When Drew Davis, a 19-year-old honors student from Missouri living with cerebral palsy, got a B- on his high school business project for a hot sauce brand, his teacher dismissed the idea as “unrealistic.” Instead of giving up, Drew took it as fuel.
Armed with $3,000 in savings and a whole lot of grit, he launched Crippling Hot Sauce from his parents’ kitchen in 2023. Within a year, the brand had sold over 500,000 bottles and brought in $2 million in revenue.
Davis donates 5% of profits to cerebral palsy research and contributed $22,000 to the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation in 2023 alone.
His message? Start where you are, with whatever you have—even if it’s just $100. “Don’t wait for perfect,” he says. “Just start.”