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March 18, 2022
United States Student Entrepreneur of the Year is from Stark County
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The best way to predict the future is to create it. – Peter Drucker
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An Idea is Born
In a dorm room in late 2020, Joe Knopp came up with the idea for a business to help solve the world water crisis by establishing wells in communities desperate for clean water. He, along with his partner Chip Gottschalk, created Ripple – " a brand dedicated to serving others by leveraging high quality product lines to solve real world problems."
Using his entire savings ($14,000), Knopp took a leap of faith in November 2020 and ordered his first shipment of 2,000 water bottles from a manufacturer. Four months later, the bottles arrived, and they began tirelessly selling, packing and delivering their Ripple product, sometimes even cross country.
Winning Stark Tank 2021
On April 7, 2021, Joe competed in the Stark Tank College Edition. Stark Tank is a program funded by a small group of generous local business leaders and sponsored by Stark Education Partnership and Strengthening Stark. The college edition of Stark Tank is open to students attending Aultman College, Kent State Stark, Malone, Mount Union, Stark State, the University of Akron, and Walsh. Joe and his partner Chip were one of six teams selected to compete in the 2021 finals and went on to win first place receiving the top prize of $10,000.
Enormous Success
Since Stark Tank, Joe and his business have had amazing success. The CDC estimates that roughly 790 million people worldwide lack access to safe water sources. Ripple is working to solve this issue by building a well for every 1,000 water bottles that they sell. In less than a year, Ripple has built ten water wells in Uganda including the FIRST EVER modern solar powered well for one remote village. To date, they have enabled more than 30,000 human beings on the other side of the world to obtain clean water as well as supporting multiple schools, orphanages, and even an entire hospital – and, they are headed back to Uganda at the end of this month.
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This past week, Joe Knopp was named United States Student Entrepreneur of the Year by the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) – a group of more than 15,000 entrepreneurs from over 45 countries worldwide. Joe will represent the United States in the EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards finals in May.
Stark County Roots
Joe Knopp is a 2019 East Canton High School graduate who will earn his bachelor's degree in finance from Walsh University this May.
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Stark Education Partnership is a catalyst, engaging and collaborating with education, business, civic and community stakeholders to drive sustainable improvement and innovation to provide all students with education and career success. View as Webpage
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