Seattle kids in running to meet billionaire Warren Buffett

A couple of Washington kids are hoping to meet Warren Buffet.

Esai Prescod, 11, and Clairissa Henry, 10, are a couple of 4H kids from Seattle who entered the Secret Millionaire’s Club “Grow Your Own Business Challenge” – and they ended up as one of three team finalists – and the only finalists from the West Coast.

I called their corporate headquarters in Wallingford to find out how they did it:

“In order to go to the finals you have to make a video explaining your business,” said Clairissa.

Their idea is pretty simple. Last Christmas Eve they were visiting a produce stand which was shutting down for the winter, and noticed a lot of good food being tossed.

“The main idea behind our business is to keep the surplus produce from going to waste and preserve it so it can be sold later,” Clairissa explains in the video.

That’s why they call it Win Win –

“We took the first letters of waste not want not and slipped a couple of ‘I’s in to get the name and it fits perfectly because the products are both a win for us and a win for the environment,” Clairissa explained.

Their first project – was to take fifty pounds of ginger – which was headed for the dumpster, slice it up, and make it into candied ginger, and sell it for $1.75 a bag.

So the online voting is going on now at the Secret Millionaire website, smckids.com, and if they can get the most votes by this coming Monday – they win, which means they get to meet Warren Buffet, and they get $5,000 each.

“Have you ever seen $5,000 before?” I asked.

“No I haven’t even seen $50,” said Esai.

So I asked them what they would do with $5,000.

Clairisa said, “Some of it we would invest into actually starting the business and some of it we would give back to the community and 4H —

“And some of it we’d blow on ourselves,” said Esai.

“And the rest of it we’d save,” said Clairissa.

“No we wouldn’t save it Clairissa, we’d spend it. At least I know you would save it. I would spend it,” said Esai. “I would probably spend it on skate boards.”

So that’s Clarissa and Esai, 10 and 11, founders of Win Win products – if you want to give them a boost, go to smckids.com.