Ethan Kutz and Jean Paul Fort grew up 4,348 miles apart, but a hunger for business brought their stories together on the Tabor College campus.
Kutz, a sophomore from Sheridan, Wyo., and Fort, a junior from Lima, Peru, each came to Tabor to pursue a business degree and to play tennis.
With Kutz’s view for entrepreneurship and Fort’s eye in product development, their athletic, academic and business vision helped their stories merge at a deeper level.
While studying and working in his Introduction to Entrepreneurship class, Fort pitched UPillow, a neck pillow that donned an embroidered Tabor College logo.
With motivation from Dr. Melinda Rangel, associate professor of business administration, and Kutz, Fort’s product became closer to a reality.
Fort and Kutz used Alibaba Group, a Chinese technology company that specializes in e-commerce, retail, Internet and technology, to produce the pillow.
“Dr. Rangel has made me step out of my comfort zone ever since I started this,” Fort said. “I’ve never been a public speaker, and she’ll tell me, ‘Go pitch this product to the class or to President (David) Janzen.’ Over time it got easier.”
After finalizing the product and design in Fall 2021, the pillow was officially delivered to campus on Jan. 24, and it is available to purchase for $22 through the Tabor JayShop. Proceeds of the pillow will go to the Business Department as seed money for future projects.
“Ethan and I were talking about business long before I made UPillow a thing,” Fort said. “I never saw it getting much further than my class. He supported me and helped make it a product.”
Kutz said he has always carried an entrepreneurial gene, highlighting a desire to build things, his father’s woodworking and studying drop shipping and affiliate-marketing businesses on YouTube.
“It’s thrilling, honestly,” Kutz said of launching the product. “It’s the stuff that keeps me up at night. This is what I’m living for, and I’m meant to do this kind of thing. I’ll have hour-long conversations with JP and with like-minded people. We can talk about UPillow constantly and rework different concepts together.”
Fort said Staci Janzen, assistant professor of business administration, and Lily Arthur, assistant professor of accounting, also played integral roles and helped Fort and Kutz conduct surveys to better understand their market and production.
After pitching the product in multiple classes and giving a presentation to President David Janzen, they feel empowered to do even more.
Fort said a renewed focus of entrepreneurship and leadership from the president has helped the business program raise the bar.
“Now that President Janzen is here and with his background, he can get anyone excited and believe that they can do what they’re called to do,” Fort said. “That’s what he did for me.”
The next steps remain to be determined, but they’re eager to see what’s to come.
“We have many different roads,” Kutz said. “We have lots of places we think we can end up.”