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ManCans' Hart Main: A 13-Year-Old Entrepreneur Invents Candles for Men
Hart Main realized that most guys don't want to smell like lavender or fresh laundry. So he created ManCans, candles designed specifically for men, with scents like New York Style Pizza, Grandpa's Pipe and, of course, Bacon. Did we mention he's only 13?
Posted 5/ 10 11 at 1:30 PM | Entrepreneur Spotlight, Leadership, Starting a Business, Home-based Business, International Business, Online Business, Consumer Products & Services, Manufacturing, Retail, Inventions & Innovations
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Some of the best business ideas take an existing product or service and find a new use for it. (Think of what Netflix has done for movie rentals, or what Groupon has done for coupons.)Hart Main may just wind up doing the same thing for candles. His product? ManCans, candles with scents made specifically for men who don't really want to smell like freshly laundered towels or a dewy forest. A typical ManCans scent is more likely to smell like a fresh new baseball glove.
For a startup, ManCans is doing well, averaging 300 orders a week. And if it takes a while for the Marysville, Ohio-based business to grow to the point where it's selling 3,000 or 30,000 candles a week, Main has time. After all, he's only 13.
"It started as a joke," Main says of the origins of his company. "It really wasn't meant to turn into anything serious."
Last November, Main's 12-year-old sister, Camryn, was selling candles to raise money for school. Main, who wasn't crazy about the girly scents, joked that there ought to be candles for guys -- guys who didn't want their bedrooms to smell like, say, lavender soap. That piqued the interest of his mother, Amy, who encouraged her son to try to make some candles with a masculine aroma.
"I do that with all of my kids -- I listen to them," Amy Main says. "Even if it sounds like they're joking, if their idea sounds like something they can do, by all means, I tell them to go for it." Which is why Camryn also has a dog-walking business.
But for now, Main is keeping his mom (a nursing administrator at an adult-education center) and dad (an IT manager) plenty busy. When the local media picked up a story on the business, Main suddenly faced a flood of interviews -- and orders spiked. That may just be the beginning: Main is scheduled to appear on the talk show The Doctors this month.
While Main's age makes for a compelling news story, the candles' unique scents are what actually draw customers in. ManCans offers eight scents so far: New York Style Pizza, Grandpa's Pipe, Sawdust, Campfire, New Mitt, Fresh Cut Grass, Coffee and, of course, Bacon.
Initially, Main was planning to sell quite a few other scented candles, with smells like Money to Burn and Dirt, but like any good entrepreneur, he realized he was probably expanding too quickly and should stick to his core scents for now. "We released Money to Burn but it wasn't selling too well," Main says.
Main, meanwhile, has set up his business so that even while it is a for-profit company, it has a charitable arm. Main makes the candles in soup cans, so he purchases soup and donates it to local soup kitchens. He then returns the empty cans and he and his mother make the candles in their kitchen. He orders oils from suppliers around Ohio and combines them with the wax. "We're actually looking at renting a space to make the candles in," Main says. "Doing it in our kitchen, it's just too much the way it is now."
Main, in fact, has had several growing pains with his company even as he contends with his own growing pains. At times, he's been behind on orders, where it takes at least two weeks for customers to receive their candles, which retail for $9.50 each. Pricing has been tricky to figure out. Main initially charged $5 per candle, but as his operations became more expansive and involved, he had to raise the price. And the company has been so successful that it essentially "broke" Main's PayPal student account, forcing Amy to open a new one in her name.
Shane Haggerty, a colleague of Amy's who has become the de facto PR person for ManCans, says he's impressed with how the 13-year-old has risen to the challenge of running his own company. "Hart is very much in charge of this business and is as hands-on as any CEO would be at the age of 50," he says. "His mom recently shared a story of how Hart discovered an order was poorly packaged and shipping was incorrectly priced. Hart went directly to the distributor and made sure this would never happen again. He handles himself so well in media interviews and with the whole business that it's amazing to watch, because you have to be reminded that this is a 13-year-old middle school student who simply wanted to be able to buy a bicycle with the extra money he would earn."
Now Main, who turns 14 in July, says he can envision life as an entrepreneur, instead of becoming a lawyer as he once planned. "I like the fact that I have control over things and can make decisions and see what's actually happening," he says.
Name: Hart Main
Company: ManCans
Age: 13
Location: Marysville, Ohio
Founded: 2010
Employees: One temp who takes orders while Hart is in school
Revenue: Undisclosed
Website: www.man-cans.com
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Comments (Page 6 of 6)
"Mancave candles." It was inevitable.
New Mitt scent. Now that is cool! Companies are hiring people to work at home to cut costs. The website BestTopJobs has a FREE list of work at home jobs offered by real employers. I save on gas, lunches, clothing and day care by working as an employee at my home. Good luck!
A CEO getting congradulations and good wishes? What is this world coming to? Or perhaps none of the good wishing bloggers are liberal.
I think its great for young men like Main to be putting his brain to good use and doing something constructive with his life. Most kids his age are getting in trouble, disrepecting parents and society, selling or buying drugs,fighting and just down right being bad. Maybe if more kids use the brain God gave them to do something good in life they wouldnt be so many kids growing up and ending up in jails and prisons. I think its wonderful!!
Sonnis there r manly men that do burn candles ---its the romantic ones that want to set the mood for their women ...those r the men that know what women like
It's amazing what you can do, when you try something a little differently. Because sudoku bored me, I began making PUZLN 1-9 (registered trademark) numbers puzzles. It has taken a little while, but people from 4 different countries have shown interest. They are printing and solving a free puzzle or two from my Facebook page (Puzln JeweLs) and are looking forward to October, when a PUZLN 1-9 will appear in Games magazine.
Let's not!!!
i clicked the article and when i red about the manly sents i immediately thought abut man candles on shark tank. this guy created nothing original.
January 21, 2011
BY JERRY DAVICH, METRO COLUMNIST jdavich@post-trib.com (219) 648-3107

Off and running: Andy Mendoza, 9, and Nick Mendoza, 10, of Merrillville volunteer Thursday evening at Cafe Manna at St. Teresa of Avila in Valparaiso. The brothers, with their sister Haley Jo, 7, started the Foster Friends Foundation. -- Jeffrey D. Nicholls/Post-Tribune
Nick and Andy Mendoza didn't waste much time on their first "assignment" last Thursday night. The two Merrillville brothers, ages 10 and 9 respectively, could watch for only a few minutes -- instead of helping -- before springing into action.
During their visit to the Cafe Manna soup kitchen inside St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Student Center in Valparaiso, the boys hustled to help feed the hungry or homeless customers. They asked organizers what they could do to help and, from that moment on, they cleaned tables, chatted with guests, and kicked off their newest endeavor.
The boys recently launched the Foster Friends Foundation, thanks to the Legacy Foundation, after becoming frustrated during the holidays over the lack of options in this region for young volunteers.
"They could not find anywhere to help the way they wanted to, so they took it into their own hands," said their mother, Mellonie Mendoza.
The not-for-profit Foster Friends Foundation provides friendship and companionship to people of any age, but specifically for at-risk youths, the elderly, the needy and the homeless.
'Lending an ear'
The foundation is set up to pay all expenses for play-dates, outings, and events, and its goal is to lend an ear to the lonely, a smile to the afflicted, and a voice to the voiceless.
"What an amazing experience they had on Thursday night," said their mother, whose 7-year-old daughter, HaileyJo, also volunteered her time.
One little girl who sat at their table sported a black-and-blue eye, so HaileyJo pulled out her coloring book and crayons, trying to spark a smile. The girl, who was there with her grandfather, said maybe five words.
Nick lingered in the kitchen, sweet-talking the older ladies, while his younger brother, Andy, was busy making new friends in the dining room.
"They look like they just belong there and have found their purpose," Mellonie said proudly.
I first wrote about Nick and Andy in 2008, noting that they were the freshest faces of our ultracompetitive global workforce.
The two brothers started their own kiddie-business called the Birdbrain Brothers Birdhouses -- painting, decorating and selling wooden birdhouses for $15. Their mother thought it was a cute idea and took a few of the birdhouses to work to help the boys make a sale or two. Sales took off and the two pint-sized entrepreneurs got their first taste of making a difference in this world.
They have since been inducted as the youngest lifetime members into the Society of Innovators of Northwest Indiana, as well as being award-winning peer mediators, artists and overall great kids.
The new foundation is not a bricks-and-mortar child-care center, nor an after-school membership club. It's not affiliated with any traditional youth program or service.
Instead, it's a confidential, peer-to-peer program offering friendship, mentoring and inspiration while also developing scholarships for deserving youngsters in need. It also seeks referrals from pediatricians, therapists, senior homes, schools and all area hospitals.
"We are conscious of the changing demographics in our area, (and) the violence, abuse and bullying that our youth and seniors encounter daily," according to its mission statement. "We are committed to ending this vicious cycle. Our services are completely voluntary and entirely free."
The boys hope they can befriend other kids and take them on play-dates such as fishing, camping, bowling or baseball games -- to point them in the right direction in life.
Their mother said her three children will be at St. Teresa next week, too, in case that same little girl is there again.
"Maybe it will give her something to look forward to," Mellonie said.
More important, maybe her kids' impressive efforts will prompt other Northwest Indiana youths to follow their lead instead of whining over "nothing to do."
visit our website at fosterfriendsfoundation.org
These candles are not just to woo women - they can woo men to men or they can be used on poker night with the boys. Candles are not just for romance anymore.....
How about a candle that just smells like a woodburning fireplace? Or one that smells like suntan lotion? Or one that smells like a rainforest? I really don't think bacon is going to keep here there....unless she's a pig.
This is a fantastic idea good for him!! I'd add campfire, sitting in the boat, and mans best friend ... wet dog :)
Glen...that was just down right mean. What were you doing when you were 13 besides bullying others due to fear of your on inadequacies.
this is the second time aol has seen fit to hoist this boy on it's publicity treadmill...is he related to someone in the office?...candles for men?...that is about as dumb as gum for women.