Startups are hard, no matter what age a new business owner is. For students who want to launch their own business, CYstarters provides the resources and some funding.
Clayton Mooney and Megan Sweere, Iowa State University alumni and members of the first CYstarters cohort in 2016, can look back at their early startup days and use what they learned to teach entrepreneurship to current students.
Clayton Mooney, founder of Clayton Farms, was with his previous company KinoSola during the first CYstarters program. Now Mooney gives back to the organization through his guidance and donations.
“Startups are hard — nine out of every 10 fail,” Mooney said. “So finding your calling in an accelerator program, to me, that’s why I think CYstarters is the best accelerator in the state because they give you money to live off of to test your ideas, and they don’t take equity. It’s a heck of a deal.”
This year’s Demo Day, where the students pitch the business they’ve developed during the summer, begins at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Research Park CORE Facility Atrium.
Mooney applied what he learned through CYstarters to build and grow his business. Mooney returned to CYstarters as a mentor, helping students build successful startups.
Clayton Farms’ has roots in CYstarters
Created in 2017, Clayton Farms’ mission is to provide better food for more people, a healthier alternative to fast food. The business served more than 350,000 people.
“We’re known for accomplishing our mission by launching salad restaurants with farms inside of them, so we can serve the world’s freshest salads, wraps and smoothies,” Mooney said.
At Clayton Farms, produce is grown using hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil that allows them to thrive in a controlled environment, with no worries about pesticides.
“Our systems are closed loop, which means all of the water and nutrients are recycled. One of my favorite statistics is: for every one month we grow food in our farms, we save a year’s worth of water, when compared to traditional agriculture,” Mooney said.
Cyclosporiasis, which is commonly caused by raw fruits and vegetables, has been spreading; 200 cases have been reported in Iowa recently. Symptoms include diarrhea, loss of appetite, nausea and stomach cramps. For those wondering if the cyclosporiasis virus is affecting the business, it is not due to all the base ingredients grown on site.
“We give the plants exactly what they need, no more, no less, and that’s been key for us growing the base ingredients,” Mooney said. “If you can shrink the supply chain down to understanding the farms, and they’re not large factory farms or super industrialized farms, then you decrease your worries when it comes to outbreaks like that.”
What is CYstarters?
CYstarters is an 11-week summer program for ISU students or recent graduates. Participants receive $6,500 individually or up to $13,000 per student team, with funds dedicated to startups and entrepreneurship. These donations come from the CYstarters alumni network. CYstarters is open to any major and includes students from every single college at Iowa State.
With an annual Demo Day at the end of the summer, students are given 4 to 5 minutes to pitch their business, with the intention of kickstarting their business and making connections.
“It is a high-energy, fun day, and the way these students have poured into their businesses and made so much progress is just super inspirational. I think you’ll learn something. You’ll engage and meet new people,” Sweere said.
2016: the first CYstarters
In 2016, Mooney was two years into building KinoSol, where he was co-founder and chief product officer. Many of the co-founders were participating in business plan competitions and trying to establish where to go next. They wanted to be working full-time on the business.
That summer, Clayton and his KinoSol discovered CYstarters.
“In a way it was very competitive, and we were very fortunate to be accepted as one of 10 companies in the program,” Mooney said. “The biggest benefit we had from day one was that it allowed the founders to go full time on it, and really focus on it because of the stipend that was given through the program.”
The stipend in 2016 was around $5,000 per team member for the summer. Mooney said it was enough out-of-sight, out-of-mind for the bills of rent, groceries and more to really hone in and focus. By Demo Day, Mooney and his team had made so much progress within the program that they were ready to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign.
“We landed two larger partners for distribution into developing countries, and all in all, CYstarters is a launchpad, and it helped KinoSol get from prototype to commercial launch into 50 countries worldwide,” Mooney said.
How to support student entrepreneurs
There are two ways to support and give back to entrepreneurs who are starting out. One is being a mentor, where your network becomes your mentee’s network and you advise them. The second is to provide financial support.
By supporting students monetarily, students use this opportunity to grow their business.
“When I went through CYstarters, $1,000 went a long way for my business,” Mooney said. “But that’s one of the easiest ways to give back and brighten someone’s day on Demo Day, knowing that gives them a little bit of extra cash to work on their prototypes or go out and market to potential customers and users.”
As an ISU alumnus and English major, Mooney wished someone would have told him not to go to college for the degree, but for the network. As a mentor, Mooney strives to give the most honest advice by meeting students where they are in their process.
“I try to understand what stage that entrepreneur is at, and then I naturally gravitate towards the people who I feel like I can actually help, and there’s a mutual understanding there,” Mooney said.
Heading CYstarters
Sweere, a marketing and supply chain graduate and former CYstarters participant, is now leading the program. The first cohort group in 2016 was eight businesses, and this summer they have 16. In the past, the average number of CYstarters applications was between 25 and 35. This year, it was 58.
“There’s just a level of awareness that’s growing. I think the last few cohorts have screamed from the rooftops their experience and helped push people our direction,” Sweere said.
With a new one-credit class available for graduates, CYstarters 2.0, Sweere leads the class based on what the group needs. Each semester is different.
“I build out after the first week, and I know what they need. I’m excited for the class and program to continue growing. This is our biggest cohort to date,” Sweere said.
An aspect Sweere is always considering is how to engage alumni networking and create continuous resources for students. Sweere has open office hours Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons for any student who may be interested in starting a business. By providing as many resources as possible, students see that anyone can become a part of the program, no matter how far along they are in their own path.
Roadblocks and progress
At the start of summer, Sweere observes students’ confidence progress as the summer goes on. The first week, leaders help students think about what goals they have for their business, and what they need to accomplish this summer to make it happen.
“I was in the first cohort of CYstarters, and I started a business. And I ran it for a couple years, and then I kind of just quit it,” Sweere said. “I had lost my passion, and it hadn’t grown to the point where I thought it had. So I tell my story a lot — that felt like a failure to me at the time. I look back now and see it absolutely wasn’t. But I think other alumni coming and telling our stories and being vulnerable about the failures, it’s not really a failure.”
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