entrepreneur

Student entrepreneur sews his way to success
By Stephanie Jade Wong
March 23, 2016 - 6:27pm
Syracuse University student Jacob deHahn creates his handmade products and runs his own business.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. It was the spring of 2015 and Jacob deHahn, 19, was browsing Tumblr and texting. He saw a photo of crochet bands with words on them online while he texted his friend a peace hand emoji. In that moment, he was inspired to create his first patch. He sewed it by hand, and it was of a peace hand emoji. It’s still attached to his backpack today.

deHahn taught himself how to sew when he continued making patches that summer. In June, he started his own business: Jake’s Patches.

Disciplined entrepreneur balances classes and business
By Alexi McCammond
January 30, 2016 - 4:59pm
Gabriela Ecalante has started three businesses, but she goes beyond these ventures to help others whenever she can.

It’s 6 a.m. on a Monday morning and Gabriela Escalante has been awake for an hour. There are no meetings, phone calls, or obligations to attend until 9 a.m., but Escalante likes to run around her rural neighborhood in Central New York – even on Monday mornings. She laces up her pink and white tennis shoes and begins a 30-minute run around her familiar course. The sun is still sleeping, but the morning’s darkness doesn’t stop Escalante from fulfilling the daily goal she has met for the past year.

Syracuse lacks resources, investments for young women entrepreneurs
By Alexi McCammond
October 6, 2015 - 6:19pm
Entrepreneurs of this demographic in Syracuse feel overlooked by resources available to others.

In 2012, a Syracuse University freshman started a business seven months after arriving on campus from Atlanta. Courtnee Futch used six Babycakes© personal cupcake makers to bake small desserts for the 726 students in her dorm building. Futch, 21, started a baking business called ThunderCakes out of her dorm room and said she now receives an average of 150 orders per week from the Syracuse area.

6 Takeaways from Entrepreneur Lifestyle Expert Aaron Paxton Arnold
By Owen Gotimer
January 29, 2015 - 10:12pm
Former executive assistant to Sean Combs gives Syracuse University students tips for success during his speech at Newhouse.

When in doubt, quit.

For most people, this advice is the exact opposite of what you have heard from mentors, role models and educators for your entire life.

But if entrepreneur lifestyle expert and founder of MusicIsMyBusiness Aaron Paxton Arnold had followed the norm, he might still be married to his first wife, working for corporate public relations firms making a six-figure salary while dreading every day of his life.

Professor encourages healthy eating, self-reliance through small business
By Jessica Mattern
September 11, 2014 - 1:49am
After launching Make Fresh Foods in July, local entrepreneur Nancy Rissler looks toward the future of her recipe-based business.

When Nancy Rissler saw a 15-year-old mother give Coca-Cola to her newborn baby, Rissler was not disgusted or judgmental. Instead, she was inspired. She refers to this experience as a moment that changed the course of her life. This moment instilled a desire in her to teach the world about food and how to nourish one’s body, which launched a career as a certified hospitality educator, Syracuse University professor, food scientist and, most recently, an entrepreneur.

Meet your motivated neighbor
By NewsHouse Staff
July 15, 2014 - 12:22pm
UP Start Syracuse is helping make dreams come true for seven local entrepreneurs. Discover why their business ideas are passions, not just plans.

Among the many people who dream of starting their own business are seven who may have a more than even chance at making it. 

The reason: A local organization has tapped their ideas as worthy of a boost. 

Auxygen brings campus innovators together to form professional, "creative powerhouse"
By Diana Pearl
December 10, 2013 - 2:24pm
In just one year, the student start-up has moved from the basement of Theta Chi to a real storefront in downtown Syracuse — and brought with it clients from all over the world.

Standing tall on Comstock Avenue, the Theta Chi fraternity house looks more like the site of games of beer pong and brotherhood bonding than it does a hub for new businesses. But for Syracuse University seniors Michael Choi, Adam Day, Pat McGowan and Marcus Baron, it was the perfect setting for their creative juices to come together to form Auxygen.  

“Straight out of that basement, they formed this idea for a company,” said Drew Osumi, Auxygen’s resident photographer.