A Minneapolis Teen’s Business Club Goes Global
Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are just two of the many successful entrepreneurs to follow on social media. But high schoolers from Pakistan to Ethiopia, Connecticut to California, are seeking business advice from Sam Vahhaji, a senior at Southwest High School in Minneapolis who sells slippers online.
Vahhaji launched Cozy Step when he was a sophomore. He came up with designs to be featured on furry slip-ons—smiley faces, snowmen, pumpkins—and found a manufacturer in China (using Google Translate to communicate). He sold more than 6,000 pairs in six months. “That’s when people started asking me for help” with their own business ideas, he says.
Vahhaji tried one-on-one mentor sessions to impart what he’d learned about drop-shipping and social media marketing, but it got to be too much with school and running his business. So he created a club at Southwest called Business for the Youth. More than 100 of his classmates joined.
Initially, Vahhaji offered fellow high schoolers tips on running their own digital shopfront, finding a “winning product,” utilizing social media, using point-of-sale systems, and communicating. But he wanted “something impactful” to come out of the club, beyond encouraging his peers to develop business skills, so he organized givebacks like a toy drive for Afghan refugee children.
“The goal was to combine business and good,” Vahhaji says. “We want to make people leaders in their own communities.”
Vahhaji registered Business for the Youth as a nonprofit in April. Students are finding Vahhaji on Instagram, and it’s approaching 50 student-led chapters across the world. Each chapter picks a business pursuit and must also focus on a charitable mission.
Vahhaji is also in the midst of college applications. He says he plans to study finance or economics and aspires to become a venture capital investor. Says Vahhaji, “I think I have a good eye for what could be the next big thing.”
