Frontier: Journal of Economics and Entrepreneurship, 2024-2025
16
Balancing Technological Innovation and Economic Equality
Anusha Kamath
23
Aram Back Band: An Entrepreneurial Business Plan and Proposal for a Hypothetical Revolutionary Medical Wearable in the Cramp Detection and Relief Market
35 Neeru: An Entrepreneurial Business Plan and Proposal for a Revolutionary Sustainable Luxury Shower System with Heat Recovery and Smart Technology Integration
Rinav Battula, Pranav Adiga
41 The Business of Blackness: How American Girl’s Addy Walker Reduces Slavery to a Marketable Narrative
Tess Totten Business Perspectives
51 Monuts: More than Donuts
Vincent Shen
53 Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao
Rinav Battula
55 Mobley Estes, Co-Founder of Moe’s Original BBQ Sedem Agbemabiese
FOREWORD FROM THE CHANCELLOR
“The ultimate purpose of economics, of course, is to understand and promote the enhancement of well-being.”
- Dr. Ben Bernanke
It is my pleasure to introduce the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics’ first journal of economics and entrepreneurship, Frontier. Frontier showcases some of the best economics and entrepreneurship research being done by students at NCSSM, their interviews with business leaders, and current highlights of student-generated economics and entrepreneurship activity.
Providing students with opportunities to apply their learning through research is not only vitally important in preparing and exciting students to pursue degrees and careers after high school, but essential to encouraging innovative thinking that allows students to address major issues and problems we face in the world today and will face in the future. Opened in 1980, NCSSM was the nation's first public residential high school where students study a specialized curriculum emphasizing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Teaching students to do research and providing them with opportunities to conduct high- level research is a critical component of NCSSM’s mission to educate academically talented students to become state, national and global leaders.
The research featured in this publication is an example of the significant research that students conduct each year at NCSSM under the direction of the outstanding faculty at our school and in collaboration with researchers at major universities. For 45 years, NCSSM has encouraged North Carolina’s high school students to “accept the greater challenge” to inquire deeply, to contribute to the body of existing research, and to apply what they learn for the broader good. The publication of Frontier is a great new opportunity to present the outstanding research being conducted by students each year at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics that, as you can see from this journal, goes well beyond the STEM fields.
I would like to thank all of the students and faculty involved in producing Frontier, particularly faculty sponsor Mr. Chad Keister, editor-in-chief Shirley Tian, and senior editors Gray Averett and Thrista Venkat. Explore and enjoy!
Dr. Todd Roberts, Chancellor
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
We are thrilled to welcome you to the inaugural edition of Frontier: the beginning of a student run, edited and written anthology of our student body’s brilliance in finance, economics, entrepreneurship and business.
Name anything—chances are, economics is involved. There are so many ways to think about it: is it solo/collaborative, qualitative/quantitative, local/global, profit/egos, apples/bananas? The interdisciplinary nature of these fields is boldly reflected in this edition, featuring everything from in-depth interviews with local business leaders to critical analyses of corporate social responsibility, exposing how ethical initiatives can sometimes be reduced to mere marketing narratives. We hope not only to create a research journal, but to set a standard that NCSSM is not just a place for STEM and create a platform for unique perspectives to have their voices heard.
Launching Frontier has been an incredible journey. Our team built this from the ground up: grappling with editorial decisions, learning how to edit and design, and shaping a vision for what we hope will become a lasting tradition. We’re beyond proud of and grateful for all of our hard work and dedication.
We’d like to sincerely thank Taylor Gibson, Dean of Data Science and Interdisciplinary Initiatives, Chip Bobbert, Director of the Colopy Entrepreneurship Program, Dr. Tatiana McInnis, our forum sponsor and Instructor of Humanities, and Chancellor Todd Roberts. We want to especially thank our faculty sponsor, Chad Keister, Instructor of Economics and Social Science, who has supported us each step of the way. Without all their knowledge, insight, and guidance, Frontier would not be what it is today.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. We hope this edition inspires you as much as it has inspired us.
Gray Averett, Thrista Venkat, and Shirley Tian
FRONTIER STAFF
Editor-in-Chief
Outreach
Shirley Tian
Vincent Shen, Director
Aarush Juturu Buruju, Director
Jacey Odero, Director
Jimmy Chen
Arjun Rawal
Tanuj Karthikeyan
Sedem Agbemabiese
Sathvik Gorle
Editorial
Grayson Averett, Director
Thrista Venkat, Director
Aanandi Thakur, Publishing Director
Elise Carson
Joshua Chilukuri
Pranav Adiga
Neil Banahatti
Aarush Bandemegal
Rinav Battula
Pranav Mahesh
Website Finance Communications
Design
Taylor Eason, Director
Henry Neville, Director
Janvi Patel, Director
Anusha Kamath, Director
Helen Britt
Juliet Farina
Advika Arun, Director
Tanush Sriram
Soham Kela
Faculty Sponsor
Chad Keister
TERRABITE: NCSSM’S ENTREPRENEURS IN ACTION
Through attending NCSSM’s Entrepreneurship class, a group of students set out an ambitious goal to tackle two of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges: carbon emissions and construction waste. The result? Terrabite, a company pioneering biochar-based concrete mix that has the potential to reshape the future of sustainable building.
The Innovation Behind Terrabite
At the heart of Terrabite’s solution is biochar, a carbon-rich material that actively absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. By integrating biochar into traditional concrete mix, the team discovered a way to make cement production, a historically high-emission industry, not only more sustainable but also carbon-negative. “It not only reduces emissions but actually captures carbon through carbon capture sequestration,” explains Israel James and William Harper, two of
the project’s founders. “Why not use it?”
Concrete production currently contributes to nearly 8% of global CO₂ emissions, making innovations like biochar-based cement crucial for a greener future. Yet, transitioning from an idea to a market-ready product required more than just scientific knowledge; it required resilience, adaptability, and business acumen.
From Classroom Concept to Startup Reality
The team began with a simple yet daunting challenge: create a viable business model from scratch. “We coalesced into groups and hit the ground running by training to find a new product,” they recall.
However, their initial pitch wasn’t met with instant approval. On the day of the startup pitches, they were hit with harsh questions and
Israel James, Sathvik Gorle, Logan Cain, William Harper. Interviewed by Vincent Shen, edited by Shirley Tian
doubts about the success and viability of our product, one after another. Many questioned whether their technology was feasible and if they could truly make an impact in the industry.
Rather than being discouraged, the team took these criticisms in stride. They quickly re-pivoted their business model, shifting from reinventing concrete itself to integrating their technology into a cement mix, a change that made their product more adaptable to existing construction practices. This flexibility and determination paid off: not only did they win both Most Innovative and Most Likely to Turn a Profit at the entrepreneurship competition, but they also turned their classroom project into a real, functioning startup.
Turning Research to Business
Beyond the technical aspects of their innovation, the biggest challenge was bridging the gap between academic research and practical business execution. “The hardest part was taking prior research and turning it into something practical,” Israel explains. “There are 1.2 billion tons of construction waste every year: how do we not only solve this problem but also make it profitable?”
This is where mentorship and collaboration played a crucial role. With guidance from Chip Bobbert, NCSSM’s Director of the Colopy Entrepreneurship Program, as well as experienced business professionals, the team learned how to refine their business strategy and enter the market.
They identified their ideal customers: suburban developers, particularly in the Triangle area, where demand for sustainable construction is on the rise. Through networking, research, and persistence, they began securing their first customers, proving that their idea wasn’t just theoretical but had real commercial potential.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
Though launching Terrabite has been a unique challenge, entrepreneurship isn’t new to this
team. Sathvik previously helped run both a tutoring business in Charlotte and a PC-building business, while Israel’s mother owns NutriDrip, a wellness company. Their exposure to business from a young age gave them the skills to navigate the ups and downs of launching a startup.
Still, they emphasize that you don’t need prior experience to start a business—just a willingness to learn and adapt. “Find an idea, stick with it, and see where it leads you,” Sathvik advises. “We didn’t know much about the industry at first, but through research and hard work, we made it happen.”
While Terrabite’s short-term goals include proving their product’s commercial viability— perhaps even starting with small-scale applications like fixing mailboxes—their long-term vision is far more ambitious. They hope to play a leading role in the transformation of the construction industry, making carbon-negative building materials the standard rather than the exception.
With a strong foundation built on NCSSM’s resources, research, and mentorship, and a powerful commitment to sustainability, Terrabite is reshaping how we think about building our future. If you’re interested in learning more or supporting their journey, they encourage you to reach out at terrabitenc@gmail.com. The future of construction isn’t just about building, but also about rebuilding our relationship with the planet.
OCEAN BOTTLE: A DECA INTERNATIONAL CAREER DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE CHAMPION
Anika Moolan and Shruthi Meenaksh. Interviewed by Jimmy Chen and Sathvik Gorle
DECA, short for the Distributive Education Clubs of America, is one of the most well-known clubs throughout the United States. It is popular among high school students as it serves as a site where they can compete in various developmental competitions on the district, state, and national level across different fields, including but not limited to business, finance, and even marketing. NCSSM also boasts a sizable DECA club; they bring together many of its students, with many of them working hard to try to place in their respective competitions. One highlight of NCSSM’s 2024 DECA year was a 1st place win at DECA’s International Career Development Conference, commonly abbreviated to ICDC, at the hands of Anika Moolan and Shruthi Meenaksh. They aced the Integrated Marketing Campaign - Product (IMCP) event during their junior years of high school by creating an entire marketing campaign around the Ocean Bottle. This was a product specifically made to reduce plastic waste across oceans in an effective manner. These two originally decided to center their event around Ocean Bottle due to the community impact it had. It also aligned with their interests in environmental science, ecology, and other related fields.
For their event, their strategy primarily focused on investing a huge amount of their budget into social media. The thought process that went into this was based on how popular social media was among young generations. By recognizing this, they set up their own pathway to success. To go deeper into this approach of theirs, they focused mainly on influencers, namely macro influencers and mid-tier influencers. Each type of influencer had their own individual benefits. Macro influencers had access to a lot of followers, usually ranging from 500,000 to 1,000,000. However, due to this, the engagement rate among the followers
wouldn’t be as high as necessary. The perfect counter to this were the mid-tier influencers, as although their follower size wasn’t as sizable compared to macro influencers, their engagement rate was astonishingly high. As such, it was critical to recruit multiple mid-tier influencers throughout the social media campaign.
Anika and Shruthi put an emphasis on repetition during their pursuit to perfect their presentation skills prior to competing at the national scale. This served as an important tool that they used to work on their shortcomings. Their dynamic approach resulted in their DECA ICDC success: the firstplace win. They also took advantage of major marketing cues and other presentation stimuli to weave together a successful and pleasing presentation. To make sure that their team approach worked properly, Anika and Shruthi made sure to communicate with each other often. This helped them to get their stuff done in the long run and was a major component for their success. According to them, what made this level of communication possible was their status as roommates within NCSSM.
Their entire experience at ICDC was filled with many unexpected challenges that resulted in ups and downs for them. The first judge that they had to present to was extremely fidgety, and they had to go the extra mile in order to maintain his attention; their situation was exemplified after he asked only one question of the group. Even though they were met with extreme levels of tension during their presentation, their efforts paid off as the judge gave them an amazing grade. A major lesson that they learned from this entire situation was to always continue presenting, as nothing is always what it seems to be.
At the end of their interview, Shruthi and Anika were asked to give a quick elevator pitch to students interested in DECA. Their reply consisted of five key points: business, marketing, leadership, public speaking, and management. Through DECA, Shruthi and Anika have been able to develop their skills in being strong leaders, which translates to any field. They particularly noted that their interests were more oriented to other fields such as pre-med and computer science, but DECA is what allows them to enhance those general skills that anybody should strive to have. People shouldn’t think DECA is just for business majors; it’s for everyone who wants to make a difference and develop as a person. In light of all that, Shruthi particularly noted at the end, “DECA is a lot of work, but the most memorable thing is its enjoyability.” Through taking advantage of their opportunities to the fullest, Shruthi and Anika show how learning to grow in business can be both useful, insightful, and fun.
BRINGING INNOVATION TO NCSSM: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOE COLOPY
Interviewed by Shirley Tian, Edited by Gray Averett and Aarush Bandemegal
Joe Colopy is the Founder and CEO of Bronto Software, Grepbeat, Primordial, and Jurassic Ventures. He recently made a $1.5 million contribution to NCSSM’s Entrepreneurship Program.
Some people say that you should play it safe and avoid risks. Founder and CEO Joe Colopy is not one of those people. Colopy created the Bronto platform which utilized cloud-based automation to streamline the digital marketing process, increasing the revenue of businesses by expanding their consumer outreach while being time-efficient. With Grepbeat, he has published multiple media stories on Triangle tech startups, promoting their missions through newsletters and podcasts. Colopy has continually exemplified head-strong entrepreneurship by growing the startup community of North Carolina in the public spotlight. This fascinated our outreach members, who set up an interview with the multifaceted founder.
When we spoke with Colopy, he spoke of his origins and how he rose to the top of the entrepreneurship world. His consistent persistence and willingness to take risks even in the face of failure led to his success with his startup ventures. Colopy’s mindset that “if you can support your family and live comfortably, it’s hard to keep growing” shifted his thinking to focus on embracing failure and gradually improving on his mistakes. He also made a nod to NCSSM, encouraging students to take advantage of the competitive environment by confronting failure and gaining experience in what they want to pursue.
On the topic of NCSSM, Colopy views it as a pathway to bridge into scientific and technological disciplines through its heavy emphasis on research. The school also has many resources for
students to gain practical business knowledge through classes based on the Shark-Tank concept, which involve market analysis, analyzing the problem scope, developing a prototype, and pitching to investors. Colopy talks highly of these programs, believing that students have high potential and can create qualified careers in the Triangle. He says “If you look at the LinkedIns or resumes of successful business owners across NC, a lot of them will say NCSSM.” He has made it a mission to bring these opportunities together and create something as big as research programs as the Director of Entrepreneurship.
He recently began the Colopy Entrepreneurship Program, which he intends to be a forum that provides resources and short classes that are offered each semester as part of the curriculum in other courses. With this program, he plans to channel the innovative thinking of students into business ventures through interdisciplinary learning with other scientific disciplines like chemistry, computer science, and physics.
When we asked Colopy what advice he would give to NCSSM students interested in pursuing entrepreneurship, he said the biggest thing was the mindset to innovate. He credits his success with his startup Bronto to his lifelong passion for creating and building new things. While many high school students become consumed by demanding coursework, Colopy emphasizes that envisioning new ideas—even within a set framework—nurtures the creativity essential to successful entrepreneurship.
As many entrepreneurs attribute their knowledge and successes to their indulgence in books, we asked Colopy what books he would personally recommend. He said that currently, he does not have an answer, but expressed interest in getting into reading more, and that “the best books aren’t explicitly about business and that there are all these hotspots that keep changing.” Colopy later circled this back to why he invests in NCSSM, saying that the students that have the spirit and mindset to innovate and bring greatness to North Carolina are the ones that attracted him to the school.
Joe Colopy’s journey to becoming a seasoned entrepreneur and leader in our local community is inspiring. It shows us that anyone who has a vision and is willing to take risks can succeed in the business world as long as they remain focused and work persistently towards their goal. His commitment to NCSSM and its mission highlights the potential for the next generation of innovative thinkers from the school to follow his footsteps as inspiring leaders and entrepreneurs in our community.
JONATHAN HAYES, SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR AND SHARK TANK COMPETITOR
Interviewed by Shirley Tian, Edited by Grayson Averett
Investment banking, a field of finance as dangerous as it is financially lucrative, now encompasses $80.5 trillion of the global economy. Like all remunerative finance fields, breaking into the investment banking industry entails cutthroat competition against some of the most capable entrepreneurs and analysts. Those driven enough to breach the sheer academic wall of entry are rewarded with work weeks often surpassing 100 hours, at least in their initial years at a firm. This toil is not in vain, however, with top investment banking salaries reaching well into the seven figures. Coronation Group Companies CEO, former RewardStock CEO, and Shark Tank competitor Jonathan Hayes is a seasoned veteran of the investment banking industry, testament to its potential for success. In Frontier’s exchange with this sapient financier, Hayes paints a harrowing picture of investment banking’s job search post college graduation. “There are 400 people applying for the same job, and everyone has a super impressive resume. You’ve got to make yourself stand out.” Recalling his years of education and employment in investment banking, Hayes proclaims a trinity of objectives to maximize one’s appeal to top recruiting firms.
First and foremost, Hayes beckons, “Get an internship. Try in your first year, second year, third year, just keep trying. You have a big advantage if you have this experience and the company knows your name already.” The elusivity of finance related internships makes no exception in the investment banking industry; top firms such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan accept roughly 2% of intern applicants. While not necessarily required for employment in the industry, investment banking internships have shown to increase employment into private firms by 62% as compared to noninterns.
Receiving a Bachelor’s in Economics from Princeton himself, Hayes’ next piece of advice comes as no surprise. “Go to a school that they recruit from. Typically Ivies, like Wharton, MIT, etc. Companies like Goldman Sachs, JPM, etc. will come right to you.” In the social network invested world of finance, prestigious degrees beckon respect, which enables opportunity, with four of the top five schools producing employed invest bankers being Ivy Leagues. While getting into an Ivy may increase your chances of breaking into this field, the subject of your degree is less restricted, as less than 25% of investment bankers possess finance degrees.
Lastly, we are given the same guidance we followed to attain this high level interview, the same guidance Hayes utilized to reach interviewing status. Hayes encourages, “Cold call bankers over and over, just ask for 20 minutes to sit for lunch with - nobody does this, but I did, and that’s how I got a job!” In no area more than investment banking does the litany, ‘It’s not what you know, but who you know’, apply. Ultimately, no matter your accolades or educational background, it is generally agreed that success in investment banking comes down to unwavering charisma, excellent performance in highly demanding environments, and a deep affection for money.
THE NEXT GENERATION OF CHANGE: HOW NORTH CAROLINA’S TEEN DEMOCRATS ARE SHAPING A BETTER FUTURE
Elise Carson
As our world grapples with political and economic uncertainty, young leaders in North Carolina are stepping up to create change. Among them is Daniel Patterson, president of the North Carolina Teen Democrats (NCATD), who is leading efforts to push the state toward a more inclusive and economically sound future. From voter registration drives to advocating for college affordability, Patterson’s mission is clear: empower young people to shape the policies that affect them most. As the NCSSM liaison for NCATD and a member of The Frontier Publication Team, I had the opportunity to interview Patterson to gain insight into how our generation is paving the way for change.
Mobilizing Youth for Political Change
As president of NCATD, Patterson emphasizes the organization’s mission: “We educate, engage, and mobilize young people across the state.” The goal is to empower the next generation by offering them a platform to influence political decisions. Voter registration efforts, particularly at the county level, are at the core of this work. Patterson notes that creating county-level infrastructure enables young people to have a direct voice in local elections, ensuring issues important to them are heard.
He views grassroots activism as a more effective form of advocacy than traditional lobbying. “True grassroots activism is what really pushes agendas,” Patterson explained. “When showing up to town halls to talk to your congressperson or representative about issues, I found that a lot of the Teen Dems have written postcards or letters to some of their elected officials and have received responses from the elected officials themselves.”
Youth Perspectives on Business and the Economy
On economic issues, Patterson highlighted college affordability as a key focus when engaging with young people. With the cost of higher education steadily rising, NCATD is working to ensure that education remains an affordable option for all of North Carolina’s youth.
In addition, Patterson pointed out a similar trend in housing affordability. “There are too many people who cannot afford a home or even rent,” Patterson explained. He believes more should be done to ensure that young people have the financial stability to start their lives on par with, or even ahead of, previous generations.
When asked about North Carolina’s stance on corporate influence in politics and the economy, Patterson emphasized the need for a “people-powered public service system,” where elections are not controlled by a small elite of wealthy corporations. Instead, the state’s political future should be determined by the people.
Fostering Business Through Education and Tax Policy
Looking at how the government can support young entrepreneurs, Patterson underscored the
importance of tax incentives. “Tax benefits like Kamala Harris’s proposed $50,000 deduction for new small business owners, not only do they relieve the stress from the small business, but it also serves as an incentive for people to contribute to the economy in that way and to start those small businesses,” he said.
Patterson also believes in providing access to education that equips young people with the tools and confidence to succeed in business. This, he argues, will give them the skills needed to start and maintain successful ventures, stimulating the local economy.
Lessons from Entrepreneurship
Patterson’s leadership is informed by his early experiences in small-scale business ventures. Participating in business fairs as a child, selling items like Rice Krispie treats, taught him valuable lessons about rejection, perseverance, and communication. These skills have translated into his political work, particularly in the realm of voter registration.
“So walking over to people and saying, ‘Hey, would you like a Rice Krispie Treat or a brownie? How much does it cost? Two dollars? No, I’m good.’ And then hearing them walk away—it’s very similar to, ‘Hey, are you registered to vote?’ and getting the same response.”
As Patterson looks to the future, he hopes his efforts will be remembered for increasing voter registration, fundraising, and rebuilding NCATD after the pandemic. He believes that young people, as the most educated generation in history, are positioned to move North Carolina forward in ways never seen before.
As we look ahead, the passion and determination of North Carolina’s young leaders, exemplified by Daniel Patterson and the Teen Democrats, offer hope for a brighter future.By empowering young people to engage in the political process and advocate for crucial issues, the North Carolina Teen Democrats are laying the groundwork for a more inclusive and equitable society.
Patterson’s commitment to grassroots activism, economic opportunity, and youth engagement demonstrates the incredible potential of our generation to drive meaningful change. With their passion and determination, young leaders are not just participants in the political landscape— they’re reshaping it for the better. As we continue to support and elevate these voices, the future looks promising for all of us.
BALANCING TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND ECONOMIC EQUALITY: A QUALITATIVE REVIEW OF PATENT
AND CORPORATE TAXATION POLICIES FOR AI
Anusha Kamath (NCSSM), Dr. Quran Karriem, Ph.D. (Duke University)
1. Introduction
In a world where artificial intelligence (AI) innovation is quickly advancing and becoming integrated into the workforce as a General Purpose Technology (GPT), there is a widespread fear that it will increase economic inequality by benefiting some groups in society more than others. However, AI has the potential to bring significant productivity gains to all career sectors, which can generally improve the entire economy. The adoption of AI into the labor force as recent innovations to replace human labor can increase economic productivity (Korinek & Stiglitz, 2019). Just like with the introduction of computer or manufacturing technologies, AI enhances the quality and pace at which certain tasks are performed. This can lead to increased inequality as innovators and large tech companies see significant financial gains due to their ownership of AI innovations, and lower-skilled workers and smaller firms are less valued, therefore seeing lower wages and profits (Cazzaniga et al., 2024). This presents an issue that only a few studies have approached from an intellectual property perspective. Strengthening the protection of intellectual property (IP) rights can incentivize innovation but increase prices while loosening IP protections can decrease prices but lower incentives to innovate (Korinek & Stiglitz, 2019).
Past literature has projected and evaluated the effects of various fiscal policies, skill retraining programs, taxes on capital income, and investment in the public sector. However, there is no significant literature on specific intellectual property policies for AI. Changing intellectual property rights is predicted to significantly affect both innovation and income inequality in the face of AI. With more protective intellectual
property rights (longer patent protection period, less taxation on revenue generated from IP, etc) innovation will be highly incentivized and firms will see a large financial surplus, while consumers see higher prices (Korinek & Stiglitz, 2019). This could result in increased income inequality as profits will end up primarily in the hands of the innovators and less in the hands of consumers and lower-skilled workers. However, with less protective intellectual property rights (shorter patent period, more taxation, etc), innovation will be de-incentivized and the innovation process will slow down—AI will not be implemented into the workforce as much and innovators will not see as much profit. However, consumers will benefit from lower prices earlier and not face as much displacement due to AI. In both extreme scenarios, there is an observed tradeoff between innovation and income inequality (Korinek & Stiglitz, 2019).
While examining various aspects of the issue, existing literature and studies have failed to address the crucial issues of encouraging innovation and reducing the risk of economic inequality. My research aims to combine the effect of patent laws and IP taxation policies to see how they can maintain a sustainable pace of innovation without exacerbating existing economic inequalities. It also will put this conversation in context with the rise of artificial intelligence, which existing literature only briefly touches on. This is important to research because not properly balancing innovation and equality can lead to national economic ruin—a rapid increase in innovation with worsening inequality can lead to social unrest and unemployment crises while reduced innovation will lead to less economic productivity for everyone. Especially with the rapid integration of AI innovations in
many labor market sectors, it is imperative to find this balance.
2. Patent Laws
One aspect of intellectual property law that can influence innovation and inequality is patent strength. Patent strength and protection can play an important role in incentivizing innovation, maintaining competition, and pricing of intellectual property. A longer patent life can delay how quickly innovations enter the public domain and increase the incentives for innovators to produce worker-replacing machines and technologies (Korinek & Stiglitz, 2019).
A study on the effects of open innovation on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), established that patenting practices in SMEs have a positive result on innovation and financial performance (Brem et al., 2017). For smaller and less established firms specifically, strong IP and patent rights can help protect technological innovation. Since SMEs face more financial burdens and a lack of resources due to their size, open innovation can be expensive as organizations need to look outside the company for professional advice (Brem et al., 2017). Because of this, IP rights give SMEs opportunities to scale Research and Development (R&D) activities which could not happen without protection. This study showed that open innovation positively impacts corporate performance only when coupled with strong IP and patenting protection, but is less beneficial for SMEs than larger firms (Brem et al., 2017). Essentially, smaller firms would benefit more from strong patent protection, as they are more financially vulnerable than larger firms. The authors of this study propose that policies should focus on supporting more efficient patenting practices for SMEs and that the cost of filing and maintaining IP rights (IPR) should differ based on the size of a company. This difference between smaller and larger firms is important because economic inequality can also occur between larger and smaller firms. It is important to consider the effect of patent policies on different sizes of firms to ensure equal competition and opportunities.
Similarly, a study was conducted at the
University of Pennsylvania looking at the differing effects of a patent shock on established firms and startups. The authors analyzed the impacts of the 2013 Myriad court decision, which claimed that isolated gene sequences could not be patented. This sudden loss of patentability allowed the authors to examine the innovative behavior of firms in a weaker IPR environment. With the weakened IPR, pre-shock startups, also known as the “younger firms”, decreased investments suggesting that firms with the smallest stock of capabilities are deterred from making investments because they do not have the capabilities or funding needed to protect their initial investments from competitors (Hetu et al., 2021). On the other hand, established firms increased their investment in innovative activities in newer areas, showing a replacement effect (Hetu et al., 2021). The authors’ discussion on gene patents and pharmaceutical R&D also highlights how IPR can create inequalities by limiting access to critical resources like gene sequences for medical research. While this study was focused on patenting health technologies, some of the ideas can also be applied to AI. Strong IPR regimes in any sector can lead to monopolistic practices that restrict access to innovation, resulting in higher prices. It also emphasizes how firms strategically adapt to changes in IPR laws. Established firms may navigate IPR changes more effectively by diversifying investments or maintaining competitive advantages. In contrast, younger firms may face greater challenges in navigating innovation practices under changing IPR regimes.
The past two studies have looked at the effect of patent policies on innovation practices and equality between firms, but little research has been done on the impact of changing patent strength on inequality between individual households. Exclusivity of IP rights can raise innovation returns and establish significant market power in specific industries, which leads to higher salaries and profit shares for those individuals (Maskus, 2022). This idea relates to the claims made by Korinek & Stiglitz about the potential for longer patents to increase income inequality. In general, the Gini coefficients of nations, which
measure inequality in income distribution, are rising slowly for all countries during the recent period of globalization and technological change, especially in upper-income countries (Solt, 2020). The Ginarte-Park (GP) index measures the patent strength of countries, accounting for patent duration, categories of coverage, membership in international conventions, loss of patent rights, and enforcement (Ginarte & Park 1997). The author recounts the weaknesses of past studies that have aimed to find a relationship between the two indices and performs a statistical analysis to look for a correlation between income inequality and patent strength. The results find a growing but weakly positive correlation between the GP index and market-based Gini coefficients in higher-income countries (Maskus, 2022). While this suggests some correlation, it does not mean that an increase in patent strength necessarily causes inequality—countless external factors could contribute to this relationship. On the other hand, the author proposes the idea that innovation by either incumbents (who have patents and benefit from monopoly markups) or entrants (who innovate for patents) raises income shares for entrepreneurs and increases income inequality in the higher-income portion of the population (Maskus, 2022).
An earlier study suggests another relationship between inequality and innovation, showing that the pace of innovation in a country depends on income distribution. This model assumes that rich consumers prefer a wider variety of products while poorer consumers do not. Because of this, countries with more unequal distributions of richer households would need a longer patent duration to incentivize the creation of more new products and technologies (Kiedaisch, 2016). Though this model has not been empirically tested, it can provide important insights for patenting policies. Higher-income countries will most likely not respond well to a shortening of the patent duration, as it can de-incentivize the innovation of new goods, which is necessary for economic growth.
This previous research looks at general
innovation as a proxy for AI, but AI-created innovations can pose special challenges to patent laws. One of the biggest issues that AI poses to IP is ownership. While AI technology opens up new business opportunities for using intellectual property, there are many legal issues with ownership and patentability. Current patent laws are vague and do not truly account for AIgenerated inventions. As of 2024, United States patent law does not specifically prevent AIgenerated inventions from being patented, but it does require a human inventor to be listed on the application (USPTO, 2024). This would insinuate that ownership of the intellectual property created by AI would have to be assigned to the person or company that created or currently controls the AI entity.
This question becomes increasingly complex if the creator of the AI system that generated the invention is different from the owner of the data used to train the AI system since there could be uncertainty over who was the ‘true’ inventor of the AI (Ali & Kamraju, 2023). Confusion over ownership could prevent AI-generated innovations from being patented and slow the pace of AI-related innovations. This would decrease the potential for AI-related economic and productivity growth. In an extreme case, ambiguity regarding patent ownership could result in larger companies claiming full credit for AI inventions, despite collaboration with outsourced innovators, to maximize their financial gain. AI-generated IP can also have a “chilling” impact on competition if “ownership of AI-generated IP is concentrated in the hands of a few large organizations…as smaller organizations may be unable to compete or innovate in the same way” (Ali & Kamraju, 2023). This can contribute to the growing inequality between firms due to differing levels of resources and experience, as discussed in previous sources.
3. Corporate Taxation Policies
Another less-explored pathway for balancing innovation with inequality is the taxation of corporate income, specifically profits earned from intellectual property. The growth of economic inequality between larger firms and consumers
can be directly related to innovation rents, or profits, that are more than the opportunity cost of capital that an innovator gets by introducing new intellectual property (Korinek & Stiglitz, 2019). If companies benefit from high innovation rents on intellectual property while consumers pay higher prices, inequality may worsen. To achieve a state of Pareto efficiency where everyone benefits from economic growth, it is argued that these rents must be taxed to facilitate income redistribution and mitigate the effects of inequality (Korinek & Stiglitz, 2019). However, higher corporate taxes may de-incentivize innovative practices as companies would not receive as much net financial benefit from their intellectual property.
In 2000, intellectual property boxes or “patent boxes” were introduced as a new form of tax regime aimed at incentivizing innovation, which “feature a lower tax rate on income derived from the commercialization of patented products or other intellectual property (IP) relative to other sources of business income” (Bradley et al., 2015). These regimes can include either lower tax rates or provide partial tax exemptions on intellectual property income (Klemens, 2017). It was hypothesized that if companies had to pay less tax on their intellectual property income, they would become incentivized to innovate more since they would see greater profit. Studies examined the effect of the patent income tax rate, which differs from the corporate tax rate when IP boxes are implemented, on the number of patent applications. The results showed a moderate positive effect of patent box regimes on patent applications in the aggregate, and that rewarding patent ownership increased the number of domestic patent owners. Overall, IP box regimes increase new patent applications by around three percent for every one percent decrease in the patent income tax rate (Bradley et al., 2015).
This study built on previous research that saw that tax incentives that subsidized investments in innovation only increased the quantity but not the quality of R&D practices while subsidizing income from successful innovation increased both the quantity and quality (Ernst et al., 2014).
This is important because innovation that is efficient enough to replace human labor but not efficient enough to bring significant financial and productivity gains can exacerbate inequality (Cazzaniga et al., 2024). By subsidizing income from successful innovation, tax regimes can incentivize productive innovation that will bring enough financial gain to compensate for any losses in labor that the innovation could bring. This can help inform taxation policy to ensure that companies are not acquiring patents solely for tax purposes rather than innovation.
While this literature has stressed the importance of lowering corporate tax rates on intellectual property, another later study makes a conflicting argument. This study claims that with stronger patent protection, corporate income should be more heavily taxed while consumption tax should be lower (Iwaisako, 2016). Although this slows the pace of R&D activities, it promotes production and welfare. This rehashes the trade-off mentioned earlier between economic inequality and the pace of innovation. In the current post-TRIPs (TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) world, countries have stronger patent protections but have also decreased corporate tax. This paper uses a quality-ladder-type R&D-based growth model to show that this combination of practices creates welfare losses. This is because TRIPs has led to higher prices, which reduces production, labor demand, and consumption (Iwaisako, 2016). This model also shows that welfare-maximizing tax rates on corporate income become higher when patent protection is stronger. The author’s equations show that patent protection strength is directly related to the corporate income tax rate, meaning that increasing one has to increase the other. If patent protection is strengthened, the consumption tax rate must be reduced to recover welfare by increasing production. However, other studies show that an increase in the corporate taxation rate can lead to more economic inequality as the tax burden falls primarily on the workers of a firm (Serrato & Zidar, 2023).
Similarly to the existing literature on patent policies for innovation and inequality, much of
this research refers to IP as a whole rather than only AI. However, initial theoretical research has emerged on different systems of taxation that can be implemented to offset the negative effects of AI-driven unemployment on equality. One study proposes that AI/robot workers who replace human labor should be taxed directly as individuals (Oberson, 2019). This would essentially treat the AI/robot workers as human beings or typical employees of a firm. However, this would propose many issues as automated workers do not earn an income, lack financial capacity, and cannot be compared to human workers (Chand et al., 2020). There is a distinct power dynamic between humans and AI labor as the former can control the latter, and humans also have specific characteristics that automation lacks. Another proposal is to tax AI/robot workers directly as “legal entity type subjects” (Oberson, 2019). However, analysis shows that this would create a “robotics law”, which doesn’t make sense as legal personality does not guarantee tax capacity (Chand et al., 2020). In either case, taxing AI/robot workers by unit brings up many complications and would not be feasible.
Some studies or organizations take a different approach to taxing the use of AI or robot labor. The Canadian Green Party is one such example that proposed in 2019 that whenever a company automates a job, the company will pay a tax equal to the income tax paid by the laid-off worker. This proposed policy was aimed at preventing companies from accumulating unchecked amounts of wealth due to the displacement of human labor. However, this can increase the financial burden on companies and decrease innovation incentives, which reduces AI’s potential to bring economic benefits.
A more indirect corporate taxation policy proposal is based on the “reverse depreciation” idea where companies that use more complementary automation that aids human labor can deduct more in capital expenditure than companies that use automation as a substitute for human labor (Goh & Ooi, 2018). The idea is that this model would incentivize companies to utilize AI
to enhance human labor rather than replace it. If companies begin to use AI in a mainly substitutive manner, then they would be expected to see higher profits as production becomes cheaper and more efficient (Chand et al., 2020). This would mean that they would be able to withstand higher corporate taxes better.
The most significant challenge with these policies is defining an “automated company”. There must be a consensus on the percentage of a company’s workforce AI/automation that would consider it to be “automated” and subject to indirect robot taxes. Unless a conclusion is made, these corporate tax policies are not feasible. There is also the issue of what technologies or innovations are considered automation, artificial intelligence, or robots. For example, would a company be automated if they utilized only specific AI technologies like Large Language Models (LLMs), or would devices like calculators and basic computers also count? This question of what constitutes AI/robot usage in companies can also pose a significant challenge to these proposed taxation policies. More specific definitions must be agreed upon to implement a change in taxation policies.
4. Conclusion
Thile policymakers and researchers are still far from concrete conclusions on how to best manipulate patent and taxation policies for the rise of AI, there are some definitive next steps. The ownership of AI-generated inventions must first be defined. As inventors must currently be listed as humans, it must be decided whether the inventor, owner of data used to train the AI model, or both. Economists and policymakers must also determine what level of AI implementation in the workplace would characterize a firm as being automated. Only then can effective and detailed policies be crafted to balance AI-driven innovation and inequality. It is almost impossible to find a perfectly ‘ideal’ combination of policies, as a trade-off has to be made at some point. However, AI-labor complementarity can be a good place to start for taxation policies. Future research can be conducted on the efficacy of earlier-mentioned
tax incentive programs that emphasize qualityfocused AI innovation for its ability to enhance human labor. For example, firms that implement AI in a complementary manner to human labor would receive tax benefits while those that completely substitute human labor with AI would not. There would also have to be a clear consensus on what percentage of complementary AI usage would qualify for this tax benefit.
Previous studies have concluded that strong patent rights and policies are necessary for innovation, specifically for smaller and less established firms. This would mean that stronger patents would benefit AI innovation, and could level the playing field between firms of different sizes. While previous literature finds a weak correlation between patent strength and income inequality, a more concrete relationship should be defined by accounting for confounding variables such as inflation rate, political stability, education access, and more. Coming to a clearer consensus on how changing patent strength could impact individual income inequality will allow policymakers to craft more targeted strategies that account for all possible impacts.
References
[1] Ali, M. A., & Kamraju, M. (2023). Impact of artificial intelligence on intellectual property rights: Challenges and opportunities. Osmania University Journal of IPR, 1(1), 21–50. https://doi. org/10.ouipr.in/oujipr/vol1/iss1/2
[2] Bradley, S., Dauchy, E. P., & Robinson, L. A. (2015). Cross-country evidence on the preliminary effects of patent box regimes on patent activity and ownership. SSRN Electronic Journal. https:// doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2681433
[3] Brem, A., Nylund, P. A., & Hitchen, E. L. (2017). Open innovation and intellectual property rights: How do SMEs benefit from patents, industrial designs, trademarks, and copyrights? Management Decision, 55(6), 1285–1306. https:// doi.org/10.1108/md-04-2016-0223
[4] Cazzaniga, et al. (2024). Gen-AI: Artificial intelligence and the future of work. IMF Staff Discussion Note SDN2024/001, 5–22. International Monetary Fund.
[5] Chand, V., Kostic, S., & Reis, A. (2020). Taxing artificial intelligence and robots: Critical assessment of potential policy solutions and recommendation for alternative approaches. World Tax Journal, 12(4). https://doi. org/10.59403/2sjxe4d
[6] Ernst, C., Richter, K., & Riedel, N. (2013). Corporate taxation and the quality of research and development. SSRN Electronic Journal. https:// doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2228631
[7] Ginarte, J. C., & Park, W. G. (1997). Determinants of patent rights: A cross-national study. Research Policy, 26(3), 283–301. https:// doi.org/10.1016/s00487333(97)00022-x
[8] Iwaisako, T. (2016). Effects of patent protection on optimal corporate income and consumption taxes in an R&D-based growth model. Southern Economic Journal, 83(2), 590–608. https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12161
[9] Kiedaisch, C. (2016). Growth and welfare effects of intellectual property rights when consumers differ in income. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2753615
[10] Klemens, B. (2017). Intellectual property boxes and the paradox of price discrimination (CEP Working Papers 2017/3). Center for Economic Policy. https://www.cepweb.org/ wp-content/uploads/2017/05/CEP-WP-2017-3Intellectual-Property-Boxes-and-the-Paradoxof-Price-Discrimination.pdf
[11] Korinek, A., & Stiglitz, J. E. (2019). The economics of artificial intelligence. In Artificial intelligence and its implications for income distribution and unemployment (pp. 349–390). University of Chicago Press.
[12] Maskus, K. E. (2022). Intellectual property rights and inequality: Economic considerations. Stockholm Intellectual Property Law Review, 5(1), 44–51.
ARAM BACK BAND: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESS PLAN AND PROPOSAL FOR A HYPOTHETICAL REVOLUTIONARY
Millions suffer from lower back pain daily, disrupting sleep, work, and day-to-day activities. The ARAM BackBand addresses this prevalent issue through a revolutionary, wearable device that provides automatic, targeted pain relief. Using electromyography (EMG) sensing, ARAM’s waistband detects muscle cramps and activates muscular soothing through transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) precisely when needed—without any manual effort.
Unlike traditional TENS units that require manual control, dedicated usage sessions, and external assistance, ARAM offers hands-free, real-time relief, allowing users to go about their day without interruption. Whether at work or at home, it enables customers to continue their daily activities painfree. Our direct-to-consumer model ensures accessibility through online sales, with plans for future healthcare partnerships and expanded product lines. The device is ideal for those with chronic lower back pain who seek a reliable, non-invasive solution. Experience the next level of pain relief with ARAM—empowering you to take control of your comfort, every day.
1. Introduction
Lower back pain (LBP) is a pervasive issue that affected 619 million people globally in 2020 and is the leading cause of disability in most countries [1]. Despite various treatments available, including pain medications, physical therapy, and manual TENS devices, millions of people still struggle with ongoing discomfort. Conventional treatments often provide only temporary relief, and many require frequent visits to healthcare providers or reliance on medications that can lead to unwanted side effects [2]. This results in both a health and financial burden for individuals and society.
The global LBP treatment market is projected to exceed $6.12 billion by 2033, driven by an aging population, rising obesity rates, and increased demand for non-invasive, home-based solutions [3]. Current treatments, however, fail to address the need for continuous, on-demand
pain relief, especially for people who experience unpredictable flare-ups. These individuals need a solution that allows them to manage their pain without interrupting their daily lives.
ARAM addresses this gap by offering an innovative, wearable TENS unit that automatically detects muscle activity and triggers pain relief without manual intervention. Unlike traditional devices that require users to activate the system themselves, ARAM provides seamless, handsfree relief as soon as it detects muscle spasms or pain signals. This makes it ideal for individuals who need continuous pain management but are often busy with daily tasks. Its discreet, portable design ensures that it can be worn during normal activities, making it a convenient alternative to other treatments.
With the increasing demand for wearable health technology and non-invasive pain relief, ARAM
is positioned to meet the needs of individuals suffering from chronic LBP. By offering a smarter, more convenient solution, it presents a timely opportunity to transform the way LBP is managed and significantly improve the quality of life for millions.
2. Product Overview
The ARAM BackBand is a waistband with a thin, box-like pack intended to rest over the lower back region. On the surface of the band, touching the lower back, are six electrodes designed to lay on corresponding key nerve regions. The electrodes are hooked to both an electromyography (EMG) sensor and a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) unit within the pack. EMGs – which monitor muscular contractions – can detect abnormal muscular spasms correlated with back cramps or pain [4]. Additional research has also begun to identify statistical anomalies in EMG readings during fatigue, which can be used to design models for predicting the occurrence of back pain [5]. The back band’s goal is to detect when pain has occurred in the lower back to automatically administer TENS relief. The EMG scans each of the six electrodes, sequentially, and when pain is identified, uses relay switching to administer TENS on the respective electrode. Since the product is entirely non-invasive, it’s also necessary for a conductive gel to be applied over these electrodes before the band is worn. This is normal for TENS, and a favorable alternative to using an adhesive that directly sticks to the skin, which is more inconvenient for consumers yet common in competing devices.
With many manual TENS devices existing on the market today, our proprietary differentiation is the first automatic variant, based on a protectable EMG + TENS integration. Our vision is a discreet, convenient wearable device that addresses cramping and lower back pain for those in need without hindering daily activities.
Multiple elements of the product are competitively defensible and innovative. We intend to file the specific relay-switching electrode design for an initial provisional patent. The patent
application will present diagrams displaying the connection of 6 electrodes to an EMG + TENS central unit and alternate between EMG sensing and TENS relief. This can protect the efficacy and convenience of our hardware.
FDA approval must also be filed for, which can become costly. Since ARAM functions off of previously validated technologies (EMG and TENS), utilizing regulatory precedents in a novel way allows us to file as a ‘combined product’, potentially streamlining the review process and reducing costs when filing under a 510(k). Acquiring approval before competitors provides a head start in the innovation race.
There are few sophisticated EMG algorithms to detect back pain with high accuracy. With research investments, we will utilize neural network architectures for anomaly detection based on prior statistical research. Training these models privately/internally defends our algorithms. The accuracy of pain detection is essential for this product to be successful, making ownership of the most effective algorithms a powerful trade secret that cannot be copied by competitors.
Finally, on top of these numerous avenues for product defensibility, future licensing agreements with healthcare providers will also allow for exclusive distribution with different corporations as the company grows and expands, solidifying an assortment of methods to protect ARAM’s uniqueness.
The product’s impact when successful will be significant. We’ve mentioned that lower back pain is a leading cause of disability, affecting over 619 million people globally. More shockingly, it’s been reported that “Some 83 million days of work are lost per year due to back pain” [6]. Widespread adoption of the ARAM BackBand will be a game-changer for mankind in the sedentary and technological era. Just 10% of people affected by our product translates to millions of lives improved and workdays saved, improving quality of life and productivity.
Furthermore, research surveys validate the pressing need for innovation in this field from consumers. Quoted from the NIH, “In a recently published study, data from the CAPER TREATMENT survey showed that overall, patients are willing to accept certain risks for treatments with the best chances to relieve their pain, lengthen the period of pain relief…” [7]. The survey showcased various treatment options to over 200 sufferers of chronic lower back pain, intended to evaluate prioritized qualities of relief solutions. ARAM perfectly addresses the preferences for ‘lengthened relief’ and ‘high chance of pain relief’.
Since common, invasive drug-based solutions to back pain can induce side effects including stomach pain, drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, etc., we’re resolving a significant pain point for sufferers who lack solutions that are accessible and safe. We also reduce barriers to adoption, including affordability, through our automated system. By using validated technology in a non-invasive manner, ARAM serves affected individuals who want to treat their condition and are averse to current-market solutions.
3. Technical Validation
The device is designed to address lower back pain by integrating two established technologies— Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) and real-time Electromyography (EMG) detection. These technologies have each been independently validated for musculoskeletal pain, and ARAM brings them together in a way that is novel and transformative.
TENS is a well-established, non-invasive technique that delivers electrical currents to the skin to stimulate sensory nerves, which blocks pain signals from reaching the brain. Studies show that TENS is effective in acute and chronic back pain. For example, a meta-analysis published in the National Library of Medicine concluded that TENS can provide a statistically significant reduction in chronic low back pain, especially within the first weeks of usage [8]. Furthermore, research published in the PAIN Journal found that TENS significantly reduced
pain in comparison to placebo treatments [9]. Given its non-pharmacological nature, TENS is a valuable alternative for those looking to avoid medication-related side effects.
However, while TENS can provide symptomatic relief, its effectiveness can vary from person to person, as it does not adjust to real-time changes in the individual’s pain experience. This is where EMG comes into play. EMG measures the electrical activity produced by muscle contractions, which can reveal abnormal muscle tension and spasms associated with pain. Although direct studies on EMG’s role in detecting lower back pain specifically are limited, numerous studies have shown EMG’s capability to monitor muscle activation patterns and postural changes, which are often correlated with pain. For instance, a study published in Clinical Neurophysiology demonstrated that EMG can detect delayed relaxation in muscles during movements, a key indicator of pain [10]. Moreover, research from the Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology has shown that EMG can track abnormal movement patterns and muscle responses that typically accompany musculoskeletal pain, including in the lower back area [11].
In summary, the ARAM BackBand combines the proven efficacy of TENS with the dynamic adaptability of EMG, creating a novel solution to address lower back pain more effectively. With the design phase completed, ARAM is well-positioned to advance to prototyping and testing, bringing us one step closer to transforming pain management for individuals worldwide.
4. Market Research & Analysis
Back pain has been noted as the leading cause of work limitations globally. ARAM’s primary market for entry is adults experiencing chronic back pain throughout a corporate lifestyle, living in the United States. Our product will have a direct-to-consumer approach, leveraging OTC TENS and EMG technology. Initial customers will be from the 18+ age range, middle-high income, and seeking discreet, convenient, effective, and non-invasive remedies. They value a product that
maximizes lifestyle benefits with minimal medical intervention. The market for chronic lower back treatment in 2022 was valued at $2.2 billion globally, with North America holding 47.05% of the market share. This was the market valuation for solely drug-based remedies for chronic lower back pain. Fortune Business insights noted that restraining factors to the drug treatment market’s growth include the existence of alternative treatments such as “physical therapy, diet… or electrical nerve stimulation” [12]. Another report noted that the growing awareness of TENS as a non-invasive, drug-free alternative is propelling its market growth [13]. If 10% of the market for drugbased chronic lower back treatment converted to or additionally integrated ARAM, we’d achieve ~$103 million of value. Yet this is a low-end estimate based on our initial consumer market. With ARAM being both affordable and adaptable to varying back pain needs, the market can expand tremendously beyond only the subset suffering from chronic lower back pain. Additionally, with monetary growth, further research can be done in other applications. The market for chronic pain in other areas including menstrual, leg pain, etc, are all addressable through ARAM’s approach. The 2024 market size for all chronic pain treatment was ~$103 billion. After targeting back pain, our EMG + TENS approach could expand to other facets. Capturing just 1% of this market opens avenues for ARAM to become a billion-dollar entity.
5. Competitive Landscape
Two key competition areas exist: alternative pain relief devices and drug-based back treatment.
Within alternative relief devices, iReliev and NeuroMD are two major competitors. iReliev’s premium TENS unit sells for $99.99 in their cheapest package and offers an adhesive-based unit that requires manual activation. Strengths of the product include versatility in the area of application and relative affordability. Significant cons include a requirement to frequently replace pad adhesive and the bulkiness/inconveniences of the product. It targets fatigue and recovery from activity but can’t be conveniently utilized
on a day-to-day basis due to size. Its adjustment device is also not wireless, making it troublesome to carry. [14]
NeuroMD is a non-TENS approach, specifically targeting the back. It’s sleek and easy to wear. The NeuroMD product sells for $400 base, which is considered over-priced by market standards. Cons include that the device is designed for dedicated sessions and not constant use [15].
The final addressable competitors are drugbased back pain treatment methods, which users fear due to prevalent side effects.
ARAM BackBand seeks to address all of these drawbacks, with its main positioning being the first automated and convenient system for relief. ARAM automatically activates and adjusts treatment level and is a band-based wearable rather than adhesive-based. Its estimated price point is below market average and in line with iReliev at $99.99, while including extra features. Both TENS and EMGs are non-invasive, addressing customers avoiding drug-based treatment methods. One weakness is the need to re-apply conductive gel, similarly, mirroring a con of adhesive pads, but in exchange for a friendlier user experience. Additionally, due to EMG sensitivity, ARAM cannot function effectively during intense physical activities, preventing perfect ‘full day’ usage. Still, it’s convenient wearability and automatic activation make it a standout device ahead of major competitors in multiple areas.
6. Market Entry Strategy
ARAM will reach a diverse market through multiple sales channels. Initial brand visibility will be increased through trade shows, followed by influencer sponsorships and strategic partnerships to build credibility. Charity partnerships, like donating to the National Spine Health Foundation, will emotionally connect customers with ARAM’s mission to relieve pain, enhancing the brand’s image as caring and consumer-focused.
We will also leverage logos in our marketing to showcase the unmatched relief and convenience
of the ARAM BackBand. Digital marketing will integrate ethos, pathos, and logos to engage a broad audience by showcasing ARAM’s mission and product. Our primary market will include early adopters, like health enthusiasts and influencers, and following them, the early majority of individuals suffering from severe back pain who are actively seeking solutions. The target market for ARAM is best served through direct sales and supplemented with strategic partnerships, specifically affiliate or sponsorship marketing and charity partnerships.
7. Hypothetical Business Model
ARAM generates revenue through purchases of the Back Band and conductive gel. Customers will first purchase the BackBand priced at $99.99 and, if used daily, will need to purchase the gel priced at $9.99 once every month. The BackBand and gel have a 39.17% profit margin and 62.3% profit margin, respectively. These recurring gel purchases ensure customers remain connected and we generate continuous revenue.
The company’s costs are divided into two categories: startup costs and recurring costs. Startup costs include $250,000 for FDA 510(k) testing and approval, $25,000 for R&D, and $15,000 for intellectual property protection. Additionally, ARAM plans an initial marketing budget of $10,000 to build awareness through digital ads, SEO content, partnerships, and donating a percentage of revenue to the National Spine Health Foundation; marketing to businesses and consumers through trade shows and other media events will enhance our brand visibility. This will ensure compliance, safety, and a strong market presence. Recurring costs include manufacturing, distribution, warehousing, customer support, and marketing. Annually, this amounts to $101,520, covering essential expenses to ensure customer satisfaction and continue business operation and growth. The cost to deliver one BackBand unit is $70.05 and one unit of gel is $6.00, which includes materials, assembly, and packaging.
Estimating 1,000 BackBand sales and that 50% of customers purchase conductive gel
monthly, the company expects a first year profit of $49,880. Projecting further, with an estimated 11,000 sales by year three and 56,000 by year five, we expect a profit of $548,680 and $2,793,280 respectively (reference attachment 1 for longerterm projections). This profit will inevitably grow since we will also expand into other areas of pain relief and form partnerships with manufacturing companies to decrease production cost.
8. Conclusion
This paper seeks to present a hypothetical business model for a biomedically engineered device focused on addressing chronic lower back pain. By providing relevant business insights including technical implementation, market strategy, business model, and competitor analysis, it illustrates a comprehensive strategy for developing a biomedical product. Future work to advance such a project would involve prototyping, developing proofs of concept, and acquiring preliminary investments necessary to start production. Intensive R&D is also necessary to optimize the aforementioned machine learning algorithms necessary to make such a device work. This business plan is the first step to developing a revolutionary device in the medical space.
References
[1] GBD 2021 Low Back Pain Collaborators. (2023, May 22). Global, regional, and national burden of low back pain, 1990–2020, its attributable risk factors, and projections to 2050: A systematic analysis of the global burden of disease study 2021. The Lancet Rheumatology. https://pmc. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10234592/
[2] Van, S. (2024, July 3). 7 ways to treat chronic back pain without surgery. Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/ health/conditions-and-diseases/back-pain/7ways-to-treat-chronicback-pain-withoutsurgery
[3] Pandey, D. (2024, June 11). Chronic lower back pain market size and companies report by 2033. Towards Healthcare. https://www.
[4] Tagore, S., Reche, A., Paul, P., & Deshpande, M. (2023, December 19). Electromyography: Processing, muscles’ electric signal analysis, and use in myofunctional orthodontics. Cureus. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC107 94812/
[5] Rodrigues, S. B., de Faria, L. P., Monteiro, A. M., Lima, J. L., Barbosa, T. M., & Duarte, J. A. (2022, October 14). EMG signal processing for the study of localized muscle fatigue—Pilot study to explore the applicability of a novel method. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/ PMC960 3294/
[6] Health Policy Institute. (2019, February 13). Chronic back pain. Georgetown University. https://hpi.georgetown.edu/backpain/
[7] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2024, July 15). Research snapshot: New survey enables incorporation of personal preferences in treatment for chronic low back pain. National Institutes of Health. https://heal. nih.gov/news/stories/capertreatment-survey
[8] Jauregui, J. J. (2016, April 28). A metaanalysis of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for chronic low back pain. Surgical Technology International. https://pubmed.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/27042787/
[9] Marchand, S. (1993, February 1). Is TENS purely a placebo effect? A controlled study on... Pain. https://journals.lww.com/pain/ abstract/1993/0 7000/is_tens_purely_a_placebo_ effect__a_cont rolled.13.aspx
[10] Jacobs, J. V., Henry, S. M., Jones, S. L., Hitt, J. R., & Bunn, J. Y. (2011, November). A history of low back pain associates with altered electromyographic activation patterns in response to perturbations of standing balance. Journal of Neurophysiology. https://pmc.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC321412 3/
[11] Analysis of surface electromyography of patients with low back pain based on different movement patterns. (2016, August). IEEE Conference Publication, IEEE Xplore. https:// ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7831993/
[12] Chronic lower back pain treatment market report [2030]. (n.d.). Fortune Business Insights. https://www.fortunebusinessinsights. com/industryreports/chronic-lower-back-paintreatmentmarket-100575
[15] NeuroMD. (n.d.). NEUROMD corrective therapy device for back pain. https://getneuromd. com/products/neuromd-backpain-relief-device50-off
[16] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2024, August 8). NOT-NS-24-075: Notice of special interest (NOSI): HEAL initiative: Development and translation of diagnostic and therapeutic devices via Blueprint MedTech. National Institutes of Health. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/noticefiles/ NOT-NS-24-075.html
LUCENT WATER FILTER: A SUSTAINABLE AND ACCESSIBLE SOLUTION FOR CONTAMINATED WELL WATER IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
The Lucent Water Filter is a sustainable and easy-to-use well filtration system specially designed for people who rely on private wells, particularly in rural areas (NGWA, 2023). Our filter tackles some of the most persistent contaminants—like PFAS, nitrates, and heavy metals—by using a rechargeable ion exchange resin housed inside a 3D-printed cartridge. Unlike typical store-bought filters that require frequent replacements, ours can be regenerated and reused, saving families money in the long run and cutting down on plastic waste. We envision partnering with local nonprofits, government agencies, and even rural cooperatives to make sure no one is left behind when it comes to safe drinking water. By combining environmental responsibility with real-world practicality, Lucent has the potential to protect the health of thousands of households while reducing overall filtration costs. Our ultimate goal is to bring clean water access within everyone’s reach—without breaking the bank.
Team
We first met in our high school’s environmental science club, drawn together by a shared determination to tackle real-world issues. Some of us have family in rural India who struggle with contaminated well water every day, and seeing that hardship lit a fire under us. Sathvik is passionate about blending business and environmental science to create eco-friendly solutions, while Arjun runs his own tutoring startup and is all about giving back to the community. We both bring CAD and robotics skills to the table, and volunteer with a nonprofit that supports villages in India. We firmly believe safe water is a human right and not a privilege. With our combined talents, we’re determined to make a difference where it is needed most. We attend the North Carolina School of Science and mathematics, taking advanced chemistry and biology classes. Through this, we have access to NCSSM’s plethora of resources such as the FabLab, not to mention the many professor connections through both our school and colleges, such as Duke, near us.
Opportunity
Water pollution is a huge concern across the
globe, but it’s especially problematic in rural communities that rely on private wells. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 13 million U.S. households depend on private wells for their drinking water (CDC, 2023) and 2.5 billion globally rely on groundwater (CDC, 2023). Many of these wells are exposed to industrial pollutants, pesticides, fertilizer runoffs, and even “forever chemicals” known as PFAS. These contaminants have been linked to serious health issues, including cancer, developmental problems in children, and compromised immune systems (EPA, 2023).
Unfortunately, typical filtration products are often too expensive or too high-maintenance for rural families. Reverse osmosis systems can do a good job, but they’re costly to install and operate. Cheaper charcoal filters are convenient but can quickly become ineffective against stubborn pollutants like nitrates and PFAS. Plus, store-bought options often need frequent replacements—something that is not just expensive but also generates a lot of plastic waste.
We see a clear need for a cost-effective, easy-
to-maintain, and environmentally conscious filtration system specifically tailored for well water. Many people in rural areas also lack the technical support to handle complex solutions, so simplicity matters just as much as effectiveness. The Lucent Water Filter addresses these issues head-on by enabling households to regenerate the filter rather than throw it out. Our focus on using advanced, yet accessible, ion exchange technology means we can remove tough contaminants while staying budget-friendly. By targeting areas with the most severe contamination challenges, we aim to make a tangible, positive impact on both individual families and the wider community.
Key Metrics
When we first thought of Lucent, our biggest challenge was figuring out how to shrink industrial ion exchange technology into a format that a regular family could use without professional help. We wanted something affordable yet powerful enough to tackle tough contaminants like nitrates and PFAS, which can slip through traditional filters (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2021). Our solution is a compact, 3D-printed cartridge filled with regenerable ion exchange resin. By combining familiar chemistry with a fresh, user-friendly design, we are aiming to give families in rural communities—and really anywhere—an effective way to ensure their drinking water is safe.
Lucent’s filtration system works by passing water through a resin bed that latches onto negatively charged contaminants, such as nitrates, or organic chemicals like PFAS. Because these pollutants stick to the resin, the filtered water that comes out the other side is significantly cleaner and safer. What makes our process stand out is that it doesn’t remove important minerals, like calcium and magnesium, which contribute to water’s taste and health benefits. Large-scale water treatment plants have used ion exchange resins for decades, so we know the chemistry is sound. The difficulty lies in shaping this into a neat cartridge that a farmer could install at their well without a contractor or specialized gear.
Of course, every filter has a limit to how much contamination it can hold. That’s where regeneration comes in. With Lucent, you don’t just toss out the cartridge when it’s spent—you recharge the resin using a mild brine solution. It’s somewhat similar to how a standard water softener regenerates. After soaking the cartridge in this brine for a set period, the contaminants wash away, and the resin is ready for another round of filtration. We’re developing clear, step-by-step instructions, complete with visuals, to make this task as simple as cleaning a coffee maker. Users can also safely dispose of the brine if they follow the guidelines we’ve created, which are informed by research from journals like the Journal of Water Process Engineering (2024).
While the idea of ion exchange resin itself isn’t new, our take on it is. Most consumer filters with ion exchange are either single-use cartridges or big, expensive tanks that require professional attention. We’ve built a 3D-printed cartridge that organizes water flow in a way that maximizes contact time with the resin. By relying on optimized internal channels, we get a thorough filtration process in a relatively small space. We’re also making everything modular, so if we improve our resin formula or develop better housing in the future, people can just upgrade that piece rather than buying a whole new system. To protect our work, we’re looking at patents for the cartridge geometry and keeping our exact regeneration formula as a trade secret—this one-two punch should give us a healthy lead over anyone trying to copy what we’re doing.
In terms of addressing real problems, we know rural families often face high nitrate levels from fertilizer runoff and PFAS pollution from industrial sites (EPA, 2023). Research confirms that specialized ion exchange resins can remove over 90% of these contaminants, which brings immediate health benefits. On top of that, the ability to regenerate the filter means families won’t spend a fortune on constant replacements, and they’ll generate far less plastic waste. We see this as a big perk for anyone worried about the financial burden of more expensive systems, as
well as for communities looking to cut down on disposable cartridges.
Beyond the chemistry, we’re also trying to measure Lucent’s impact on both individual households and the broader community. We collect data on filtration efficiency by testing water samples before and after passing through the filter. We also look at lifetime costs: how much money does someone save over six months or a year compared to using disposable filters? Equally important, we track how often people actually regenerate their filters. If folks skip the regeneration step, the system won’t work as intended, so it’s vital we make this process straightforward. Our surveys also ask about community feedback—are users satisfied with how their water tastes? Do they find the setup easy? Would they recommend Lucent to a neighbor?
By keeping a close eye on these metrics, we can spot issues and refine our product. Maybe we’ll discover a better resin for arsenic or lead, or we might rework the cartridge shape if lab results show we can improve flow rates. Essentially, our success hinges on meeting people’s real needs in a simple, cost-effective way. If families feel safe drinking from their wells again, and if our regeneration process isn’t a hassle, then we’ve hit our mark. Over time, we hope Lucent’s solid performance and user-friendly design will make it a go-to choice in communities dealing with contaminated well water. And by building trust on a local level—one household at a time—we’re confident we can grow into a global solution that truly stands out in the water filtration market.
Validation/Progress
1. Technical Validation
Our team started by reviewing academic papers and government guidelines to understand how ion exchange resins are used in large-scale municipal or industrial settings (Journal of Water Process Engineering, 2024). We adapted that proven concept into something smaller and simpler. We plan on testing our early prototypes with water samples containing intentionally elevated
nitrate levels. Preliminary results of ion exchange resin through literature have shown a significant reduction, often exceeding 85%, in nitrate concentrations, which we consider promising given they were only preliminary studies.
2. Regeneration Trials
We experimented with a variety of solutions to see which one works best for regeneration. A high-salinity brine was effective but sometimes caused the resin to degrade if used too frequently. A weaker brine worked well for us, but we combined it with a short soak in a mild acid solution for stubborn contaminants. We’re still fine-tuning this regeneration cocktail to ensure it’s both environmentally safe and easy for nonexperts.
3. Prototype Development
We have iterated through at least half a dozen 3D-printed cartridge prototypes. The most recent version features a twist-and-lock mechanism that makes it simple to remove the resin compartment without having to unscrew or dismantle the entire filter. We’re also experimenting with different types of filaments—like PLA vs. PETG vs. ABS— because some materials handle water better than others, and we want to ensure durability without releasing microplastics (3D Printing Filaments for Water Filtration, 2023).
4. Community and Stakeholder Feedback
We started organizing virtual sessions with local farmers, rural families, and a few staff members from a regional NGO called urban community agrinomics (UCAN). We showcased a short demonstration of how the filter is installed and how the regeneration process works. While people loved the concept of a reusable filter, a few concerns popped up about disposing of the spent brine solution. These conversations led us to create easy disposal guidelines—like diluting spent brine in larger volumes of water or directing it to municipal waste systems where possible.
5. Current Status and Next Steps
We plan to set up a pilot program with about ten households in our county who have volunteered
to test out Lucent for a month. Our plan includes regular water testing, user feedback surveys, and training sessions on proper regeneration. We’re also gathering data on the frequency of brine disposal to refine instructions about safe and responsible disposal. Overall, we’re encouraged by how far we’ve come, and we believe these pilot studies will help us polish our design before a wider rollout.
Market
Our primary market consists of rural families and small-scale farmers who rely on private wells for drinking water, cooking, and agricultural tasks. These users typically have limited access to municipal water treatment systems, and they want a product that is affordable, easy to maintain, and effective at removing specific contaminants like nitrates, heavy metals, and PFAS. Based on CDC data, there are over 13 million private wells in the United States alone (CDC, 2023), many of which face varying degrees of contamination. That represents a substantial market opportunity in the U.S., and the global demand could be even larger.
For these families, the main priority is safety and peace of mind, closely followed by cost-effectiveness. Many communities where we’ve done outreach also value environmental responsibility, especially if it means reducing plastic waste and contributing to local sustainability efforts.
In some instances, the buyer might not be the direct end-user. For example, certain nonprofits or government programs could fund or subsidize the purchase of filters to improve community health outcomes. We also see possibilities in collaborating with local farm bureaus and cooperative extensions, who can promote our filter through agricultural networks.
As for the industry ecosystem, it includes water treatment suppliers, nonprofits focused on rural development, and environmental regulatory bodies. We fit into this ecosystem as a low-cost, high-impact solution that can supplement or
even replace existing filtration options, especially where high-end systems are not feasible. By positioning ourselves as a partner to nonprofits and government initiatives, we aim to scale up quickly while also ensuring that our product reaches people who need it most.
Competition
Most people are familiar with Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems because they do a great job filtering out a wide range of contaminants, but they can be prohibitively expensive, both to buy and operate. They also tend to waste water, which can be tough on families already struggling with access and costs. On the flip side, activated carbon filters are more affordable and easy to find, yet they’re not always reliable for harsh pollutants like PFAS and high nitrate levels. Having to replace carbon filters so frequently can also add up in expenses and plastic waste.
Meanwhile, industrial ion exchange products— the closest competition to our approach—are usually designed for massive systems, making them bulky, expensive, and complicated to install in a single household. Rural families often lack the resources or expertise to maintain these industrial setups.
This is where Lucent stands out. We use a reusable resin that cuts down on ongoing costs, and our 3D-printed design targets specific wellwater contaminants without overwhelming users with complex machinery. We also keep the regeneration process simple, so people don’t have to be engineers or chemists to maintain it. At the same time, we know we’re entering a space dominated by big-name filter brands, so building trust in our new product will take real effort. We also realize that if customers skip or forget the recommended regeneration steps, filter performance can dip—something that might affect our reputation over time. Lastly, we’ll need to carefully scale our 3D-printing operations to meet demand without losing sight of quality control.
Overall, we see ourselves carving out a niche
as a community-focused, eco-conscious, and cost-effective solution. By zeroing in on rural areas and tailoring our technology specifically to remove PFAS, nitrates, and other well-water contaminants, we believe we can offer something unique that mainstream options often miss.
Go-To-Market
We plan to begin by placing pilot units in a few rural communities, working closely with nonprofit organizations and local farm cooperatives. These early adopters will receive subsidized Lucent filters in exchange for detailed feedback, which will help us fine-tune our design and support materials. Once we’ve collected enough success stories, we’ll expand our reach through direct online sales—complete with educational guides—and partnerships with additional NGOs.
During in-person community workshops, we’ll demonstrate how to install the filter and perform the resin regeneration. We believe hands-on training is crucial in areas where people may have limited technical resources. Later, we hope to license our 3D-printed designs to trusted manufacturers around the country (and potentially worldwide). This strategy should keep our costs down and allow local production, so filters can be delivered faster and cheaper to the communities that need them most.
Business Model
Our business model focuses on three main ways to generate revenue, all designed to make the Lucent Filter as accessible and impactful as possible. First, we plan to sell our Lucent Filter Kit, which comes with a 3D-printed housing, a specialized resin cartridge, and a clear setup guide. We expect most customers to start their journey with this kit, which we’re aiming to price around $150–$200. Within that range, we’ve calculated a comfortable margin if we manage our material and production costs efficiently.
Next, we’ll offer regeneration supplies and subscriptions for households that don’t want the hassle of mixing their own brine solution. These refill packets—delivered monthly or quarterly for
around $10–$15—give us a steady income stream and help us stay connected with users, ensuring the filter remains effective over time. Finally, we plan to sell replacement parts and product upgrades, like region-specific resin blends (for contaminants like arsenic or lead) and improved cartridge designs that make the filter last even longer.
On the cost side, our biggest expenses are high-quality ion exchange resin and the durable 3D-printing filaments used for the filter housing. We’ve also set aside a good chunk of money for R&D, since we’re always looking to refine the resin’s regeneration process and adapt our design to different water conditions. Beyond materials and research, we’ll handle shipping, packaging, and customer support in-house—at least initially—to maintain quality and keep our users satisfied. Our marketing and community outreach budget will go toward everything from online awareness campaigns to on-the-ground workshops, ensuring we reach families who might not realize there’s a filter out there that can handle tough contaminants in their well water.
Fundraising
We’re estimating that $150,000 will let us move from our current prototypes to a proper pilot phase, and we’ve broken this amount down carefully to cover the essentials. We’ll spend around $60,000 on bulk resin and 3D-printing materials to produce the first few hundred units and get them shipped to our pilot communities. Then, we’ve earmarked $30,000 for certifications—ex. Meeting NSF/ ANSI standards—and for legal fees tied to patent filings that protect our unique cartridge design. Another $30,000 will fund our marketing and outreach efforts, including local demonstrations, social media campaigns, and pilot-program subsidies. The final $30,000 goes toward R&D, which covers in-depth testing of resin blends and hiring part-time engineering help to refine our manufacturing setup.
To raise these funds, we’re looking at environmental grants, reaching out to impact investors who value both profitability and social
good, and launching a crowdfunding campaign that can help spread the word and confirm there’s real demand for our solution.
Lucent Website: https://lucentfilter.com/
References
[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Private ground water wells. https://www.cdc.gov/drinking-water/?CDC_ AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/ drinking/
[3] World Health Organization. (2022). Nitrate and nitrite in drinking-water: Background document for development of WHO guidelines for drinking-water quality.
[4] Ion exchange technology. (2024). Journal of Water Process Engineering, 35, 112–120.
[5] 3D printing filaments for water filtration. (2023). Materials Science & Engineering A, 817, 21–29.
[6] National Ground Water Association. (2023). Facts about global groundwater usage. https://www.ngwa.org/what-is-groundwater/ About-groundwater
[7] Food and Agriculture Organization. (2022). Water quality and agriculture: Meeting the challenge. http://www.fao.org/land-water
[8] United Nations Water. (2022). Water quality and wastewater. https://www.unwater. org/water-facts/quality-and-wastewater
[9] Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (2021). PFAS: Health risks and exposure. https:// www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/pfashealth-risks-and-exposure
[10] National Geographic. (2022). Groundwater: The hidden resource. https://www. nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/ groundwater
[11] American Water Works Association. (2023). Ion exchange basics. https://www.awwa. org/Resources-Tools/Resource-Topics/WaterQuality-Issues/ion-exchange
[12] Water Quality Association. (2022). Ion exchange filtration. https://www.wqa.org/learnabout-water/water-filtration-treatment/ionexchange
[13] ScienceDirect. (2023). Ion exchange membranes and applications. https://www. sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/ionexchange-membrane
[14] Dow Water & Process Solutions. (2023). Ion exchange resins. https://www.dupont.com/ water/ion-exchange-resins.html
[15] PubChem. (2022). Ion exchange resin properties. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ compound/Ion-Exchange-Resin
[16] Webofproceedings. (2025). WHYE216. pdf. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https:// webofproceedings.org/proceedings_series/ ALSMB/MedSBE%202020/WHYE216.pdf
NEERU: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESS PLAN AND PROPOSAL FOR
A REVOLUTIONARY
SUSTAINABLE
LUXURY
SHOWER SYSTEM WITH HEAT RECOVERY AND SMART TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION
Imagine a shower that saves the planet and your wallet: this is NEERU, the world’s first eco-luxury shower with built-in heat recycling. NEERU slashes energy bills while delivering enough water every single time. Unlike its competitors, NEERU pays special attention to the usability of our product.
For example, while current products often address physical or internal aspects, they leave behind gaps in functionality. The product fills the gap by integrating heat recovery with smart sensors and monitoring technologies. By extracting heat from wastewater and using that to warm incoming water, NEERU saves energy on levels incomparable to other products. Aside from this, intelligent controls allow users to maintain an enjoyable shower experience due to customizability, a companion app, and other quality-of-life features.
Ultimately, NEERU remains unique from all of its competitors due to being able to effectively incorporate elements of both usability and functionality within its product. Furthermore, its heat recovery system is uncommon within shower systems at large and has the potential to save extreme amounts of energy within households.
To maintain significant market reach, NEERU has been working directly with three distinct customer bases: homeowners, construction companies, and other shower companies. By selling its product to these three groups, NEERU has been able to gain steady profits and incorporate its product into every stage of the house. As such, NEERU is in a position to reach peak financial success.
Company Profile
Originally founded by five individuals, each person will own an equal percentage of 15% of the company. This will add up to a total of 75%. The other 25% of the company is currently allotted to go public once the company launches. This strategy will provide the company with critical funding during the early stages of the company.
As for the company structure, NEERU will be an LLC (i.e., a Limited Liability Company). This decision was primarily chosen due to the ease of managing an LLC-style company: it will protect the company owner’s assets in case of a lawsuit
while also gaining pass-through income taxation. These two factors are crucial for NEERU, as they will help the company grow faster due to easier management capabilities.
NEERU’s mission statement is to provide an enjoyable shower experience to its customers while also emphasizing lower energy/water usage through innovative means. In the future, we hope to expand the reach of our product and limit excess energy and water usage for people across the country. Through these means, we believe we can make an impact on society and the environment.
NEERU’s immediate development goals entail dedicating a lot of money to a research and development (R&D) team alongside a marketing team. We are using this approach as we want to minimize all costs associated with the product and processes while increasing its reach and spread across potential customers. We believe this approach will also help us achieve future success by making sure our product remains viable within the industry.
This approach also requires dedication, as without a cost-effective product, we realize our demand will not be as high as it needs to be. For this reason, we have spent most of our money already on our R&D team, and they are working hard to improve the cost and feasibility of our product.
Industry Analysis
Smart shower heads, particularly those that prioritize water-saving measures, are currently estimated to be valued at $952.03 million (as of 2024). To this extent, a study from Data Bridge Market Research, a company specializing in market research for different industries, has shown that the market is projected to grow at a rate of 3.6% from 2025 to 2032 (Data Bridge). This equates to a total of approximately $1.26 billion in 2032. What this shows is simple: the smart shower head market is growing exponentially, and in the coming years, it shows immense growth potential.
This is not just a trend into the foreseeable future: considering how big the market is in 2025, we can understand that this market has seen extreme levels of growth within the past few years as well.
Due to our entry into a niche market, we will not have extreme numbers of competitors. Additionally, with NEERU’s current R&D team producing a more cost-effective and viable product, the company is confident in its ability to take the smart showerhead market by storm. According to initial estimates, at the bare minimum, NEERU will control around 20% of the total market within North Carolina into year 5 of
production.
Also, NEERU’s smart shower competitors hedge their cards into one area. For example, many of these companies have worked on innovative environmental efficiency alongside improvements in water flow. However, by building upon recent strides in technology and by emphasizing equal efforts into quality of life features, from an inbuilt music system and a free smartphone app for easier utilization, NEERU provides a prized unique value proposition to the industry.
Target Market
NEERU will be a product that will be available for anyone to buy. However, to ensure future growth, profitability, and success, the company’s founders have paid special attention to three specific groups: individual homeowners, construction companies, and other shower companies. These three groups have the most to do with the smart showerhead industry, and they will benefit a lot from using NEERU.
First, we will target homeowners. Many families and individuals across the United States and beyond desire smart shower heads inside their homes. They desire an optimal shower experience that a regular shower head cannot provide. Due to these reasons, individual homeowners benefit the most from a product like NEERU: it provides the right level of comfort and sustainability and allows them to effectively enjoy the shower. From a logical standpoint, targeting homeowners makes perfect sense: they are the ones who will use the showerheads eventually, and selling the product directly to them is sure to produce hefty profits.
Finally, we can sell NEERU to other shower companies too. With our current technology and research team working hard towards making NEERU showerheads cost-effective, the company is certain that its product will take the market by storm. As such, they are planning to benefit from this by selling their product to other shower companies. By doing this, NEERU will be able to gain additional revenue while
ensuring the spread and growth of its product. In general terms, the smart shower head market is growing a lot due to recent advancements in technology. Any shower head involving the use of technology is getting a lot of attention within the market, with consumers eyeing products like these for their own companies/households. The commercial segment holds the largest share of the smart shower head market, as well as major businesses and companies looking to buy these types of products.
Due to the increased demand, we can see two specific patterns: increased product differentiation between companies and price segmentation for a specified brand. These two patterns have been used by companies to increase profits while maintaining a unique value proposition.
These approaches were considered by NEERU as well. Although the company already exceeded other competitors in terms of product differentiation, the founders of NEERU aim to implement price segmentation sometime in the future after the product has started to make revenue within the market.
Due to NEERU and its competitors relying a lot on advanced technology, the main sensitivity brought forward involves a lack of confidence in technology reliability. Many consumers are worried about cybersecurity for the smart shower heads they use. We have taken measures to address this by hiring cybersecurity experts using base investments. These individuals are working hard to ensure proper security measures are taken to protect the data of our consumers.
Another sensitivity is the price of our product. NEERU has made sure to address this as well through their research team. This team has been looking into more price-effective solutions while ensuring optimal water/energy usage levels that maintain environmental efficiency.
Competition
For any business, competition serves as the number one reason for why they fail. Many
founders forget to research their competitors, and in the process, their unique value proposition falls flat. NEERU has taken steps to prevent this, and from the get-go, research into the company’s competitors was launched. From this, NEERU gained significant insights that would allow them to maintain their unique value proposition.
The Hai Smart Shower Head is a smart shower head emphasizing quality of life features. The product features Bluetooth compatibility and allows its users to control its water temperature and flow. It also has a built-in smartphone app that monitors water usage. This particular product costs around $200 per product and is sold in two different models.
This product also has 20% more efficiency than most other standard products. It converts its water at a flow rate of 1.8 GPM. Aside from this, it also has a WaterSense certification. Due to this, this particular showerhead is the greatest competitor to NEERU. Hai’s shower heads make sure to address both quality of life features alongside environmental benefits. This particular competitor will also be a major barrier for NEERU due to them already having a presence within the industry.
However, NEERU still has the grounds to get past this. Due to NEERU’s system of minimizing water usage from wastewater, it will be more unique than the Hai Smart Shower Head. Aside from this, NEERU has plans to include all of Hai’s quality of life features alongside other additions from a built-in music and film catalog to a watertracking system. All of this shows how NEERU will still be ahead of its competitors while maintaining its unique value proposition.
Marketing Plan and Sales Strategy
To ensure the spread of NEERU across different markets while maximizing profitability, NEERU showerheads will be marketed through three methods: social media, partnerships and incentives, and public stocks.
Social media, in particular, is buzzing right
now. Many potential consumers get their information and news from social media. For companies, this serves as the perfect opportunity to increase knowledge of their product to others. For this reason, NEERU has plans to increase its reach through social media apps. Particularly, the company aims to solidify its reach through Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube in particular.
Due to TikTok’s strange relationship with the U.S. government, Instagram is increasing in consumers. This serves as the perfect opportunity for NEERU to make an account there and get customers for their product.
On the other hand, Facebook appeals to older audiences, such as adults, while YouTube appeals to general audiences from all age groups. By focusing on these three apps, NEERU will spread as a product to everyone across the United States, irrespective of age.
Currently the founders of NEERU are looking into the algorithms within these social media platforms. They plan to launch accounts on these particular platforms in 2026 after their product starts production.
Using partnerships, NEERU will build relations with construction companies and other shower producers to sell more of its products. Through these methods, the reach of their product would increase significantly with NEERU being available at all stages of the house-building process.
Incentives will ensure that companies stick with NEERU. For companies that have already been doing business with us for 3+ years, NEERU plans on making the product cheaper for them. The goal of this approach is to increase profits in the long term.
As stated before, the five founders of NEERU own 15% of the company. The other 25% of the company will be available for purchase through the stock market. Doing this allows NEERU to make some extra profit; it even allows the company to spread knowledge of its existence
within the stock market as well. The logic behind this is simple. Investors who invest in NEERU will also be motivated to buy a showerhead as well.
Operations, Management, and Organization
NEERU aims to limit energy/water usage through a field shower wastewater recovery system. This type of wastewater system for showers is an area of active research and is studied theoretically all over the globe. Ultimately, this approach does the following: First, it collects wastewater from the shower and filters/disinfects it as much as possible in 30 seconds. After this, the water is mixed with clean water at a 60:40 ratio, ultimately being reused by the shower. A product like this will limit water usage by reusing wastewater. It will even make sure to save energy usage due to the correlation between high water and high energy usage. To build the showers, NEERU is working with companies within the United States. In particular, they plan to get their supplies from the Dow Chemical Company, Olin Brass, Dow Elastomers, and Atotech: all of these companies have expertise in different fields ranging from metal to rubber components. The software for the showerheads will be developed specially by ScienceSoft, a company specializing in software development.
NEERU aims to manufacture its products using the latest technology. The founders of the company recognize how using technology for manufacturing purposes can increase productivity and eliminate costs. For this reason, the only labor cost required for this purpose would be someone to oversee the manufacturing taking place.
Also, if we analyze NEERU’s brand and future success, we have to understand the role technology plays within the company. With plans in place to construct a built-in smartphone app alongside music features, technology is central to the company’s future goals. To address this, NEERU plans to hire independent cybersecurity experts. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure user safety for those using our product.
NEERU also aimed to address the possibility of adding a built-in music and film system to the shower. We believed that this approach was crucial if we wanted to revolutionize showers. The major setback in this area was copyright. Due to this, the company plans to make business deals with major music and film companies so that NEERU users can access their content. Finally, for all customers, NEERU will give out a free 3-year warranty in case the showerhead malfunctions. This must be done to increase customer confidence, a crucial factor, especially in the earlier stages of a business.
Long-Term Development
Three years from now (2028), NEERU hopes to gain a significant foothold within the smart shower head market. By this point, they would have started with manufacturing, making enough profits to control around 15% of the smart shower head market within North Carolina. With functional partnerships and marketing techniques such as social media, NEERU would have a major presence within the state.
Five years from now (2030), NEERU hopes to control the North Carolina market and expand to neighboring U.S. states such as South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. This would allow them to control more of the market. Another emphasis around this time would be an increase in online sales. This would mean that NEERU showerheads would be accessible to even states like California, which are geographically far away from North Carolina.
Ten years from now (2035), NEERU hopes to have a major presence throughout the United States. By making deals with local companies and businesses throughout the country, the presence of the company within the smart shower head market at large would be incomparable. From this point onwards, the company would have to focus more on foreign expansion and look towards countries such as Canada and Mexico. Another focus would also be expanding to Europe or a rich country such as Saudi Arabia. These areas will have enough consumers there and will allow NEERU to make additional profits.
References
[1] Data Bridge Market Research. (2025, January). Global water saving shower heads market market analysis. Data Bridge Market Research. https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/ es/reports/global-water-saving-shower-headsmarket/market-analysis
[2] Hai. (2025). Hai. https://gethai.com/
[3] Ip, K., Grimes, S., & Frazer, D. (2017). Lifecycle impacts of shower water waste heat recovery: Case study of an installation at a university sport facility in the UK. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 25(20), 19247–19258. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0409-0
[4] Lu, W., & Leung, A. Y. T. (2003). A preliminary study on potential of developing shower/laundry wastewater reclamation and reuse system. Chemosphere, 52(9), 1451–1459. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0045-6535(03)00482-x
[5] Ovadia, E., & Sharqawy, M. H. (2023). Thermal and economic evaluations of a drain water heat recovery device under transient conditions. Clean Energy and Sustainability, 1(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.35534/ces.2023.10004
[6] Recoup WWHRS. (2024, March 5). Recoup WWHRS - Case studies or waste water heat recovery projects. Recoup WWHRS. https:// recoup.co.uk/case-studies/
[7] Remache-Vinueza, B., Arias-Vargas, R., Bravo-Montero, J., & Benítez-Pastás, J. (2020). Design and implementation of a wastewater heat recovery system prototype for electric showers in Quito-Ecuador. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 325–332. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-51981-0_41
[8] UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). (2024, May 15). Waste water heat recovery system for showers. UKGBC. https://ukgbc.org/ resources/waste-water-heat-recovery-systemfor-showers/
[9] Wong, L. T., Mui, K. W., & Guan, Y. (2010). Shower water heat recovery in highrise residential buildings of Hong Kong. Applied Energy, 87(2), 703–709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. apenergy.2009.08.008
[10] Wu, Y., Zhao, H., & Zhang, X. (2017). Thermodynamic analysis on an instantaneous water heating system of shower wastewater source heat pump. Journal of Water Reuse and Desalination, 8(3), 404–411. https://doi. org/10.2166/wrd.2017.194
THE BUSINESS OF BLACKNESS: HOW AMERICAN GIRL’S ADDY WALKER REDUCES SLAVERY TO A MARKETABLE NARRATIVE
Tess Totten
As a young girl who loved playing with dolls and imagining myself in different realities, I was delighted when I unwrapped the American Girl doll under my Christmas tree that year. As I unboxed the doll my face gleamed with satisfaction as I looked at a doll that shared my complexion: blonde hair and blue eyes. Through this doll, I imagined myself in different eras of the past, present, and future. However, many children did not have that luxury. For decades, American Girl only had one Black doll who was a part of their collection. This reality caused many children to lack the opportunity to have an iconic American Girl doll that reflected the diverse history of Black Americans. It would take almost two decades for American Girl to release a Black doll after Addy Walker in 1993, who wasn’t set in the time period of slavery like Addy. Because of this delay, many Black children within that time period were only able to imagine themselves through the lens of slavery when they played with their dolls. This issue is one of the many problematic messages that Addy Walker sends to children. While her storyline aims to expose kids to Black history through enslavement, its portrayal ends up reflecting historical materialism: the profit-driven nature of their dolls overshadows a truthful portrayal of slavery. By downplaying the brutal realities that Black Americans endured during the Civil War era, this narrative engages with historical negationism and racial innocence. It does so by softening slavery’s impact to fit a marketable narrative and fostering wrongful innocence among children.
To unpack the inaccuracies and impact of Addy Walker on society, the doll and her storyline can be examined through historical negationism, historical materialism, and racial innocence. Historical negationism is any form of constructing
a false record of history, which would include oversimplification. Historical negationism is evident in Addy Walker through her storyline’s misrepresentation of history that downplays the experience of enslaved Black Americans. Additionally, the historical negationism of the doll’s marketing instilled false ideas and stereotypes about Black Americans into white children. On the other hand, historical materialism explains the reasoning behind this falsification of history. This is because historical materialism is the idea that history inevitably leads back to material items, explaining how history is controlled by the companies producing the materials. Moreover, American Girl is motivated to make a “marketable” narrative out of slavery through Addy Walker, because it increases their profits to have a more “light-hearted” storyline. Lastly, racial innocence helps us understand the impact of Addy Walker and other materials on children. Racial innocence is discussed by Robin Bernstein, a history professor at Harvard University, who states that racial innocence is the idea that society constructs “white children as innocent and vulnerable while excluding black youth from these qualities” (Berstein). Racial innocence helps us to examine how Addy Walker creates a false and more innocent narrative for the white American Girl clients by avoiding treading through the harsh realities of slavery. By looking at Addy Walker through these lenses it is evident how her storyline constructs a false portrayal of slavery.
I. Legacy of Black Dolls and Their Role in Society
Before examining Addy Walker, we need to understand this doll in the context of racialized dolls in America. For the last two centuries, white companies created Black dolls with the intent of prolonging racism. In the late 19th century, doll makers marketed Black dolls to white children such as sambo dolls, golliwog dolls, mammy dolls, and pickaninny dolls. Pickaninny dolls, in particular, were caricatures of Black children who were “untamed [and] genderless” and had “wide eyes, hair sticking up all around the child’s head, and [were] often ‘stuffing their wide mouths with watermelon or chicken” (Olson 83). In Figure 1, the perpetuation of Black stereotypes is extremely evident. Despite this, many white children were told to believe these caricatures were accurate representations of Black people. If these exaggerations themselves are not enough to showcase the explicit racism perpetuated by these dolls, they also had soft or rubber bodies that encouraged violence. In turn, this memorialized the idea that Black children and adults could not feel any pain because the dolls withstood the violence from white children (Bernstein). Understanding how false ideas like this were instilled in children through dolls helps us to understand how the false portrayal of Black history in Addy Walker’s storyline is instilled in children.
The internalization of racist societal norms and racial innocence in children through these dolls appears in physiological tests that scientists conducted over the past two centuries. In psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s Doll Study, children faced a choice between a white doll or a Black doll while answering prompts such as “Give me the doll that looks bad” or “Give me the doll that is a nice color.” Scientists saw common trends among both white and Black children from the study: 59% chose the Black doll as the “bad doll” (Clark). The results of this test showed how society’s viewpoints on race played out through these dolls. Most notably, how society’s racist viewpoints negatively impacted the self-esteem of Black children, as many of them said the doll that shared their race was the “bad doll.” Additionally, this evidence shows that the racist toys marketed to white children impacted them, by instilling racial innocence in children; they believed that society considered such racism as normal. Maddison Starr, a scholar from Trinity College, discusses this idea of racial innocence. She argues that this racial innocence is instilled by “validating the image of the bafoonish, stupid and inferior black character” (Starr 4). Moreover, by normalizing these stereotypes in toys, racist ideologies persist among future generations of children.
Unfortunately, society suffers from the effects
Fig. 1. Pickaninny stereotypes (Jim Crow Museum).
Fig. 2. A child being observed during the Doll Study (Library of Congress).
of racial innocence today. The most recent recreation of this experiment was done in 2005 with Kiri Davis’ “A Girl Like Me.” This experiment repeated the same procedures and questions asked from the original Clark Doll Study. Despite being more than five decades past desegregation, the experiment gave the same results. Through historical materialism, it’s clear that white people in power shaped history through dolls and other children’s toys leading to the racial innocence exhibited in the Doll Study. Racial innocence also known as society perpetuating blamelessness and avoiding dealing with problems it created like racism is seen throughout this study. White kids were led to believe it was okay and normal that they chose the white doll as the “nice doll” and the Black doll as the “bad doll” when in reality this is a form of racism. Racial innocence like this is important to acknowledge as it was perpetuated through children through things they were exposed to such as dolls.
With all that said, that is not to say that ethnically accurate dolls did not exist which worked against the stereotypes eternalized by the racist dolls. However, the ethnically accurate dolls were costly and inaccessible. Many producers of these ethically accurate dolls had the false idea that once these dolls were created, produced, and put out onto shelves the misrepresentation of Black Americans was addressed. However, the producers failed to acknowledge that many Black Americans were unable to access these dolls, because of the limited quantity produced or the sheer expense of these dolls. In Elizabeth Chin’s “Ethnically Correct Dolls: Toying with the Race Industry,” she explains that the benefit of ethnic representation in dolls is crucial among low-income communities. As a result of the racialized nature of generational wealth, some members of these communities also face financial barriers in addition to the education that covers comprehensive and diverse teachings of Black history (Chin 309). American Girl dolls happen to fall under this category of physically accurate ethnic dolls that were overly expensive, as their dolls are well over one hundred dollars today (American Girl).
Addy Walker’s storyline denies a holistic Black history because it fails to acknowledge the racist history behind the creation of Black dolls. In Addy Walker’s book “Addy’s Surprise,” Addy receives a rag doll known as Ida Bean as a Christmas present from her mother (shown in Figure 3). The only context we are given about Ida Bean is her mother noting that she crafted the doll by “stuff[ing] her with some beans [she had] saved” (Porter 48). While dolls like this existed, American Girl fails to acknowledge the history of malicious intent behind many of the Black dolls created during the Civil War era. This demonstrates historical negationism in Addy’s storyline, as American Girl oversimplifies the complex and influential history of Black dolls. This was not the only case of the oversimplification of the history of Black Dolls in Addy Walker’s storyline. Additionally, in Addy’s book “Meet Addy,” Addy carries around a simple rag doll while she lives on the plantation. Once again, the only context we are given about this doll is that “slave parents made simple dolls and other toys for their children” (Porter 65). While this statement is true, it omits most of the significant history behind racialized dolls found
Fig. 3. American Girl doll, Addy Walker (Castellano).
on plantations. Debbie Garret, a doll historian, and author, describes one of the most common types of dolls found on plantations as topsy-turvy dolls: dolls that were constructed to have a Black doll on one side and a white doll on the other when you flipped around the doll’s skirt. This allowed Black children to hide the white doll when the master was not looking, since it was common for the master to prohibit slaves from playing with white dolls. American Girl choosing to focus only on the light-hearted aspects of the history of Black dolls sends an oversimplified message that lacks the cultural significance of racialized dolls that resulted from a history of malicious intent behind their creation. Moreover, this leads to historical negationism as they downplay the history of Black dolls by not conveying a holistic view of their history.
II. The Release of Addy Walker
Addy Walker’s release in 1993 was a result of the social unrest among Black Americans and the growing acceptance of Black culture. The 1990s era was filled with a growing popularity of Black acceptance after the Rodney King beating in 1991, where a Black Man was beaten by four police officers after being stopped for speeding (Law Offices of John D. Rodgers). This horrific incident was filmed and broadcasted all over the United States, which led to protests and riots, in an attempt to raise awareness of the ongoing systemic racism in American society. On the other hand, Black TV shows such as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Martin were gaining popularity, which led to increased acceptance of Black culture in American Society. Gil Robertson, the president of the African American Film Critics Association explains that this acceptance emerged because “in the ‘80s and the ‘90s you started seeing people on TV with different personalities outside of being either a person’s sidekick or being the token black person leading to a truer representation of black people.” Many companies saw this acceptance as an opportunity to profit because the risk of diversifying products in the market was reduced by this newfound acceptance. American Girl (known as Pleasant Company at that time) was one of these companies, and they began their
development of Addy Walker in 1990 to broaden their horizons and finally debut a Black doll.
However, American Girl’s choice to debut their first Black doll with a storyline centered around slavery was problematic because of their lack of variety of Black dolls. Addy was the first Black doll American Girl had ever sold, and their second Black doll wasn’t released til almost 20 years after Addy with the release of Cecile Rey in 2011. Gina Piazza, an undergraduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology working on the Afterlives of Slavery project, discusses the problematic nature of this as she poses the important question regarding the message sent to children about self-worth when the only Black doll American Girl sells is enslaved (Piazza). This noteworthy question brings us back to Clark’s Doll Study, which exhibited the racialized self-worth that is evident in society, especially among Black children. Furthermore, when there is only one Black doll that is enslaved, Black children are led to believe the only important part of Black history is slavery and the oppression of Black people. When in reality, there is so much more to Black history such as the accomplishments of Katherine Johnson famous for her mathematical efforts that sent astronauts to space, and Daniel Hale Williams who performed the first open heart surgery (“Black History Month: Honoring the Achievements of African Americans”). By simplifying Black history down to slavery, children are led to view Black people as one-dimensional, when in reality they have had so many great impacts on society.
III. The Blatant Historical Inaccuracies and Oversimplifications
American Girl’s Step Into Reading Step 3 Book: “Freedom for Addy” written by Tonya Leslie and illustrated by Tanisha Cherislin, oversimplifies the horrific experiences slaves endured to young children. This book was written for the 5-8-yearold age range, while that’s a young age range it does not justify the historical negationism American Girl engages in. Figure 4 above shows the only page in the book where they portray the working conditions and daily life of a slave. On this page, Tonya Lesie summed up a slave’s
experience by saying “They are enslaved and considered property. They work all day. They do not get paid. It’s a hard life.” (Leslie). This quote downplays slavery as being a “hard life,” which completely ignores all the violence, physiological trauma, punishment, and other brutal events slaves endured every single day. Aside from the words on the page, the illustration of this page shown in Figure 4 fails to portray the cruel scrutiny that slaves endured during their work in the cotton fields furthering the historical negationism in Addy Walker. The soft colors and mediocre expressions on the slaves’ faces depict the idea that slavery was comparable to working hard on a farm, completely ignoring the frequent verbal and physical abuse that slaves endured in the cotton fields. During cotton harvesting, masters weighed the cotton that slaves picked and issued repercussions if it did not meet their standards. Solomon Northup, a slave in 1853 remarked that “After the weighing, follow[ed] the whippings” (“A Punishing System”). This reality that many slaves, including Solomon, endured is far from what is portrayed in Figure 4’s peaceful and picturesque scene. This portrayal of cotton field conditions leaves children with the false narrative of what slavery was actually like.
journey to freedom (“Meet Addy” and Step Into Reading Step 3 Book: “Freedom for Addy”) Addy’s short journey on the Underground Railroad from North Carolina to Philadelphia only had four major events: staying in a cave, crossing a river, passing by a camp of soldiers, and reaching the safe house. This exemplifies an oversimplification of the Underground Railroad as it completely ignores the insurmountable obstacles slaves faced trying to escape while traveling across many states. These harsh conditions are presented in a first-hand account of a former slave’s experience escaping in an 1850 edition of the Abolitionist Newspaper, North Star. The unnamed former enslaved blacksmith notes on his dire condition after his long journey:
“My condition was as wretched as that of any human being can possibly be, with the exception of the loss of health or reason. I had but four pieces of clothing about my person… I was a starving fugitive, without home or friends; a reward offered for any person in the public papers; pursued by cruel man-hunters, and no claim upon him to whose door I went. Had he turned me away I must have perished” (North Star 4).
This anecdote demonstrates the harsh conditions of the Underground Railroad and the arduous nature of the journey and the struggle to make it to the North in one piece. Unfortunately, this experience was common among many enslaved people seeking freedom, yet this brutal struggle was not evident throughout Addy’s journey. Instead, the journey belittles the experiences of the enslaved, as Addy is characterized as hopeful and brave on her “adventure” ignoring the mental and physical toughness the Underground Railroad required. Through this oversimplification, American Girl continues their theme of downplaying the difficulties of Black history as they simplify the experiences of the Underground Railroad.
American Girl continues to downplay the lives of slaves through Addy’s unrealistic journey from North Carolina. In both of Addy’s novels about her
Fig. 4. “Freedom for Addy” Step Into Reading Step 3, page 4 (Leslie).
Fig. 5. Operation of the Fugitive Slave Law (Bobbett).
In addition to oversimplifying the underground railroad, Addy’s storyline downplays the hardships of life during freedom. Addy escaped in 1864 when the Fugitive Slave Act was in effect since 1850 making it legal for freed slaves to be brought back into slavery via kidnapping efforts of bounty hunters, slave masters, and the United States government. This made it exponentially harder for freed slaves to maintain their freedom, since it could be taken away at any moment. However, throughout Addy’s storyline, American Girl furthers their historical negationism as it paints freedom as a one-and-done process. As they cross the border into Philadelphia, Addy exclaims “Momma, we done it..Just like Poppa said. We took our freedom” (Porter 59). This conveys a false sense of finality as it is the last line in the book, implying that Addy and her mother reached the ultimate goal and this was it. The reality was far from this storyline as detailed in the first-hand accounts about the struggle of maintaining freedom under the Fugitive Slave Act. Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave showcased the peril that many slaves endured under this law. He emphasizes the looming fear of capture stating “Let him be a fugitive slave in a strange land —a land given up to be the hunting ground for slaveholders — whose inhabitants are legalized
kidnappers — where he is every moment subjected to the terrible liability of being seized upon by his fellowmen, as the hideous crocodile seizes upon his prey!” (Douglass 108). This narrative of fear contrasts the hopeful narrative of Addy Walker, showcasing historical negationism. Furthermore, this opposing reality is continued through Figure 5 which shows the brutal kidnappings that occurred under the Fugitive Slave Act in the land of freedom that Addy champions. These inaccuracies in Addy’s narrative prove to us how her storyline is simplified to create a more “marketable” history.
IV. “Marketable” History
Fig. 6. American Girl founder Pleasant Rowland with the original three dolls in the historical collection released in 1986 (Radloff).
American Girl’s portrayal of Slavery through Addy Walker has revolved around profits since her development in 1990. Historically, American Girl has had a predominantly middle-class (mostly white) demographic comprising their customer base. Since their dolls typically sold for around $65 equivalent to approximately $185 today (CPI Inflation Calculator). With that said, American Girl said they wanted to release a multicultural historical collection. However, this “multicultural” collection only included the three white dolls shown above in Figure 6. This result is explained by the founder of American Girl, Pleasant T. Rowland, as she notes, “the company initially needed to get established financially, before [they] could take the risk that may be inherent in presenting
a doll via direct mail into the African American market… because typically, middle-class black consumers do not purchase much from directmail catalogs” (Rosenfield). WhileAmerican Girl claimed to release a “multicultural collection” that showcased the diverse history of America, the “range” of skin tones was a homogenous white hue. This shows us how American Girl put economic concerns about selling racial dolls to white children above a diverse and accurate portrayal of American history.
This profit-driven mindset is seen once again with the release of Addy. Like many companies during the 1990s, American Girl capitalized on the early acceptance of Black culture by releasing Addy then. This furthers the notion that American Girl released Addy with the main intention of profiting off her narrative, rather than portraying an accurate representation of Black history to their predominantly white demographic of consumers. While Addy Walker has a purpose of educating kids, at the end of the day, she is still a product trying to excel in a capitalist market. By oversimplifying slavery, the creators of Addy Walker make the doll more “marketable” as parents are less inclined to buy a “traumatic” and “jarring” doll for their kids. Kayla, a 21-year-old who grew up adoring American girl dolls discusses the significance of them and her distaste for the Addy Walker doll. She explains the significance of American Girl dolls compared to other dolls on the market such as Barbies as she notes, “There was a lot more stuff with American Girl dolls that showed women were strong…like being a marine biologist, being a hippie, someone who has to take care of her family and get a job because it’s the Great Depression and her dad lost her job.” (Vaughan 58) However, Kayla felt that Addy’s storyline limited Black History because her only option to own a Black American Girl doll was Addy Walker, who was set during the most traumatic era of Black history (slavery). Kayla was one of many people who did not purchase Addy, leading to American Girl rereleasing Addy with an altered storyline in 2014. In an attempt to soften the storyline of Addy to make it more “marketable”, the creators added more about her life once she was free and in school
(Vaughan 75). While American Girl made a notable attempt to inclusively rerelease Addy Walker, they failed to revise their oversimplifications of Black history, such as their portrayal of the Underground Railroad. Additionally, their rereleased storyline included highlights such as Addy winning a spelling bee, which is a stark contrast to Addy’s enduring slavery. This softened, more “marketable” narrative perpetuates the historical negationism as they again place profits over accuracy.
Fig. 7. Comparison between Rosales’ illustrations on the left and Taylor’s drawing on the right (Rosales and Taylor).
American Girl went to extensive efforts to censor history to keep their “marketable” narrative intact. When Addy was in the developmental phase, there were many ongoing battles between the company’s advisory board and one of the illustrators for Addy’s book, a Black woman named Melodye Rosales. These arguments demonstrated the company’s lack of commitment to accurately portray Black history, as they often got angry when her illustrations depicted too much of reality. Figure 7 shows one graphic, where Rosales illustrated the range of Black skin tones in Addy’s class at school, to portray the caste system that occurred among Black Americans. However, the advisory board told Rosales that “Pleasant Company was afraid of wading into the complexities and politics of light and dark skin” (Harris). This shows us that profits were always at the forefront of American Girl’s motivations as the
new version of “Addy Learns a Lesson” features her class with little to no range in skin tone compared to Rosales’ depiction. This simplification of history continued with another incident where Rosales was told she needed to make a newly freed woman on the docks of Philadelphia “smile more” as Addy gave her a shawl. Rosales thought it was concerning for her to smile, considering the woman had just arrived in Philadelphia after a long gruesome journey to freedom. However, the advisory board’s response to Rosales’ reasoning was that “they’re trying to tell the story in a certain way [and are careful about what they] put out there for young readers” (Harris). This quote alone proves to us that the company is trying to shape a false view of history for their own benefit. American Girl ultimately fired Rosales for trying to accurately portray history. Rosales remarked that she was fired because the company felt their “saccharine sanitized collection of the perfect 9-year-old girlhood fantasy” was threatened (Harris). Thus continues the pattern of historical materialism in American Girl as they chose to use their platform as a predominantly white company to distort the history of Black Americans through their doll.
V. The Ramifications of Addy Today
Racial innocence and ignorance are just as bad, if not worse, than being racist and aware of it. By letting our future generations consume oversimplified media, racial innocence is fostered and the cycle of racist stereotypes and their effects are continued. At the end of the day, American Girl is a company trying to sell a product. In doing this American Girl fosters an incomplete narrative that trivializes the experiences of slaves during the Civil War through their product Addy Walker. While the Addy Walker doll herself was not racist appearance-wise, the problem with her lies within the message her story sends to children. Through some of her storyline’s simplifications, such as the minimization of the Underground Railroad, Addy Walker paints a softer, less accurate view of history in the minds of readers. While simplification of history for younger audiences may seem necessary for some, the impacts of the oversimplification in society far outweigh
any “explicit” scenes a child is exposed to when reading harsh books. Additionally, Addy Walker’s existence as the only Black doll in American Doll’s product line for two decades boils down Black history to slavery, when in reality it encompasses so much more. This message alone that this sends to Black children is more than enough to showcase the problem with Addy Walker. Moreover, by oversimplifying and morphing history away from reality, the traumatic experiences of people throughout history are downplayed. In the case of slavery, oversimplification leads to children not comprehending the true nature of this crime against humanity, leading to the possibility of history being repeated. There will always be difficult history topics that need to be taught to children, however, that’s not to say a child can not handle the complete brutal truth. It’s up to everyone to make sure horrific events in history like slavery are not repeated, and the best method of prevention is acknowledging the past however gruesome it may be.
References
[1] Addy Walker. (2017, November 21). Afterlives of Slavery. Retrieved from https:// afterlivesofslavery.wordpress.com/culture/addywalker/
[2] A punishing system. (1853). Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. Retrieved from https:// www.searchablemuseum.com/a-punishingsystem#section-start
[3] Berstein, R. (2011). Tender angels, insensate pickaninnies: The divergent paths of racial innocence. New York University Press.
[4] Black History Month: Honoring the achievements of African Americans. (2019, February 22). La Paloma Academy. Retrieved from https://lpatucson.org/lakeside/black-historymonth-honoring-the-achievements-of-africanamericans
[5] Bobbett, A. (1850). Operations of the
Fugitive-Slave Law. The New York Public Library, Digital Public Library of America. Retrieved from https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/theunderground-railroad-and-the-fugitive-slaveact-of-1850/sources/1050
[6] Castellano, G. (2022). American Girl doll, Addy Walker. Ms. Magazine. Retrieved from https://msmagazine.com/2022/04/21/new-yorkhistorical-society-black-dolls-feminist-art/
[7] Chin, E. (1999). Negotiating Newhallville. Ethnically Correct Dolls: Toying with the Race Industry. American Anthropological Association. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/
[8] CPI Inflation Calculator. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc. pl?cost1=65&year1=199301&year2=202410
[9] The Clark Doll Study. (2022, December 9). Zebra Strategies. Retrieved from https:// zebrastrategies.com/the-clark-doll-study/
[10] Douglass, F. (1847). Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/ douglassfred00dougrich/page/108/mode/1up
[11] Harris, A. (2016, September 22). Why American Girl’s first Black doll had to be born a slave. Slate Magazine. Retrieved from https:// slate.com/culture/2016/09/the-making-ofaddy-walker-american-girls-first-black-doll.html
[12] John, R. (2024, September 1). The Rodney King beating trial: A flashpoint in American civil rights history. Law Offices of John D. Rogers. Retrieved from https://johndrogerslaw.com/ the-rodney-king-beating-trial-a-flashpoint-inamerican-civil-rights-history/
[13] The Legacy of Dr. Kenneth B. Clark. (2024, November 18). Kenneth Clark Commons. Retrieved from https://kennethclark.commons. gc.cuny.edu/thedoll-study/
[14] Leslie, T., & Cherislin, T. (2021). Freedom for Addy. Random House Books for Young Readers.
[15] Library of Congress. (1947). Dr. Clark observing child with Black and White dolls. Cuny Academic Commons. Retrieved from https:// kennethclark.commons.gc.cuny.edu/the-dollstudy
[16] Olson, D. (2017). Black children in Hollywood cinema. In African American girls in Hollywood cinema (pp. 83–83). Palgrave Macmillan Cham.
[17] Picaninny images. (n.d.). Jim Crow Museum. Retrieved from https://jimcrowmuseum. ferris.edu/antiblack/picaninny/picaninystereotypes-02.htm
[18] Porter, C. R., & Taylor, D. (2000). Addy’s surprise: A Christmas story. Pleasant Co.
[19] Porter, C. (1993). Meet Addy. Pleasant Company. Retrieved from https://assets. contentstack.io/v3/assets/blte5bbb46adcc8c61b/
[20] Radloff, J., & American Girl. (2021, May 4). American Girl founder Pleasant Rowland with the original dolls: Kirsten Larson, Samantha Parkington, and Molly McIntire. Glamour. Retrieved from https://www.glamour.com/story/ american-girl-dolls-35th-anniversary-return
[21] Rosales, M., & Taylor, D. (n.d.). Rosales illustrations versus rereleased illustrations. Tumblr. Retrieved from https://www.tumblr. com/desertdollranch/169654641443/at-mymost-recent-re-read-of-addys-stories-i
[22] Rosenfeld, M. (1993, May). Wholesome babes in toyland; The American Girl doll: Proper, pricey. The Washington Post. https://www. proquest.com/docview/307640879?pq-origsite= summon&sourcetype=Newspapers
[23] Starr, M. P. (2016). The fabric behind the doll – The performance of the Black doll in early 20th century America (p. 4). Trinity College.
[24] Vaughan, K. (2017). America through rosecolored glasses: How American Girl dolls shape American girlhood and identity (p. 75). Trinity College.
[25] Willis, K. (2020, February 10). How ’90s TV transformed Black representation - Black History Month. The Atlanta JournalConstitution. https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/ how-90s-transformed-black-representation/ rPrKnyJ2u9WcCMF9DOcoCK/
MONUTS: MORE THAN DONUTS
Interviewed and Edited by Vincent Shen
Monuts, beginning in 2011 as a tricycle donut stand at Durham Farmers Markets, is now an established bakery and cafe frequented and loved by the student body of NCSSM. It’s a short twominute walk from campus, situated on the corner of W. Knox and Ninth Street, and serves not only as a place to refuel with coffee and treats but also as a sanctuary to spend time with friends and bond over their delicious food. Our curiosity began to extend beyond this charming establishment’s donut-shaped exterior to the metaphorical “dough” behind their business.
Monuts has retained a focus on their employees well-being throughout the entirety of its existence, including the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their eagerness to prioritize the livelihood of their employees through livable wages and job security is what makes this business so unique. Captivated by their expertise in caring for customers and employees alike, our outreach director Vincent Shen reached out to Lindsey Moriarty, founder and owner of Monuts, for the full story.
Many businesses in the food industry rely on tips to pay their employees, but Monuts factors tips into the cost when paying. Lindsay
values empathy for her coworkers and focuses on everyone’s income stability when making decisions.
“Especially with seasonal change in business... it was a really important step in treating our employees like they are our greatest asset and taking ownership of making sure they get paid what they’re worth.” - Lindsay Moriarty
Lindsay emphasizes this aspect not only through seasons but also through the week—Monuts has one register, and efficiency is already maximized on regularly busy Saturdays. There is no solution in pushing employees past what is possible, and so the change in profit comes through on weekdays of October through December and March through May. These are times when NCSSM and Duke students alike are bustling through 9th Street, and when Monuts sees more lines.
When asked about challenges she has faced as an entrepreneur, Lindsay responded by saying, “I make tough decisions every day.” She further went on to explain that in 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she started to lay off employees. Additionally, she had to close the store down for a month. She also explains her choice to close the store for a month but to continue paying employees, as when the restaurant opened again, they would need a full staff. Lindsay states that “it was a quick change, and we didn’t have much time to evaluate what happened and plan.”
Lindsay was then asked what she does to keep her employees motivated and engaged. She mentioned that they are paid fairly, respected, and valued, and that her business revolves around the idea that her employees are her greatest asset, a point expressed in her answer to the previous question. She adds that her profits solely depend on her workers.
Towards the end of Vincent and Lindsey’s discussion, Lindsey reflected on the challenges she faced with the business when asked what the hardest part of running Monuts was. A constant struggle to achieve her definition of ‘success’ caused her to feel that “no matter how much we do, we wish we could be doing more and doing better.” A key principle behind Monuts’ business model is putting employees first, and a part of that is charging higher prices, which can struggle in a competitive market. To Lindsey, this is a price worth paying in order to provide a fair work life for her employees, but it presents its own set of obstacles from an economic standpoint.
That’s not to say she isn’t ready to take on the challenge. Lindsey highlighted how rewarding her experience at Monut’s has been, being able to give back to the community through her customers and the employees. Managing a small-shop business model like Monuts lets her connect with patrons over long periods of time and see how her business fosters an environment of love and compassion between cashiers and customers. It’s thanks to those faithful customers she can also provide for her employees, charging prices that allow her to see “people who never thought that they would be able to buy a house” realize their dreams.
Nestled in the cove of W Knox and 9th Street, Monuts is a homely retreat that fosters nostalgia and appetite among its loyal customers. Founded in 2011 by Lindsay Moriarty, the unique economic structure of the business has created a rare place where employees and customers alike can feel a part of home while simultaneously supporting each other through their commitment to a greater cause.
NAN XIANG XIAO LONG BAO
Interviewed and Edited by Rinav Battula
Although many people typically like to stay within their comfort zone, Chris Li is an exception. He is a proud owner and a major factor in the rise of Nan Xiang Express, a local restaurant and bar renowned for its delicious soup dumplings and scallion pancakes. A new addition to the restaurants along Ninth Street in Durham, with the location being opened on July 19th, 2024, the location continues the long-running legacy of entrepreneurship and pioneerism established by its owners and founders nearly 20 years ago when the franchise began in New York in 2003. Through their growing success and prosperity, Nan Xiang continues to value their employees, creating a workplace community of support, cooperation, and alliance. This balance between customer and employee satisfaction has an elegance in its simplistic effectiveness, which ignited the interest of our outreach members, Vincent Shen and Tanuj Karthikeyan, who recently interviewed with the rising executive.
For many small businesses, their business model and plan often depend heavily on managing financials and profit to stay afloat, especially in our current economy. However, Chris Li and Nan Xiang emphasized their employee satisfaction as the core of their corporate agenda and enabled
them to stay true to their cultural ideals. According to Chris, his culture and background encourage individuals to assist and encourage each other, creating a community. By focusing on the payment of their workers and keeping them secure, Chris and his company create a dedicated and motivated workforce, which, in his own words, is the way to achieve your goals. This positive attitude and system is further perpetuated by the customer base, enabling students and individuals to taste and enjoy their authentic cuisine. This brand image exhibited by the restaurant is personified by its food, with warm and savory taste harboring all sorts of customers, especially in the winter as university students return to school. Finally, Nan Xiang maintains this customer base in the bustling city of Durham by differentiating their offerings from other restaurants. For example, another popular boba location, Quickly’s, specializes more in milk and lemon-based options, while the specialty of Nan Xiang is in fruitier teas.
Overall, the investment into the restaurant over the past two years in Durham has proved worthwhile for Chris. After taking the risk of renting the bottom floor from his Japanese business partner, Chris and his employees were able to completely transform the empty property into a place of comfort, warmth, and positivity enjoyed and loved by all. Chris has experienced difficulties, primarily with a career change, transitioning from a real estate investor to a restaurant owner. He has said adjusting to a new style and keeping up with the traditional ways of running a restaurant took a lot of time, commitment, and effort. However, the Nan Xiang owner said that the experience has been quite rewarding and fulfilling, allowing him to fulfill his passion for helping others and making a difference in the community. His success is an inspiration and shows that sometimes you must step outside of your comfort zone to find greater success and accomplishment, follow your dreams,
and take advantage of the opportunities that come your way.
Located in downtown Durham on Erwin Road, this Nan Xiang location is one of the many extensions of a long tale of cooking and customer service. It is a sensational and motivational place with a touching story and mouth-watering dishes home to students and Durham residents alike, and you should try it for yourself!
MOBLEY ESTES, CO-FOUNDER OF MOE’S ORIGINAL BBQ
Interviewed by Sedem Agbemabiese, Edited by Grayson Averett
A short walk down Ninth street, somewhat concealed on the left side of Vin Rouge, nests a hidden haven of Durham’s soul food scene. Moe’s Original BBQ, an enterprise formulated by three University of Alabama students and brought to fruition in the hills of Colorado, currently boasts 60 locations in America, and even one in Mexico City. NCSSM’s charming hometown of Durham can thank seasoned chefs Mobley Estes and Michael Roos for ushering Alabama’s signature style to North Carolina’s legendary BBQ game. In Agbemabiese’s captivating interview with Moe’s Original BBQ co-founder Mobely Estes, we are given intimate insight into balancing homestyle customer care with the Triangle’s unforgiving culinary competition.
A grand portion of this joint’s charm is its hardiness, apparent in their pulled pork, southern fried catfish, and perseverance through recent economic adversity. Estes says he and Roos opened Moe’s on January 20th, 2020, unfortunately coalescing perfectly with the COVID-19 pandemic. A rougher start could hardly be expected, as Estes tells, “It definitely impacted things. I had two really good months, then had to let go of staff, then it was just me and one coworker trying to
survive.” Thrown straight from the frying pan into the fire, the only two remaining chefs of this already-beloved establishment honed in on the thing they do best - cooking southern comfort food. As many shops around them lost the battle to remain afloat, Estes says, “We never closed a day during COVID, and that is one of the things that helped us stay alive.” Understandably, their clientele mirrored the country’s broader shift toward “a bunch of to-go orders, lots of take-out.” Nonetheless, some combination of the cooks’ congeniality and the smoked chicken, southern shrimp Po-Boy, rib racks or mouth-watering mac and cheese continues to draw the Durham community for frequent meals. Laudably, Moe’s amassed a loyal customer base even through this time of peril, to which he credits, “the fact that we didn’t close showed that we were resilient and people really supported that. The same people from back then are still coming in today.”
Interested to discern Moe’s place in the greater Durham barbeque stage, we ask Estes, “How competitive has it been for you so far?” Revealing a bit of what makes Moe’s ‘Bama Pork’ so special in his answer, Estes says, “It’s pretty competitive. We are a different style of barbeque.” Refusing to confine to the tartier vinegar-based Eastern style of North Carolina barbeque, nor the sweeter ketchup-based Western-NC style, Estes’ take on the hog blends the two. Further differentiating his location, he claims, is that “Not all barbeque restaurants have a full bar, and we’re closer to campus so we get a lot of people from Duke, not necessarily students but a lot of faculty.” As their loyal Durham customers support them during the off-season, Moe’s sales skyrocket during the academic year, testament to college student’s particular appreciation of home cooking.
Responding to our ask, “When is the busiest time of the year?,” Estes says “It’s generally this
time of year, but not this year, it’s actually been really slow. Lately, I think it might be the election, people are spending less because they are worried about how their lives are going to change after the new president is elected. The busiest time is usually around when people are getting back to school, then it’s the slowest in July and August.” Inquiring into his deeper motivation to join the Moe’s franchise, our interviewer questions, “What inspired you?” Though the constraints of written word cannot do it justice, Estes’ passion for cooking became verbally tangible in his response, and the impressive ability of this homely eatery to maintain its existence was revealed. “Moe’s is a small franchise, and everyone knows all the owners. We went to school at the University of Mississippi, and saw one (Moe’s BBQ) open, and then wanted to also own a restaurant one day. I kinda just fell in love with the concept of Moes, it was something I really liked and wanted to do myself.” Not long after entering in, the familystyle employment structure of Moe’s enabled Estes to ascend to his own location, achieving his dream of owning a restaurant relatively early in his culinary career.
Addressing a growing challenge to the restaurant industry amid increased unemployment and dissatisfaction with wages, our interviewer asks Estes, “How do you keep your employees engaged?” Knowing as well as any business owner the monumental nature of acquiring and keeping good employees, he complains, “The labor market is not where it used to be. Most people aren’t willing to work. You find a good employee, you treat them well, establish a good relationship with them. If you get an employee to try and think like an owner, you’re doing well.” Make no mistake, Estes recognizes “the restaurant business is a business of tight margins.” Embracing the same family-esque employee welfare that beckoned him to join Moe’s Original BBQ in the first place, he can only hope his management style impresses on the incoming generation of chefs.
Responding to our interviewer’s question, “What’s the hardest part?” Estes reveals the three aspects he constantly juggles as a restaurant
manager and owner, “managing employees, making money, and staying relevant in the community.” The volatile nature of the restaurant world has forced some tough decisions onto this Moe’s co-founder, the hardest of which he says to be “letting staff go. Some of these folks had been there for two and a half months and I had to let them go. Luckily, the government allowed a certain amount of money based on how many employees you had to keep giving people a steady income.” Thanks to his personal appeal as an employer and the government’s financial incentives, Estes luck turned for the best. “All of my employees came back, it was eight or nine of them. Now we have eight of us. I have a guy who works with me who has been there since the third day I’ve opened. I have a guy who has been here for four years. I think we treat our employees really well.”
Asserting such an obvious appreciation for the art of cooking and his fellow artists, our interviewer poses, “What is the most rewarding part?” With a smile and without hesitation, Esters reflects, “I love sitting in the window and serving a plate of food and seeing a smile. That for me is what keeps me here day in and day out.” Bringing our insightful interview to an end, our interviewer Agbemabiese finally inquires, “People always portray the positives but there are a lot of other things and responsibilities that come with it. How do you stay so dedicated?” Bridging his experience in the restaurant industry to the challenges we daily brave as ambitious high school students, Estes responds, “there are definitely some days that I don’t want to be here. But I’ve gotta be here, and sometimes you just gotta do things you don’t want to do.” Whether in the kitchen, classroom, or court (hopefully the basketball kind), let Estes words inspire us all to work unwaveringly toward our aspirations.
