Class of 2014 entrepreneurs creating their own jobs

WASHINGTON –

Some students graduating from New York colleges and universities this month aren't waiting for job offers — they've already created their own business.

One of those student entrepreneurs is Tim Reynolds, 24, of Red Hook, who recently finished his classroom work for a doctorate in physical therapy from Ithaca College. Reynolds and his partner are owners of KettleShell, which makes a handle-like device that attaches to standard dumbbells so they can used as kettlebells.

This year, 560 student teams from 80 colleges and universities around the state entered the New York Business Plan Competition, up from 320 teams from 53 colleges in 2013, the first year the competition accepted statewide entries.

Reynolds won $10,000 in the products/services category of the state competition.

With financial help from his parents, Reynolds recently spent $13,000 to manufacture 250 KettleShells. His company's first sale was completed last week when Reynolds dropped off a KettleShell at a customer's home in Seneca Falls on his trip home from school.

KettleShell became a reality in the fall of 2012 when Reynolds created a prototype using a roll of duct tape and a $5 foam ball purchased from a Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store. The concept won a $5,000 prize at an Ithaca College business competition. Reynolds used the winnings to develop a computerized design and to manufacture a functional prototype. A second prototype followed.

"We switched prototyping companies and came up with a design that was not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing,'' he said.

The final production model costs $50 to manufacture and retails for $99.95. Reynolds is expecting approval of his patent application later this month.

"The intellectual property does help if at some point we are approached by a retailer or fitness company,'' he said. "It allows us to retain a competitive edge.''

Meanwhile, Reynolds is pursuing a career as a physical therapist with the hope of someday owning his own clinic and developing new products for fitness and physical rehabilitation.

Colleges have vastly increased their focus on entrepreneurship during the last decade, said Bruce Kingma, a professor of entrepreneurship at Syracuse University. Part of that increase has been spurred by grants to colleges by the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation, which encourages students to become self-sufficient as part of their education.

Students also realize the job market has changed, Kingma said.

"For college students these days it can be more challenging to find a job in traditional employment," he said. "A lot of the smart students realize if they pick up these skills that can start their businesses, they can create their own job and they have another path to go down.''

That has helped fuel an increasing interest in entrepreneurship.

This year's New York Business Plan Competition winner, a team made up of students from Albany Law School and the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, created a company called Glauconix, centered around a device that screens drugs for treating glaucoma. The team's entry won $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in in-kind services.

"We help determine whether the drugs effectively treat glaucoma,'' said Colby Creedon, one of the company's three team members. "It saves time. It saves money.''

Creedon, 25, originally from Utica, will receive his master's degree in business administration this month from the University at Albany. In December he will graduate from Albany Law School.

SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering holds a provisional patent on the screening device. The three students have an exclusive license for the patent that they hope to parlay into a full-time business by selling the device to pharmaceutical companies and biomedical research firms.

The largest business plan competition in the country is hosted by Rice University in Houston and draws competitors from around the world. Last month, a team of students from RWTH Aachen University in Germany won the 2014 first prize of $507,500 for a medical adhesive that can be used inside the body. Their firm is named Medical Adhesive Revolution.

Universities are increasingly focusing on entrepreneurship as they work to quantify their role in economic growth. Entrepreneurship also has become an important public policy issue, according to Donald Siegel, who oversees the New York business plan competition and is dean of the University at Albany Business School.

Siegel said universities are partnering with businesses more on technology transfer. And there's an effort to emulate the successes of MIT, Stanford, North Carolina's Research Triangle and the Route 128 region in Massachusetts.

At the federal level, the National Science Foundation offers grants for commercializing research. The Small Business Innovation Research program requires 11 federal agencies to spend 2.8 percent of their research budgets on new small companies. SBIR grants start at $150,000, enough for a college entrepreneur to get started. As a result, some colleges are expanding their entrepreneurship programs to include campus incubators, a technology transfer office, and faculty members serving as mentors, according to Kingma.

And it's paying off.

James Arama, 22, a National Science Foundation scholar about to graduate from Marist College with a bachelor's degree in computer science, plans to work from home in Rochester, Minnesota, for two businesses, one of which he co-owns.

A native of Kenya who immigrated to the U.S. at 14 when his father took a job at the Mayo Clinic, Arama became interested in computer programming during high school because of a mentor who worked for IBM.

That former mentor is now one of Arama's two partners at Memorial Labs, which offers a software application for designing inscriptions and artwork on headstones. Memorial Labs is marketed by Funeral Innovations, the other company Arama works for, which provides computer services to funeral homes.

"I definitely see myself digging deeper into the funeral services industry and seeing what products I can develop,'' Arama said, noting that many funeral home operators are conservative business people who have yet to embrace new technology.

Brian Tumulty: btumulty@gannett.com Twitter: @NYinDC