Kiosk idea powers up local teen
SANDRA GUY sguy@suntimes.com December 16, 2011 7:58PM
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Updated: January 17, 2012 11:07AM
Anthony Driver Jr. had no idea what the word “entrepreneur” meant when he enrolled in an elective class with his favorite teacher to ensure a good grade during his senior year at CICS Ralph Ellison charter school.
Driver figured it out quickly, since he ended up winning a citywide business-plan competition at the end of the year. His winning idea is to put cellphone-charging kiosks at malls, airports, grocery stores and other sites where people are in a hurry. A 10-minute charge at the Charge N Go kiosk would cost $1, and would juice up smartphones, laptops and tablet computers. Users could lock their device inside the kiosk while they ran a quick errand.
Driver competed against 200 rivals.
“It all started when I joked that my phone was always going dead when I was at the mall,” said Driver, an 18-year-old freshman at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Driver won his entrepreneurial bona fides through the Future Founders program, sponsored by the Chicago-based Future Founders Foundation. The foundation is a newly created spinoff from the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, aimed at introducing young people to a variety of career ideas.
“I learned that you don’t have to have an idea that’s typical or an idea that you can create right now,” Driver said.
Driver also was named a finalist in a citywide business plan competition sponsored by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a national organization that provides entrepreneurship curriculum and programming to 2,000 students in Chicago.
Driver is now struggling with his choice of career. He always wanted to be a lawyer and a politician, but he’s realizing that he could have an impact as both a business owner and a politician.
“I had so much fun, and I think the charging kiosk could become a reality,” he said. “The kiosk business is booming. At Howard University, Pepsi has set up kiosks to reward students who recycle with money credited to their student accounts.”
Driver is eyeing a contest at Howard University that rewards business students who submit promising proposals with sponsorships and funding opportunities.
A key part of the appeal of the Future Founders program is the young entrepreneurs who volunteer to mentor students. Driver said he was impressed that people close to his age served as role models.
One of them, Logan LaHive, 29, is the CEO and founder of Belly, a Chicago-based startup that designs “punch” cards that businesses give to customers to build rewards each time they buy goods. Belly (BellyCard.com) won more than $1 million in mid-December from Groupon co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell’s Lightbank investment fund.
LaHive volunteered to judge the business plan competition for CICS Ralph Ellison school when he was director of new business at Redbox, the Oakbrook Terrace-based company that rents DVDs through red kiosks familiar at supermarkets and discount stores.
“Anthony gave a fabulous presentation,” LaHive said. “I loved his drive and his passion.”
LaHive was so taken with Driver’s kiosk idea, he offered to take Driver to Redbox’s headquarters to get an up-close look at what insiders call “automated retail.”
LaHive said he did so because he always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur but had no resources to call on when he was a teenager.
“I think it’s incredibly important to offer kids an experience outside of the everyday opportunities they have in their communities and in the classroom,” LaHive said. “They need to get out in the world and meet people running their own businesses.”
Driver said he was amazed at the intricacies of the business of selling DVDs and videos. He learned that his electronic device-charging kiosk would cost $7,940 to build, and that he could make $68,000 in revenues in his first year in business.
Scott Issen, a Glenview native who helped launch and leads the non-profit Future Founders Foundation, is aiming to expand Future Founders’ reach beyond the seven high schools it serves with the entrepreneurship curriculum.
His goal is to work this fall with 12 middle- and high schools and to expand more aggressively in Fall 2012 with Future Founders and Connect to the Future, the foundation’s other program that connects professionals with students in 7th through 12th grades.
Each summer, Future Founders runs a week-long academy for 25 to 30 students who compete for spots. The program takes the kids on field trips to companies such as Microsoft, the Ford Motor Co. assembly plant and Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels, and teaches the kids presentation skills, business etiquette, and investment and financing strategies through game playing.
Issen aims to increase the number of Foundation volunteers who judge business-plan competitions, talk to students in classrooms and mentor students in all sorts of ways.
“It’s a great way for Chicago’s entrepreneurs to give back and show appreciation for the mentoring and support they’ve received,” he said.
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