Alphonse Coleman-Bubbles and Blaze

Alphonse “Fonzi” Coleman is the founder of Bubbles and Blaze, a sustainable candle company. As a homeschool project his mom tasked him with finding a real-world problem and solving it with a business idea. Little did she know this project would lead to a successful entrepreneurial venture.

Fonzi found that scent had a calming effect. He knew that it could be used in many different scenarios to calm people down and freshen a room, and candles were the perfect way to spread scents. After doing some research, however, Coleman found that most modern candles are made with harmful waxes that are not good for both the environment and someone’s home. He set out to solve this problem and make candles more environmentally friendly. As he continued to research and innovate around this problem, Fonzi found that replacing normal wax with coconut soy wax and the normal wicks with wooden ones he could cut down on the harm caused by candles. Thus, Bubbles and Blaze was born. Each  candle is uniquely hand crafted and made by Fonzi himself.

Bubbles and Blaze is also a brand with a positive and mission. They have already given back to the community and continue to be very philanthropic. They have given multiple times to Water For South Sudan.

Through running a business Fonzi Coleman has had to learn both how to make candles and how to run a business. This has been a major learning opportunity, and he set an example of what it looks like for an entrepreneur to not let doubts hold them back and to just do it. Alphonse has already inspired many other young entrepreneurs and was even featured on Investopedia’s top 10 young entrepreneurs.