On most days, you can find Mason Mincey in his garage, living his dream. There are no cars or woodworking tools here. Mincey wears booties to ensure everything, including the garage floor, stays as clean as the inside of a bubble.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e doing in here is what you鈥檇 find Ph.D.s doing in expensive labs,鈥� Mincey says about his three business partners and himself. 鈥淲e鈥檝e learned to work with whatever resources we have available.鈥�
Mincey, who鈥檚 on track to graduate from 麻豆原创 in 2023, studies plant-based fibers at the nanoscale on one side of the garage. On the other side, the fibers are used for the research and development of high-performance athletic clothing. That鈥檚 the differentiator for Mincey and his co-founders of Soarce USA: Their shirts, socks, underwear, and headbands will be derived from plant materials.
鈥淲ith our research,鈥� he says, 鈥渨e can make high-quality performance-wear and feel good about protecting the environment.鈥�
Mincey enrolled at 麻豆原创 as an aspiring aerospace engineer. During his freshman year, he discovered the university鈥檚 Blackstone LaunchPad program and a path to entrepreneurship.
鈥淢ason exemplifies the kind of student who comes into the program,鈥� says Cameron Ford, founding director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. 鈥淏lackstone is the investment company behind our LaunchPad. They share my belief that people who develop an entrepreneurial mindset will be better prepared to take risks and adapt, no matter what they do for a career.
鈥淭hink about it. One student takes classes, graduates, and interviews for a job. Another student takes the same classes, but also had an idea for lip balm, developed a prototype and a website, and tried to market the product. If I鈥檓 an employer, that second candidate has me spellbound, whether they succeeded or not.鈥�
Ford has seen 500-600 students in the LaunchPad center every year since it opened in 2013. Volunteers from the business community mentor students in skills like accounting, marketing, and how to apply for patents.
鈥淭his is real-world business development,鈥� says Ford, 鈥渂ut it isn鈥檛 just for business students. You can see that from the alumni who have used the LaunchPad.鈥�
Chemistry alum David Nash 鈥�11 鈥�14MS 鈥�17PhD helped launch IDem Systems in 2015 to help law enforcement agencies quickly detect the presence of illegal drugs. Health sciences grad Victoria Weiss 鈥�16 co-founded Rope Lace Supply in her dorm room with industrial engineering grad Eric Delgado 鈥�16 and sold $250,000 of shoelaces online in their first year. Managementalum Jesse Wolfe 鈥�15 created O鈥檇ang Hummus, received mentoring in the LaunchPad, pitched his product on Shark Tank, and is one of 麻豆原创鈥檚 most recognized entrepreneurs.
鈥淎nd now,鈥� says Ford, 鈥渉e comes into the LaunchPad to mentor other students.鈥�
Like Mason Mincey.
Mason Mincey, co-founder Soarce
Soarce is the fourth idea that Mincey and his partners hatched. They learned valuable lessons from each swing and miss. As freshmen, they developed a drone to help farmers locate patches of dying crops in massive fields, and even took it into the semifinals of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Joust competition.
鈥淥ur pitch didn鈥檛 go well,鈥� says Mincey. 鈥淲e went back to LaunchPad and began to understand that creativity and drive aren鈥檛 enough to build an actual business.鈥�
Next, they built a 13-foot rocket as vehicle for organizations without NASA-size budgets to collect scientific data. At a demonstration in Alabama, the rocket blew up at takeoff. Small portions of their own carbon fiber stayed intact, however, and would inspire number-three: a racing drone.
鈥淲e had fun and sold some drones, but there wasn鈥檛 a big market,鈥� Mincey says. 鈥淧lus, it was a toy. I didn鈥檛 see it as a business that would make a positive impact.鈥�
In the LaunchPad, Wolfe shared some entrepreneurial wisdom from his trials and errors during the early days of O鈥檇ang. For example, you can鈥檛 build a business on passion alone.
鈥淗e said, 鈥榊ou need to think from the customer perspective, a product perspective, and a business perspective. That鈥檚 the three-legged stool. And you need to be willing to adjust your original idea,鈥� Mincey says.
Mincey says without those lessons, and without pro bono help from attorneys, designers, and marketing specialists, Soarce wouldn鈥檛 have made it past three months, and he wouldn鈥檛 be wearing booties in his garage or using plants to perfect textile fibers a million times smaller than a human hair.
鈥淟aunchPad got us on the right track,鈥� he says, 鈥渁nd now we鈥檙e onto something cool.鈥�
Brandon Naids 鈥�14 鈥�16MS , co-founder Talon Simulations
It鈥檚 been said that the Blackstone LaunchPad is a great program for 麻豆原创 students who have always dreamed of starting a business or those who never could have imagined it.
Brandon Naids 鈥�14 鈥�16MS is among the latter group.
鈥淚 was just a na茂ve engineering student trying to come up with something interesting for my senior project,鈥� he says of the virtual reality flight simulator he and four other 麻豆原创 students created. 鈥淎nd I thought it would look good on my resume.鈥�
At the Senior Design Showcase in April 2014, local industry leaders and 麻豆原创 faculty saw the compact nature of the simulator and heard about the lower cost to make it. Their feedback sparked a fire that changed Naids鈥� career path before he鈥檇 taken his first step on it.
鈥淓very person at the showcase told us to check out the LaunchPad,鈥� Naids says. 鈥淚 planned to look for an engineering job, but once we met with an advisor at LaunchPad and heard about the help available to turn our project into a product, we thought, 鈥榃ow, we鈥檙e really doing this.鈥欌��
Instead of pursuing job interviews, Naids pursued his master鈥檚 degree while shifting from an engineering mindset to an entrepreneurial ethos.
鈥淲e learned that as business owners you can鈥檛 just submit plans and wait for results,鈥� Naids says. 鈥淵ou have to set goals and then be accountable to meet each one of them. A mentor also told us that passion alone isn鈥檛 enough to build a business, but it will help you through the tough times 鈥� because those time will come.鈥�
During those times, Naids would nervously sit in parking lots for up to an hour before meeting with prospective clients of Talon Simulations. Now, with a real business sitting firmly on a three-legged stool, he sees his team鈥檚 simulators used in arcades, malls, 150 Dave and Busters locations, and for U.S. Army recruiting events.
鈥淚 never imagined this until we went to 麻豆原创鈥檚 LaunchPad,鈥� Naids says. 鈥淯ntil then, I thought I鈥檇 be doing 3-D modeling behind someone else鈥檚 desk. I鈥檓 grateful everything turned out this way instead.鈥�
