SU senior Pete Kistler and graduate student Divyalakshmi Rathankumar were
among the top five finalists in the Central Upstate Regional Alliance $5,000 Student
Business Idea competition.
The $5,000 Student Business Idea competition-now in its third year-was open to
high school or college students in the 12-county Central Upstate New York region.
Ninety-eight students participated in this year's competition, the purposes of which
were to stimulate creative ideas that hold promise for potential success in the market
and reward the future generation of entrepreneurs for innovative thinking with seed
capital to start turning their ideas into reality.
Caleb Earl, a senior at Homer High School, won the competition for his idea to
develop biodegradable fishing lures to eliminate the environmental impact of the
hundreds of lures lost in rivers, ponds and trees each year. The announcement was
made at the finals of the alliance's signature event, the New York's Creative Core(r)
$100,000 Emerging Business Competition, sponsored by M&T Bank and New York
Business Development Corp. (NYBDC), among others. The winner was announced
during an event Friday, April 17, at SU's
Martin J. Whitman School of Management
featuring a keynote address by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The
student competition is a parallel competition to the $100,000 Emerging Business
Competition.
"We are immensely proud of our students for putting their innovative and cutting-
edge business ideas to a test against other exciting ideas from their peers," says Bruce
Kingma, SU associate provost for entrepreneurship and innovation. "Syracuse
University did a great job hosting Comptroller DiNapoli, the Creative Core finalists
and the student business plan finalists who exemplify the spirit of entrepreneurship at
Syracuse University and across Central New York."
Kistler, a junior from Needham, Mass., studying information management and
technology in SU's School of Information Studies (iSchool), has already launched his
business-Brand-Yourself.com-an online reputation management platform for job
applicants. The business will use a combination of tools that scour the Web for
information on the job seeker-grading the information from a potential employer's
perspective-and also giving pointers on where one can be more active online to
build a professional presence based on the applicant's field. The business will also
offer clients additional tools to continue monitoring the Web for new "dirt" and tips
on how applicants can keep their online presence "squeaky clean."
Rathankumar, a graduate student from Bangalore, India, studying
telecommunications and network management at the iSchool, qualified for the finals
with an idea to launch a custom beer-brewing facility in which clients would have
control of their beer-from picking their own mix of ingredients to naming and
bottling the beer in their own style. The business would be located in the Syracuse
region and target local residents who may be amateur brewers, as well as the special
events and customized gifts sector. The business would also feature online sales and
an interactive site to help customers create their own beer.
"What we hope to accomplish with our student competition is two fold-show the
region and beyond the level of entrepreneurship in this region and encourage
students in high school and college to start thinking in terms of business," says Kevin
Schwab, director of communications for the Metropolitan Development Association,
a member organization of the Central Upstate Regional Alliance. "The depth of
thought and creativity we are seeing is really impressive-and in the case of the
student businesses you can see it's where tomorrow's greatest innovators and
entrepreneurs are."
Kistler says his goal is to get Brand-Yourself.com's tools into the hands of every job
applicant in the United States and then the world. "The Internet touches every aspect
of our lives. People need tools to better manage their professional life online. All the
conversations that used to occur in the physical world are now being captured
permanently on the Web. When employers, first dates, business partners, clients and
even friends are Googling you, your future can be determined by what they find," he
says. "I can't think of a more exciting time to be launching a platform that helps
talented people strengthen their online presence, increasing the chances that they can
work on meaningful projects that fulfill their potential."
Kistler, the company CEO, has two business partners who co-founded Brand-
Yourself.com: Trace Cohen, a junior at the Whitman School, and Robert Sherman, a
senior triple major in information management and technology in the iSchool and
entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises, and finance at Whitman. Brand-
Yourself.com was recently recognized by the prestigious Kairos Society as one of the
top 100 most innovative student startup companies in the country and also won the
marketing award at the 2009 Kairos Summit (one of three awards given out) and
placed second in the Whitman School's annual Panasci Business Plan Competition.
Rathankumar says she got the idea to start the custom-beer making/bottling facility
one night when she was having a beer and thinking of what she liked and didn't like
in the flavors. "I realized that the custom beer market was a completely unexplored
and untapped market," Rathankumar says. "And I know that Syracuse is a good
place for such a facility since there are so many resources already here-clean water,
restaurants conducive to such a business, local farming that will help me make it an
organic facility." She now plans to write a business plan that will help her start
soliciting venture capitalists and local business partners.
The Metropolitan Development Association is a not-for-profit planning and economic
development organization representing the chief executives of some 200 prominent
businesses and institutions in the 12-county Central Upstate Region. The results-
driven organization serves as a vehicle for business leaders to become involved in
shaping the face of the region for the benefit of all who live here. For more
information, visit http://www.mdacny.com.
The Central Upstate Regional Alliance was launched in September 2004 to serve as a
vehicle for collaborative regional development. The 42-member, 12-county public-
private economic development consortium is building a coalition of regional leaders
from business, academia and the public sector, willing to work together on a
common agenda. The alliance includes Cayuga, Cortland, Herkimer, Jefferson,
Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Seneca, St. Lawrence and Tompkins
counties. For more information, visit http://www.creativecoreny.com.
