Entrepreneurs Bring Youthful Energy to Work
For Steve Figgatt and Dan Delaney, the decision to open their own technology consulting business after graduating from college in 2008 was pretty simple.
“The economy was in a shambles, and there were no jobs available,” Figgatt, 23, recalls.
Maybe it wasn’t the best time in the world to launch a small business, but with a history of part-time consulting work that had generated a small nest egg, the longtime friends took the leap, and Sycamore Tech Inc. was born.
Today, the company is flourishing, with a healthy local business and residential customer base for the partners’ computer expertise.
Sycamore is also pioneering green technology. The company’s business vehicle is a 1985 Mercedes the partners re-engineered to run on used vegetable oil, and they have reduced their carbon footprint by 90 percent.
To their surprise, they have also developed a healthy international market for the hardware they buy from schools and companies and refurbish for continued use.
“It’s good to be people who are paving the way,” says Figgatt, who has known Delaney since they were local middle-schoolers. “We’re exploring a facility for making biodiesel from used vegetable oil, and we’re also hoping to develop environmentally sustainable rental properties. We can really do whatever we want as long as our ideas work.”
That kind of sky’s-the-limit attitude is common among West Chester’s growing number of young entrepreneurs and is reflected in the popularity of the West Chester chamber’s new F.L.O.W. group, or Future Leaders of West Chester.
More than 50 young businesspeople were on board before the first meeting in September 2009, described by Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Mark Yoder as “something a little different – structured networking that helps them connect in a way that’s meaningful.”
Among the city’s young movers and shakers is Mary Bigham, who hosts an ambitious and upbeat Web site loaded with tips on where to eat, what to eat, how to eat – a compendium that big-city foodies might well envy.
And Antoinette Poluch, who at 24 opened her fashion-forward OBVI store in 2006, is already looking to expand to other locations.
“When I first jumped into it, I was young and excited, and it was what I wanted to do,” says Poluch, who took the name from a college slang expression – “obvi” for “obviously” – she and her friends used.
Poluch decided to open a business when she was casting about for a career after graduating from Gettysburg College. Hometown West Chester was the natural choice, she says, “because I knew it and was comfortable with it, and I knew this was something this town needed: clothes that were fun, wore well and were sophisticated, but not at a boutique price.”
“I try to help people as much as I can with lower prices,” Poluch says.
The economy has played an even more crucial role in the success of NewDay Mortgage. Mike Dougherty and Tom Farnesi were 28 and 27, respectively, when they started the company in 2006, after leaving another firm in Delaware.
“We value honesty, ethics, integrity and constant financial development,” says Farnesi. “We decided to go out on our own and create a small, efficient and well-respected company.”
The name, he says, refers to the “life-altering decision” their clients make when purchasing or refinancing a home, beginning a new day in their lives.
The challenge in the current economic climate, Farnesi says, is gaining respect in the housing and mortgage markets. “We’re ready for the challenge,” Farnesi says.
