updated November 6, 2007

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology junior software engineering major Jeremy Clarke isn’t waiting for businesses to come calling for his services for internships or fulltime employment. He has formed his own successful Web-oriented businesses.

He’s not alone. There are students in a variety of academic majors throughout campus that have captured the entrepreneurial spirit by forming their own small businesses –- with some help from their classmates and professors, and skills learned at Rose-Hulman.

Clarke operates two businesses and is currently developing another. Vortex Web Solutions (www.VortexWebSolutions.com) was developed from his interest in computers and the Web. It specializing in creating business systems (Websites, database and maintenance systems, inventory tracking and many other Web-based systems) which help businesses be more efficient and allow for growth.

Vortex Web Solution’s portfolio now boasts over 20 clients, including ProGrowth TEAM, Cycle Pull Behinds, Safe Driving Coalition and Banks Hardwoods Inc. -– and continues to grow each month.

“I created a Website for a local business when I was in high school and it has kept me busy ever since,” stated the Middlebury, Ind., native. “This business has far surpassed my expectations.

And, I have been surprised with how receptive clients have been with my ideas and services.”
Another of Clarke’s enterprises, Sharper Results (www.SharperResults.com), gives parents and teachers a way to help students review for the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus, the state’s annual educational assessment test. The software is being used by many students throughout the state. Recently, over 500 licenses were sold to a school in northern Indiana. Sharper Results has also donated licenses to Boys and Girls Clubs throughout Indiana.

Now, Clarke is developing IndyDining (www.indydining.com), a recently-launched online restaurant guide for Indianapolis metropolitan residents. IndyDining also provides tools to help restaurants attract visitors to their restaurant and grow their business. Four restaurants have already registered, with several more in the process of signing up.

Young Entrepreneur: Benjamin Cook has developed Soft-Tronics, a small business that provides information technology services, and helped form an Entrepreneurship Club at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Across campus Benjamin Cook, a sophomore electrical engineering major from Algonquin, Ill., has developed Soft-Tronics (www.soft-tronics.net), a small business that provides information technology services to other small businesses. Cook used to work as a geek squad technician at Best Buy and realized that he could do the same type of service, providing reliable, friendly technology solutions for home and small business environments.

Cook is also currently pursuing a startup company in the information technology field that he believes will revolutionize the residential technology service market. This new venture is currently set to perform a test run in approximately six months.

“Rose-Hulman is a great environment for the entrepreneur as students have the ability to network with their professors and other incredibly bright students, something which is priceless in the start-up venture field,” says Cook. “My professors have personally helped get me in contact with persons that I would have never been able to establish relationships with on my own . . . While I am going to school to be an engineer -- which seems like it may not be related to business -- I am learning many problem-solving techniques that are essential to anyone in the business field. Rose-Hulman also offers great entrepreneurship courses that I am in the process of taking. The engineer/businessman combination is seen as a major advantage by many top company executives.”

Freshman mechanical engineering student Jay Kinzie caught the entrepreneurial spirit at 15 years old and has formed Jbotics Innovations LLC (www.jbotics.com) to leverage his ideas related to internal combustion engines and transmission designs. He currently is pursuing 41 patents on a variety of products.

“Whenever I see an efficiency or problem, I ponder a solution,” says the student from Palatine, Ill. He plans on selling or licensing many of his patents, but keeping the best for himself, while also developing more patent ideas throughout his Rose-Hulman academic career.

“The business hasn’t brought me any cash, yet,” Kinzie said. “My education at Rose-Hulman is a critical part of my business. I require the analytical and technical skills that will allow me to assess the efficacy and validity of my ideas. Rose-Hulman can help me learn these skills.”

Successful Tutor: Morgan Lollar, a senior electrical engineering major, has started a tutoring service for Wabash Valley students needing help in mathematics and science. The business has been so successful that he has had to hire two other Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology students to meet demand for the service.

Elsewhere, Morgan Lollar utilized his academic talents to start a tutoring company, Top Tier Tutoring LLC, to help in the Terre Haute, Ind., area with mathematics and science.

Hoping to make some extra spending money during his senior year in college, Lollar placed an advertisement in the local newspaper, offering tutoring assistance for students.

“The feedback was amazing,” says Lollar, who as an entrepreneurship student quickly saw the business opportunity. He currently tutors students between four to seven hours per week and is in the process of two other Rose-Hulman students to help tutor other clients. “I don’t know how successful the business will ever be, but I refuse to have my name attached to a failure. It is more of a project to see what exactly it is like to run a business. It has worked out well so far. I wish I could have started it sooner,” he said.

How do these Rose-Hulman students have time to complete these ventures, while maintaining a full schedule of classes at the nation’s top-ranked undergraduate engineering college?

“I manage my time very well,” says Clarke. “I work very long hours (60-80 per week) and then I have to find the time to study, while remaining above a 3.7 GPA . . . Some of my classes have allowed me to get my creative thoughts flowing and develop programs which have helped me design my current businesses. Last Spring, I came very close to launching a web site, a service that would have rivaled www.Shopping.com, which came from an idea I had in one of my computer courses.”

Lollar added: “The Rose-Hulman education has provided me with the time management talents, teaching/tutoring ability and effective communication skills to be successful in (his tutoring) business. I really find a sense of pride in helping students succeed, which has made me want to help as many people as possible . . . The entrepreneurship minor has helped me exponentially in gaining the confidence to start a small company.”