Purdue University School of Management freshman Jacob Nolley aims to do good through a business that makes headbands, beanie hats, and scarves using an automated version of a hand-cranked knitting machine. His crocheting ways were inspired by his grandmother, who knit Afghan blankets for her grandchildren.
Though he started out using the profits from his knit goods to pay for his car and buy gasoline for it, he has moved on to a more philanthropic worldview. For every headband he sells from the campus-based business, his company, Jacob's Loom, donates a headband to a child in needed. He spends 40-80 hours per week on the project, helping impoverished communities in places including Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. In the current academic quarter, he sold more than 700 individual products, producing more than $5000 in revenue.
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Social enterprise, HandiConnect, wins the Audacious-Business Idea competition’s Doing Good category. The company is spearheaded by University of Otago entrepreneurship master’s student Nguyen Cam Van.