Photo: Twitter @GlobalGrind.
Most kids are pretty stoked to make $11 for a lemonade stand. After all, when you’re 11, $11 goes a long way. It can buy you a lot of candy, that toy you’ve been wanting, or even a ticket to the movies. Mikaila Ulmer is too, except for she tagged six zeros onto the end of that number. The 11 year old began making all natural lemonade from her grandmother’s recipe from the 1940’s, and what started out as a small business is paying off in a big way.
Elmer was able to develop her product and her business after walking away with $60,000 in venture capital when she went on the ABC show, Shark Tank. A pretty gutsy move for someone who has barely hit double digits, but the investment paid off big time. Ulmer just signed a deal for 11 million dollars to sell her lemonade, BeeSweet, in at least 55 Whole Foods stores across the country.
What’s unique about Ulmer’s product is that it skips the use of sugar or artificial sweetener, and instead it uses honey. Although she originally hated bees after being stung, she hopes to use the product to support beekeepers. She wanted to find a way to help the bees when she learned they were at risk of going extinct during a school project. It looks like she found a way to help, and it looks like she’s got one bright future ahead of her.
