Mercer Island High School sophomore Marcus Schiller knew he was born to be an entrepreneur. Growing up with an entrepreneurial father, he was bound to catch the business bug.

So when the 15-year-old’s latest entrepreneurial venture showed up for purchase on Amazon.com a couple weeks ago, it should’ve come with little surprise.

Marcus is the brainchild of BrainBands, multi-colored neon bands that serve as “a homework list for the wrist” to help students remember to do their homework. The package includes five silicone bands, a carabineer clip and a customizable chart to assign colors to specific tasks.

When homework is assigned in a specific subject, students remove that band and put it on their wrist. When homework is done, they attach that band back to the clip. Distributed through Sunrise Identity, BrainBands will also be available online at Kmart.com by the end of the month.

Since creating his homework reminder tool,  Marcus has pitched BrainBands to Amazon, Office Max and Costco, while also showing them off on KOMO news. While BrainBands don’t have a huge advertising budget,  Marcus believes his product has seen progress since hitting the market.

“It’s all really new to me, so it’s hard to get a gauge on the direct sales aspect of it,”  Marcus said. “That being said, I’d say the marketing aspect and growth aspect and building the brand name has been beyond what we’d imagined and it’s going just as we’d hoped.”

Marcus’ father, Michael, who has over 20 years experience with product development, worked with his son developing BrainBands. Relying primarily on word-of-mouth marketing, Marcus said he’s been elated watching BrainBands build legs on its own. Schools are ordering BrainBands directly for entire classes, or in one instance, for an entire middle school. They’ve also gotten calls from senior centers, using BrainBands to serve as helpful reminders for medication. A byproduct has been consumers using BrainBands as a helpful reminder tool for more than just homework.

“We knew it was a great reminder tool for anyone to use and that there were more uses than being a typical homework reminder for students from a student,” said Marcus. “Without even pushing other ways to use BrainBands, people are finding themselves there are other uses. We saw the other uses, but we didn’t think it’d be at the forefront as it is currently.”

While excited about his son’s business venture, Michael stresses his son’s primary focus is school, and that his son won’t be giving up his academic career to focus on BrainBands. But he adds that Marcus’ role as a partner with Sunrise Identity is very real, with Marcus meeting with the Sunrise Identity owner to discuss strategy and next steps. In pitch meetings, it is Marcus who takes the lead.

While Marcus admits he hasn’t really seen BrainBands in the hallways of MIHS, pretty soon he will be presenting to the school and hopes to make BrainBands available in the student store. When he’s not giving presentations, Marcus keeps busy working on other projects. He’s currently working on expanding the BrainBands package to include a type of binder or backpack.

But for now, Marcus remains focused on the growth of his current project.

“I know it’s my job to make [BrainBands] succeed. I can’t hope and then money will appear in my hand,” he said. “The launch is exciting, but it’s really about what will come [later on in the future].”

BrainBands can be purchased online at Amazon.com, 4knowledge-4fun.com and BrainBands.com.