Oregon State University students will soon be able to experience running a company through a program that puts a real outdoors sports business in their hands.
OSU-Cascades' new SnoPlanks Academy is the result of a donation by two founders who transferred their 10-year-old snowboard company to the university. Through the program, students will run the business as its managers and staff.
“(The SnoPlanks founders) had a nutty idea: What if we gave the business to OSU Cascades and make it an operating business run by students?” said Todd Laurence, an OSU-Cascades business instructor and one of the team members creating the academy. “It aligns really well with (our) initiative called Cascade Edge, which has an explicit goal of having students across majors and disciplines acquire real world and marketable skills as part of their education.”
The new program is set to welcome its first student cohort this spring and have its first products in the market by winter 2025, Laurence said.
Laurence, who teaches entrepreneurship classes and built a career in Silicon Valley, added “there is no better learning experience than running a business.”
For James Nicol and Ryan Holmes, founders of SnoPlanks, the move allows them to exit the business they have built as a passion project — in addition to their day jobs — while ensuring the brand and its community focus lives on.
“The brand is strong,” said Nicol. “But, after 10 years it gets to a point where you continue to build and double down and go much larger or you need to make a change. I think at the point where we were at as a company and are at (in our careers) this was the most logical path in terms of making a difference and actually having an effect on our community and the people surrounding the brand.”
Both Nicol and Holmes were frequent speakers at OSU Cascades business and entrepreneurship classes and they both saw huge interest from students who wanted jobs and internships with the brand.
How will SnoPlanks Academy work?
SnoPlanks Academy is backed by both the College of Business, which is based at the main Corvallis campus and OSU Cascades. A working group across both locations has been laying the ground for the program for about a year.
“We’re extremely grateful for the doors this extraordinary gift will open for OSU-Cascades students and faculty, transforming how they approach learning and teaching with experiences that can also help attract and retain students,” said Sherm Bloomer, chancellor and dean of OSU-Cascades, in a written statement.
During the winter term, which starts Jan. 8, the team will create the detailed design for the program so the first cohort of students can start in the spring, said Laurence.
In researching how this can work, the group has looked to existing programs across college campuses such as student investment groups that have cropped up within business schools, on campus clubs and even the Greek system.
In each of these programs, student turnover is built in and there are ways to share knowledge from one class to the next.
There will likely be three administrative jobs tied to this program: an executive director, who would loosely be the CEO, an academic director, who would handle academics since the program will be reflected in transcripts in addition to resumes, and a manager for the R & D lab, who would oversee the hands-on lab for prototyping snow board designs.
All the day-to-day work as well as larger management and strategy for the business would be handled by students, said Laurence.
For example, students in the first year of the program could be individual contributors, Laurence said. Then in their second year of the program, they could apply to management and then manage the next crop of first year students. Students in the third year of the program would be vice president and C-level of management. Third year students would also manage the outsourced manufacturing of the products.
He added that OSU hopes the program will create a pipeline of talent for the local outdoor and consumer products companies.
SnoPlanks Academy is more than a class project
When Nicol and Holmes decided to donate the business, SnoPlanks was a profitable company, said Nicol.
“Business was doing great,” he said. “We had transitioned from wholesale and selling online with (retailers like) Backcountry.com and some brick and mortar (stores) and gone direct-to-consumer after Covid.”
SnoPlanks boards were made in-house and the company consisted of seasonal, contract workers. No one was laid off due to this transition, said Nicol. In 2015, the company won a $15,000 grant at the Bend Venture Conference that it used to buy equipment. It has been a bootstrapped company.
With this new model, which will have three administrators as well as contract manufacturing, there will be upfront investment in the company from OSU, said Laurence. But, the working group has a plan for break-even and profitability for the company.
He added that profitability will also be the goal for the students. Once the program is running he envisions the students will be paid for their work. The program will likely have 15-30 students at a time.
Nicol plans to stay involved with the company through the transition and is excited for the potential of this new model.
“The brand is going to grow,” he said. “There will be so much energy and youthful intellect and excitement. The brand isn’t petering out into the afterglow, it’s not being shut down or going into the hands of someone that might not have the same vision we always had. It’s going into a community that’s really going to look after it and take it to the next level.”
