Between school work and swimming lessons, with hair slicked to the side and dressed for success in blue, the 12-year-old “pecantrepreneur” Charlie Kobdish, a youngster from Dallas, Texas, stepped right up to running a successful business since 2017. This 12-year-old CEO runs a candied pecan company called “Charlie’s Treats – Kid Made, Kid Owned”. The keynote seventh-grader only started making and selling flavored pecans, when he was a wee lad of 10. His long-term plans include studying law, and then become a senator and post that becoming a politician. Charlie is fascinated by the idea of politics because one is able to factually make a difference by being able to fix stuff accordingly.

Charlie kobdish

Other than being a biz-kid, Charlie is very passionate about sports like chess, basketball, baseball, cross-country, and swimming. And he’s excellent and has never lost at Monopoly. He is an avid reader. His favorite reads include Marvel Comics and Johnny Tremain. He is known for his exceptional cooking. His achievements include winning the 1st place in the White Rock Good Local Markets 10th Annual Pie Contest for his Maple Pecan Cheesecake Pie.

The kid has had a keen eye for the pecan markets in Texas. He had a solemn approach towards starting his own business of flavored pecans. With the help of his parents, who saw potential in his idea, he began spicing and roasting small batches of Texas’ state nut “Pecans”.

His mother took over designing baskets since she is a passionate artist. Alongside this, she is the official CFO at Charlie’s Treats and hence keeps track of all the orders and spends. And already dad Chuck is scouting for a commercial kitchen in anticipation of this year’s Thanksgiving and BFCM rush. We think he is just in time for the holiday season.

Charlie’s Treats come in five gourmet flavors, with figuring butter prominently in every recipe: 

  • cinnamon-sugar pecans (Charlie’s personal favorite), 
  • maple pecans, 
  • seasonal pumpkin spiced pecans,
  • traditionally spiced pecans, and 
  • the savory HOT PECANte. 
Charlies treats packaging

His role in the business is mostly as a spokesperson, however, being the CEO, he is known to look after a lot of stuff like doing various events and attending talk-shows, to showcase his business. For the kid, Charlie’s Treats is more fun and accomplishing than just another buck-earning store.

This kid-owned and the kid-operated company was just voted a 2019 People’s Choice Business of the Year winner. What’s next for him? Who knows?… but we know it’s going to be BIGGER! What do you think?