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Issue: September/October 2010

Entrepreneur's Toolkit: Hands-on Approach

By John Hitch

After working in manufacturing for 35 years, Gary Green wanted to create a product and a company of his own.
Gary Green’s red polo shirt is tattooed in large, chalky impressions. Like everything at the Akron native’s startup, Access-O-Ride Technology, they were formed by his hands.

In AORT’s Tallmadge workshop, Green is sanding the stark fiberglass frame of a Ford Shelby Cobra, coating his clothes with dust from the patent-pending polymer he created in his garage.
 What to Ask
How can I impress investors without breaking the bank?
   “Develop a working prototype or professionally created diagram and specs that show how your product functions, what its advantages are and what it will it take to produce it,” says Beth
Fitz Gibbon.
   AORT’s Gary Green formed his patent-pending polymer in about 80 hours for less than $100. He bought all the chemicals and sheets of fiberglass at local hardware stores.
   “You don’t have to have a million dollars worth of equipment or tooling to come up with a million-dollar process,” Green says.

Is it possible to attract too many investors?
   Once your product or service is tested and exhibits positive results, your support or sponsor group will start pairing you with potential funders, Fitz Gibbon says. “Don’t give away your business,” she warns. “Tread carefully! Every dollar of funding you take on dilutes your potential return from your new business, and you are paying for that money by giving up some control.”

AORT uses the highly durable, ultralight polymer to manufacture custom saddlebags, storage trunks and other accessories for motorcycles, and they’re all designed by the veteran welding supervisor.

“I can build anything, design anything,” Green says matter-of-factly. He has been doing it since age 6, starting with model cars. Yet he spent most of his life in management at metal fabricating shops. While recovering from a job-related knee injury in 2002, Green had the free time and motivation to start his own company, something he and his fiancee, Alissa Harvey, could leave for their children to grow into a national brand.

An avid motorcyclist, Green had wanted to solve the storage limitations that caused bikers to carry backpacks and mistakenly leave helmets on restaurant tables. “The need is the seed that starts everything,” he says. From there he began designing aftermarket products he could sell to dealerships.
Harvey, whom he met 27 years ago while teaching an adult vocational class for the Akron board of education, became his research expert. They spent countless hours at the local library, scouring databases to gather information on possible audiences and competitors.

“There is help [for entrepreneurs],” Green says. “Sometimes it’s right down the street from you, and you didn’t know.”

The pair also attended free seminars, including one headlined by JumpStart Inc. CEO Ray Leach at the Hudson Library. Previously rejected by JumpStart, Green and Harvey presented Leach with their business plan after his talk. Leach was so impressed, he called them back that night to set up a mentorship.

Now AORT is part of the JumpStart Launch100 Initiative, which hopes to create a pipeline of 100 high-potential minority and inner-city businesses in Ohio over the next five years. The companies selected for the program are projected to reach $15 million in annual revenue in the next three to five years.

“Gary has been very tenacious over the last two years,” says Johnny Hutton Jr., vice president of JumpStart Inclusion Advisors. “He did a great job of identifying his competitors.”

AORT is on track to offer 28 products, three times more than the competition. The specially formulated polymer can also be used in energy-conservation products such as wind turbine blades.

AORT even caught the attention of Gov. Ted Strickland, who visited in June to commend the company for its plan to create 35 new jobs by the end of the year. Green plans to offer his employees full benefits and profit-sharing opportunities.

Adamantly opposed to the “us versus them” mentality he saw in 35 years of management, Green will continue to proudly wear a dirty hand-printed shirt, like every other employee.

“Yeah, I’m the proprietor, the problem solver,” he says. “I also sweep up the place.”
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