Please enjoy our stories of participants in the Olin Cup, the YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition, the Hatchery, and the Skandalaris Center Internship Program. We hope you are inspired by them and we welcome your participation. If you are a Skandalaris entrepreneur and wish to share your story, please contact us.
Seth Burgett: Yurbuds
In October, 2008, as an Olin Business School Executive MBA student, Seth Burgett entered the Olin Cup with his venture, known then as Verto Medical Solutions. Seth is an active triathlete and his earphones were painful and often fell out of his ears during training. With his background in minimally invasive surgical devices, Seth and his team developed technology to digitally scan ears, enabling the sale of custom fit earbuds. That year, Seth won the student award of $5,000 in the Olin Cup, and developed his pitch to Best Buy to carry the product.
Since then, the product has developed into yurbuds, an ergonomically brilliant, acoustically driven headphone which is guaranteed not to fall out, even at extreme activity levels, while still providing an unparalleled level of comfort and fidelity. Yurbuds has been named the 9th Most Promising Company in America by Forbes, has won the same design award as the iPad, and their website was voted the best website in the world. They have raised $8 million, with more than $1 million from the Olin Business School community. In the last year, they have gone from 1 to twenty products, and have launched in Target, Wal-mart, the Apple Store, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Sports Authority, going from 700 locations to more than 9,000 in one year. Visit their website to learn more about this impressive young company, become inspired by their "Never Before” stories celebrating the athlete in all of us, and find out where you can buy your own yurbuds!
Mike Burnstein: Janji
The organization then known as Edele entered the YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition in January, 2011. The mission of this student-started venture is to combat malnutrition through running. Edele makes running apparel modeled after a country's flag, and sale proceeds address that country's unique need related to food and water. The organization fosters a larger community of runners based on a shared commitment to improving lives across the globe. Team members include senior Mike Burnstein, junior David Hamm, sophomore Sarah Fisher and recent graduates Dave Spandorfer (BS 2011) and Kenny Fairleigh (BS 2011). The students are all current or previous members of Washington University’s cross country team.
Edele received a total of $15,000 in the YouthBridge SEIC, including the $10,000 Skandalaris award and the $5,000 award to the best student venture. The venture, now called Janji, continues to move forward. In October, 2011, they won first place in the 2011 University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) Sports/Outdoors Business Plan Competition, beating out 15 other teams (mostly graduate students) to win the first place prize of $20,000. In February, 2012, they will release their first product in St. Louis, with plans to go national in April.
Mike Burnstein in particular has contributed much to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and culture on campus. He has served as a Skandalaris Center student ambassador, as a Skandalaris intern, and his team took Edele to the Hatchery and then very successfully to the YouthBridge SEIC. Read more about the Colorado competition win or hear more from Mike about Janji's founding with Dave Spandorfer and their inspiration for the venture.
Kristin Edmonds: Mindfull Games
From IdeaBounce® winner to Olin Cup finalist, Kristin Edmonds and her family have carved out their entrepreneurial path by launching Mindfull Games— fun vocabulary games that help improve literacy among children. Inspired by her time spent working with children at a pediatric therapy center, Kristin found a way to get kids learning while they play. But without a background in business, Kristin needed some assistance in getting her venture off the ground. The Skandalaris Center has done just that, helping turn this once home-based business into a growing organization that is now selling Verbal Volley® games in specialty toy stores and teacher supply stores nationwide. The center has also put her in touch with Innovate Venture Mentoring Service and other important business contacts throughout the St. Louis community.
Business planning aside, seeing people enjoy her products while gaining a better reading vocabulary has been Kristin’s favorite part of the entrepreneurial process. Whether it’s helping stroke victims in rehab or young students preparing for the SAT, Mindfull Games® has filled a market need catering to those seeking intellectually stimulating games. As for next steps, Kristin is looking to translate her products into multiple languages and source more retailers for her growing line of literary card game sets. As of October 2010, Kristin is selling Verbal Volley through two large international catalog companies. (written by Thomas Aylmer*)
Seth Einbinder: Symblia.com
Seth Einbinder is a Junior in the College of Arts & Sciences planning to graduate in May, 2013. He is a co-founder of Symblia.com, an online marketplace for college communities. Seth was a Skandalaris summer intern in 2011, and worked for start-up Gremln.com, a social media marketing service provider. Through his internship, Seth learned how to operate effectively in the small business environment, and now he brings those skills to Symblia.
Symblia initially launched in fall 2011 at Washington University in St. Louis and at the Pratt Institute in New York. The idea has caught fire and Symblia is launching at eight more universities in the U.S. and Canada. Seth attributes the success of Symblia in part to the Washington University community, and its extraordinary acceptance of the new venture and willingness to help. If you are interested in learning more about Symblia check out the piece that NBC affiliate KDSK did on Symblia (that was picked up by USA Today). In the piece, Seth talks about how he came up with the idea, written on the back of "many brown napkins from the dining hall," his value proposition, and his thoughts about the future for his venture. You can also like Symblia on Facebook.
Of his summer internship with Gremln, Seth says "Working for Gremln.com granted me a unique opportunity to get behind the scenes and help a newly born startup." Since his internship, Gremln was selected by Capital Innovators for its first class to receive seed funding and mentorship, and launched in February, 2012.
Jesús Figueroa: Angel Baked Cookies
Jesús Figueroa has always been a service-minded individual. And after the Skandalaris Center showed him how entrepreneurship could be used for social good, Jesús became the candidate of choice to serve as Program Director for Angel Baked Cookies. This non-profit venture employs teenagers in the economically-depressed North City-area of St. Louis. Faithful to its slogan, "Our secret recipe is prayer," each workday starts with some time for group prayer, followed by three hours in the kitchen preparing scrumptious cookies. Not only does the time spent working put extra money in the kid’s pockets, it also teaches the aspiring youth marketable job skills and how a small business operates.
Running a social enterprise is always a challenge, and even more so without a business degree. However, Jesús was an intern in the Skandalaris Center’s inaugural internship program. During the summer of 2008, Jesús helped launch the St. Patrick Center's BEGIN New Venture Center, a St. Louis business incubator with a focus on the homeless. Calling it a “transformational experience,” Jesús learned how social and business ventures can be intertwined.
Jesús continues to attend the Skandalaris Center’s Friday summer panels. The session devoted to social entrepreneurship put him in contact with other professionals who will help him improve Angel Baked Cookies. Over the next few years, Jesús plans to make the venture self-sustainable. He is excited to hire more "Angels" and have their cookies sold at coffee shops and grocery stores throughout St. Louis. (written by Thomas Aylmer*)
Lucy Hannegan: Twice Blessed Resale Shop
Lucy Hannegan has worked at Our Lady’s Inn, an emergency shelter for homeless, pregnant women and their children, since 2003. In 2008, Lucy entered her idea to start a resale shop in the YouthBridge Social Entrerprise and Innovation Competition. The proceeds of the social enterprise would fund shelter programs, and the shop would provide job training for its residents. The Twice Blessed Resale Shop reached as far as the semi-finalist round in the 2009 competition. Lucy, in true entrepreneurial spirit and with the support of other donors her efforts inspired, opened the shop without the competition funding.
She entered the 2010 competition and she and her team impressed the judges with their grasp of business concepts and a realistic, measurable plan. Twice Blessed won the $30,000 Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis award, in addition to a $10,000 award from the Skandalaris Center. As Lucy says, “I am very grateful for the help you have given me and my agency, I love being an entrepreneur. I really enjoyed picking all the "big boys" brains and learning from them. The most valuable part of the experience was meeting mentors, supporters and collaborators. I also gained valuable experience speaking in public, preparing the business plan, and giving presentations.”
After opening the newly rehabbed store, Lucy turned the original store in a furniture annex. "Since we still had time on the lease, my director gave me permission to try to manage two shops." So far, the annex has been paying for itself. It is one of the only resale furniture stores in the neighborhood, making it a convenient place for local people to shop. Of course, running between stores keeps Lucy fit!
Alice Layton: Rupununi Learners
Rupununi Learners Foundation was the 2009 Skandalaris award winner for the YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition. Started by Alice Layton in 2003, this non-profit organization is an ecotourism center in the pristine Rupununi region of Guyana where adventure-minded tourists can lodge at the Caiman House Field Station.
The Skandalaris center has connected Rupununi to non-profit professionals, who according to Alice, have exposed her to a whole new way of looking at what she does. For the first time, the organization is excited to welcome college students who will be engaged in semester-long ecosystem research. Rupununi has recently been accredited as a study abroad program by Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts as part of their three-year environmental studies program.
Aside from the research component, Alice sees robust business opportunities for the people of Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America. As a social worker, Alice is committed to helping the Rupununi people think entrepreneurially about their opportunities and assets. From crafts to tourism, agriculture to research, she envisions a local economy supported by artists and small businesspeople. (written by Thomas Aylmer*)
Matt MacEwan: NanoMed, LLC
In 2010, MD PhD student Matt MacEwan was working on nonfabricated meshes in the lab, and took the product to researchers and clinicians at the Medical School. About the same time he discovered the Olin Cup, which provided the framework to move forward with his idea. He entered the competition and wrote a business plan which would eventually award him $50,000 in seed funding.
Since then, Matt has raised $400,000 in capital, and has developed three different surgical meshes which he expects will be used in clinical trials next year. Since the Olin Cup win, NanoMed has also won two international competitions: the LES 2011 LES (Licensing Executives Society) Foundation International Graduate Student Business Plan Competition in London, focusing on graduate student business plans that emphasize intellectual property assets and strategies for how these assets will be leveraged to achieve business goals; and the Global Idea to Product (I2P) competition in Stockholm, which has three tracks, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Energy, and Life Science. NanoMed was selected as the Winner of the Life Science Championships. Also in the fall of 2011 NanoMed hired at its CEO Agnes Rey-Giraud, who headed international expansion for Express Scripts. Read more about NanoMed in the St. Louis Business Journal, or watch the video of Matt's presentation in Stockholm.
Adam Regelmann: Quartzy
Adam Regelmann has conducted academic research in fields such as chemistry, microbiology and molecular immunology since the time he was in high school. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University and came to St. Louis to complete his residency at Washington University School of Medicine.
While at Columbia, Adam and two of his colleagues founded Quartzy, an online lab inventory management system for the academic life-sciences community. When Adam came to St. Louis, his program director showed his support of the venture by approving a 50/50 split of Adam’s time between his duties as a resident and his work with Quartzy.
Washington University’s support of young entrepreneurial researchers and clinicians gave Adam the time to compete in the 2009 Olin Cup, where he was awarded $50,000 in seed funding for Quartzy. Read about Adam and his win on the New York Times "You're the Boss" blog. Since his Olin Cup win, in Summer 2011, Quartzy was funded by Y Combinator, which, twice a year invests a small amount of money in a large number of startups, which move to Silicon Valley for 3 months, where they work intensively to get the company into the best possible shape and refine their investor pitch. The Y Combinator alumni network continues to help founders for the life of their company, and beyond. Watch a video of Adam describing Quartzy and his entrepreneurial experience.
Lauren Wilmore: St. Louis Dancing Classrooms
In January 2010, Lauren Wilmore (BSBA 2006) delivered the elevator pitch that eventually helped St. Louis Dancing Classrooms win the $30,000 Incarnate Word award in that year’s YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition. She began: “St. Louis Dancing Classrooms is an in-school residency that uses ballroom dance to build social awareness, instill confidence, and self-esteem in children.” In her own estimation, since then she has delivered that pitch, “more times than I can possibly count.” The success of St Louis Dancing Classrooms in the competition came a year after they had been eliminated in the second round of the previous year’s competition. With entrepreneurial determination and passion, they returned the next year, won the award, and went to work to meet their vision of being in every 5th grade classroom in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
In just over a year, they have more than tripled their number of classrooms, doubled the teaching staff, moved into two new school districts, and developed partnerships with COCA (Center of Creative Arts), Big Brothers Big Sisters, and College Bound, all the while helping their students to internalize the value of respect for themselves and others, teaching them the intrinsic value of themselves as individuals and team members, and “shaking what their momma gave them.” Follow St Louis Dancing Classrooms on Facebook to get continuous updates of their progress and uplifting stories of their success.
* Thomas Aylmer is a 2010 graduate of Washington University’s College of Arts & Sciences with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. Thomas was a 2009 Skandalaris Center Intern, and has founded his own copywriting agency, Text Branding.