UW-Whitewater students take the risk and start own businesses

WHITEWATER—Sam Lukach found himself frustrated just two weeks into his freshman year at UW-Whitewater.

In his tiny dorm room, he had grown increasingly annoyed by the lack of space to mount his TV.

Instead of throwing in the towel and placing the TV on top of a dresser like so many students do, Lukach channeled his energy into designing his own mount and headed to Ace Hardware.

A few parts later, Lukach mounted his TV to the side of his loft bed.

“Within 20 minutes of me having had about five people come in and try and buy it, I knew at that moment I had something,” he said.

It was, as he calls it, his "eureka moment."

Today, you'll find the 20-year-old junior running HUK TV Mounts and selling the mounts across the country in college and university bookstores. A wall mount is coming soon.

Lukach has one mount design that requires no drilling into walls; instead, it wraps over railings, ladders, bars and loft beds.

Lukach is a communications major and entrepreneurship minor and one of many UW-Whitewater students and young professionals making their ideas into reality as entrepreneurs.

“At the end of the day, you have to find a way to make it work no matter what,” he said. “Some people say, 'I don't know how.' Then I say, 'Well, then learn.'”

HOW LAUNCH PAD HELPED

UW-W professors and students are proud of the opportunities the university provides to help bring these fresh ideas to life.

One such opportunity is the university's Launch Pad program, run out of the Innovation Center at the Whitewater University Technology Park.

The program began in 2011 and offers hands-on experience and educational opportunities to help students start businesses. University professors and other entrepreneurs provide guidance and training, and the university provides grant money.

Each student in the semester-long program gets a $1,000 grant from the Deborah Malewicki Scholarship to dedicate to his or her startup. The money can be used for patents, software, marketing or other areas.

The program also offers students access to attorneys, accountants, marketing firms, Web and mobile app developers and more.

The monetary component is “relatively unusual” but important to give students a chance to chase their dreams, said Bill Dougan, Launch Pad co-director and UW-W professor.

All undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of major or minor, can apply for the program.

Several Launch Pad and UW-W graduates attribute their success, at least in part, to those amenities.

Lukach said the wealth of knowledge from professors-turned-mentors and fellow students helped him feel supported. Students always have someone to bounce ideas off of, celebrate with or call in the wee hours of the morning.

“The resources and knowledge from Launch Pad helped me to get to the point of where I am today,” Lukach said.

“A lot of people want to start their own business, but a lot of people don't know how to do it successfully," he said. "…Launch Pad really helps expand chances of success for a student that wants to venture out and do something on their own.”

GUIDING BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS

As part of their nature, entrepreneurs take risks.

UW-W senior Derrick Francis said he is more afraid of not trying a new venture than he is of investing all the money he has saved from working over the past 10 years.

Entrepreneurs are more than risk-takers, though.

Dougan describes them as being a blend of architect and evangelist. They have the ability to grab others' attention and solicit contributions of time and money while pitching and developing an idea from the ground up.

“You're selling them a dream,” said Dave Gee, Launch Pad co-founder and UW-W professor.

Francis came up with the idea for Hunt Butler while studying abroad in 2014 and looking for places to hunt.

Hunt Butler is a website that allows people to search for Wisconsin properties that landowners are opening up for hunting, hiking and bird watching for a fee.

Before forming a four-person team to create the business, Francis asked fellow hunters and outdoor enthusiasts if they would use the website. They all said 'yes.'

While the finance and accounting major is still looking for people with property, he is in “investment mode” and trying to boost his marketing to spread the word.

Gee couldn't stress the importance of relationships enough.

“The time you get from people is more valuable than money,” Gee said. “Time and knowledge.”

Francis has learned that networking is a powerful tool, and it's something many millennials are tapping to achieve their dreams.

“I would say the younger generation is much more risk-tolerant than the older generation,” Francis said.

“I've seen a lot of statistics that show this is the best time to work on a startup because of all the networking and all the technology. We literally have information at our fingertips,” he said.

Technology has allowed people to create more businesses and find more solutions to problems, said Henry Schwartz, a UW-W and Launch Pad graduate.

Schwartz is one of three founders behind MobCraft Beer, the world's first crowdsourced brewery, according to The New York Times.

The business was funded with $30,000 from the founders as well as money from investors through crowdfunding.

MobCraft chooses the beers it will brew after people submit recipes and cast votes by pre-ordering the beers they want. At the end of each month, MobCraft brews the recipe with the most votes.

The business grew from a college house in Whitewater to a business run out of House of Brews in Madison in 2013. The brewery now is expanding to Milwaukee.

One thing Schwartz learned at UW-W was how to solve a problem by listening to your audience.

“At the end of the day, what I've learned is the ability to listen to people,” he said.

How people define success depends on their outlook and ultimate goals.

For MobCraft, success might be moving to a new 14,000-square-foot facility in Milwaukee with a price tag of more than $2.5 million.

For Lukach, it might be building a quality product that people enjoy.

For Francis, it might be bringing more hunters and outdoor enthusiasts together.

In the end, Gee said, good entrepreneurs have three things: drive, creativity and intelligence.

Good entrepreneurs believe in themselves and their futures, Dougan said. If they fail, they must learn from their mistakes and not repeat them.

“Entrepreneurship and what it takes to be an entrepreneur requires someone that when someone says 'no,' you find a way to make it a 'yes,'” Lukach said. “A lot of people told me 'no.' That's just how it goes.”