Gary Green has been a motorcyclist and an aspiring entrepreneur for years. But it took a trip to Hudson to gain some real traction for his plans. Last fall, he and his partner and fiancée Alissa Harvey drove from Akron to attend the Hudson Library & Historical Society Entrepreneurship Series. The two had been trying for years to start a business producing and marketing polymer-based motorcycle saddlebags.
Green spent years in the steel fabricating industry, both on the shop floor and in management. He knows mold-making as well as motorcycling. He wasn’t happy with the price or the size of the existing motorcycle side carriers on the market, so he made his own set. When another cyclist saw them and offered him $600, Green figured he might just be on to something. Harvey spent hours at the Akron Summit County Public Library researching the motorcycle accessory market, and together she and Green put together a business plan. But things were not moving fast.
Then they heard that JumpStart CEO Ray Leach would be speaking at the Hudson Library entrepreneurship series. JumpStart is the Cleveland-based, nonprofit organization that helps nurture and invest in promising start-up companies in Northeast Ohio.
“We went up there armed with our ‘roughest brochure,’” recalls Green. When the speech ended, Green made a beeline for Leach. Leach listened, liked what he heard, and promised someone would get back with Green soon. Green’s phone rang at 10 o’clock that night and soon Johnny Hutton Jr., vice president of JumpStart Inclusion Advisors, was assigned to work with Green.
Today, Access-O-Ride Technology – AORT for short with the Access referring to Accessorize – has a building in an industrial area of Tallmadge, six employees, a loan from a commercial bank, letters of intent from dealers, and a shop floor covered with finishing ovens that look like elevated coffins. The new business even attracted the attention of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who paid a visit in early June.
AORT is the first company in JumpStart´s Launch 100, a statewide initiative to create 100 high-potential, minority-owned businesses in Ohio over the next five years. Hutton says Launch 100 isn’t just for high-tech businesses, but for those that have great potential. The motorcycle accessory market, he said, is huge.
The AORT saddlebags are specifically molded to fit the most popular models of all the major motorcycle brands. AORT also produces a front piece for cycles to control wind flow. The products are made from fiberglass with added materials for control and stability. In the new Tallmadge shop, workers have been busy making molds, and a training class will soon mean more jobs. Some of those workers will likely be paid by the state as part of a welfare-to-work program.
Green is now also working with another JumpStart portfolio company, Myers Motors, to do prototype body work for Myers, which is developing a two-seater, all-electric car.
The Burton D. Morgan Foundation, dedicated to encouraging the development of entrepreneurship, is a major donor to JumpStart, as well as the underwriter for the Hudson Library entrepreneurship seminars.
Foundation President Deborah Hoover noted that “the successful launch of AORT is an exciting example of our regional entrepreneurship ecosystem at work.”
