The sodas that young American Mikaila Ulmer wanted to sell using her greatgrandmother’s recipe when she was 11 hit the market and today, at 17, the young woman sees her recipe sold in thousands of stores across the United States becomes. The business was a success, but it cost the girl a lot of money: at school he had problems learning mathematics and history. But it was worth it, she’s a millionaire now. The information comes from the Clarin newspaper in Argentina.
The story of the CEO of Me & The Bees Lemonade was a story of struggle and vision for the future. Many people dream of becoming millionaires, but she has managed to consolidate what started in 2016 and is at the top of the league today. That year, the diminutive Texan created her own brand of soda and landed an $11 million deal with Whole Foods.
Mikaila says the idea for her company came to her when she was four years old when her greatgrandmother gave her an old cookbook. There, among sepiacolored leaves and barely legible ink, he found a recipe for lemonade and flaxseed from the 1940s and didn’t hesitate: he started chasing his dream.
From the beginning she decided to fill her first bottles according to the original recipe. To sell the sodas, Mikaila set up a stand on the street where Houstonians shop every summer to cool off. This is how she began to amass her fortune.
With success, she added her personal touch to the preparation: she used flaxseed honey because of the memory she had as a child of being stung by a bee.
Word of mouth about the lemonade among neighbors reached the owners of a local pizzeria, who immediately placed an order, and bottling of the product began.
— In the beginning I did everything myself — she recalls, adding: — As the business started to grow, I had to admit that I couldn’t do it on my own. So I asked my parents how to get a logo, a manufacturer and how to distribute it to more stores.
Continue reading
It helped that both parents have business degrees: mother D’Andra specializes in marketing and sales, and her father Theo works in operations.
By the age of 15, Mikaila Ulmer’s name was well known in the United States. But the boom came after his appearance on the television show Shark Tank, where a businessman donated $60,000 to bolster his business. This performance led directly to her being received by thenPresident of the United States, Barack Obama. Mikaila’s store was already a national brand: today, flaxseed soda is sold in around 2,000 stores in more than 40 states.
“I don’t think there’s a limit or specific guidelines to who can become an entrepreneur who can start a business,” Mikaila said.
She currently has her own Bee Care Foundation and gives a portion of the company’s proceeds to organizations dedicated to caring for and supporting the lives of bees.
In August 2020, Mikaila’s first book, Bee Fearless, Dream Like a Kid, was published by Penguin Random House. In it, she chronicles her adventures as a social entrepreneur, leading a brand that aims to provide highquality, allnatural lemonade in a way that helps save the bees.
Now in 2022, Mikaila is firmly at the helm of her company and has even started to diversify: her flavor line already includes peach, iced tea, mint and ginger. She also created a new line of lipsticks from her beeswax.
Her ambition doesn’t stop there, but it’s always based on the same concept that has shaped her since her first street stand for selling her lemonade: “dream big and don’t forget to dream like a kid”.