Mikaila Ulmer Net Worth In 2026 And Founder Of Me & The Bees

Mikaila Ulmer Net Worth profile highlighting her career achievements, business model, and why financial estimates remain private.

Jan 26, 2026

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Mikaila Ulmer was born on September 28, 2004, in Houston, Texas. She grew up in Austin, Texas. Her parents are D’Andra and Theo Ulmer, both of whom have business degrees. Mikaila was raised alongside her brothers. She attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin during her youth

Ulmer’s parents encouraged her curiosity and responsibility from a young age. As a child she frequently visited the public library and even learned Spanish. She helped tend a family butterfly garden and vegetable patch and even took care of the family’s chickens (cleaning the coop), activities her parents used to teach responsibility and creativity.

Early influences:A formative event came at age four, when Mikaila was stung by two honeybees in a single week. Rather than be paralyzed by fear, her parents urged her to learn about bees. She later recalled that researching bees taught her how vital and endangered they are, and that this inspired her at a very young age to want to help protect them.

Fact Category	Information
Full Name	Mikaila Ulmer.
Date of Birth	Born on September 28, 2004.
Age	21 years old as of 2025.
Place of Birth	Born in Houston, Texas, USA.
Raised In	Grew up in Austin, Texas.
Parents	Daughter of D’Andra Ulmer and Theo Ulmer.
Parents’ Background	Both parents hold business degrees.
Siblings	Raised with brothers.
Education (School)	Attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, Austin.
Profession	Entrepreneur and business executive.
Company Founded	Founded Me & the Bees Lemonade.
Current Role	Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Business Focus	Natural lemonade sweetened with honey.
Public Recognition	Appeared on Shark Tank and featured by major media.
Net Worth Status	No verified public net worth estimate as of 2026.

Mikaila Ulmer, founder and CEO of Me & the Bees Lemonade, is recognized for building a nationally distributed, mission-driven beverage company that supports bee conservation and youth entrepreneurship.

Career

Mikaila Ulmer is an American entrepreneur best known as the founder and CEO of Me & the Bees Lemonade, a Texas-based natural beverage company. As of 2025, at age 21 she leads this multi-million-dollar business which blends healthy products with a social mission of bee conservation.

Ulmer began her venture as a child and has since grown into a national brand; her lemonade products are now distributed coast-to-coast in major retail and foodservice outlets. She has also authored a business memoir (“Bee Fearless: Dream Like a Kid”) and serves as a speaker and advocate for youth entrepreneurship.

Early Entrepreneurial Journey & Business Start

Ulmer’s entrepreneurial journey began in childhood. At age four she was terrified by two bee stings, which led her to research and develop a fascination with pollinators.

Inspired by her great-grandmother’s 1940s flaxseed lemonade recipe, Mikaila swapped sugar for local honey and started selling lemonade from a small stand in front of her Austin home in 2009.

From the outset she infused purpose into her venture, pledging a portion of her sales to local organizations dedicated to saving bees. The original stand (featuring a bright yellow cart) proved popular.

Mikaila sold at neighborhood fairs and children’s business competitions, learning the basics of sales, customer service, and business planning at an early age.

Within a few years she moved from toy tables to bottling her product. By around 2011 a local pizzeria owner encouraged her to sell bottled lemonade in his shop.

Working with her parents, Mikaila used a rented commercial kitchen to bottle her honey-sweetened lemonade and began personally delivering cases to nearby cafés and stores.

These early experiences, from the Austin Lemonade Day festival to her first wholesale orders, laid the groundwork for what would become Me & the Bees Lemonade.

By learning to manage inventory and handle customer orders as a child, she built foundational business skills while staying true to her original conservation mission.

Founding Of Me & The Bees Lemonade

As the business grew, Mikaila formalized it into an official company. Originally named BeeSweet Lemonade, the brand was re-launched as Me & the Bees Lemonadein 2016 after a trademark issue with the original name.

This rebranding embraced her story and mission: the new name refers both to her original recipe and to her goal of helping honeybees.

One of the company’s first major breakthroughs was a successful appearance on ABC’s Shark Tankin 2015, when then-10-year-old Mikaila and her father pitched the product on national TV.

They secured a $60,000 investment from entrepreneur Daymond John, which helped scale production and distribution.

Over the next two years, additional outside investors came on board — notably, a consortium of about ten NFL players invested roughly $800,000 in 2017 — providing further capital to expand the company.

Under Ulmer’s leadership the product line also broadened. In addition to the classic lemonade, Me & the Bees introduced new flavors (such as Black Cherry, Very Berry, Passion Fruit, and Prickly Pear) all made with honey and real ingredients.

The company even launched related items like beeswax lip balms. Ulmer simultaneously grew the company’s infrastructure: by her mid-teens she had help from a small management team (her father serving as Chief Operating Officer and her mother as head of marketing), while she remained the company’s creative force.

In 2016 she also founded the Healthy Hive Foundation, a nonprofit focused on research and education to protect wild and native bee populations.

This foundation receives a share of the company’s profits, reinforcing the business’s dual goals of profitability and purpose.

Business Growth, Revenue & Market Expansion

Me & the Bees Lemonade grew rapidly through the late 2010s and early 2020s. According to company reports, sales grew by over 300% between 2018 and 2020, earning a spot on the Inc.5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in 2022.

The brand achieved triple-digityear-over-year revenue growth in 2020 and 2021, and by 2023 Ulmer announced that lifetime sales had surpassed ten million dollars.

The business scaled production accordingly: manufacturing capacity reached more than 12,000 cases of lemonade per day to meet demand.

During this growth phase, Me & the Bees expanded from local Austin shops into a nationwide retail footprint. By 2020 the lemonade was sold in roughly 1,500 stores, including Whole Foods Market, H-E-B, Kroger, Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocers and The Fresh Market.

By 2023 it was carried in an estimated 6,000 retail and foodservice outlets across all 50 states. In addition to grocery stores and natural food markets, the drinks are served through major foodservice distributors (such as Sysco and Compass group companies) and at venues managed by Delaware North (airports, stadiums and the like).

Ulmer’s team also launched online sales channels and national listings at retailers like Target and Amazon (GoPuff).

Throughout this expansion, Me & the Bees emphasized the quality of its product (no high-fructose corn syrup or preservatives) and even shifted packaging: in 2024 the company moved from glass bottles to fully recyclable aluminum cans for sustainability.

Our queen bee, Mikaila, just landed a spot on the board of Lemonade Day @lemonadedaynational What is Lemonade Day you ask It’s the perfect collaboration for our SHE-E-O! Lemonade Day is a fun, experiential program that teache

Entrepreneurial Expertise & Leadership Skills

Ulmer has demonstrated sophisticated leadership and business acumen despite her young age. Even while pursuing a rigorous college curriculum (she is studying economics and quantitative sciences as a Woodruff Scholar at Emory University), she applies an analytical approach to running her company.

She often notes that studying economics has “given [her] the analytical tools” to complement her entrepreneurial instincts, allowing her to balance founder’s vision with strategic financial planning.

Managing school and a growing business has required discipline: Ulmer credits careful time management, delegation to trusted team members, and clear prioritization as keys to her effectiveness.

She describes the family business dynamic as one of “trust, shared values and a lot of heart,” which helps her coordinate operations even when she is on campus.

Ulmer’s leadership also emphasizes innovation and integrity in product development. She has refused to compromise on her original recipe or quality standards, for example, opting not to add artificial preservatives or sweeteners, in order to maintain the brand’s health-focused identity.

Under her guidance the company continuously experiments with new flavors and products, all aligned with the mission. She has built a team (including experts in finance, operations and marketing) to support growth, and she also invests in educating others.

Ulmer regularly speaks at schools and events, teaching youth about entrepreneurship, sustainability and bee conservation. By mentoring young entrepreneurs and advocating for social enterprise, she extends her leadership beyond the lemonade brand itself.

Awards, Media Recognition & Career Milestones

Ulmer’s achievements have earned significant recognition in both business and popular media. At age eight she received the Austin Black Chamber of Commerce’s “Teenpreneur of the Year” award, and a few years later she gained national attention by appearing on Shark Tank.

In 2016 she helped introduce President Barack Obama at the White House’s United State of Women Summit. The following year (2017) she was named one of Timemagazine’s “30 Most Influential Teens.”

Major news outlets and magazines, including Forbes, USA Today, NBC News, BBCand Good Morning America,have featured her story.

Business organizations have also honored her: for example, the National Retail Federation recognized her as a top young person shaping the future of retail.

Additional milestones include publishing her first book (the memoir Bee Fearless: Dream Like a Kidin 2020) to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs.

Ulmer has been a sought-after speaker and panelist at conferences such as SXSW, Dreamforce, and Dell World, and even spoke before a U.S. Congressional audience on the importance of youth entrepreneurship.

She has been profiled as a model of social enterprise in business publications (for example, featured on Microsoft’s news site as a “preteen powerhouse”) and has won other accolades from civic and youth organizations.

Collectively, these honors mark her progression from a local lemonade stand to a nationally recognized social entrepreneur with a track record of measurable business impact.

Mikaila Ulmer, founder and CEO of Me & the Bees Lemonade, is recognized for building a mission-driven beverage company that combines national retail success with advocacy for honeybee conservation.

Current Role As CEO & Future Career Vision

Ulmer continues to serve as founder and CEO of Me & the Bees Lemonade while completing her university studies. In her current role she oversees strategy, product development and mission integration.

Recently she spearheaded a sustainability initiative to switch the company’s packaging to 100% recyclable aluminum cans, aligning with her long-term goals for responsible growth.

She remains actively involved in the company’s day-to-day operations and expansion plans, leveraging a core leadership team (including her parents) to manage logistics, marketing and finance.

Looking ahead, Ulmer has expressed ambitious career goals. She plans to finish her education (considering graduate studies) and eventually transition into the investment field.

Specifically, she has said she aims to work in private equity or venture capital to become “the kind of investor [she] once needed to get [her] big idea off the ground.” This vision reflects her desire to support other minority - and mission-driven founders in the future.

In the near term, however, Ulmer remains fully committed to scaling Me & the Bees Lemonade, expanding its market presence, and continuing to inspire young entrepreneurs, truly embodying the mantra she often shares: “Dream like a kid, think like a CEO.”