Mikaila Ulmer’s story starts with two bee stings.
“I didn’t enjoy the bee stings at all,” she says on her website. “They scared me. But then something strange happened. I became fascinated with bees. I learned all about what they do for me and our ecosystem.”
Even more strange for a four-year-old girl was that she thought of creating a business. Six years later, sweet little Mikaila, now 10, is a television star whose business acumen earned her $60,000 on the hit TV show, Shark Tank, for her company BeeSweet Lemonade out of Austin, Texas.
Former FUBU CEO Daymond John was impressed enough to offer $60,000 for a 25 percent stake in her business.
Watching her speak about what she has created with so much passion is so cute and adorable—actually irresistible.
Mikaila said she used her great grandmother Helen’s recipe to make lemonade, using flaxseed, which bees produce, and, of course, bee-produced natural honey. Added to BeeSweet Lemonade is omega-3 essential fatty acids. The lemonade is naturally caffeine-free and has no artificial ingredients or high-fructose corn syrup, the No. 1 worst food to ingest.
Mikaila and John will now work closely together to expand her business, and John will serve as her mentor.
“Partnering with Mikaila made perfect sense,” John stated in a press release. “She’s a great kid with a head for business and branding. She’s got a great idea, and I’m happy to help take BeeSweet to the next level.”
The $60,000 will allow Mikaila to increase her production and enable the company to create larger batch runs of its signature lemonade in order to keep up with demand.
“I’m so excited to have someone with as much experience as Daymond on my team,” Mikaila stated. “This is a great opportunity to have more people try my lemonade and help save even more bees!”
That’s what made her venture so appealing—she’s not just doing it for the money. Mikaila is doing it to preserve bees. When her great grandmother sent her a 1940 cookbook with her recipe of Flaxseed Lemonade in it, Mikaila researched and learned bees produce flaxseed.
“So then I thought,” she says on beesweetlemonade.com, “what if I make something that helps honeybees and uses my Great Granny Helen’s recipe?
Today, the teas that come in various flavors are available on her website and at Whole Foods, mostly in Texas and a few in Louisiana.
