Jennifer Sineway, 30

Focusing on finding the best product to offer a niche market has worked well for 30-year-old Jennifer Sineway, CEO and founder of JLS MedEquip.

At 20, while working on her undergraduate degree, Sineway decided she liked the niche of helping medical professionals and veterinarians. By 24, she started brokering equipment to this market.

She founded her business with $200 and bootstrapped to avoid taking any loans. She brokered to build capital.

From lemonade stands when she was a kid to running a small jewelry business, Sineway likes being her own boss.

“I’ve always been an entrepreneur,” she says.

She earned her master’s degree in Entrepreneurship in Applied Technology at the University of South Florida. She says sucess happened because she’s always willing to adapt to a new landscape.

“You have to adapt to price changes and industry change and develop new products,” she says.

The second business she started, Allied Analytic, is focused on the veterinary market,  providing blood analyzer kits to in-house labs and researchers. This niche has proven to be profitable — grossing more than $1 million in just two years.

JLS MedEquip sells internationally. Clients include Steve Irwin International Zoo in Australia, an elephant camp in Indonesia, the University of Waterloo in Ontario and a clinic in Figi. The company now inventories equipment instead of just brokering, allowing warranty and guarantee offers that Sineway believes has really “catapulted our business.”

Sineway credits finding a partner for much of her success. “Things are so much better with a partner that can do things you cannot,” she says.

— Traci McMillan Beach

Q&A

Name: Jennifer Sineway

Age: 30

City of residence: Tampa, Fla.

Instagram* handle: @jsineway

Employer: self, JLS MedEquip

Title: CEO/Founder

Birthplace: Orlando, Fla. – yes, I’m a native Floridian

Years on the Gulf Coast: 15

Marital status/children: Never Married, No Children

Alma mater: University of South Florida

Best place to network: Tampa Club

Coolest business experience: The ability to help people from so many different parts of the world open medical/veterinary practices and research facilities so they can help others in their communities. I’m privileged enough to be able to do this every day.

Messy desk or clean workspace: Clean Workspace

Best business lesson ever learned: You must always be able and willing to adapt

A website that makes your job easier: Google!

Community group you’re most involved with: Alumni Society of Entrepreneurs , USF

Favorite off-hours activity: Offshore fishing

Two people, dead or alive, you’d like to have dinner with: Albert Einstein, Dave Chappelle

What you would be doing if you could pick another career: Own a Boat Charter Business or become an Artist (painter)

Top item on your bucket list: Watch the Aurora Borealis

Skill you’d like to learn: I would love to speak more languages

Who would play you in a movie about your life: Drew Barrymore

If I had a magic wand I’d: Clean up the toxic algae blooms on Florida’s coast and protect the Florida Aquifer and springs.