 | | | | Student Entrepreneurs Eager for Austin Entrepreneurship Program
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Dhari Aljutaili, Russell Perkins, Tyler Walters, and Dominick Radominski are four of the AEP inaugural entreprenuers and have worked together to create the web-based development company, Ideon8. | Weatherford is the buzz on campus and has sparked the interest of students from all majors. "Weatherford to me represents everything college should be, living with like-minded people, being free to express ideas, conversing about inventions, and networking with the people who can help you achieve your dreams," expresses Ryan Kleve, a General Agriculture major and future Weatherford resident.
Many of the students have already begun the entrepreneurship venture while others simply want to be exposed to entrepreneurial ideas and experiences. Tyler Walters, OSU Computer Science major, is an example of a student entrepreneur already in motion.
Walter's company, Ideon8, is a web-based development company that creates or radically enhances websites for businesses across the country. The company website, http://www.ideon8.com, showcases some of Ideon8's capabilities.
Walters developed the company with fellow student and current partner Dominick Radominski after discovering similar consulting interest and experience in class. Radominski does the design work while Walters manages the company. Two of their five employees recently participated in Justin Craig's Introduction to Entrepreneurship course and are working to improve the business operations of Ideon8.
Through connections and word-of-mouth, they were able to attract a strong client base. Ideon8 created an online Christian dating service for a group of investors in Florida and is currently working on expanding and enriching the website for MottoRX Pharmacy. The company also has a website for an upcoming Dean Cain movie called "Lost" in the works.
Internally, Ideon8 is still growing and maturing. Walters and Radominski are in the process of implementing a payroll system and evolving into a subchapter S corporation. They are also developing a marketing plan and looking to establish company headquarters in Corvallis. They hope to have eight full-time employees by the end of this summer.
Challenges the team has overcome include coordinating the need to work any time, anywhere and from any computer; minimizing the costs of creating solutions by taking advantage of open-source applications; and keeping ahead of the competition by investing in up-front research to leverage among multiple customers in a target market segment. After investing and learning about the pharmacy industry for the MottoRX site, Ideon8 plans to pitch its service to other pharmaceutical companies that want to expand their service online. Ideon8 also came face-to-face with regulation challenges, especially in the pharmaceutical market, when developing MottoRX. The project was put on hold for a time due to the controversial Canadian pharmaceutical issues.
"The OSU Entrepreneurship Program has helped us find our focus, and it has trained us to focus our energy on things that matter most to the business," says Walters. "I feel encouraged and empowered as a result of creating a plan to map out the future"
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