Speaker

At 11 years old, Benjamin Stern created his first business selling coffee door to door to raise money for The Wounded Warrior Project. He raised less than $200, however, his entrepreneurial spirit was not deterred. At 14, he viewed a video on the destructive impact of the plastic bottle industry on our oceans and envisioned a tab-like single serve product that was water-dispersible for personal care products to include shampoo, conditioner, body wash, sunscreen, and shaving cream. Determined to garner interest, Ben contacted several major corporations and hotels, such as Hyatt Hotels, Burt’s Bees, and Clorox and several venture capital firms who expressed interest and made offers in advance of their seeing a product and him having a product. Ben worked at a submarine shop, a grocery store, and borrowed money from his family and his college savings account to hire a chemist to develop prototypes, and to pay for initial patent pending fees. He convinced attorneys at the prestigious Virginia-based Marbury Law Firm to provide pro bono legal assistance. At 16, Ben appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” to pitch his business, Nohbo, to the famous 5 panel investor team, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner, Kevin O’Leary, Barbra Corcoran, and Mark Cuban. With his work ethic, drive and commitment to the vision of Nohbo, Ben accepted an offer from billionaire businessman Mark Cuban to make a $100,000 investment for a 25% equity stake in Nohbo. Along with that investment came all of Mark Cuban’s accountants, lawyers, business advisors, etc.. Following his appearance on Shark Tank, Ben was featured in several online blogs or magazines such as, “Business Insider,” “Inc.,” “The Huffington Post,” “Forbes,” “Daily Mail," and “Delta Air Magazine” among others. He received over 60 investment offers, some of which gave valuations for Nohbo at over 20 million dollars. In his Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, Nohbo was fully funded within 3 days.