Kyle Storer hit the ground running when he arrived at The University of Toledo.
The aspiring entrepreneur was still a first-year student when he began to apply for his first patent, detailing a prototype he’d put together for his freshman design project in the College of Engineering.
CELEBRATING SUCCESS: UToledo recognizes the Class of 2023 with a series of stories featuring students receiving their degrees at fall commencement.
Today he’s heading toward commencement with that patent in hand and big plans for his invention.
“I call it the Stacker,” Storer said, describing a cylindrical snack container equipped with a twist-up device to lift the chips into easy reach. “The goal is to see my design on the shelves one day.”
Storer, who grew up in St. Clairsville in eastern Ohio, has wanted to be an entrepreneur for almost as long as he’s wanted to be an engineer. It’s in part what enticed him to UToledo, where he’s benefited from a Choose Ohio First for Engineering Entrepreneurship (COFFEE) Scholarship. Funded under a state program that supports students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the scholarship not only provided renewable tuition assistance, but a supportive pathway to pair his mechanical engineering major with an entrepreneurship, family and small business minor.
(UToledo offered the COFFEE Scholarship to students admitted between 2017 and 2020. For information on current Choose Ohio First scholarships, go to UToledo’s Choose Ohio First website.)
UToledo has proved a good choice for Storer, who’s leaving campus not only with plans for his Stacker invention. He’s also a co-founder with another alumnus of the startup Ark Web Development, and has a full-time job lined up as a project engineer with United States Gypsum (USG) in Port Clinton.
“It’s a really great company,” said Storer, who completed a co-op last year with USG. “And there are also really great opportunities for growth there, which I appreciate.”
Storer has kept busy since his earliest days at UToledo. He’s a brother and former president of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He helped to establish a Toledo Football Club beginning in 2020. And he’s made connections throughout the College of Engineering with the University of Toledo Engineering Council.
He also followed his entrepreneurial bent to the Young Entrepreneurs Society, where he and others worked on plans for an app that hasn’t yet come to fruition.
Storer decided to apply for a patent for his own invention after accompanying fellow COFFEE Scholars and Dr. Scott Molitor, bioengineering professor and interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, to present it during his freshman year at the Choose Ohio First Scholar Showcase in Columbus.
Kyle Storer is a former president of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He is also a co-founder of a startup and has a full-time job lined up as a project engineer.
The patent application was a learning process in itself, he said.
“I learned a lot about intellectual property right off the bat, as well as the different types of patents and what qualifies you to get one,” he said.
When he finally received his in March 2023, he turned to Jeanine Bragg, operations manager of UToledo’s Business Incubator, and Norm Rapino, executive director of Rocket Innovations, who steered him toward the Regional I-Corps Program. A collaboration between UToledo and the University of Akron under the umbrella of the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps, the program is designed to help faculty, researchers and students commercialize an innovative technology-based idea. For Storer it was most valuable as a guided introduction to the customer discovery process, during which he conducted interview after interview to assess the potential market for the Stacker.
Meanwhile Storer had another venture in the works: Luke Volkmer, a recent alumnus whom he knew from a neighboring fraternity and the Young Entrepreneurs Society, had invited him to partner on a web development business.
Here Storer leaned on the guidance of Dr. Brandon Cohen, a senior lecturer in the Department of Management in the John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation, who encouraged his student to develop this idea in his course Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management. Storer also applied what he was learning about customer discovery in the I-Corps Program, identifying a gap in the market among small businesses whose need for a web presence isn’t being satisfied by do-it-yourself platforms or companies specializing in a much larger and better-funded clientele.
Cohen, who has seen several students write business plans in his course for what are today successful local companies, described Storer as an “exceptional student.”
“Kyle is proof that engineering and entrepreneurship are a winning academic and business formula,” Cohen said.
Bragg spoke similarly of Storer. UToledo’s Business Incubator serves the campus and the broader community with business startup and entrepreneurial assistance programs, and Bragg said Storer stands out among the handful of undergraduate inventors whom the staff works with each year.
“Kyle is very intelligent and extremely driven,” she said. “He is a true entrepreneur.”
Ark Web Development wrapped up its first project in October and is now on the threshold of profitability with its second. Storer will continue to develop the business during his evenings and weekends after he begins his new position at USG following commencement on Saturday, Dec. 16.
He plans to keep moving on the Stacker, too. He’s working with another alumnus, David Uhlenhake of RealizAbility, on plans to try to put the twist-up container in front of executives at Pringles.
