Ryan Loehrlein flew a drone into a room filled with business professionals and lost control of it for just a few seconds.

The audience likely thought it was just part of the presentation because he quickly gained control of the machine and landed it without incident.   

For Loehrlein, Start-Up Weekend is where it all started.

Ryan Loehrlei                   

The junior mechanical engineering and business finance major is the founder of Guardian Aviation Technology LLC.

He founded the company after presenting his idea at Start-Up Weekend in 2016.

His initial idea was to find a way protect his sister from potential danger.

Creating the first drone from scratch was a challenge for Loehrlein. He designed a drone to go into buildings and locate a potential threat using blueprints, which helps law enforcement officers.

Loehrlein discovered that operating a business makes balancing his schedule difficult.

“When I’m with my friends, I like talking to them about the business and where we’ve moved forward, but there’s definitely a time where you have to kick back and relax,” Loehrlein said.

Loehrlein has faced some challenges being a student and business owner. The struggle of going to class, completing assignments and getting good grades makes managing a business difficult. He realized communicating with his partners helps to get tasks accomplished. His two friends help him manage.

Junior computer science major Zack Snyder spends time helping with technology and software development in the drone business. Both he and Loehrlein struggle with managing time between business and student life.

Even though there is not much free time or time to relax, Snyder says he enjoys it.

“It’s good, it keeps me busy, and I like being busy. Sometimes you have to sacrifice nights with friends and things that take time,” Snyder said.

Bailey Benke is the Vice President of Guardian Aviation Technology LLC. He also works at Starbucks and an audio production agency. He describes his experience with the company as being essential to help keep Loehrlein grounded and focused on the big picture.

“He has all these great ideas he wants to do, and I make him step back and look at it. Look at it in different points of view and see what is actually possible,” Benke said.

Both Loehrlein and Snyder face a different set of struggles on the business side. Sometimes, when walking into a room they’re not taken seriously even if they look professional.

“From the initial point, they look at you by your age and not actually by your idea, and that’s the hardest challenge to overcome,” Loehrlein said.

Michael Armanno, is the founder of Kalypso Couture, a company that specializes in suits, faced many challenges when starting a business.

Micheal Armanno

Armanno, a graduate of the University of Evansville, studied theatre before changing to media production.

As a student, Armanno focused on how makeup and sewing classes could relate to the business.

He later recognized these essential skills are what he needed to help start the business, Kalypso Couture. The business specializes in making custom suits, each tailored for every individual client.

After the business started, Armanno realized that making unique commercials was the key to success. Taking marketing classes at the  University of Evansville helped him create unique ads.

This classroom experience helped Armanno to create marketing plans that became an essential part of his brand. These classes helped Armanno stay organized.

He applied what he learned into how he could structure and organize the business.

Since the company specializes in suits, the struggles of location and demographic caused the company to have a rocky start.

Fashion and its trends are not as prevalent in Southern Indiana when compared to other parts of the country.

For example, when it comes to suits, some people in the Evansville area do not pay attention to the quality and want to buy something straight off the rack. These struggles made it hard for Armanno to keep the company going.

After trying to establish Kalypso Couture in the Midwest, Armanno concluded that his business didn’t fit within the culture. So he decided to pack up and move to Northeast Florida.

His company is now thriving and flourishing, with the help of consultants working around the country.

“It’s more than just selling clothes to people. It’s educating on why a custom-made product is better, how it’s going to benefit them, and explaining the cost involved,” Armanno said.

Aliesha Jones is currently earning her master’s at USI and working a full-time job. Although not a student entrepreneur, she is finishing her business idea.

She hopes to present at this year’s Start-Up weekend April 6-8, 2018 in Evansville, Ind. Seeing the rise in crimes in her hometown broke her heart.

She then came up with the idea to predict crimes after collecting past data of crimes and locations over time.

By doing this, officers can be strategically placed to patrol those areas and decrease the likelihood of crime.

The change between being a student to earning a Master’s and working a job is hard for Jones. She is the type of student who loves everything about school, including waking up early and being on campus before 8 a.m.

She enjoys anything academic, such as taking exams, studying, writing papers and more.

From being a student to being in a structured job where you have to always be on time and where there is not much freedom for creativity is hard for Jones.

“The transition of being a student all the time, then having work and going to school and taking classes that are more difficult and require more time. It’s just a balancing game,” Jones said.

Jones also experienced problems with money, self-doubt and family worries.

“You wonder if I can do this and if I can really pull this off if I can do this myself, and I really just want to figure this out,” Jones said.

It is hard for her to find a good balance between work and school, as well as money, family and other responsibilities.

“It was hard trying to figure out what to sacrifice and what not to sacrifice,” Jones said.

Being a student entrepreneur, or wanting to become one, has many ups and downs.

For Loehrlein, lows can be like a roadblock, making it hard to move forward. However, he says it is cool to share with others that he owns a business, get recognized within the community and see his ideas brought to life.

When starting a business, both Loehrlein and Armanno said the most crucial ingredient for success is grit.

They said there will be people who say you can’t do it. Don’t fall in love with one idea, and be sure to have a backup plan in case it doesn’t work out.

Even though they have all faced struggles and highs and lows, they have all gotten through it.

They figured out how to manage to be a student entrepreneur and how to gather materials to present a business.

Bryan Bourdeau, or Coach B, is a business instructor at USI. As a mentor to students in the college of business and student entrepreneurs, he helps them overcome these struggles.

Bordeau said his best piece of advice is to, “select a core team that offsets your weaknesses. You’ll have a better chance of idea success with a team.”

He said when starting a business, there will be times of failure. Even though many look at failure as being a bad thing, it can be a wake-up call.

“The reward of failure is that it can be very instructive. Failure is a great source of specific reference to focus on our strengths as well as understand specific areas needing improvement,” Bourdeau said.

Having mentored students, Bourdeau knows firsthand that it can be hard to become an entrepreneur.

“As an entrepreneur currently in the idea development process,” Bourdeau said. “I know first-hand how one can waste a lot of time, energy and resources pursuing inappropriate programs and services,” Bourdeau said.