This business tale is written by Duke University undergraduate student, Kenny Gould. Business Tales From College is a weekly series. Read stories from current and former college students about their experience starting a business during college.

Alcohol, Frisbee, and Deceased Organic Matter

Trying to start a business in college is difficult. I know, because I have been through the process. Making progress with business is invariably tempered by the realities of college life. You’re trying to make an essential contact in your field of interest, and suddenly you realize you’re late for that organic chemistry class you have to take in order to graduate. You’re drafting an executive summary, when suddenly a Frisbee knocks against your window and ever so charmingly invites you outside to play. Your buddy uses your school email address to access porn websites, and suddenly you’re trying to find professional correspondence among emails labeled “Canadian Herbal Enlargers”.

Yet, the University environment can be a blessing in disguise. It was in college that I met my business partner, Dave Benson. After practice for our comedy group one day, while everyone was sitting around eating graham crackers and sipping Hi-C, Dave mentioned to me that he had a radical idea. Earlier, while he was simultaneously reading The Economist and thinking about decaying bodies, it had hit him. The Economist article was about a new battery, the oxygen battery, which is scheduled to replace the less efficient lithium ion battery starting in 2012. The piece that makes the oxygen battery work is the porous carbon electrode, currently produced through an environmentally inefficient process. The correlation between decaying organic matter and batteries jolted him as if he had been hooked up to a twelve volt. Wait, he thought, why make a porous carbon structure artificially when a porous structure exists naturally in certain parts of organic waste?

Dave couldn’t move forward on the idea, as again the realities of college life held him down. As a senior, he had a thesis to write. He had a job to get. He didn’t have the time to mess around with crazy ideas.

As a freshman, my only obligation was bee-keeping (an admittedly odd hobby, but one which I find calming). Dave was willing to bring me on.

“I like your style,” Dave said. “What do you know about batteries?” I thought for a bit. I knew that Energizer had a bunny mascot. That was about it. But the idea, while crazy, sounded like it had potential. Most decaying organic matter ends up in landfills, and has little other use. Recycling it sounded interesting.

And so, among the textbooks and green lawns and meal plans and beautiful women and alcohol and ugly women who look like beautiful women when combined with alcohol, I started a business. In a few short weeks, CarBone was born. Dave and I now lead a team of consultants, a PhD electrochemist, a biochemist, and a graduate research chemist. So far, we have participated in both the Duke Start-Up Challenge and the Wake Elevator Pitch Competition. Our mission is simple: we aim to make the production of rechargeable batteries more efficient in order to promote environmental sustainability. My mother always told me that change starts from the inside. With CarBone, it literally does.

And so, while my roommate may have thrown up on my business plan, college has proved to be a boon. Without college, I wouldn’t have a business to complain about in the first place.

Find out how an online doctoral degree could also help you experience professional and academic success in your near future.

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Kenny Gould is a student at Duke University from Charlotte, North Carolina. When he is not writing, Kenny enjoys fulfilling his role as the COO of CarBone, a company that recycles organic material for use in oxygen batteries and modern electronics.