MBA Alumni Team up to Open Eye Candy Optical

A fashion-forward optical shop that was born at BW is getting national attention, was in the black within 10 months of opening and is on track to achieve its three-year revenue goal a year early! Eye Candy Optical in Westlake, the brainchild of MBA graduates Anton Syzdykov '13 and Steve Nelson '99, was recently featured in an Inside Business (IB) magazine story on entrepreneurship education. 

In 2013, while still pursing his entrepreneurship MBA at BW, Syzdykov encouraged Nelson to audit a business-plan development class that he was taking and it was there that two men developed the plan for Eye Candy Optical with support from Professor Ven Ochaya. After Syzdykov graduated, the pair dipped into 401(k) accounts and personal savings, and secured a small business loan to open the store in a 1,300 square foot space in the Promenade at Crocker Park.

“The hardest thing about starting a business is [getting funding] and finding a framework — actually vetting out an idea and saying, ‘OK, does the idea have legs?’ and then, ‘How are we going to put all of the pieces together?’ ” Nelson told IB. “We had the opportunity to do it all in a classroom setting.”

Anton Syzdykov MBA '13 and Steve Nelson MBA '99

With roughly 1,400 eye glass frames for customers to choose from, the business was ranked number two on a list of America's 10 finest optics retailers by InvisionMag. According to Invision, "Eye Candy is [Syzdykov and Nelson's] answer to this question: 'What if Victoria's Secret and House of Blues opened a glasses shop?' "

Like Eye Candy Optical's Facebook page for news, updates and a good laugh!

Alumnus Brews Up Booming Businesses

Alumnus Paul Benner (Left) and partner Justin Carson. Photo courtesy of Crain's Cleveland.

"Shop local" has become a leading movement in and around the city of Cleveland. Within the last few years local farms, clothing companies, bakeries and breweries have greatly contributed to the development of Cleveland's growing economy. Paul Benner, a BW alumnus with an entrepreneurship degree, has taken advantage of the "shop local" movement and built a successful business model around a passion for craft beer.

Benner and his partner Justin Carson opened Platform Beer Company in July of 2014. Located in Ohio City on Lorain Ave., the brewery celebrates local businesses and home beer brewing. Described by Benner as a "sensory experience," customers can sit at the bar and see, smell and hear the beer being brewed right in front of them. Just shy of it's one year anniversary, Platform Beer Co. has already become a mainstream brand and can be found on the shelves of 80 bars and 50 grocery stores in the area.

The business has also been featured in The Plain Dealer/cleveland.com, Cleveland Magazine, Crain Cleveland Business and Cleveland Scene, just to name a few.

Craft-beer drinkers from around Northeast Ohio recently voted on their favorite local breweries at Cleveland.com and Platform Beer Co. was ranked fourth, an impressive accomplishment for such a young company. Voting has reopened in order to select the best Northeast Ohio craft brewery out of the list of 10. You can cast your vote for Platform Beer Co. here and/or follow the company on Facebook for updates and news. 

BW Blackstone LaunchPad Contest Attracts Big Ideas

BW’s engines of creativity were running in overdrive this spring during StartSomethingBW, the recently completed, second annual Blackstone LaunchPad (BLP) idea contest. This year’s competition attracted 163 entries, a fifty-plus percentage increase over last year. Nine teams received a total of $1,800 in prizes in three categories.

Notable winning ideas in this year’s contest included David and Raquel Milligan’s “Shower Helper” for recuperating patients, in the Business Idea category; Basem Magd’s “Summer Tote Storage,” in the Baldwin Wallace category; and Kimberly Smith-Gerace’s “RFID Officer Safety” system, in the Social Enterprise category. A full list of winners can be found on the Start Something BW webpage.

As conceived by BW’s Blackstone LaunchPad entrepreneurship program, the annual idea contest has three primary goals: increase campus awareness of BLP; spur ideation and creativity throughout the university; and jumpstart the formation of companies and jobs by inspiring students to identify problems -- and devise solutions.

For many BW students, the idea contest is just the first step in the entrepreneurial process, followed by regular meetings with BLP consultants who provide students with the tools and strategies they need to succeed.

“Blackstone LaunchPad is a tremendous resource for aspiring entrepreneurs,” according to Mike Nock, BLP Director at Baldwin Wallace. “As part of the region’s fertile entrepreneurial ecosystem, BLP consultants can advise students and connect them with a variety of services and mentors as they move along the path to business creation. There are few programs like Blackstone LaunchPad, and few regions for startup support like Northeast Ohio.”

In its third year at BW, Blackstone LaunchPad is co-funded by The Burton D. Morgan Foundation in Hudson, and by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation in New York. The 15-school Blackstone LaunchPad national network is modeled after The Launch Pad, which was created at the University of Miami in 2008.

Business Plan Helps Grad Manage a Business of his Own

After graduation, Strongsville native Keith Pech '14 relocated to sunny Boquete, Panama to manage a family coffee business, Damarli Agricultural Inc. Pech has been working to move the company forward and credits his entrepreneurial success to a business plan formulated while he was a student at BW. 

As a former International Business and Sustainability major, Pech commends his professors for teaching him how to operate in an international environment and to create products for international sales. While at BW, Pech developed a business plan outlining tour designs, business pursuits and plans for improving the sustainability of Damarli Agricultural Inc. He says it's been rewarding to put that plan into action.

Pech's plan include goals to create a completely organic farm and, eventually, to have his coffee available in the United States.

As an undergrad, Pech founded BW's Coffee Club and Table Tennis Club and the first representative of BW to make the College Table Tennis National Championship.

BW Alum Spreading Joy Through Ice Cream

BW grad and current MBA student, Marissa Flynn '07,  is looking for flavor makers, taste testers and crowd funders as the entrepreneur works to open her "Ice Cream Joy" shop. Flynn has launched a crowdfunding campaign through Indiegogo, a website that helps entrepreneurs raise money to fund their dreams. The "Ice Cream Joy" Indiegogo allows supporters to preorder ice cream, to receive perks like shirts, totes and an ice cream party, and to develop their own ice cream flavors.

Ice Cream Joy is already on the menu at Susy’s Soup in Cleveland's Tower City. The money raised through Indiegogo will go toward installing a kitchen at the new Ice Cream Joy location in Lakewood.

Flynn, who earned her undergraduate degree in accounting,  says her artisan ice cream is made using local milk, cream and fresh fruit. Vegan options are also offered and no preservatives are used in any of the flavors.

Some of Flynn’s ice cream creations include sweet basil pine nut, cinnamon, mojito and vegan dark chocolate. Flynn also welcomes taste testers who, if interested, can sign up on her Indiegogo page.

Flynn’s goal is to raise $15,000 by December 24, 2014.  

BW Alum, Student Capture Top Spots in Pitch Contest

Pitch winners included Tessa Louche (right) and Shanina Knighton (middle)

A BW graduate and current student were holding the "big check" at the end of the night as the first and second place winners of Blackstone LaunchPad and Bad Girl Ventures inaugural Pitch Night for Female Collegiate Entrepreneurs. Tessa Louche ‘17, a marketing major from Parma, finished second, while the contest winner was BW sports medicine alum Shanina Knighton ’06, now a graduate student at Case Western Reserve University and co-founder of healthcare startup RKN.

The evening of female mentoring and networking, and first ever #GirlPower Pitch Night was a collaboration by all four Northeast Ohio Blackstone LaunchPad programs—Baldwin Wallace, Case Western, Kent State and Lorain County Community College—and Bad Girl Ventures (BGV).

"At BW’s Blackstone LaunchPad program, we promote female entrepreneurship because it’s good for our students – both in terms of education and opportunity,’ said Mike Nock, Director of BW’s Blackstone LaunchPad. ‘AND because Northeast Ohio would benefit tremendously from an increase in women in leadership roles, specifically running businesses and non-profits.”

The event took place at TOAST, a local restaurant founded by BGV alum, Jillian Davis, who also served as one of judges, and was one of several BW events marking Global Entrepreneurship Week.

An Innovation Summit at BW's Center for Innovation and Growth (CIG) was the highlight of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The event featured five Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year winners or nominees.

BW Sophomore Helps to "Start Something" with Creative Design

The winning design in BW Blackstone Launchpad's
Fall 2014 "Start Something" Design Contest

Andrew Shackelford '17 was proclaimed the winner of Blackstone LaunchPad's Start Something T-Design Contest for his creative design that "captures the excitement and possibilities of entrepreneurship." Shackelford's winning design earned him a $200 gift card and two limited edition tees featuring his design.

Shackelford, an exercise science major with a nutrition minor, says he has enjoyed learning about entrepreneurship through Blackstone LaunchPad's workshops and thought this contest would be a good opportunity to get more involved with the program.

When he saw the fliers for the contest Shackelford says he knew that with his knack for problem solving and his sister's artistic talents, he could come up with and execute a winning design. Shackelford credits his sister with bringing his idea to life, saying "without her artistic ability, my idea wouldn't have been worth much at all."

BW Students First to Intern at North Coast Angel Fund

Michael Bacha '14 (left) and Filip Pinter '14 chat with an Angel Fund investor at Ariel International Center in Cleveland.

During their time at BW, Michael Bacha '14 and Filip Pinter '14, were given the unique opportunity to serve as the first-ever undergraduate interns for North Coast Angel Fund, which includes leading investors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders from across the region. The internship has given the pair an insiders' view into the world of angel fund investing. At North Coast, investors work toward the goal of "accelerating early-stage ventures" with a focus on industries like biosciences, advanced materials, electronics and controls, information technology, and energy and power/propulsion.

Professor Phil Bessler (left) regularly takes MBA students
to  Angel Fund meetings to soak up the investment
decision making process.

Professor Phillip Bessler of BW's School of Business, who also serves as director of the BW Business Clinic, has been taking BW graduate students to North Coast's monthly meetings for five years now, a unique opportunity as part of his topical seminar. Bessler describes North Coast as "a big part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northeast Ohio."

Bacha said he gained interest in angel investing through Bessler's Business Plan Development course. The internship opportunity developed when Bessler shared the opportunity with the class and other BW entrepreneurship students and faculty.

BW's student Investment Club and Business Clinic also have a connection to North Coast. The two have partnered together to pool funds to invest in one of North Coast's promising funds.

BW Students Win "Bad Girl Ventures" Fellowships

Entrepreneurial-minded BW students and alumni have won fellowships to fund their participation in a series of courses presented by Bad Girl Ventures (BGV), a premier resource for women entrepreneurs in Ohio. This fall, Bad Girl Ventures has teamed up with BW's Center for Innovation & Growth and Blackstone LaunchPad to offer its distinctive training program at BW's Berea campus on Wednesday evenings, and to award fellowships for the first time.

Two student fellowship winners – Casey  Elmore, an MBA in entrepreneurship major (nominated by Mike Nock, BW’s Blackstone LaunchPad director) and Allison Longwell '18, a freshman psychology major (nominated by Dr. Ven Ochaya professor in BW’s School of Business) – attend each weekly class at no charge. Two additional fellowships are shared by BW students, alumni, faculty and staff who rotate in and out of the 10-week program attending such sessions as “Understanding Your Market,” “Pricing Your Product or Service,” and “Legal Structuring.” 

Bad Girl Ventures courses are open to the general public – women and men – at $35/class or $250 for a full pass. It's not too late to register online at their website. BGV is a non-profit educational and micro-finance organization offering education, access to capital and mentorship opportunities to enable women to build and sustain well-managed, profitable businesses.

BW student entrepreneurs meet with Bad Girl Ventures Cleveland selection committee members at BW’s Center for Innovation & Growth. - photo by Brittney Callahan '15

Grad Takes Vegan Bakery from Class Project to Real Business

BW grad Derek Wytzka '12 is generating buzz for a business that combines his personal passion for baking with business and entrepreneurship skills he picked up at BW. The Bay Village resident told the West Shore Sun News that his "Veg'n Out Cafe" vegan bakery began as a BW business class project during his senior year and launched "for real" in 2012.

Wytzka, a vegetarian himself, has hopes of one day opening a storefront but, for now, he's creating and delivering "delectable desserts containing dairy-free and other products not derived from animals" from his home in Bay Village. 

"We live in a world where people do not eat animal products due to intolerances or allergies, religion, personal beliefs, and I strive to be that company that they can turn to for their needs," Wytzka told the newspaper.

Veg'n Out Cafe also does catering for special events and supplies special order vegan cakes, cupcakes, and other vegan confections upon request.

BW Professor Featured at Elite City Club Forum on Biomimicry

BW Business Division professor Dr. Ven Ochaya was a featured panelist on a City Club of Cleveland discussion on biomimicry, which looks to nature to inspire innovation and solve problems. The presitgious City Club Friday Forum, the longest uninterrupted independent forum series in the country, is  broadcast to radio listeners in more than 40 states from Maine to Alaska.

Ochaya who directs BW's MBAs in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, also serves as a member of the Great Lakes Biomimicry leadership team with the responsbility for with responsibility for education  services  and  networking. Great Lakes Biomimicry has been working with BW to introduce biomimicry into course offerings for students.

The City Club panel discussed the growth of biomimicry both as a science and as an industry in Northeast Ohio. "If we want to truly emulate nature, we have to be collaborative," Ochaya urged.

You can listen to the entire April 18 discussion in the City Club's podcast archives. 

Food Entrepreneur Shares Trial and Error with Business Students

Students in business professor Phil Bessler's "Business Plan Development" class, which is required for the Entrepreneurship minor and major, recently met and talked with Al "Bubba" Baker to learn about his transition from a NFL football star to food entrepreneur.  Baker shared his motivation and trial and error along the way.

Bessler, who has advised Baker through BW's Business Clinic, also got a gratitude shout-out from Baker in a recent Plain Dealer follow-up article on the big bounce his boneless ribs product received from a successful appearance on the TV show "Shark Tank."

Second Round of Contest Produces Winning Ideas

The second and final round of BW’s Blackstone LaunchPad's 2014 Year of the Idea Contest produced a number of winning ideas, but Kara Gawelek '14 claimed the biggest prize. The neuroscience and biology major and chemistry minor drew on her experience in the lab as inspiration for a "Semi-Automatic Pipet Tip Cartridge," which not only won the $200 first place prize in the for-profit category, but claimed the $300 overall grand prize as well.

Kara's idea would speed up the research process for small labs and scientists who are frustrated by the slow pace of manually reloading sterile, plastic tips onto their micropipets (which are used to dispense small samples), but who can't afford expensive, fully automated equipment.

In this second round, students submitted more than 50 ideas in three categories. The first place non-profit idea was a Serving for Soldiers program suggested by Alexis Charara '14 and Christine Austin ‘15. In the Baldwin Wallace category, Nnaji Iwunze ’17 won with a BW Workout Buddy concept. Second place winning ideas came from Tim Gruskiewicz '15, Rachel Hoffpauir ’15,  Tom Jackson ’16 and Ashley King '16.

Judging was based on the originality and problem-solving power of each idea. The goal of the contest was to spark campus creativity and increase awareness about BW's Blackstone LaunchPad, which is sponsored by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation and the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

Student Wins IdeaLabs Contest for 2nd Year

Emerging entrepreneur Addison Carbone '14 took first prize at BW's 2014 EEC ideaLabs competition with his brilliant business idea, Smart Park.

For the second year in a row, Carbone, a senior marketing and management double major in BW's Business Division, won $1000 and the privilege to represent BW at the ideaLabs regional competition this Thursday. According to BW's faculty mentor for ideaLabs, business professor Phil Bessler, the regional contest is organized by the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium and sponsored by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

Judge Bill Braun spoke further with Addison after his successful presentation.

Winning Student Ideas Earn Blackstone LaunchPad Contest Cash

BW’s Blackstone LaunchPad has announced the first round of student winners in the Year of the Idea Contest, with a “Made to Fade Tattoo” claiming first place in the for-profit category and a headline on cleveland.com. Of his concept for real tattoo ink that fades after a year, Kevin Howell ’16 said, “Parents can no longer say, ‘You know that never comes off,’ because it will!”


Students submitted a total of 51 ideas in three categories: For-Profit, Non-Profit and Baldwin Wallace University. The first place non-profit idea was a Professional Extracurricular Teachers program suggested by Julie Smith ‘15. In the BW category, Thurman Anderson ’16 came out on top with a BW Shuttle Service. Second place winning ideas came from Ivan Wyrsta ’14, Joshua Sattelmaier ’14, and Maureen Benoit ’17.

Judges considered the originality and problem-solving power of each idea in awarding the $200 first place prizes and $100 to runners-up. The goal of the contest is to spark campus creativity and increase awareness about BW's Blackstone LaunchPad services. Phase two contest entries are due by March 28. Full contest details and entry forms are available at https://tackk.com/YearoftheIdea

Blackstone LaunchPad is sponsored by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation and the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.