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By Eli Graft
This semester, I am taking an Entrepreneurship class. This is the first semester that it is being offered and, needing only one more business elective to finish my Business Economics degree, I decided to take it. It is the first class of a four-course Entrepreneurship minor. Although I won’t be around to finish it, I’ve enjoyed it so far and would suggest other College of Business students give it a try.
Each class, we go over our readings in our two textbooks, The Ten Faces of Innovation and Thinkertoys. We employ the creativity techniques learned from those books in small breakout groups. Outside of class, we are working in groups of four to five to develop a business pitch to give to the class at the end of the semester. For our business, we are Autospecs, auto-adjusting bifocals that change as your prescription changes. In a multi-billion-dollar eyewear industry, a product like this could have the potential to rock some waves.
We were also tasked with picking a business from the 2020 Inc. 5000 list to report on to the class. Among some of the fastest growing companies was Kitu Life Super Coffee. Kitu Life Inc. was started by three brothers in the youngest of the group’s college dorm room. They were student athletes that were tired of looking for energy drinks and finding nothing that was even remotely healthy for you. After experimenting, they formulated the product, and three years later went on the show Shark Tank to pitch their product. The attempt to secure a deal did not succeed, but their newfound notoriety pushed them to become the fastest growing privately held food and beverage company in the United States.
This class has forced me to look at some of the coolest ideas and learn how to think creatively to solve social problems. Kitu Life solved a social need by adding a healthier alternative to drinks like Red Bull, Starbucks, and Bang Energy. This mindset has reminded me that thinking outside the box and being open to new ideas can help you achieve a lot of life’s goals. I am even playing the ukulele and writing my own original song for our semester’s Creativity Project. I am really glad I took this class, among all the other options I could’ve chosen, because I’ll take a lot of what I’ve learned on into the business world.
Eli Graft is a McConnell Scholar in the class of 2021. He is studying business economics and political science at the University of Louisville.