At Age 15, He Started Selling a Sweet Product for $2. His Business Broke $25,000 Last Summer: ‘Smooth Sailing, No Pun Intended.’

Maryland-based teenager Brian Troupe, now 16, was on a boat ride with a neighbor when business inspiration struck. 

The man mentioned that someone used to sell food to boaters, cooking it one location, then delivering it to another. Troupe loves being out on the water, and he wanted to make some extra money. So he started brainstorming.

“ I thought quite a bit about how I can kind of sneak past some food certifications and not have to have a sink on a boat and all of this extra equipment,” Troupe tells Entrepreneur. “And still having something that a lot of boaters don’t have on their boat.” 

It’s not unusual for boaters to carry sandwiches, chips and similar snacks on board, Troupe notes. However, frozen treats, like ice cream, are less common — because a lot of boats don’t have freezers. Then 15 years old, Troupe decided to run with the idea. 

He purchased a freezer with funds he’d earned doing chores, stocked up on ice cream and opened Troupe’s Treats for business at the end of a pier on the Bohemia River in July 2025. Unfortunately, things didn’t go exactly according to plan. 

“ I sat there hoping for the best, and it was the worst,” Troupe says. “Nobody came by. Absolutely nobody would pull up anchor and stop. So I learned from that.”

Troupe’s Treats saw nearly $6,000 in gross sales in 2025

Troupe realized he didn’t need to wait for customers to seek his product out — he could bring it right to them. The young entrepreneur used his savings to invest in a small jon boat, which cost about $700, and outfitted it with bumpers and extra equipment for about $120 more. 

The first weekend of sales immediately validated his new strategy. Troupe priced his offerings at $2 apiece and brought in about $400. As the summer unfolded, Troupe averaged $800 per weekend selling from the jon boat, hitting more than $1,200 on his best weekend ever. He closed that summer season with nearly $6,000 in gross sales. 

Going into summer 2026, Troupe was ready to make some changes and grow his business even more. 

He upgraded from store-brand to premium ice cream products, like Magnum and Klondike bars, and charged $3 for them. He also invested in a larger freezer and a bigger boat, the Sea-Doo Switch. The Switch could handle more range, allowing him to go from visiting just one location to four in multiple rivers. 

The teen has also implemented some creative strategies along the way in response to one of the biggest lessons he’s learned so far: “Growth isn’t more customers,” he says. “Growth is finding out what fails when you have more customers.”

Addressing a logistical challenge

One logistical hurdle Troupe needed to overcome? The less-than-straightforward transaction process on the water. 

“ Imagine trying to give somebody an ice cream with waves crashing, and you’re sitting here trying to balance on a boat, and you’ve got another person trying to balance on a boat while not dropping money or credit cards into the water,” Troupe says. “It becomes a comical scene.” 

So Troupe leaned into his nautical theme and bought fishing nets to streamline the exchange. With about a foot-and-a-half wide net and long handle, Troupe can transport six items at a time to his customers. Then they can place their payment right back inside the net. 

Bringing $2 bills on board

Once Troupe started charging $3 for his premium products, he encountered another challenge: coming up with exact change on the water. The new price point meant people needed $2 back more often, he explains, and sometimes he ran out of $1 bills. 

So Troupe began bringing $2 bills on board. Not only did it ensure his customers got exact change, but it also served as a fun learning experience for younger kids who’d never seen the bill — and as a savvy way to stay top-of-mind. 

“ Later down the line, if they go to look into their wallet and see that there’s a $2 bill, it makes somebody think back to the interaction they had with me, [serving as] a memorable marketing tactic,” Troupe says. 

Using humor to navigate sold-out products

Additionally, Troupe has fun with another all-too-common business conundrum — selling out of certain items. 

Not wanting to leave customers with a negative impression when some treats aren’t available, Troupe started to place “I’m in a pickle” stickers next to sold-out items. 

But he also took it a humorous step further, purchasing a jar of pickles in case someone does want to substitute the briny snack for a sweet one. 

“ It just kind of became a joking thing, and if anybody actually really wanted to order a pickle, it’s the same price as my ice creams,” Troupe says. 

The teen entrepreneur doesn’t want to disappoint boaters’ canine companions, either. He offers free pup cups to customers with dogs. 

Troupe’s Treats broke $25,000 in gross sales last summer

Troupe’s smart business strategies paid dividends this past summer. On an average weekend, Troupe’s Treats saw about $1,800, surpassing $2,100 on its best. Gross sales broke $25,000 for the 2026 season. 

Troupe plans to operate the business next summer and says he can “100%” see himself remaining an entrepreneur — but he has another major career ambition, too. 

Since he was seven years old, Troupe has been fascinated by roller coasters and the engineering behind them. He attends the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) expo each year to network with the businesses that design and manufacture roller coasters. 

Troupe attends a trade high school, focusing on engineering. At this time, he plans to forgo college and leverage his network and skill set to land a role in the industry. 

“ I can even see myself, once I’m a lot older, passing [Troupe’s Treats] down to somebody to give another teenager the same opportunity that I had,” Troupe says. “Because this opportunity has really provided me with a lot of education, experience — and a lot more than I could have ever thought.”

Mentorship leads to a collaboration with Kii Arens

Troupe encourages young entrepreneurs who want to start a business of their own to connect with mentors who might help them hit milestones they couldn’t have imagined. 

For instance, one of Troupe’s mentors knows the artist Kii Arens, who’s created work for stars including Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and Dolly Parton, and happened to mention the teen’s ice cream business.

“It wasn’t a pitch or a request for artwork,” Troupe explains. “He just thought Kii might get a kick out of the idea of a 16-year-old selling ice cream from a boat. Apparently something about it caught Kii’s imagination, because the conversation eventually turned into him creating an original piece inspired by me and Troupe’s Treats.”

But perhaps the most valuable piece of advice Troupe would give to young entrepreneurs is this: Always leave room to fail. He goes back to his “lemonade-stand”-like first attempt at the end of the pier. It flopped; he made $0. But he wouldn’t be where he is today without it. 

“ It went the worst it could have,” Troupe says. “Luckily for me, I didn’t let that stop me. I looked at it as, This is a problem. Where is a solution? Once that solution was found, it was smooth sailing, no pun intended, from there.”