This Teen Entrepreneur’s Viral Video Got 50 Million Views. Now His Product Brings in $300,000 a Month.

Teenage entrepreneurs are leveraging social media in different ways to build the next generation of businesses.

One example is Michael Satterlee, a teenager who sells can coolers. His product, which brings in up to $300,000 in sales per month, went viral on Instagram after Satterlee posted a low-budget video of him using it to encase a Dr. Pepper soda. The video has garnered more than 50 million views and almost 2.5 million likes on Instagram. 

Satterlee recently told Business Insider that demand for the product arose because viewers “just hadn’t seen anything like it before.”

His ecommerce company, Cruise Cup, directly benefited from the attention. However, Satterlee cautioned companies against posting product pitches too often on their social media accounts. He said that companies should “disguise” their business accounts and post like influencers. 

“At the end of the day, what followers are is an audience,” he said. “People aren’t just going to follow a product. You want to build a community.”

He advised that businesses keep track of trends, deliver fresh content to engage viewers and interact with their audience. The goal is to give followers plenty of reasons to keep up with the brand outside of buying a product, he said. 

Kirk and Jacob McKinney, two brothers who cofounded Junk Teens when they were teenagers, offer junk removal services in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Instead of relying on social media to get the word out about their services to attract potential customers, the duo uses these platforms to draw in fresh talent. Junk Teens has more than 213,000 followers on TikTok, 269,000 followers on Instagram and 69,000 subscribers on YouTube.

“A company is just a group of people at the end of the day, and when you see yourself in these videos and the social media’s capturing it, you’re a part of that, and it really elevates the culture,” Kirk recently told Entrepreneur.

Junk Teens hit $3 million in revenue last year and is on track to bring in more than $5 million this year. Most of the company’s employees are high school or college students, and they are paid about $25 to $30 an hour, including tips.

“A lot of the employees feel like they’re building the company with us because they’re also building their opportunity as the company grows,” Kirk said. “Because of that, we have a lot of forward-thinking people, and I think that us all being young is a part of why that happens.”

Junk removal may not sound like the most glamorous job, but the company uses social media to showcase its upsides. Social media “actually attracts more people who want to work with us,” Kirk said.

This article is part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of being a young business owner.

Teenage entrepreneurs are leveraging social media in different ways to build the next generation of businesses.

One example is Michael Satterlee, a teenager who sells can coolers. His product, which brings in up to $300,000 in sales per month, went viral on Instagram after Satterlee posted a low-budget video of him using it to encase a Dr. Pepper soda. The video has garnered more than 50 million views and almost 2.5 million likes on Instagram. 

Satterlee recently told Business Insider that demand for the product arose because viewers “just hadn’t seen anything like it before.”