BW Students, Alumni Showcase Entrepreneur Dreams in New Streaming Series

There are BW creative fingerprints all over a new streaming series that showcases young entrepreneurs from Northeast Ohio. Think "Shark Tank" without the big bucks or shark snark.

"Dream It, Do It" documents the challenges and successes of Northeast Ohio college student-entrepreneurs and is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium (EEC), an association of area universities that work to support entrepreneurship at the college level.

Ventures born at BW

Episode one of "Dream It, Do It" (embedded below) features interviews with not one but three BW-connected entrepreneurs.

Kayla Webb '20, a BW early childhood education grad, shares how she authored and illustrated an empowering children's book, "The Show and Tell That Changed the World" (Mascot Books), as a BW student.

Her website, Planting Seeds of Truth, as well as supporting social media accounts were created over nights and weekends while she did her student teaching.

The episode also features a pair of BW grads collaborating on a venture that delivers fresh coffee from local roasters to doorsteps across the U.S. Kallan Hinkle '16 and Jake McConkey '13 discuss how they founded their subscription coffee service, Dripbox Co., and how they both got bitten by the entrepreneurship bug.

Both projects received support from BW's Center for Innovation and Growth (CIG) and BW LaunchNET. Webb's book project was supported, in part, by a $2,000 award from the Women for BW Giving Circle.

BW talent behind the scenes

A former junior consultant at the CIG, Matt Harris '19 and his video marketing firm, Blitz Studios, produced the "Dream It, Do It" series. Harris launched Blitz as a BW student, and he is featured in episode two.

BW's Digital Marketing Center (DMC) students are also behind the project with Meghan Oswald '21, a digital media design and digital marketing major, serving as art director for the series.

A team of DMC students, led by Isabella Schiavon '21, an arts management and marketing major, is managing the "Dream It, Do It" digital marketing account with EEC. Student entrepreneurs with video and content experience make up the rest of the team: arts management major Jordan Gallagher '21, marketing and accounting major Alyssa Williams '22 and digital marketing major Miranda Lyons '22.

Dr. Lori Long, BW's Burton D. Morgan Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies and business professor, serves as president of the board of the EEC, while Hannah Schlueter, BW LaunchNET program manager, is BW's member representative to the EEC. Professor Tim Marshall serves as a mentor and is faculty advisor to BW's DMC.

Access the full series as episodes are rolled out on EEC's YouTube Channel.