We just wanted to go to Disney World
Who would have thought that a mock DECA student business competition for a venture could evolve into a real product, an exciting startup, and a daily hustle for two high-school girls? Well, we, the co-founders, surely did not.
WearWave (external link) is a business-to-consumer social enterprise that develops radiation-free and customizable headphones for children between the ages of 6 and 13. We founded the startup in 2020, during the summer before our twelfth grade with help from the DMZ basecamp. However, it was after sitting on this idea for over a year before we decided to take a leap of faith.
It was October of 2018 during which both of us joined the DECA chapter at our high school. DECA is an internationally recognized student business competition, where the competitors are asked to write a project proposal on ways to improve current companies, or on a new venture idea that they create themselves. Our at-the-time camouflaged entrepreneurial spark slowly began to shine through when we decided to compete in the Start-Up Business Plan category. We were hellbent on advancing to the international competition held in Florida because we, as best friends since the age of four, just had to visit Disney World together.
Now, we knew that we would only advance to the international competition if we were passionate about the product we created and proposed.
Therefore, we decided to focus it around the topic of safe technology. Since grade 9, both of us were Youth Riding Representatives for a non-profit organization called Canadians 4 Safe Technology. As representatives for this organization, we learned a lot about radiation-safety, and how although being pro-technology is important, it is also crucial that we use it in a safe way. In those 3 years, we learned many shocking facts, one of which was that the brain of a child absorbs twice as much radiation than the brain of an adult. We recognized this as an issue and thus, we decided that for DECA, we would develop a product that allows children to use technology as much as they would like, worry-free - hence, our radiation-free headphones.
As the months went on and we worked on our business proposal for DECA, we grew more and more passionate about our idea. We no longer just wanted to go to Florida together, but wanted to do well at the global level and perhaps take the idea further. That is exactly what we did, as we ended up placing top 3 internationally amongst thousands of competitors from around the world. The following year, we placed first nationally at the Future Business Leaders of America competition, where we used the same idea of WearWave, and this was the push we needed to realize that our proposal could become a viable startup. The pandemic hitting only made more children use technology more often, so we knew that then was the time to take action.
We proceeded to work with the DMZ basecamp, and are currently working with the Design Fabrication Zone to grow our startup. Thus far, with their help, and with the help of our student associates and board of advisors, we have been able to make major strides, ranging from developing the website to launching our beta prototype.
Along the way, however, we not only learned a lot about the fundamentals and technical aspects of entrepreneurship and hardware startups, but also a lot about the behavioural ones too. Having a positive mindset and taking backlash as constructive criticism is key to succeeding - especially when the vision of your company is controversial, as ours is. But it is important to realize that even if only 1% of the entire population cares about the issue you are trying to solve, that still amounts to millions of people. So it is your job as an entrepreneur to keep fighting for your mission.
We have learned a lot about what it means to be a young entrepreneur.
Furthermore, we have learned a lot about what it means to be a young entrepreneur. And in all honesty, it is much more than just the wide-eyed expressions and fascination in people’s faces when they hear that we are only 18. When approaching investors for my company, we often hear the phrase, “But you’re only in high school...”, and this can get discouraging. It is easy to believe that people with minimal experience and education are not knowledgeable and cannot effectively accomplish anything. However, because we were so passionate about WearWave, we began to see a shift in our entrepreneurial mindset. We now see our age as a blessing rather than a barrier because we offer new perspectives, and see the world in a different way compared to others who are biased by their past experiences.
Ultimately, it is this mindset that keeps us going, and pushes us to keep working on WearWave even during our transition to rigorous first-year engineering programs. What is next for us? Well now that we are receiving a professional engineering and business education, all while continuing with the Design Fabrication Zone, we know that we can make progress in the more technical aspects of our hardware startup, and implement design processes and engineering specifications that we learn to improve the quality of our next MVP. But we also want to continue to spread awareness about radiation safety, because as a social innovation-based startup, we at WearWave want to do our part to preserve the health of our future generations. Thus, we want to encourage anyone that has a viable business idea to take the leap and go for it! You never know who you can help and what impact it can end up having.