Emerging Entrepreneurs

Michigan State University (MSU) is home to many talented individuals, where countless students get a start in creating their own success. While there are many young entrepreneurs here at MSU finding their footing in the world of business, VIM is fortunate to be featuring 5 emerging entrepreneurs and their journeys to success.

UniServices: Adam Green

Adam Green is the founder of UniServices,a platform that connects college students with the local community and allows college students to earn some additional income by taking on small jobs like gardening. As a law student, Green was looking for ways to make some additional money. He quickly realized that independent jobs like Uber and Doordash did not fit the needs and lifestyle of a college student. One day, he decided to post on Facebook groups asking if anyone needed help gardening. To his surprise, he received many replies. Soon, his friends started asking him to connect them to jobs and the concept for UniServices began. Green explained that, at first, UniServices was just a Trello board where he was manually handling job assignments. Through his network at his previous workplace, he found out about the Burgess Institute at Michigan State and decided to become a part of the entrepreneurship community at MSU. Through this, his platform only grew. Uniservices is now a venture-backed company, where Green and his partners have finished their first round of funding. They are preparing for their second round and are working on an all-new app. They plan to scale Uniservices to other colleges and communities across the Midwest. Green’s key to success has been to solve problems, start small, and work one step at a time. He says that there were many times when he wanted to leap ahead and make an app and scale things more quickly. He learned to take a step back and focus on what was essential to the business. He says that it is important not to rush into things, and take it one step at a time.

OGs Bakery: Olivia Gargett

Olivia Gargett is the Founder, CEO and sole proprietor of OGs Bakery, an independent bakery specializing in custom cake pops and cookies. Gargett is not new to entrepreneurship, as she’s been running her bakery since the age of 12. At 14 years old, she was booking clients and creating custom desserts for customers in her hometown. Her passion stemmed from baking cakes for fun and making a variety of goods for family, friends, and people in her community. Both her passion and her natural set of skills quickly escalated her hobby into a successful business.

The success of OGs Bakery comes from Gargett’s experiences with adapting and evolving the OGs Bakery brand over time. According to Gargett, she became familiar with the baked goods market where she noticed the popularity of cake pops and cookies in her community. Knowing this, she was able to advance OGs bakery by incorporating these specific baked goods into her menu. Olivia says her business has become a large part of her identity, and denotes the strength she feels to her success as a self-made female entrepreneur.

Through the Burgess Institute at Michigan State, Olivia has connected with other like minded entrepreneurs with a shared passion for business. Gargett encourages other MSU students looking to start their own venture to work with the Burgess Institute and utilize their outstanding resources.

TalleyJobs: Shreesha Maddur

Shreesha Maddur is the founder of TalleyJobs, an online marketplace for jobs that aims to connect talented young individuals from colleges to quality job opportunities. Maddur had always possessed an entrepreneurial mindset and a knack for solving problems. The idea for TalleyJobs came to Maddur while working on an assignment for an entrepreneurship course at Michigan State. According to Maddur, being an entrepreneur is about solving problems. During his freshman and sophomore years, he found that finding a job online required weeding through a lot of postings despite the many filters on job boards. He saw that few jobs fit the criteria of offering good pay, benefits, and career growth potential. In his attempt to addreWss this problem, Maddur created Talley Jobs.

He says the key to success is to just get started and find small ways to test your product, do customer discovery, and don’t be afraid to change your initial idea based on the feedback you receive. Essentially, a good entrepreneur cannot get too attached to one idea. For Maddur, not being afraid to evolve has been a crucial part of his success. TalleyJobs went through multiple iterations before it found its product market fit. The ideal company works to evolve as they understand the market more and the problems that customers might encounter in the market. In understanding more about the problem, his company could mold a better solution.

Triple 4s: Logan Nash & Matt Rogien

Matt Rogien and Logan Nash are two entrepreneurs with a passion for safety, which is reflected in their start-up company, Triple4’s. They have re-designed the standard pepper spray on the market, to create a device with GPS sharing technologies. When activated, the device emits a powerful stream of pepper spray while simultaneously sending out the user’s current location. Rogien’s inspiration came from growing up in a female-dominated household and wanting to create a better self-defense device for the people in his life. The Triple4 logo, 444, symbolizes the angel number 444 which stands for protection. Today, their pepper spray device is making its way to the market. They are excited about the potential of their new product, having been in talks with leading competitors in the industry and currently securing partnerships with IPOs. They have also developed a clothing line under the brand name to promote their self-defense device and spread awareness in hopes of conquering both markets. Nash and Rogien are confident that their product has the potential to make a real difference in the world.

The pair say that the keys to the success of their business have been perseverance and communication. The business partners practice an informative communication style while still keeping it light and not exclusively talking about business. They also say that the connectivity and networking they do has been crucial. The Burgess Institute and the Entrepreneurship Association have given them guidance and support as they have navigated through their entrepreneurial journey.