Sitting poised at a table behind Manzanita, Mahi Kolla (12) dispels her business knowledge to her two DECA mentees, compiling her years of experience in short tidbits of wisdom. Mahi’s obvious business prowess shines through her advice, her powerful gestures and crisp diction perfectly suited to be the executive she one day hopes to be. 

Mahi founded “The Minty Boutique,” a luxury stationery brand, four years ago, when she was 12. From her early years, Mahi desired to start her own business.

“From a very young age, I had an entrepreneurial drive. When I was little, I set up this pop-up shop for my parents in my living room, and I had this whole catalog of what we were selling. From a very young age, I just wanted to have my own company,” Mahi said. 

Following her experience in Harker’s Incubator, she expanded her skill set and grew even more fascinated with all facets of management and entrepreneurship behind a business, eventually creating a plan for expanding her own. 

“In 8th grade, I created these planners that are customizable, and from there, that’s where the company started,” Mahi said. “I didn’t know anything when I started, but we started off on Etsy, and it was super simple. It literally took a 20 dollar bill to start my company, and I just started working and tackled whatever came up from then on out.” 

The brand has since grown, now with a loyal customer base, a website, a YouTube channel, and a podcast aimed at providing young women the tools to start their own business, dubbed ‘TMB Women in Business.’ 

“I’ve learned so much as a female teen entrepreneur. I want to give back to my community and have an impact on others’ lives and share whatever wisdom I’ve gained over the years to any budding female entrepreneurs and help them get started,” said Mahi. 

Through Mahi’s products, she hopes to help support the future generation of female leaders by focusing on self-care, self-love and self-growth. She also hopes to empower them with professional products in order to promote equality in the workplace and provide female executives with a product that can help them avoid the discrimination associated with the typical ‘cutesy’ planners targeted at females. 

“The branding with [my company] is female empowerment. The product concept is basically a customizable minimalistic planner that’s affordable, and I found that if you go to a place like Target, you’ll find ones that are cutesy and not customizable, and a lot of those products aren’t fit for professionals,” Mahi said. “Women already face so much discrimination in the workplace, and carrying something like that might lead to them being considered as not qualified or unprofessional, and I wanted to create a planner that combats that and works for any person’s schedule or any person’s needs.”

She stresses care and love in her friendships as well, always checking in on the people around her and supporting them in whatever ways she can. 

“Mahi is very compassionate and always tries to reach out to her friends and include them in her life,” Ronit Gagneja (12), one of her close friends, said. “I love that she is always willing to talk about anything and how caring she is. She prioritizes friendships in her life above all else, and that makes her a really great friend. She is hilarious, compassionate, and she’s never afraid to check in with me, which has been super useful.” 

Additionally, Mahi integrates portions of what she’s learned through her business journey in her daily life, simultaneously advancing her friendships along the way.

“I’ve seen her blossom into a more confident person. She’s the loudest person in the room without saying a word; she carries herself a lot more confidently and poised,” longtime friend Larissa Tyagi (12) said. “She is really organized and methodical in everything she does both with and beyond the classroom. Whenever I have an issue I know she will be able to give me level-headed, logical advice. Her organization and structure is what makes her so successful.”

As with any other company, “The Minty Boutique” has experienced its share of ups and downs, but they have been as beneficial to its financial growth as they have to her personal growth. Mahi believes this business is just the first step in her entrepreneurial journey and encourages others to work towards achieving similar goals with a set plan.

“If you want something, you set that goal, but you can’t stop there. You have to figure out how you’re actually going to approach it, and that’s the planning part, figuring out the steps and getting the resources, but you still can’t stop there. A lot of people just get stuck with this list of to-dos, and they never actually do the things on their list. If you have a goal, make a plan, and go do it,” Mahi said.