VENTURELAB 2013-2014

CONTENTSLab is an early-stage business and social enterprise idea lab that provides seed grants, workspace, and guid-ance to carefully screen teams. The mission of the VentureLab is to help the Grove City College cam-pus community explore and develop new ventures based on their own origi-nal concepts.

The Highmark Business Innovation Center at Grove City College is the name of the suite where VentureLab teams work at the eCenter@Linden-Pointe, the region’s first Science Technology Engi-neering and Math (STEM) start-up business incuba-tor, located in Hermitage, PA.

In partnership with the eCenter@LindenPointe, incubator management, and entrepreneurs from both the academic and private sectors, the Ven-tureLab connects teams to resources within Grove City College as well as with the community at large. Teams are connect-ed with industry-specific experts (both alumni and friends) who serve as mentors. Funded teams also receive seed grant support to prove the via-bility of innovative ideas or to assist in taking an idea to the next level after the idea has been vetted.

The VentureLab serves as a valuable starting point for innovation and enables aspiring entrepreneurs to gauge the feasability of their ideas.

T he Grove City College Venture

CONTENTS

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The Second Year

Three Projects

Ecosystem

Entrepreneurship at Grove City College

VentureLab Program Details

Alumni Update: Gecko Robotics

Alumni Update: Sand Chariot

VentureLab Fast Facts

Basically Greek

MOBU

Krut Industries

Hard Rock Brushes

Web Dock

Stain Remover

Liner Lodge

Flora

VentureLab Support Staff & Candid Photos

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The second year of VentureLab has been quite an adventure. The passion and drive of our students never fails to inspire me. As a rule, Grove City Col-lege students are overachievers. Ask any one of our students about his or her week, and you'll hear about a whirlwind of academics and extracurricular activ-ities. This fact makes our students' participation in VentureLab all the more amazing since, not only are they not given credit for the program, they are partic-ipating on their own time and, often, their own dime. Truly impressive.

One improvement to the program this year was the addition of Dr. Timothy Mech as a coach for our new team category: Social Enterprises. So many of our students are looking to start social enterprises that make a difference in this world, and there is no one better than Tim Mech to help them to figure out wheth-er they have the right idea. He inspires me daily with his tireless efforts to help those in need around the world. Seriously, if you don't know about Tim's work, take a moment to find out about all of the ways that he gives back. It is truly amazing.

All of this great work would not be possible without the continued support of Highmark as the sponsor of our innovative workspace in the Highmark Business Innovation Center at Grove City College. We are so blessed to have such a strong working relationship with Highmark and are thankful for the people there who have become our friends.

So, please enjoy reading about our students and their efforts to make their marks on the world. I know that you will be as impressed and amazed as I am. Thank you for your interest and support of the pro-gram and in our students.

Best wishes to you and God bless,

Yvonne J. English, ‘97Executive Director, The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

A LETTER FROM VENTURELAB SOCIAL ENTERPRISE ADVISORDR. T IM MECH

THREE PROJECTSTHE SECOND YEAR

A LETTER FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND VENTURELAB COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE ADVISOR

YVONNE J. ENGLISH

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prove its e-commerce platform.

As I listened to her, I was thankful for the remark-able opportunity that the Highmark Business In-novation Center at Grove City College gave my students. While this accomplished young lady and her team of MBA students gave advice about a pre-existing website, the three GCC students with me interviewed scores of businesspeople in India and identified five business opportunities. When they returned, they created a complete business plan for Hard Rock Brushes, a granite brush man-ufacturing company which provides dignified work to impoverished women and generates funds for humanitarian work. Now, less than five months after the trip, this new company is up and running. In the meantime, GCC student Victoria VanBuskirk and her sister Ashley, from Miami University, pur-sued their dream of starting Flora, a business that sells planners and journals to provide need-based college scholarships to women in Kosovo. With artwork by young women from Kosovo, the Van-Buskirks designed two lines of journals and sold 150 in less than two days. This pilot project earned enough money to pay tuition for four women, and this is just the beginning!

A third VentureLab project, Project Phoenix Call-ing, focused on the needs of women rescued from human trafficking. Existing organizations provide emotional and spiritual support but many lack

A LETTER FROM VENTURELAB SOCIAL ENTERPRISE ADVISORDR. T IM MECH

meaningful vocational programs. The purpose of PPC would be to fill that void by offering education, job preparation, and apprenticeships. The Project Phoenix Calling team developed valuable ideasfor accomplishing this goal. Although the team will not be launching an organization itself, its workprovides a foundation for future student teams.

These three projects are examples of social en-terprises, entrepreneurial ventures undertaken pri-marily for the benefit of others. Social enterprises are important at Grove City College because they provide a practical means of loving our neighbors and caring for the needy, as Christ commands, within the framework of personal responsibility and freedom championed by the College. VentureLab gives our students the opportunities to develop and assess the viability of their ideas for social, as well as commercial, enterprises.

The Indian proverb, “You can’t eat a paper fish,” reminds us that ideas don’t benefit people until they leave the drawing board. Thank you, VentureLab, for providing our students with the opportunity to test and develop ideas that look good on paper, but would feed no one if they stayed there.

Dr. Tim MechProfessor of Entrepreneurship, Grove City College

THREE PROJECTS

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On my return flight from India last January, I sat next to an MBA student from one of the world’s most prestigious uni-versities. She told me proudly that her school arranged for her and her classmates to get hands-on experience advising a Mumbai com-pany about how to

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Discover a place where faith, freedom and rigorous academics lead to remarkable student outcomes.

Learn more about the Grove City College experience, or schedule a campus visit. www.gcc.edu | 724-458-2100

For more about Entrepreneurship at Grove City College,

please visit us at www.GCCEntrepreneurship.com.

@GCCEntrepreneur

GCCEntrepreneurship

91%Freshman Retention Rate

#1Top Value Private

Liberal Arts College

96%employed or enrolled in graduate

school within six months of receiving their diplomas.

A Top Liberal Arts College where accepted students enroll.

US NEWS

A Best National Liberal Arts College.

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Best Colleges Undergraduate Engineering Programs.

US NEWS

Top 13 percent of America’s best colleges.

Princeton Review

VENTURELABThe VentureLab is an early-stage business idea lab that provides seed funding, workspace at the eCenter@LindenPointe Business Incubator and guidance to carefully screened teams. Our VentureLabs allow entrepreneurship majors and non-majors alike to help the Grove City College campus community explore and develop new ventures based on their own original concepts.

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIPThe Department of Entrepreneurship at Grove City College prepares and

inspires principled, high-impact entrepreneurs whose innovations improve people’s lives and solve important problems. The Department fosters an academic environment that includes real-world entrepreneurial experience, an idea-generating culture and an emphasis on ethical decision-making. Entrepreneurship majors develop valuable, versatile skills including accounting, finance, marketing, technology, strategy and creative problem-solving abilities.

THE CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATIONAt The Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, we seek to raise the arc of

innovation across campus. We believe that fostering a robust entrepreneurial culture will maximize individual and collective economic and social success on this campus and throughout society.

Our programs are open and available to all Grove City students regardless of major. We provide real-world entrepreneurial experiences that allow students to build relationships and expand possibilities. Our programs include a dynamic Visionary Entrepreneur Speaker Series, an Elevator Pitch Competition, a Business Plan/Pitch Competition, the VentureLab, and a variety of events designed to give our students the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship in a real-world environment.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP@ G R O V E C I T Y C O L L E G E

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VentureLab Program Details

Facility The Highmark Business Innovation Center at Grove City College is the name of the suite where VentureLab teams work at the eCenter@LindenPointe, the region’s first Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) start-up busi-ness incubator, located at 3580 Innovation Way in Hermitage, PA. The eCenter@LindenPointe acts as the essential hub for new venture creation and technology commercialization in the region.

The selected teams enjoy access to workspace, a business center, outdoor patio, recreational amenities, Wi-Fi, and a state-of-the-art conference room that includes Cisco video conferencing capability. The teams have the opportunity to interact with real-world companies working in the eCenter@LindenPointe.

Training, Coaching, and Mentoring In partnership with the eCenter@LindenPointe, incubator management, and entrepreneurs from both the academic and private sectors, the VentureLab connects teams to resources within Grove City College as well as with the com-munity at large. The VentureLab connects each team with industry-specific mentors so that they can receive first-hand advice from experts with background and knowledge respective to their venture and its developmental needs. The VentureLab also works with Alumni Relations to reach out to Grove City College Alumni and Friends around the world to participate as mentors and advisors when needed. The VentureLab also arranges for access to regional profession-als for support as needed. These professionals may include attorneys, accountants, sales and marketing profession-als, HR professionals, etc.

Seed Grants The VentureLab provides seed grant support (depending on project needs and number of teams accepted) to carefully screened teams of faculty, students, recent graduates, and other outside individuals to probe the viability of innovative ideas or to assist in taking an idea to the next level after the idea has been vetted.

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Give us a quick recap of your progress from start-finish IN VentureLab while at GCC:We spent most of the time in VentureLab working on our senior project robot which the engineer-ing team spent a combined 2000 hours on. Then we also did a lot of research into the boiler field... what it would take to launch a business, naming and organizing the business, as well as related technology to upgrade our robot. We also made a number of connections with lawyers, accountants, mentors, and power plants. Eventually, we bought some tools and software for working on electronics with the VentureLab funds. Basically, the business went from just a required engineering project to a conceptual business and then to a plausible ven-ture.

How did VentureLab prep you for your launch?Our relationship with Yvonne was very valuable in bouncing ideas off and making sure we stayed on track. She connected us with a number of people and helped us refine our vision of how to commer-cialize this.

Did you pivot your business at all upon launch-ing? Tell us a bit about your current business:Naturally, we’ve had to pivot multiple times as we better understood the market. We, in turn, con-sidered leasing and selling robots, developing in-house or contracting development out, and visual, ultrasonic or laser technology as the primary in-spection technique. The most important pivot was from a model of manufacturing and selling robots to an inspection service model. This is directly re-lated to feedback we gathered from talking to pow-er plants across the state. Currently, our model is to provide inspection services using that technol-ogy that we’ve either developed or contracted to power plants and eventually to related industries. Having performed some financial modeling, we’ve determined that this model can be profitable after accounting for all expenses.

GECKO ROBOTICSWHERE ARE THEY NOW?

CATCHING UP WITH VENTURELAB ALUMNI

Have you seen growth/success since launch-ing? what challenges are there in the market-place for you to overcome?Yes, there has been much to be excited about. The highlight of our business ventures thus far has been the award of a grant in the amount of $10,000. We are using this money to construct an Ultrasonic Inspection Robot that we hope to test and develop into the heart of our business. The challenges we will be facing will be the actual pen-etration into the power plant inspection service.

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE GRANT?The grant was from Ben Franklin Technical PArt-ners (BFTP). We received it in March. BFTP saw a lot of potential in our company and selected us as the recipients of this grant. Their support was not just monetary, but also springboarded a large online PR blast from a plethora of news sources. One of these articles included our very own Grove City College’s website (as well as Facebook and Twitter feed). This exposure was extremely excit-ing for the company and taught us a lot about the power of PR.

What do you see next for Gecko?Next for Gecko, we will be testing and upgrading our robotic prototype in order to prepare it for com-mercial use. Our business will then look for inves-tors or grant possibilities to acquire the necessary equipment for launching our business platform toward potential customers. Our goal is to begin an active robotic inspection service by September 2014.

To learn more about Gecko Robotics, please visit www.GeckoRobotics.com.

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Mike Trombly had a simple wish. He wanted his Aunt Christine to enjoy the beach with the rest of his fam-ily, but her polio left her unable to move around without the use of crutches or a wheelchair. Since regular wheelchairs didn’t work well on the beach, Mike and his family had to rent the beach wheelchairs that were available. The family soon found out that those wheelchairs were very difficult to operate through the dense sand, limited the beaches that they could visit, and were only available during certain hours. “The products that were out there just weren’t cutting it,” said Mike Trombly, Co-Founder of Sand Chariot and a Grove City College Entrepreneurship grad. Mike believed there had to be an easier way.

Mike and his dad identified the issues that came with these devices and began to develop a prototype out of their garage. They intended to create an alternative to the average beach wheelchair that would be both easy to maneuver and portable. Mike and his colleague, Brian Wilkes, presented the idea in a Grove City College Business Plan Competition and took second place. They also spent a year in the Grove City College VentureLab exploring the feasibility of their idea. Once they proved that there was a market for their innova-tive beach chair, they were accepted into the eCenter affiliate program to continue their work. Their mission was important, their message was well received, and Sand Chariot, LLC was born. “We wanted to build the most effective product we could and market it,” said Brian, Co-Founder of Sand Chariot and a mechanical engineering grad from Grove City College.

The Sand Chariot is so incredibly innovative because it is unlike anything else on the market. Unlike other sand wheelchairs that are operated by pushing from behind, Sand Chariot has its user pull the rider to make it easier to move. “When you get behind one of those [wheelchairs], it takes strength,” explains Mike. “The physics are working against you. Using two wheels and a pull system, you’re able to pivot.” The Sand Chariot is also unique because it is the only beach wheelchair of its kind. “It’s extremely easy to disassemble and store,” said Mike. “It fits in the trunk of any vehicle. None of our competitors are doing that.” The Chief of Beach Patrol in Wildwood, NJ recently endorsed Sand Chariot. Mike and Brian would also like to market their product for use on trails and at state parks.

The young founders have transitioned from a garage-based business where they build, sell, and ship the units themselves to a more sustainable model with separate manufacturing and sales divisions. To prepare for manufacturing, they had to redesign the chair to maximize ease of assembly. Mike and Brian are very excited about their manufacturing partnership with FG Solutions in Akron, OH. FG Solutions is a new com-pany which partners with First Glance Ministries to help students become more employable by teaching them skills and giving them work experience. With their help, Sand Chariots will be created more efficiently, allowing the expanding commission-based sales staff to sell more Sand Chariots without worrying about production delays.

Having graduated from the eCenter@LindenPointe in 2014, Mike and Brian are now working out of their apartment in Cranberry, PA, which is possible since they’ve outsourced the manufacturing. As for the future, Mike and Brian are looking to sign with a major manufacturer to expand production, better distribute their product, and create jobs in the process. Mike and Brian remain dedicated to helping people with disabilities experience the beach in ways that they never could before without this amazing product... and this is just the start.

For more information about Sand Chariot, please visit www.SandChariot.com.

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VENTURELAB FAST FACTS

THE FIRST TWO YEARS1

39 STudents

17 teams

ENDLESS IDEAS

8 ideas pursued

2

After Lab

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BASICALLY GREEKFUNDED

TEAM MEMBERS:

Joshua Weatherstone ‘15Entrepreneurship Orange County, CA

Elisabeth O’Brien ‘16Entrepreneurship Mendham, NJ

Basically Greek is a private social network for fraternities and sorori-ties. It provides pledges, actives, and alumni tools for enhancing the Greek experience and strengthening ties with one another.

With a heavy focus on exclusivity, members are provided tools to connect with one another, and to more efficiently manage their responsibilities for their Greek groups. Examples of features include the collection of dues, voting tools, a comprehensive calendar, digi-tal lineage tracing, and much more.

Over the course of this school year we suc-cessfully completed some highly informative market research, and have begun the process of wireframing our web site; that is, we are visually depicting exactly what it will look like so that a web developer can build the live site. We hope to launch it by December, using Grove City College as our beta test before launching it across the United States. Most of our time during the year will be spent pro-moting the site and making modifications as needed. We are very excited about our progress and cannot wait to launch our live site. Until then, visit www.BasicallyGreek.com to track our progress.

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TEAM MEMBERS: Michael Trombly ‘14Entrepreneurship Bloomsburg, PA

Brian Wilkes ‘14Mechanical Engineering Akron, OH

MOBU is a sharing kiosk for beach and all-terrain wheel-chairs. Coming into VentureLab, MOBU’s express pur-pose was to partner with our existing company, Sand Chariot LLC, to work on a way to increase profits through rental units. Instead of one time sales to individuals or companies, our vision was to infiltrate the beach wheel chair rental industry through self-serve units. Often, to explain this business model, we evoke the idea of Red-box. The goals of this past year have been to first find the true demand of the industry and determine ideal loca-tions for the implementation of the units. Then, based on the market and numbers of expected rentals, we could determine the economic feasibility of differently designed kiosks, and unit size. Once the kiosks were designed, we could then work through the redesign necessary to make the physical units fit.

To begin our program, we employed Charlie Carbone to help us determine the most ideal locations for a MOBU unit. One of these locations was in southwest Florida, due to the large number of elderly persons and year-round beach access. We, therefore, traveled to Naples and performed market research throughout the area. Un-fortunately, we did not get the demand for beach wheel-chairs that we thought existed in Florida. We believe that the target market is there, but in order to tap into that demand, it will require a significant advertising push. The cost of this advertising push is not realistic for our current Sand Chariot position and thus this project really must be put on hold until the production and branding can catch up to MOBU. We plan to continue pursuit of MOBU if the business climate continues to move favorably, and believe the VentureLab program was very helpful in directing our efforts, providing guidance, and contributing to physical assets necessary for our business to move forward. In the meantime, we will continue to grow our beach wheel-chair business, Sand Chariot LLC, with wheelchairs avail-able for sale through our website www.sandchariot.com.

We would like to thank all those involved in our Ven-tureLab experience for their time, expertise, and direction throughout the past two years. They contributed greatly to our ability to create a profitable business in Sand Chariot as well as begin to branch out with MOBU. Some specific people we would like to thank are John Troxel and Molly Harrington for their organizational help; Rich Epstein for all his legal guidance; Tim Sweet for his help in creating our website; Highmark for their generous donations; Lynn Stillwaggon for her help purchasing equipment; and, of course, Yvonne English for running the program and meeting with us regularly to help us achieve our goals. Building our business through VentureLab over the past two years has been one of, if not the most, educational experiences of our four years at Grove City College and we would like to deeply thank all of these people who helped us through the process.

Building our business through VentureLab over the past two years has been one of, if not the most, educational experiences of our four years at Grove City College. ”

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MOBU

KRUT INDUSTRIESFUNDED

TEAM MEMBERS:

Liam Krut ‘14EconomicsPittsburgh, PA

Chris Marasco ‘11Entrepreneurship Washington, PA

Matthew Show ‘00Molecular Biology Half Moon Bay, CA

Centered on anti-aging and protein therapeutics treatments for the skin, Krut Industries’ aim is to commercialize an anti-aging facial crème.

If cancer were cured, people would only live on average 3% lon-ger. Some anti-aging treatments have the potential to increase our lifespans by 15-20%. Diseases cause a lot of suffering, and aging is at the heart of the condition. Liam believes that “the aging process is not a necessary aspect of the human condition.” Research began in early April and difficulties were seen early on with creating enough samples of cell plates while maintaining a high enough cell density (cells don’t grow if they aren’t around other cells). Cells were main-tained and cultured for four weeks, but did not reach a sufficient den-sity to perform the protocol. The project has been placed on hold and will hopefully restart this fall. Until then, samples will be stored on ice.

An American plastic surgeon has already shown interest in the project and has offered to host a 50-100 person clinical trial in Malaysia if the protocol does produce a strong enough reversal of skin aging. Krut Industries will be studying dermal fibroblast cells and pursuing methods to slow down senescence, increasing the production of collagen and elastin to improve the health of the skin. If successful, they will seek their firstround of financing.”

HARD ROCK BRUSHESFUNDED

TEAM MEMBERS:

Thomas Umhau ‘16Mechanical Engineering Pinetop, AZ

Laura Mamo ‘14Entrepreneurship, FrenchExport, PA

Casey Woodcock ‘16Entrepreneurship Loganville, PA

Sam Blood ‘16Entrepreneurship Toledo, OH

Based on the January fact-finding trip to India, the scope and di-rection of the original concept changed. It became a more focused project, centered on funding and supporting the creation of a single manufacturing business, while still establishing a sustainable fund to start other socially beneficial businesses.

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The new project concept is to support the establishment of a business that manufactures brush-es used for polishing granite and marble. Support would consist of planning and funding.

Hard Rock Brushes is now an existing business. Manufacture has begun and talks are initiated with potential customers. Plans have been made for expanding the business, in both scale and tech-nology, some of which have been activated. Six formerly impover-ished women now work for the organization, and there are plans to add six more. Plans have been made to establish a fund from Hard Rock Brushes’ profits to create other social businesses.

WEBDOCKAFFILIATE

TEAM MEMBER: Ben Che ‘16EntrepreneurshipPittsburgh, PA

WebDock is a web app that offers individuals a unique brand that is established through a personal domain.

WebDock was a pet project of mine that served as an amalgama-tion of my interests in graphic design, web development, and the software as a service (SaaS) internet business model. The concept boiled down to the name – a docking station on the web that offered a chance for rising professionals to establish their brand image on the internet by giving them:

These features would be combined to give customers all the tools they needed to stake out their personal real estate on the web to create a unique image on the web. After some months of research and development, the facts of an overabundance of competing services combined with a shaky monetization future left me with an unfulfilled dream but also a wealth of insight from the entrepreneurial experience.

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(I received)... a wealth of insight from the entrepreneurial endeavor.

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- a name-based domain- easy SEO tools- a WYSIWYG website builder- layered social media integration- project centered subdomains, and - an intuitive email provider

STAIN REMOVERAFFILIATE

TEAM MEMBERS:

Brittany Schmitt ‘15EntrepreneurshipRichmond, VA

Stain Remover is a product that significantly reduces the notice-ability of armpit stains on shirts, allowing consumers to wear their favorite shirts longer and save money on replacement shirts.

After experimenting on some shirts over the summer, I discov-ered a combination of materials that removed the armpit stains of shirts. From my experience, nothing else on the market removed stains to the extent of this new stain remover. However, after a few hours the liquid mixture would harden, rendering it useless. Through VentureLab, I worked on a feasibility study for the stain remover with the hopes of creating a more chemically balanced solution. Guided by the suggestions of James Kintzing, a GCC senior graduating with a double major in chemistry and molec-ular biology, I experimented with various ways to combine the materials, while also working on business issues with my coach, Yvonne English.

By the middle of spring semester, we decided that this idea was not feasible for a business but great for a “fix it at home” or “do-it-yourself” solution. When classes end, I will write up an article about the stain remover, listing the materials needed and how to properly mix it with the hopes of submitting the idea to a well-read blog. This way, people can dare to wear their favorite shirts again, no longer having to worry about the armpit stains. Through this experience with VentureLab, I learned a lot about the impor-tance of networking. When you know the right people who also know the right people, your idea can become a reality.

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I learned a lot about the importance of networking.

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STAIN REMOVER

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LINER LODGEAFFILIATE

TEAM MEMBERS: Karolina Lagerquist ‘16 Entrepreneurship Pittsburgh, PA

Liner Lodge is a commercial business offering a product that will take advantage of two powerful trends in the current marketplace: the explosive kitchen storage market and the resurging popularity of cupcakes.

Over the course of this year, through the help of Ven-tureLab, I was able to bring the Liner Lodge from a Pring-les can covered in duct tape with some cupcake wrappers stuffed inside to a set of 3D printed, fully-functional devic-es, business plan competition experience, and a solid plan of action for making this dream a reality.

At the beginning of my VentureLab tenure, Professor En-glish and I set out to accomplish some market and indus-try research. By documenting everything from industry statistics to the types of plastics used in the molding of kitchen storage devices, I was able to get a much more realistic and detailed picture of what following through with the project would entail.

During Christmas break, I spent two weeks in Tech Shop’s Pittsburgh location learning how to design and manu-facture plastic prototypes using SketchUp software and MakerBot 3D printers. After creating half a dozen pieces, I personally presented them for feedback to my target market before designing my final prototype.

During the spring semester, I learned how to write effec-tive business surveys that would give me the information I needed. After analyzing my 500 survey respondents’ an-swers, my hunches about the project’s potential success were confirmed even more.

In May, I got to pitch the Liner Lodge in the Ohio-Penn Business Plan Competition, and made it to the final round. All the prep work I needed to do in order to com-pete in this event helped me consolidate everything I had learned over the course of the year and express it in more concrete, specific terms. Presenting the Liner Lodge on stage was a fantastic way to celebrate the culmination of a year’s worth of work.

Thanks to the help of Professor English and Venture Lab, I’ve learned so many new skills and grown as an entre-preneur. VLab – thanks for providing such an awesome sandbox for entrepreneurs to explore their ideas!

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AFFILIATE

TEAM MEMBERS:

Victoria VanBuskirk ‘14Communications Alliance, OH

Recently featured in an article on Forbes.com and on FoxBusi-ness.com, Flora is a social business enterprise that designs and sells planners and journals in an effort to help provide women in developing countries the opportunity to attend a university and obtain a degree.

Flora blossomed from a study abroad experience that Ashley VanBuskirk, a student at Miami University, had while in Koso-vo during the summer of 2013. While there, she met a young woman, Ema, who could not afford to attend her local university while supporting her family financially due to reasons outside of her control. Ashley related to Ema’s struggle of financing her education and wanted to help Ema alleviate the burden of paying for college in addition to supporting her family. After talking it over with her twin sister, Victoria VanBuskirk, who attended Grove City College, they decided to move forward with a social business idea that would sell school-related items, such as journals and planners, with 40% of profits going toward a fund to distribute scholarships to women much like Ema in developing countries like Kosovo who cannot afford an education.

While in the VentureLab program, they changed the name from Libertas to Flora and, this past fall semester, they worked mostly on market research. In January, they held an art contest in Kosovo seeking designs for cover art. They received over 70 submissions from female college students. This spring semester, with the help of a team of students in a social entrepreneurship class, Ashley took on Flora, and worked to create products that would be launched through a pilot program held at the end of the semester.

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FLORA

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Flora launched on April 24th, selling two lines of journals on Miami’s campus, in a local coffee shop, and online. They sold out their initial stock of 150 journals in less than two days. This was enough to fully support a year’s worth of tuition for 4 women at the University of Prishtina, in Kosovo.

To learn more, please visit:facebook.com/florastationerywww.florastationery.com

FLORA

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LYNN STILLWAGGON ‘84Program Manager

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

JOHN TROXEL ‘16 VentureLab Assistant

JOSHUA WEATHERSTONE ‘15 Graphic Designer

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/ GCCentrepreneurship

@gccentrepreneur

www.gccentrepreneurship.com