Students launch snack product to enthusiastic public

Students get taste of business life: Skidmore class prompts launch of energy bites product

BY LEE COLEMAN, Gazette Reporter

Originally published March 30, 2009 in The Daily Gazette

A business venture by four Skidmore College students has been launched successfully in downtown Saratoga Springs: People love the students? energy bites.

?The response today [Friday] was very positive,? said Skidmore senior Evan Godfrey.

?Most of the people who tried them did buy them,? Godfrey said.

The students had a table at Putnam Market on Broadway in downtown Saratoga Springs on Friday and Saturday. They offered samples of the KD Energy Bites to patrons of the popular, upscale market.

The energy bites (rather than bars) are the creation of student Katie Dalton, a junior from Massachusetts, and contain all natural ingredients: cashews, almonds, dates and coconut flakes, among other ingredients.

The bites are packaged in small, clear deli containers and sell for $2.25 per container. They come in two flavors: Lemon Zest and Choco Nut.

Godfrey, who is from New Jersey, said the student entrepreneurs sold about 100 containers of bites just on Friday.

?This is probably the most fun I?ve ever had in a class,? Godfrey said about the small business enterprise course taught by professor William Wales.

Godfrey and Dalton were joined by junior Ellen McQuade and senior Grace Kitchings in developing the marketing strategy, product line, and distribution system for the bites.

Wales said the goal of the onesemester course is to unlock the ?entrepreneurial passion? in his students.

Godfrey said the course has done just that. The students are discussing developing and marketing their popular product beyond the course. They may establish a limited liability company (LLC) or partnership, he said.

Wales, a visiting professor who earned his doctorate in management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, said having his business and management students focus on a business plan in the classroom is ?kind of dull.?

He said the entrepreneurial, hands-on approach to a real business brings the theories to life.

?It?s been a lot of fun to teach,? Wales said.

Wales said the owners of Putnam Market have been generous about allowing the students to sell their product at the market.

Wales said the KD Energy Bite is an all natural product with no refined sugar in it. ?It?s positioned as a premium product,? he said.

Godfrey said Skidmore College allowed the students to produce their bites in a kitchen at the Murray-Aikens Dining Hall on the college?s North Broadway campus. Wales said the product had to be produced in a commercial kitchen.

Godfrey said the students spent about $200 of their own money on ingredients for the first batch of 200 bars of the bites. More will have to be created because they are selling better than expected, he said.

The goal of the course is for the student team to earn $200 on their product. They expect to easily exceed this number.

Earlier in the semester the students were thinking about producing re-usable shopping bags made by fusing together regular plastic grocery bags to make them much stronger.

When they were working on this idea they sampled Katie Dalton?s energy mix. The KD in the product name stands for Katie Dalton.

?As soon as we tried them, we loved how they tasted,? Godfrey said.

The students changed their product to the energy bites and launched their business.

During the semester the students have created a business plan, found a distributor, researched Food and Drug Administration and tax regulations, and designed packaging and logos. The student business even has it?s own Web site: www.thoroughlypure.com.

Skidmore College is a private, liberal arts college of 2,400 students in Saratoga Springs.