Meet Mighty, an e-commerce platform where kids are the boss; a “digital lemonade stand”
Meet Mighty, an e-commerce platform where kids are the boss; a “digital lemonade stand”
Until children reach a certain age, enrichment programs are largely limited to school, sports, and camps, with little in the way of money-making opportunities.
Now, a year-old Los Angeles-based startup called Mighty, a sort of Shopify for younger children, aims to partially fill the void. Indeed, Mighty — founded by Ben Goldhirsh, formerly of GOOD magazine, and Dana Mauriello, formerly of Etsy and most recently an advisor to Sidewalk Labs — hopes to woo families with the pitch that it operates at the intersection of fintech, education technology, and entertainment.
As is frequently the case, the concept evolved from the founders' personal experiences. Goldhirsh, who was living in Costa Rica at the time, became concerned about his two daughters, who attend a small, six-person school. Fearful that they would fall behind their peers in the United States, he began tutoring them upon their return, utilizing Khan Academy and other software platforms. Nonetheless, the girls' reaction was not entirely favorable.
Uncertain of what to do, he encouraged them to sell the bracelets they'd been making online, reasoning that it would help them develop necessary math skills as well as teach them about startup capital, business plans (which he required them to write), and marketing. It worked, he says, and as he informed his friends about this successful "project-based learning effort," they began to ask if he could assist their children in getting started.
Fast forward to the present day, and Goldhirsh and Mauriello — who co-founded a crowdfunding platform that Goldhirsh invested in prior to joining Etsy — claim to be leading a still-in-beta startup that has grown to house 3,000 “CEOs,” as Mighty refers to them.
The level of interest is unsurprising. Children now spend more time online than at any previous point in history. Numerous real-world businesses that once employed young children are shrinking in size. Apart from babysitting or selling cookies on the corner, finding work before high school is difficult, as the Department of Labor's Fair Labor Standards Act establishes a minimum employment age of 14 years. (Even then, many employers are concerned that their young employees may be too much trouble.)
Investors believe it is a fairly sound idea as well. Mighty recently raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by Animo Ventures and including Maveron, Humbition, Sesame Workshop, Collaborative Fund, and a family office called NaHCO3.
Nonetheless, developing a platform for children is challenging. To begin, few 11-year-olds possess the tenacity necessary to sustain their own business over time. While Goldhirsh compares the venture to a "21st century lemonade stand," running a business that survives the afternoon is a very different proposition.
Goldhirsh acknowledges that no child wants to be told they must "grind" their business or follow a predetermined path, and he asserts that Mighty is undoubtedly seeing children who show up for a weekend to earn some money. Nonetheless, he maintains that many others possess an undeniably entrepreneurial spirit and tend to stick around. Indeed, Goldhirsh notes that the company — aided by its new seed funding — has a lot to do to satisfy its most zealous young CEOs.
Many are frustrated, for example, that they are unable to sell their own homemade goods via Mighty at the moment. Rather than that, they are invited to sell customizable items such as hats, totes, and stickers that are manufactured by Mighty's current manufacturing partner, Printful, who then ships the item to the end customer. (Both the Mighty CEO and Mighty receive a percentage of the sale.)
Furthermore, they can sell items created by global artisans through Mighty's partnership with Novica, an impact marketplace that also sells through National Geographic.
The goal was to introduce as little friction as possible into the process at first, but “our customers are pissed — they want more from us,” Goldhirsh explains, adding that Mighty fully intends to enable its smaller entrepreneurs to sell their own products as well as services (think lawn care), which the platform does not currently support.
In terms of revenue generation, Mighty intends to eventually layer in subscription services in addition to collecting transaction-based revenue.
On the whole, it's intriguing, though the startup may have to contend with established players like Shopify if it gains traction.
It's also possible that parents — if not children's advocates — will oppose Mighty's efforts. After all, entrepreneurship can be both exhilarating and demoralizing; it's a roller coaster that some parents may not want their children to ride at such a young age.
In Conclusion
Mauriello maintains that they have not received such feedback to date. For one thing, she notes that Mighty recently launched an online community for its young CEOs to encourage one another and share sales tips, and she reports that they are already actively participating.
In addition, she argues that, similar to sports or learning a musical instrument, creating a Mighty store teaches valuable lessons. Among them are storytelling and sales skills, but more importantly, she says, the company's young customers are learning that "you can fail and pick yourself up and try again."
Goldhirsch continues, "There are definitely children who are thinking, 'Oh, this is going to be more difficult than I anticipated.' I cannot simply launch the website and wait for the money to roll in.' However, I believe they appreciate the fact that the success they are experiencing is their own, as we are not doing it for them.”
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