a simple question: why is it so hard for food businesses to measure their environmental impact? Traditional carbon assessment methods were expensive, time-consuming, and nearly impossible for restaurants and food producers to implement. Drawing on her environmental science background, Anya built Foodsteps, an accessible platform that turns complex carbon calculations into actionable insights for food companies. 

What makes her approach different is combining rigorous science with practical business needs. By creating a system that generates customer-facing labels showing a meal’s carbon footprint, she’s helping businesses make sustainability a marketing advantage rather than just a compliance cost. Inspired by innovations in carbon capture startups, Anya has expanded her team to include scientists and developers, all while maintaining her vision of making environmental impact visible at every step of our food system.

Sandra C. Chukwudozie

Sandra Chukwudozie noticed something big in her home country of Nigeria, over 90 million people living without decent electricity. Instead of seeing this as too big to fix, she spotted a chance to help while building a business. Her company, Salpha Energy, came up with solar systems that low-income families could actually afford through small, regular payments instead of one huge cost upfront. 

The key to her success wasn’t just the technology, but really getting what rural families needed and figuring out how to reach villages that bigger companies wouldn’t touch. This practical approach caught the eye of international groups who wanted to partner with her. Even as her business grows like crazy and she’s invited to speak at fancy global events, Sandra makes sure to regularly visit the villages using her solar systems. She believes staying close to these communities keeps her business focused on what really matters.

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How to support the next generation of entrepreneurs

Besides encouragement, young people with big ideas need practical support to turn their visions into reality. Schools, businesses, and communities all play crucial roles in nurturing tomorrow’s business innovators. Schools need to replace theoretical business lessons with practical experiences where students build real products and services. Mentorship programs connecting teens with experienced business owners provide guidance that classroom learning can’t match.

We also need to address the funding gap, especially for kids from less wealthy backgrounds, through microgrants and startup competitions with meaningful prizes. Most importantly, we must create environments where young founders can experiment without fear, making it clear that early failures are learning opportunities, not the end of the road.

Conclusion

Will every young entrepreneur change the world? Of course not. Building something from scratch is incredibly hard work with plenty of failures along the way. But for teenagers with that spark of an idea, there’s never been a better time to give it a shot. And hey, the best business ideas for teens usually start with something you’re already obsessed with, that passion will keep you going when things get tough.