Tag: weatherford garage

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Entrepreneurship student’s high-flying innovation taking off

A strange object appeared this year at the first day of the Oregon State University spring football practice. Or more accurately, it appeared above it.

For the first time, the Beavers used an aerial camera to document its practices. The person responsible for the copter was Oregon State sophomore Michael Williams, part of the Austin Entrepreneurship Program in the College of Business.

Williams said he’d always been interested in creating his own flying machines, starting with radio-controlled airplanes.

“Throughout middle school and high school I kept building bigger stuff,” said Williams. “Right around when I came to college I got involved with multicopters.”

Multicopters, so named for the multiple blades configured around the copter body, have become popular over the past few years as a way to do aerial photography.

When Williams started, the technology he had access to wasn’t advanced enough to lift a high quality camera, but advances in both photography and flight since then have made it possible.

Last year he started tests with a small camera, and immediately got a huge reaction from friends.

“It was an instant success,” he said. “Eventually my friends would say, ‘Oh, you’re the multicopter kid.’”

Michael Williams explains his Multicopter NW business at the Oregon CEO Summit.
Michael Williams (right) explains his Multicopter Northwest business at the Oregon CEO Summit May 7 in Portland.

Williams started Multicopter Northwest, selling kits so others could build their own copters. But a chance meeting sent the project in another direction.

Originally an engineering major, this fall Williams transferred to business on a friend’s recommendation and got involved with the Austin Entrepreneurship Program. From there he also joined the Weatherford Garage, which provides resources to help students start their own businesses.

“This past fall I fell into the hands of Sandy Neubaum, [Weatherford GTA] Dale McCauley and Bob Mayes,” Williams said. “It transformed from selling a couple of kits to friends to something bigger.”

During the fall Oregon State head football coach Mike Riley spoke at an entrepreneurship class and Mayes, a former Oregon State quarterback, pushed Williams to approach and share his business plan.

It turned out the Riley was looking for a better way to get photos and videos of offensive lineman, often packed too close together to see well from the sidelines.

“I got the opportunity to do a mini pitch and he was instantly interested,” Williams said. “He invited me to come to spring practices and do some demos.”

Williams showed up on day one and went to work. The system records video but also sends it to a video unit on the ground, so coaches can watch in real-time.

The next step for Williams is getting funding for better equipment while continuing to develop the business.

No matter where the idea takes him, so far he’s happy with the decision to jump into his own business.

“I walked into Weatherford [Hall] not knowing what to expect,” Williams said. “Now I spend hours on hours in that building.

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Weatherford Garage student starting Kickstarter push for Goldfish Garden

Goldfish Garden set up on a desk
Photo courtesy thegoldfishgarden.com

Ryan Coghlan knew he had something when he started to get oohs and aahs from family and friends when he showed them the Goldfish Garden.

The invention — a combined fish tank/plant container which uses the science of aquaponics to fertilize the plant with waste from the bowl — has become Coghlan’s fulltime endeavor. Coghlan was recently accepted to become part of the Austin Entrepreneurship Program‘s Weatherford Garage, and is trying to make the invention into a thriving small business, starting a Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial phase of the operation.

“I have been interested in entrepreneurship for a while and was looking for the right idea to convert into a successful business, and I think what I have has real potential to become something big,” Coghlan said.

Coghlan completed an M.S. in Applied Biotechnology from Oregon State University in 2011, and wrote his thesis on aquaponic technology and its relation to small sustainable business. He interned on an aquaponics company in Wisconsin, giving him the experience he needed to develop his own product.

The first decision was how to scale an aquaponics venture. Coghlan saw three main possibilite; a large commercial operation, a medium backyard system or something small enough for individual consumers.

“I figured that aquaponic technology had a great opportunity in the Northwest,” he said. “After talking to quite a few people about this range of sizes I found that most people were more interested in a small home product and there was mush less start-up costs involved with developing a system like this.”

The Goldfish Garden combines a standard fishbowl with a small planting space attached above. A pump attached to the bowl pulls water up into the plant, which absorbs the nutrients and delivers filtered water back into the bowl. In tests, Coghlan has come bowl that can go up to four months without cleaning.

Bowls are small enough to fit in kitchens or desks, and have successfully grown herbs such as Oregano and basil and small house plants. One package even includes a grow light for areas without natural light.

Coghlan has worked on the Goldfish Garden for more than a year, purchasing the materials for the initial prototype in July of 2011. Over that tim ehe consulted with a number of small-business advisors, including College of Business Entrepreneur in Residence Michael Curry.

Curry provided assistance on the business and helped get Coghlan connected with the Weatherford Garage, a select community of students who get a yearlong immersion in entrepreneurship, from developing an idea to starting a business and creating products.

For now Coghlan is trying to promote the Kickstarter campaign and get investors for the Goldfish Garden.

“The biggest thing I have taken from this process is that no matter how ready you think you are, there are always going to be things that you missed and things you don’t know how to do when launching a business,” he said. “I have also realized that trying to start a business is not a full time job but more of a full life job, especially trying to do it by yourself.  It has been hard to break away from the constant thoughts that I could be doing something to advance my business and make it successful.”