Rachel Zietz

CEO, Gladiator Sports

If you were a 13-year-old lacrosse player who didn’t like the equipment on the market, what would you do? Well, if you were Rachel Zietz, you would start your own company! That company, Gladiator Lacrosse, was launched through the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, and has now surpassed $1 Million in sales.

Rachel was involved through every step of product development—from product conception to selection of materials, packaging and actual manufacturing, her attention to detail led Gladiator Lacrosse to be the top seller on both Amazon and eBay.

She recently signed lacrosse superstar, Casey Powell, as the brand ambassador, and pitched Gladiator Lacrosse to the Sharks on ABCs Shark Tank, getting a tweet from Robert Herjavec himself, “Rachel will have a seat next to me in the tank one day, she’s a shark in the making!”

RJ Batts

CEO, Picklehead LLC

RJ Batts, the CEO of Picklehead LLC, is a freshman at Parkside High School. He was not only awarded second place as the Fan Favorite in the StartUp MD Pitch Across MD competition but was given an honorable mention for the Champion’s Choice at the TEDCO Entrepreneur Expo held in Baltimore in 2016. Over 120 companies competed in Pitch Across Maryland and the videos with the most tallied views were declared the Fan Favorites for 2016 while a cadre of Startup Maryland Champions chose the Champions’ Choice. Tip Tough, RJs signature product was created when he was a student in the YEA! Salisbury Chamber of Commerce class during the 2015/2016 academic year.

Most recently, RJ tied for second place with an award of $15,000 at the Salisbury University Shore Hatchery competition. Months of work and practice helped him rise to the top over 30 businesses to take home the award. He is the youngest entrepreneur to win an award of this size through Shore Hatchery. Additionally, RJ won the People’s Choice Award while presenting his business at Maryland Capital Enterprises yearly Entrepreneur of The Year award dinner at Salisbury University. He is currently working with TEDCO, finalizing the design of the Tip Tough for National Food Safe Certification for use in commercial kitchens and is also working to launch a line for the home cook. He will be the youngest inventor ever featured at the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago. Tip Tough will launch nationally early in 2017.

Tanner and Spencer Harrison

Co-CEOs, Campfire Industries

Tanner and Spencer Harrison, brothers and co-CEO’s, graduated from the South Jordan YEA! class in 2013. Their business idea, the Wolf’Em Stick, is a pioneering product of their company, Campfire Industries. The Wolf’ Em Stick is a unique tool that creates tasty dough treats over a campfire.The success of the Wolf’Em Stick earned the Harrison brothers 2nd place in the 2013 YEA! Saunders Scholars Competition, including a trip to America’s Small Business Summit in Washington, DC. Tanner and Spencer introduced their product at the South Jordan Country Fest in 2013, and sold 200 units.  They were contacted by county mayor, Ed McAdams, who showcased Campfire Industries at the Lake County Fair, where they sold 600 units, and another 1400 additional units before the end of the year!

Today, hungry campers can find the Wolf’em Stick® in over 200 retail locations on the west coast, and now for the first time ever on the east coast, in 88 Wegmans stores across the northeast.

Amrita Ram

CEO, Freshsteps

Amrita Ram is a YEA! 2014 graduate from the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce. Amrita was inspired by children’s sneakers that “light-up” as they walk. Her company Fresh Steps was born, a piezoelectric tile system that can power a building from the kinetic energy produced by people walking! Amrita proposes installing Fresh Steps Eco-board product in public buildings as a means of cutting energy costs and decreasing carbon emissions. Amrita was selected, out of 23 semi-finalist businesses competing, to advance to the Finals in Washington, DC and compete against the nation’s top young entrepreneurs at America’s Small Business Summit in 2014.