Behind the start of every business is a passion and underneath every success story is the dream that carried it. Two Dayton startups detailed the passions that brought a business idea from hopeful to profitable and where the companies are heading for the start of a new year.
The businesses recently presented their success stories and revealed future plans at the 2023 Launch Dayton Startup Week. While the two pursued very different paths in the drink industry and in technology, these startups are now prepared to continue their upward growth under a solid foundation.
Billie Gold Bubble Tea
Through her determination to escape a windowless office, Nicole Cornett launched Billie Gold Bubble Tea. The bubble tea concept introduced the drink to the Dayton region and while Cornett originally imagined the worst: begging people to buy her product, she was overwhelmed with support and interest from the community.
Rather than a traditional food truck, Cornett purchased a custom-made bus for her venture and proudly parked Billie Gold Bubble Tea at local festivals and events. Although the education on the drink was sparse at the time, Cornett said she turned the unfamiliarity into a selling point, utilizing its unique visual presentation and trendy experience to bring in customers.
“The whole bubble tea thing is experiential, down to just putting your straw into the cup,” Cornett said. “It just feels fun. Sometimes people come and tell me they’re having a tough day and this is how I want them to get a pick-me-up. Knowing that you can be the thing that brightens someone’s day, that’s great for me.”
In April 2023, Billie Gold Bubble Tea launched its first brick-and-mortar location in the Belmont neighborhood. But the opening was not the end for the bus, which still pops up around the region today.
In 2023 and leading into 2024, Billie Bubble Tea is gearing up for its next big breakthrough. Cornett revealed that she is working toward manufacturing her bubble tea product into cans.
“I'm always looking for the next thing that I want to do,” Cornett said. “... Being an entrepreneur, having your own business is just a never-ending process of getting to be as creative as you want to be, and it's limitless.”
3D Cloud by Marxent
Brothers Beck and Barry Besecker bounced around between various technology startups before landing on a content management system business. But when an opportunity in augmented reality (AR) arose, Barry Besecker hopped on the chance to enter the market, not knowing that it would usher in a new era of 3D technology.
The project was for outdoor recreation apparel retailer Moosejaw, which hired Besecker to create an AR application for their upcoming catalog. The technology would show what models were wearing underneath the clothing being advertised. What they sold to Moosejaw for $5,000 got 4 million downloads, showing the two the power behind the technology and where it could take them.
Besecker said they sought something more permanent than a specialized app to be deleted. His answer came as him and his wife were building a house and taking risks on design decisions without being able to visualize the end goal. That’s when 3D Cloud by Marxent was born, a leading 3D platform for furniture and DIY retailers.
“We decided we could create an ecosystem in a 3D content management system that understood how to take products from multiple companies, configure them, render them and put them in the same scene, so that the consumer could construct a vision of their space,” Besecker said.
As the brothers pivoted their business into what would become 3D Cloud by Marxent, their venture capital company remained on board. Besecker said they look at investments similarly to betting on a horse, a jockey or the race. The company was confident that by continuing to invest in the jockey (Besecker) and the race (the market) that the brothers would find their horse (3D Cloud by Marxent).
Today, 3D Cloud by Marxent works with the country's top retail powerhouses to revolutionize the customer experience for furniture and DIY with their connected and intelligent 3D platform and applications. Since 2011, the company has grown from two brothers working out of a garage to more than 100 employees across offices in Miamisburg; St. Petersburg, Florida; London, and Australia.
In 2024, Besecker said he anticipates continuing to invest in artificial intelligence. While the company has capabilities in the virtual reality space, he is waiting of the market to adopt the technology before making a major investment and implementing their existing 3D library.
