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Tommorow's Business Today

Feb 28 2011

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2011 Kairos Global Summit
CALLMAT
1st Round
Solé Bicycle Co
Diat Concepts
Brand Yourself
HelloParking
Ball and Buck
Solben
UpOut
1 of 12
2011 Kairos Global Summit
What better place to showcase your new company than the floor of the New York Stock Exchange? That was the opportunity afforded 50 new businesses founded and led by college students on February 26. The showcased entities were considered the most innovative student ventures at the 2011 Kairos Global Summit.

Images and text by J. Jennings Moss
CALLMAT
Hemant Sahal created CALLMAT, a water purification technology, to help solve the problem of heavy-metal poisoning in Indian water supplies. His technology is intended to provide a low-cost solution for both personal consumption and industrial use.
1st Round
Teague Egan (seated) is CEO of 1st Round, a multifaceted company with divisions in sports, scripted projects, music, financial capital, and philanthropy. The company got its start at the University of Southern California, where Egan was an event promoter.
Solé Bicycle Co
Bicycles, scooters and all-terrain vehicles were popular items at the Kairos showcase. One of those companies was Solé Bicycle, which also got its start at USC. According to the company, it creates fixed-gear bicycles largely from recycled parts. Its products are sold online and in select retailers in southern California, though it plans to expand distribution to Boston, New York and San Francisco.
Diat Concepts
Alex W. Bowers (right) talks about Skinï Mints, an appetite-suppressant product he started developing five years ago. He founded Diat Concepts two years ago to distribute the mints under his own brand in South America and as a private-label product for another brand in the United States.
Brand Yourself
One of the digital marketing companies highlighted by Kairos was BrandYourself, the creation of several Syracuse University students. Patrick Ambron, the company's chief marketing officer, explains how BrandYourself helps individuals and businesses control how they appear in Google searches.
HelloParking
Would you go online to find a parking spot? Chris Hoogewerff thinks so. A student at Northeastern University, Hoogewerff has built a company that gets parking spots from lots that can't find permanent renters, and then rents them for $15 to day parkers. The service is available in Boston, but Hoogewerff plans to expand to New York, San Francisco and Chicago.
Ball and Buck
Who said an innovative new business has to be all about technology? Ball and Buck, co-founded by Babson College graduate Mark Bollman, is a retail clothing and accessories store in Boston that specializes in products made in the United States from sustainable materials. Besides the store, the company also sells its products online.
Solben
Picked by Intelius as one of the five most outstanding companies out of the 50 showcased, Solben "develops proprietary processes for the production of biodiesel." The Mexican company is testing modular technologies "that will allow for more efficient and automated processing."
UpOut
Martin Shen, a Babson College student and co-founder of UpOut, demonstrates the online event calender that seeks to help users in select cities find cool stuff to do.

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