When college fraternities make the news, it isn’t usually for reasons involving entrepreneurship and innovation. What’s even more rare is fraternity brothers receiving national media spotlight for reasons involving handmade candles. That’s exactly what’s happening on the Baylor University campus in Waco, Texas, though.
Last December, the Kappa Sigma fraternity house played host to an activity that most people wouldn’t expect to see in such a place — handmade candles being made on the kitchen stove and poured into mugs. What makes these candles even more unique is that they are sold in coffee mugs. These special candles are perfect for the many, many Americans who love candles and coffee. A coffee mug is also a practical solution for those of us who enjoy candles, but not so much the hot, dripping wax that sometimes comes with carrying them.
How did these special candles come into being?
Fraternity brothers William Goodrich of Little Rock, Arkansas and Tyler Bartis of Moraga, California were driving back to their campus together after the Thanksgiving break. Aside from both being juniors at the university, they both study finance and entrepreneurship. During this eventful car ride, the young men discussed the skills that they were learning through their entrepreneurship program and wished they could actually put them to use in the world outside the classroom. The program places such a strong emphasis on creating a business that the two students decided that, since they were forced to put so much effort into creating a fake business, they might as well build a real one that generated revenue. After rushing to craft supply stores to purchase the necessary wax, mugs and other materials, they wasted no time in getting to work. Goodrich acknowledged that it took a few tries to fully master the art of candlemaking. “We made one on our stove, and it was absolutely horrible,” Goodrich told the Baylor Lariat. “But after doing that a couple of times, we kind of learned our technique.”
One month later, the first batch of Coffee Candles was ready to go. Roots Boutique in Waco, Texas picked up 144 candles from the new company and continues to carry their products to this day. Goodrich and Bartis have also launched a website, as well as multiple social media platforms, helping them reach new customers. As of now, they are producing candles with two scents, “Oakmoss + Amber” and “Sweet Annie.” All candles produced by Coffee Candles Co. are sold for $22. According to the website, more scents will be available to the public soon. You can also pick up a company t-shirt featuring the company’s Live Essential slogan for $17. The coffee mugs used for the candles are simple yet elegant, featuring designs that reverse mirror each other perfectly.
Given all this, it comes as no surprise that Goodrich and Bartis are well regarded at Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business. Matthew Wood, assistant professor and director of the Entrepreneurship Doctoral Program, spoke to TUN about the entrepreneurs and what they have achieved in the entrepreneurship field. “William and Tyler completed a course entitled ‘Entrepreneurial Process’ last fall,” Wood said.
In this course students walk the process of coming up with new venture idea, evaluating the feasibility of the idea as a business via conducting research and navigating the actual start-up by way of things like forming an L.L.C. and securing capital. It was toward the conclusion of this course that these students approached me with their idea to put a candle in a coffee mug.
Wood recalls that the biggest problem he saw with the idea was that it was late November and very close to Christmas shopping season, when the market would have best for testing a candle product. Wood goes on to tell us that “Because of the training they had received in the entrepreneurial process course they were equipped to move quickly. They had already walked through the mechanics with an imaginary business and all they had to do was walk through it again with a real business. To their credit, William and Tyler acted quickly and followed the principles taught in the course.”
Although Wood acknowledges that it wasn’t always an easy process for his students, he gives them credit. “Coffee Candles has come a long way in a short period of time,” he said. “They are now located in 1846 Baylor Student Incubator and this provides them with access to professional office and meeting space as well as interaction with other entrepreneurs and mentors. The future is quite bright for these young entrepreneurs and they serve as a great example how entrepreneurship education.”
