The New Normal Post #7: How Drexel Entrepreneurs are Pivoting in the Age of COVID -19.

The focus of this blog has always been female entrepreneurship – after all, the name of the blog is The Ladies who Launch! But at this unprecedented time of COVID-19, I am pivoting to include male founders, whose stories of how they are adapting to the “new normal” are instructive to budding entrepreneurs everywhere.

Featuring Trey Lewis, Sports Fan and Entrepreneur

Drexel alum, Trey Lewis, grew-up in San Diego, California: a place where the weather is so nice that it was possible for Trey to play outside year-round participating in the sports that he loved. He played every sport under the sun, from swimming to golf to tennis. The only sport he wasn’t allowed to play was football, and with all the headlines in recent years regarding traumatic brain injuries, Trey is grateful to his mom, every day, for putting down her foot.

WeWager Founder and CEO, Trey Lewis

Trey’s father was an entrepreneur and he encouraged Trey’s innate entrepreneurial spirit. When Trey was ten, his dad asked him if he would ever consider following in his footsteps. Trey thought he was joking – he was too young to see himself someday in the same position as his father. It wasn’t until college that Trey realized that he had inherited his dad’s entrepreneurial drive.

Trey chose to attend Drexel University for two reasons: 1) the four seasons and 2) its Co-Op program. The thrill of everyday life in a northeastern climate quickly wore – off, but the Drexel Co-Op program proved to be a positive. Trey was able to hone his skills in the real world and these experiences cemented his belief that a person can learn more in practice than in theory. One of his Co-Ops included an opportunity to grow his business at Drexel University’s Close School of Entrepreneurship’s Baiada Institute, where he was given office space, access to technology, expert advice from mentors, and a stipend.

The Original SportsStock Team

Trey was awarded this Co-Op experience for a business that he began in high school with a friend, who was a business fanatic. His friend specialized in stocks, and by the age of 16, had amassed a portfolio worth thousands of dollars. They combined their passions and started SportsStock – a fantasy sports stock market. The premise behind SportsStock was this: sports teams acted as companies in the stock exchange; every team had a monetary value and that value changed depending on their performance on the field. Users of SportsStock could buy into a team with the goal of buying low and selling high.

There proved to be many complications with the development of SportsStock, and Trey decided to pivot. He created a new business – a sports betting app with a twist – and named it WeWager. WeWager is a social sports betting platform, where social media users can connect, compete, share, and participate in peer-to-peer sports betting with other sports fanatics.

As with many small businesses and start-ups, COVID-19 changed WeWager’s trajectory. The sports industry continues to struggle with the complex problem of how to combine public sports competitions with safe social distancing measures. Live sports events, at present, are non-existent, throwing the whole premise of WeWager into question. Trey credits The Close School with teaching him how to take a terrible situation and turn it into a positive: the WeWager team chose to see COVID-19 as an opportunity instead of a hindrance.  WeWager shifted its focus to eSports. eSports is an up and coming sports sub-industry that everyone is watching, even prior to the Pandemic. WeWager is now positioned to become one of the premier sports betting platforms within eSports. Users of the WeWager platform can remain safe while still doing what they love. With this pivot, opportunities for funding and marketing opportunities have increased, along with access to other resources.

As for the future of WeWager, Trey writes, “WeWager is a lifestyle career that I will not only love developing every single day, but it is a company that can also make an impact in the world. This is what makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur: the ability to see a product as something much larger than anyone else can see it.”

Trey Lewis and WeWager are the featured entrepreneurs on this week’s Proving Ground Pop Up. They will also be the guest this week on Drexel’s Stay-Cation Summer Interview Series on Wednesday, July 22 at 1pm (RSVP here). Trey and WeWager are on Social Media! Website: https://wewager.io/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/wewagersports/

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Nohra Murad of Camino Kombucha

Let me start this blog post by asking a question: do you drink kombucha?

If your answer is no, you should start!

Kombucha has multiple proven health benefits. First, it contains probiotics and is good for your gut health – a healthy gut not only makes you feel physically better, it helps you lose weight and has a positive affect on mood. Second, kombucha contains antioxidants and therefore, has the potential to reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer. And third, there is evidence that kombucha helps patients manage their Type 2 Diabetes.

What did you say? You’ve tried it, but don’t like it?

Admittedly, kombucha is not to everyone’s liking. Kombucha is a slightly alcoholic (very slightly), bubbly, fermented, sweetened tea with a hint of vinegar. Nohra Murad, the owner, founder and brewer of the Philadelphia-based kombucha company,”Camino Kombucha”, knows this and has set out to create a kombucha that delivers all the health benefits with a delicious, more universally-palatable taste.

Nohra first started making kombucha completely by happenstance. She was a Drexel University student working at her third Coop in Washington DC when her boyfriend gave her a pickling kit for Christmas. He thought she would have fun pickling vegetables. But instead, a small tag that read, “Can be used to brew kombucha”, sparked Nohra’s interest. Nohra liked kombucha but, as a student, she couldn’t afford to drink it on a regular basis. She decided to give brewing it a try.

Norah was lonely in DC – she was far from her Philadelphia home and friends. The act of brewing kombucha became a life-saver. Not only did she enjoy the process but she also loved to share the results with friends. The power of shared food to form community is an important motivator for Nohra.  She was hooked.

Nohra’s parents had immigrated to the United States from Iraq, settling in the Phoenix suburbs of Arizona. A large Assyrian community existed there and the dry, desert heat reminded her parents of Baghdad.

They joined the Assyrian Church of the East and church became central to their life. The Assyrian Church of the East was welcoming and not only shared their Assyrian traditions, but also their food. Black tea, samoon, lavish, dolma, booshalah and goopta thoomurta (a poor man’s fermented cheese which involves burying a cheese blend in a hole in the ground for three months – sounds delicious??? hmmm…not so sure) were foods that they bonded over.

As a young girl, Nohra would also travel to the midwest to spend part of her summer vacation with relatives. Memories of hours spent, sitting in her aunt’s kitchen on summer days, eating and learning how to make Assyrian dishes resonate with Nohra to this day.

Nohra had a distinct idea about how she wanted her kombucha to taste. Nohra was studying Biomedical Engineering at Drexel and her engineering brain kicked in – she loves to figure things out. Through experimentation, she was able to perfect the technique and the taste that is unique to her Camino Kombucha brand. Camino Kombucha is a traditional kombucha with a slight variation. Nohra brews a typical 50/50 black to green tea ratio but she slightly reduces her fermentation time and adds more sugar, decreasing its vinegar taste. She also adds CO2 for consistency. The result is a sweet, effervescent, light kombucha.

When Nohra graduated with her Bachelors and Masters in Science in June of 2019, she decided to concentrate on brewing kombucha rather than finding an engineering job. Nohra had been inspired to study engineering by her dad who had his PhD in Engineering. Nohra’s father never encouraged Nohra to be an engineer. He was passionate about history and had wanted to be a History teacher. However, when Nohra decided to pursue her own passion making kombucha, he was not on board. He was proud of his daughter’s academic achievements and was afraid she was throwing her Drexel degrees away.  

Nohra was not discouraged by her dad’s unenthusiastic response. She is a tenacious pursuer of her goals. Once she sets her mind to something, there is no stopping her.

Nohra Murad brewing at her Maken Studios facility.

When Nohra began taste-testing her finished recipe, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Even people who had tried kombucha before and claimed to dislike it, liked her kombucha. This was Nohra’s aha moment: if hers’ was the kind of kombucha that a person who thinks they don’t like kombucha likes, then there was a huge opportunity to bring a niche drink to a much wider audience. Nohra’s kombucha had the potential to be the next Vitamin Water or Snapple.

Nohra decided to go for it. She moved quickly. Within a year of brewing her first kombucha, her company was formed. She decided to call it Camino Kombucha and branded it to have a retro feel, reminiscent of Route 66 which had its heyday in the 1950s. Route 66 runs through Arizona and reminds her of home.  

Through a series of lucky breaks, Camino Kombucha also moved out of Nohra’s West Philly apartment kitchen and into its new home – a space in Kensington’s Maken Studios, the same launchpad for entrepreneurs that Thu Pham and Caphe Roasters (read previous blog) calls home.  

She now brews four signature flavors from her Maken workspace – Prickly Pear, Rose, Lime Ginger and my personal favorite – Grapefruit. You can purchase Camino Kombucha at 3 locations: 1) the Pennsylvania General Store in Reading Terminal Market, 2) V Marks the Shop and 3) The Tasty. 

Starting a new venture is hard and requires capital. Camino Kombucha has been self-funded almost entirely by Nohra and her family. In order to grow, she is going to need to find other sources of funding. Banks won’t lend her money – she has no proven track record and is too big a risk. Nohra is looking for people who believe in her product to invest in her idea.  

And her idea is a good one. In November, at Drexel University’s annual Start Up Fest, she impressed a panel of New Venture experts with her Camino Kombucha pitch and was awarded a cash prize plus space in Drexel’s prestigious Baiada Incubator, beating out some serious competition.   

If you would like to support Camino Kombucha and help Nohra Murad realize her dream of seeing her kombucha sold everywhere (including in your local Wawa), consider investing.

Visit  https://app.honeycombcredit.com/en/projects/10941-Camino-Kombucha-Co to learn how you can invest.

Nohra Murad (right) and her Operations Coordinator, Tatijana Taylor-Fehlinger (left).

Creating Memories… with Michelle Silberman

Owner, Founder, Chief Cookie Officer at Snackadabra

Memories of food are inextricably woven into our childhood memories and are some of the strongest memories most of us have. The holiday season is particularly full of nostalgic, food-related memories.  

Personally, I will never forget Christmas Eve sundaes. Instead of dinner, my family would skip right to dessert: a sundae buffet with maraschino cherries, assorted ice creams, whipped cream (out of a Cool Whip tub, of course), hot chocolate and caramel sauces and red and green Jimmies.  I lovingly remember those sundaes – always better looking than their over-the-top-sweetness that inevitably resulted in a Christmas Eve stomach ache. But mostly I remember my mother putting the finishing touches on the Christmas tree while we six kids sat, in it’s and the television’s combined glow, watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the umpteenth time. 

Other childhood food memories: pulling a soggy peanut butter and jelly on white bread out of a plastic sandwich bag in the school lunchroom; the thrill of hot campfire flames while roasting marshmallows, dipping a grilled cheese into a bowl of Campbell’s Tomato and Rice Soup on a cold, winter night, Friday night pizza and the taste of charred Acrylamide as Mom routinely left the Ellio’s in the oven for five minutes too long… And who can forget, the texture of a milk-soaked cookie crumbling in your mouth at bedtime? 

Michelle Silberman, Founder, Owner, and Chief Cookie Officer at “Snackadabra” certainly can’t. She has built her food business on precisely that last memory. 

Michelle was a 12-year old, 7^th grader when she and her best friend, Dana, came up with Snackadabra’s flagship treat – the Cookie Cup. “Kids love cookies and milk, why not make a cookie that actually holds the milk?”, she thought.  Ten or so years later, give or take, while enrolled in an entrepreneurship class at Drexel’s Close School for Entrepreneurship, she and her classmates are tasked with the assignment to invent a Start-Up business. Remembering her cookie cup idea, Michelle pitches it to her classmates who then choose her idea as their group project. That afternoon, after class, excited, she returns to her dorm room kitchen and begins experimenting, late into the night and into the following days, weeks and months, until she perfects the recipe that forms the basis for today’s cookie cup. 

As an entrepreneur, Michelle is particularly good at telling the story of the birth of the Cookie Cup and her business. She understands intrinsically the power of a good story to create connection and to illustrate the basic human need to share a history.  And food is a link that connects and crosses generations, cultures and divides.  

In Michelle’s story, the Cookie Cup is not just a tasty vessel that can hold any sweet treat – ice cream, fruit, liquor, whatever you desire.  It  is a receptacle that holds the memories of a young girl and her best friend, dreaming up a clever way to enjoy their favorite childhood snack.  Today, the narrative continues, with our protagonist, Michelle, as a young, 26-year old entrepreneur running a successful business that employs both a professional staff and a kitchen staff who still bake every single cookie cup by hand, using only natural and whole ingredients.  

Snackadabra’s Cookie Cups are the perfect new tradition for you to share with your friends, family and loved ones this holiday season. Cozy up and enjoy some Hot Spiced/Spiked Cider in a Pumpkin Cookie Cup on Christmas Eve or fill a 24K Rose Gold Cookie Cup with a shot of Veuve Clicquot to toast in the New Year. Or like my family, create a cherished holiday memory by including Cookie Cups on your Christmas Eve sundae buffet bar.

Boozy Holiday Cookie Cup Recipes – click here.

For more information or to order Cookie Cups, visit www.chocamo.com.