PRINTGrowing a green business
Two MU students bring eco-chic living to Columbia
Stephanie Hinkle
(From left) Jack Short and Daniel Lyons do Web site maintenance on factorygreen.com, their company that sells eco-friendly products.
April 10, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Two MU students have created the ultimate résumé-building project — their own business. Jack Short and Daniel Lyons are the CEO and president, respectively, of Factory Green. Their online business, launching in late April, offers stylish eco-friendly products. They aren’t shy about their goal. They’re hoping to bring in the green by helping others go green.
Purses sold on factorygreen.com are made of recycled materials including candy wrappers, movie billboards and ...
Factory Green aims to be the Amazon.com of eco-chic — a hub of green merchandise featuring accessories, housewares and original apparel, all made from either sustainable or recycled material. The merchandise has been produced in facilities that use either solar or wind power, says Short, and the only carbon emission comes from transporting the products. Short and Lyons spent hours searching the Internet for products with the hope of bringing together the best selection. The Web site sells everything from handbags made from recycled movie billboards to old vinyl records transformed into bowls. To ensure the authenticity of their claim to be green, Short and Lyons e-mailed each wholesaler and relied on eco-blogs to sort the eco-friendly from the eco-fake.
Short and Lyons grew up in the same Kansas City neighborhood and have remained friends since. The junior biology majors both plan to go to medical school and shared another dream of starting up a business. “It’s fulfilling to set a goal, find the right people and see it through,” Lyons says. “Every step is make-or-break.”
The two came up with the idea because of their study abroad experiences in Europe, where they noticed that people lived green as a lifestyle, not just a fad. Companies were actually conscious of their carbon footprints, Short says. They both saw the potential for a lucrative business plan, and in July 2007 they batted around ideas and decided on the Factory Green Web site. The green movement in the U.S. has been mostly marketed to upper-class families, Short says. From that they realized there was an untapped market of young middle-class consumers who are conscious of eco issues but also want to maintain a sense of style. By September, Short and Lyons secured more than $20,000 in start-up money and envisioned providing a profitable, enviromentally friendly product.
Lyons and Short took a do-it-yourself approach to starting the company, which they run from Short’s apartment in Columbia. “We had to learn from the ground up,” Short says. They read business how-to books and sought help from within the MU community. They sent mass e-mails to business and law professors seeking advice. Short also received help from a Kansas City law firm where he worked the previous summer. Short and Lyons gave formal 30-minute presentations detailing their business plan and the mission of the company. Three investors, connections Short made through the law firm, believed the idea could make a profit.
Although the founders of Factory Green are clearly interested in making money, the guys are taking the opportunity to help others. Part of the profit will go to the United Nations charity Water for Life, which works to provide safe drinking water and sanitation in developing countries.
To keep things simple, Short and Lyons are Factory Green’s only two employees on staff. The company runs with the support of freelance employees who are paid per project. Factory Green’s freelancers are mostly MU students who have backgrounds in advertising, marketing, fashion, photography and graphic design. Each student works from home with little direction and no deadlines from Short and Lyons.
Jake Hammel, a junior textile and apparel management major, is the freelance creative director of apparel. About 20 designers have created T-shirts with Factory Green logos and environmental and political messages. “The green movement is catching on,” Hammel says. “Everyone needs fashion. This is fashion with a cause.”
Short and Lyons agree. “The green movement has been building — you can’t ignore that fact,” Short says. They hope to capitalize on the increasing popularity of green products and the importance of the message, but they don’t want to alienate their target market with high prices. Factory Green tries to price merchandise so that it remains accessible. “Factory Green is green for everyone,” Short says, “not just for Hollywood.”
