What if you could turn a teenage sports annoyance into a $100,000 business while juggling school, sports, and everything else that comes with being 15? Harrison Nott of Essex, England, has done just that. Starting at just 13 years old, he built CoolTowel into a business projected to hit ￡100,000 ($130,000) in revenue this summer. The spark came from a simple problem: getting overheated and uncomfortable while playing squash. Harrison saw an opportunity in the cooling towel market that barely existed three years ago. The towel is made of a 3-layer polyester material that holds onto moisture. The instructions say to wet the towel, wring it out, and snap the towel to get cooling relief. Unlike a standard cotton towel that simply gets wet and heavy, the CoolTowel uses a technical mesh that regulates how quickly water evaporates to provide a long-lasting cooling effect — often up to 5 hours. The product comes in a variety of colors, including black, blue, green, orange and pink, and sells for $17 on the CoolTowel website.
