Business Opportunities Weblog

July 16, 2007 by Rich Whittle | 1 Comment

Tribune-Review:

Ben Lewis started breaking into a $10-billion-a-year industry while a junior at Shady Side Academy.

The Fox Chapel teen traveled to conferences around the country, read industry reports and gathered a group of friends and family together to found PurBlu Beverages. Now, in the summer after his high school graduation, a time when most teenagers look forward to part-time jobs and lounging around the pool, Lewis, 18, will release his company’s first product.

“I’m not sleeping at night,” he said.

Which is odd, considering his product, GIVE Natural Spring Water, is supposed to help others do just that. For every bottle of water sold, PurBlu will donate 10 cents to charities working to rid the world of social ills.

Buyers will decide where their money goes when they choose one of the brightly colored bottles: blue, or GIVE Life, for hungry children; magenta, or GIVE Hope, for breast cancer research; or green, or GIVE Love, for environmental causes.

Youth was a factor, said Hendricks, noting the “very fresh” approach PurBlu took to the product’s packaging.

Half of PurBlu’s staff consists of recent Shady Side Academy graduates, and Lewis’ cousin Jordan Pollock, vice president of distribution at the age of 17, is entering his senior year at Mars Area High School.

“Everyone seems to like the fact that we’re kids,” Lewis said.

Photo by Josh Birnbaum.

In Ideas, Startup, Teens | 1 Comment