A nine-year-old with a sewing machine
The founding story is domestic and exact. Bridges, growing up in Memphis, wanted bow ties that looked the way he wanted them to look, could not find them, and learned to make them. Mo's Bows started in 2011 with fabric, a sewing machine and a boy with a defined taste.
That specificity is what separated it from most children's businesses. It had a product with a market rather than a lemonade-stand premise, and the product was good enough to be sold by adults to adults.
Shark Tank and the NBA
An appearance on the American investment television programme Shark Tank gave the business a national audience. What followed was the deal that changed its scale: a licensing agreement with the NBA, allowing Mo's Bows to produce bow ties in the colours and marks of the league's teams.
League licensing is not a novelty arrangement. It requires manufacturing standards, approvals and volume, and a company gets it because the league's licensing office believes it can deliver. That agreement, more than any of the television coverage, is the hard evidence that Mo's Bows was a functioning business.
What the numbers show
TIME named him one of the 30 most influential teenagers of 2015, recording annual revenue of roughly 200,000 dollars and licensing arrangements with Cole Haan and Neiman Marcus. Two years later the magazine listed him again, this time citing a 1.5 million dollar valuation.
Entrepreneur, writing in 2018 about business owners under 20, put cumulative sales since 2011 at about 700,000 dollars. Fortune had included him in its 18 Under 18 list in 2016. These are reported figures from business press, not audited accounts, and they should be read as such: consistent across outlets, but self-reported at source.
Where the record stands now
Mo's Bows continues to appear in surveys of companies founded by young entrepreneurs, including a Business News Daily roundup updated in 2025. No source used here reports current revenue, a sale of the company, or what Bridges does day to day as an adult.
His birth year is given as 2002 in the research record used for this page, and it is described there as approximate. That is worth stating rather than smoothing over: the age at which he started, nine, is the figure every source agrees on, and the calendar year of his birth is the softer number.
Why the kid-CEO story usually fails, and this one did not
Child entrepreneur stories tend to follow a short arc: an appealing product, a wave of press, and a business that quietly stops when the founder reaches secondary school. The reason is structural. A child cannot sign contracts, cannot hold a licence, and cannot manage supply chains, so the enterprise depends entirely on the adults around it and usually ends when their attention moves.
Mo's Bows lasted because it was built the other way round. There was a product with real margins, retail partners with purchasing departments, and eventually a licensing agreement with one of the largest sports leagues in the world. The child remained the designer and the face; the machinery behind him was ordinary commerce. That is the difference between a story about a remarkable nine-year-old and a company that was still being cited in business lists more than a decade after it started.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moziah Bridges | United States | Founding Mo's Bows at nine; NBA licensing deal for team bow ties | Age 9 |
| Zandra Cunningham | United States | Founding Zandra Beauty at nine | Age 9 |
| Cory Nieves | United States | At twelve his customers were not other children. They were Macy's, Aetna a | Age 12 |
| Isabella Dymalovski | Australia | She built a skincare range for girls her own age, and ran it at fourteen. | Age 14 |
| Bella Weems | United States | Founding Origami Owl and its Living Lockets at 14 | Age 14 |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Founded Mo's Bows at nine in 2011 in Memphis
- Named to TIME's 30 Most Influential Teens in 2015 and 2017, and to Fortune's 18 Under 18 in 2016
- Signed an NBA licensing agreement for team bow ties following a Shark Tank appearance
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- His birth year is approximate in the research record used here
- All revenue and valuation figures are reported by business press, not audited
- No source documents his current work or the company's present finances
Questions people ask about Moziah Bridges
How old was Moziah Bridges when he started Mo's Bows?
Nine. He began sewing bow ties in 2011 in Memphis. His birth year is reported as 2002, though the research record used here describes that as approximate.
What is Mo's Bows?
The bow tie company he founded at nine. It grew into retail arrangements including Cole Haan and Neiman Marcus and a licensing deal with the NBA for team bow ties.
Did Moziah Bridges appear on Shark Tank?
Yes. The appearance gave the business a national audience, and an NBA licensing agreement followed.
How much is Mo's Bows worth?
TIME cited a 1.5 million dollar valuation in 2017 and roughly 200,000 dollars in annual revenue in 2015. Entrepreneur reported about 700,000 dollars in cumulative sales by 2018. These are reported figures, not audited accounts.
Where is Moziah Bridges now?
No source used here reports his current work or the company's present state beyond continued inclusion in lists of businesses founded by young entrepreneurs.
Is Moziah Bridges on Wikipedia?
No standalone Wikipedia article on him was confirmed in the sources used here.
What is Moziah Bridges' net worth?
No net worth figure for him personally appears in any source used here. The published numbers describe the company's revenue and valuation, which are not the same thing.
Who taught him to sew?
The sources used here record that he learned to sew as a child in Memphis but do not set out the teaching in detail.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Moziah’s story?
How old was Moziah Bridges when he started making bow ties?
Which sports league licensed Mo's Bows?
Which magazine named him one of the most influential teens twice?
Sources
- 18 Under 18: Meet the Young Innovators Who Are Changing the World — Fortune, 2016-09-15
- Meet the New Bosses: How These Entrepreneurs Under 20 Are Changing Industries — Entrepreneur, 2018-08-14
- 15 Companies Founded by Amazing Young Entrepreneurs — Business News Daily, 2025-09-29
- The 30 Most Influential Teens of 2015 — TIME, 2015-10-27
- The 30 Most Influential Teens of 2017 — TIME, 2017-11-02
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
Discover More Child Prodigies
50+ stories of contemporary young geniuses changing chess, music, science, and art.
Explore All Prodigies →Related Child Prodigy Profiles
Cory Nieves🇺🇸 United States — At twelve his customers were not other children. They were…
Isabella Dymalovski🇦🇺 Australia — She built a skincare range for girls her own age…
Zandra Cunningham🇺🇸 United States — Her first sale was a dollar, handed over at church. By…
Bella Weems🇺🇸 United States — She asked her parents for a car. They told her to earn it…
Mickey Naqvi🇺🇸 United States — Turned down on national television twice…
Maddie Rae🇺🇸 United States — The shelves were empty of glue…