Their plans to produce a smartphone
case were dashed when the school’s 3-D
printer suffered a component failure and
they were told it would be weeks before a
replacement part would arrive…too late
for the team to build their prototype. In
Junior Achievement parlance, the kids
had to “pivot.” In other words, they went
with plan B to produce a coffee mug, and
dubbed their new venture “Ritemugs.” Now
they would have to work faster to make up
for lost time.
During the program’s first few weeks,
student participation dwindled due to
scheduling and commitment conflicts.
However, three Live Oak sophomores
emerged to see things through to
completion: Isaac Muniz, who served as
CEO; Ashley Cowell, who took on finance
and supply chain management; and Kaden
Kim, who led sales and marketing efforts.
Isaac Muniz, CEO
According to Isaac, “I wanted to learn
about running a business, but I didn’t
expect to be the guy in charge! I had to
learn how to plan meetings and motivate
people while holding them accountable.
It was challenging. In the beginning, stu-
dents dropped out, which added to the
stress level, but those who stayed grew into
their leadership roles and learned to rely on
each other.”
“When a local businessperson offered
to buy all our shares, Mr. Garcia explained
that the investor would gain full control
of the company. We were like, ‘WHAT!?’
Then we decided to limit the number of
shares we would offer to each investor.”
“We sold 78 shares at $5 each to 30
shareholders, keeping in mind that we’d
have to pay them before liquidating the
company.”
Ashley Cowell,
Finance & Supply Chain
“At first I had no idea how involved I’d be
at every step to track costs and make sure
our finances were properly handled,” Ashley
said. “I had to learn how to use spread-
sheets, prepare budget forecasts, and look at
profit and loss statements. The hardest part
of manufacturing was getting the materials
and producing the finished mugs. We did
everything, including pricing, sourcing,
ordering, pickup, design, production and
sales of the mugs.”
As it turned out, Isaac, Ashley and
Kaden fired the ceramic mugs in their
respective family’s kitchen ovens, They also
26
printed special tags and tied them onto
the handle of each mug. When finished,
the mugs rivaled those sold by commercial
retailers.
Kaden Kim, Marketing & Sales.
Halfway into the program, Ritemugs lost
the leader of its marketing and sales efforts.
Kaden stepped up to the plate.
“I thought it would be fun, like
working at Apple or Google. But we had
to abandon our idea to make phone cases
because a bulb burned out on the school’s
3D printer and by the time it was replaced
we’d be out of business. We learned how
to pivot when we went with plan B to do
the mugs. To generate sales we ran local
newspaper ads (Morgan Hill Times donated
ad space), promoted the mugs at basket-
ball games, and created a public service
announcement for our school’s morning
announcements. We targeted three markets:
Rotary Club members, students and their
parents at basketball games, and Morgan
Hill residents attending a fundraiser for the
Teacher’s Alliance Coalition. It was hard
work and took a lot of time but we sold all
of our inventory. I learned that companies
with good marketing and sales make it look
easy.”
Ritemugs designed and manufactured
two lines of mugs. A “heart mug” was sold
in advance of Valentine’s Day. A “speech
bubble” mug came with a stick of chalk to
allow customers to write a new thought for
the day with each morning’s cup of coffee
or tea. Each mug also came with a card that
included the company’s mission statement
and instructions for proper care of the mug.
“Our parents were very supportive,”
Kaden said. “They were surprised how
quickly we got things done even when we
hit problems and how well the mugs turned
out.”
Ritemugs Gets Results
“We priced the mugs at $7 a piece, and
made over $500 after selling all of our
inventory,” Ashley said. “We paid ourselves
a salary too, $1 each. Our shareholders
got back their original $5 plus a dividend,
making a 50 percent return on their invest-
ment in about four months!”
Then Isaac added, “One investor told us,
‘This is the best investment I’ve made in a
long time!’”
The three Ritemugs founders recently
attended a Rotary luncheon to express
appreciation for the organization’s
support. Their presentation didn’t go
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
MAY/JUNE 2016
Local Entrepreneur Armando Garcia
exactly according to plan, but it gave them
yet another opportunity to learn.
“We had a beautiful slideshow,”
Ashley said, “but there was a glitch in
the equipment so we had to improvise.
It caught us by surprise but we pulled it
off.” Ritemugs also produced their own
public service announcement, which was
included in Live Oak’s school-wide morning
announcements.
In March, Ritemugs student executives
were busy drafting an annual report, pre-
paring to “liquidate the company,” and
making a final production run of mugs for
their entry in Junior Achievement’s regional
competition (Ashley will make the team’s
presentation on April 12 th at the Mountain
View headquarters of Intuit Corporation).
The winning team will go on to compete
in Seattle, and from there, winners will
have a chance to compete nationally in
Washington, D.C.
When
TODAY asked Ritemugs
founders if they’d like to run a company
one day, Isaac, Ashley and Kaden were
of one mind. “Definitely. Absolutely. Oh
yeah.”
These young entrepreneurs sold us their
last mug in stock. We figure one day it’ll
be a collector’s item. For those of you who
missed out, Armando may be leading the
program again next year.
“I’m hoping this year’s kids will be
inspired to guide next year’s student
entrepreneurs through the program to share
lessons learned from their personal experi-
ences,” Armando said. “Rotary has expressed
interest in supporting the program next year
too. All we need is a few advisors from the
local community to encourage and guide
the students. If any of you
TODAY
readers is interested, let me know!”
gmhtoday.com
gmh
gmh