Education
A Start-up’s Secret Sauce
INTERNS BY KIM GOAD, BUTLER UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNIFER L. RUBENSTEIN GRAPHIC BY CARYN SCHEVING
A good chef has to be a manager, a businessman and a great cook. To marry all three together is sometimes difficult. —Wolfgang Puck
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t Butler University’s Lacy School of Business, all sophomores are required to take a course called Real Business Experience (RBE). Students form teams to conceptualize a business, create a business plan and apply to the university for real dollars to launch the business. Business professionals mentor the teams, but the students are responsible for all marketing, operations and finances to get their ideas off the ground. Among the products and services developed, successful businesses have included the Butler Bed Buddy (a pillow in the form of the Butler Bulldog mascot, Blue) and Freelance Foam (which produced the foam three-finger “thringer,” 3,000 of which were purchased by the NCAA for the 2015 Final Four games). When Kevin Rhinehart and his teammates were tasked with starting their own business, rather than create a whole new concept they looked to build upon the success of another prior year’s team: Freedom of Peach BBQ Sauce. Starting with the popular sauce of a team member’s grandmother, the first group tweaked and tested her recipe, obtained FDA approval, worked with a food scientist to create the required labeling with detailed nutritional information and partnered with a local food producer. To create awareness, they participated in an event at Sullivan’s Hardware in Indianapolis and convinced some local butcher shops and specialty markets to distribute the sauce. By the time the semester was over, while proud of their accomplishment, the group had other priorities like classes, internships, athletics and other commitments. That’s when Rhinehart and his team, as part of the next RBE class, decided to approach the original Freedom of Peach team about buying the business. After valuing the business, they entered negotiations and finally agreed upon on a price. Rhinehart’s team then borrowed from the university to pay for the business and to cover their first production run. In just a few months, they quickly grew distribution from six stores to 20 in Indianapolis, Fishers, Carmel, Mishawaka, South Bend, Muncie, Anderson and Cincinnati, including three Fresh Thyme stores in the Indianapolis area. Rhinehart says “the quick growth has kept us on our toes,” adding that a couple of customers have expressed interest in buying the business. He smiles easily and exudes enthusiasm. “My number one appreciation of the experience is that, even in just a college class, you can still make an impact in the community and people will support you, even if you’re 20 years old and still trying to figure out how things work.”
Building Careers a Semester at a Time At Butler’s College of Business, we say we “build careers a semester at a time.” First-year students participate in the First Year Business Experience by forming teams, creating a business plan and presenting those plans in the Top Dawg competition. In 16
edible INDY food start-up boot camp issue 2016
