11-year-old girl goes viral after landing 24 million Naira business deal

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April 1, 2016 12:26 PM

Mikaila Ulmer, 11, is taking over the wold with her 'Bee Sweet' beverage business.

11-year-old girl goes viral after landing 24 million Naira business deal

Mikaila Ulmer, 11, is taking over the wold with her 'Bee Sweet' beverage business.

Ulmer thought up the idea for BeeSweet when she was four. After being stung by a bee twice, she wanted to know more about the honey makers and discovered the vital role they play in the ecosystem.

“I didn’t enjoy the bee stings at all. They scared me," she said in an interview with NBC.

"But then something strange happened. I became fascinated with bees. I learned all about what they do for me and our ecosystem. So then I thought, what if I make something that helps honeybees and uses my Great Granny Helen’s recipe?"

She entered local competitions before landing her big break on Shark Tank.

After her recipe went viral, the Texas girl, secured a $60,000 (24 million Naira) investment from the Shank tank show, and later signed a deal to distribute her BeeSweet brand of lemonade to 55 Whole Foods stores across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Since the show, she's served lemonade to President Barack Obama at the White House Easter Egg Roll, was a part of Google's Dare to be Digital campaign, and has won several awards including the African American Harvest Foundation Story Changer award.

She was recently chosen as one of tech coalition MVMT 50’s top 10 innovators of 2016, a journey she's catalogued via BeeSweet's Instagram.

And Ulmer has become one of the America’s most sought-after young business leaders.

She told NBC that, between running her business and doing homework — she is in sixth grade, after all — she tries to make time to help other young people with their ideas.

“Now I am helping my friends start their own businesses,” Ulmer told NBC.

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