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Brewing up memories in a college dorm It started at a MEDA chapter meeting, and who knows where it will go. Last fall, Goshen College business majors Niles Graber Miller and Hans Weaver got to know each other while attending a Michiana MEDA Chapter meeting with several faculty members. They discovered common passions for business and values and decided to start a business together, Cultural Ventures, LLC. Their first product was Menno Tea, an iced beverage based on a treasured family recipe. Graber Miller, from Goshen, Ind., and Weaver, from New Holland, Pa., pitched their idea and a marketing plan to faculty and were awarded a $5,000 entrepreneurship grant from the Goshen business department. “Niles, Hans, and I met every other week through the school year to discuss their business issues, provide feedback/suggestions, and to create the best possibility for a successful business,” says Michelle Horning, department chair. Throughout the fall and spring, Weaver and Graber Miller tested tea recipes and after perfecting their blend they began production in the college coffee shop, known as Java Junction. Menno Tea, a play on an original recipe called meadow tea, made its debut in Goshen in July. A production nudge came when they received an order for 2,500 bottles for the Mennonite Youth Convention in Pittsburgh this summer. Realizing they could no longer produce the tea by hand, the pair contracted production out to a bottling company in Pennsylvania. Restaurants, markets
and galleries now carry the tea in the Goshen area as well as in Archbold, Ohio, and Pittsburgh. Plans are to distribute throughout the midwest. Culture in a bottle: Upstart entrepreneurs “Menno Niles Graber Miller (left) and Hans Weaver. Tea has a taste that many people associtrying to include a community ate with home,” says Weaver. in this taste, creating memories “So we say that we’re not just and representing a culture, brewing a tea, we’re brewing a which can be Goshen, your culture. This means that we’re home or any community you
associate the tea with.” “We want to encourage people to explore new cultures through our tea,” says Graber Miller, who has lived in various parts of Central America and Asia. “Cultural awareness is what sets us apart from other tea companies.” The young entrepreneurs plan to add teas from other cultures. In one of their corporate ads they say, “We started this venture out of our dorm room at Goshen College after brainstorming together in business class, but now are on a mission to heal the world peace by peace, drink by drink.” ◆
Goshen grants boost student-run businesses
ratory, collecting and experimenting with the distinctive lighting and textual effects of old film‑based cameras. • NGM Designs, owned by Niles Graber Miller, a first‑year business major from Goshen, advertises local businesses on vintage vehicles (see photo, page 3). Graber Miller began his business a year ago with hand‑painted advertisements on a 1970 Volkswagen van. Clients gain exposure as the van is driven around town and parked in visible locations. • Entertaining Angels is a music business started by William Frisbie, a sophomore accounting major and business minor from Goshen. It assists artists with recording needs and provides lighting and sound for events. The funds were part of a larger external grant that the business department received a few years ago and which now has ended. Michelle Horning, business department chair, says the department intends to continue to award grants but likely on a smaller scale. ◆
From a brightly painted vintage van to black and white photos from Africa, Goshen College students are bringing entrepreneurial ideas to life with help from their business department. To encourage students to develop their skills further, the department has awarded entrepreneurship grants totalling $27,500 to seven student‑owned businesses. Each business presented a business plan and demonstrated their skill, market analysis and likelihood of success. Besides the Menno Tea producers described above, the student businesses include: • Studio Ace of Spade, offering print and Web services from bottom-up branding to Web development and design, is owned by senior Jon Savage and Goshen grad Simon Birky Hartmann of Goshen. They established their studio last year, combining talents in art, graphic design, management
The Marketplace September October 2011
and technology. • Reimagine Cinema, a company producing music videos and short films, is owned by Jacob Landis‑Eigsti, a senior communication and theater major from Lakewood, Colo. The Indiana Association of School Broadcasters named his videos the best in the state, and the Broadcast Education Association awarded his music video, “Beautiful,” the secondbest college music video in the nation for 2011. • ResQ Records is a music production and publishing company specializing in Afrofusion music. It is owned by Idris Busari, a junior broadcasting and public relations major from Nigeria. • Ras Photo Studio is owned by Abi Tsigie, a junior art major from Ethiopia. In addition to digital color photography, it specializes in black and white photography and also has an experimental labo22
