你 may have seen Protein Pints in the news recently. Now available for purchase at Bridge Street Market 和 Gr和 Rapids City Gym, Protein Pints are tasty 冰淇淋 flavors packed with 45 grams of protein. It’s the perfect post work-out treat 和 alternative to the chalky bars 和 shakes you’ll find filling aisles in your local 杂货店. What you might not know is the product got its start here at Aquinas 大学.

Former accounting 和 finance student Paul 瑞斯 和 his best friend Michael Meadows long had entrepreneurial aspirations. Their friendship started on the school bus 和 carried through the years, even as the two of them entered college. 当他们 both at home in Gr和 Rapids one summer, they started spitballing ideas, compiling them into a spreadsheet. Most of them were not exactly winners, but protein 冰淇淋 看起来很有前途.

Like many great ideas, it started with a desire. After a workout, 瑞斯 和 Meadows were craving 冰淇淋, but also wanted protein to replace all the energy they’d burned. With all the chocolaty protein products on the market, surely someone was selling protein 冰淇淋 in stores. 

“We looked all over 和 couldn't find it,” 说 瑞斯. “Then we did an online search, 和 what do you know? There's no protein 冰淇淋 on the market anywhere in North 美国.”

With that realization, 瑞斯 和 Meadows were on their way to starting a business. They bought an 冰淇淋 maker off Amazon 和 got to work formulating recipes. 现在, they needed some feedback from their target market. Luckily, 瑞斯 was on the soccer 和 eSports teams at Aquinas, 和 the teams were not about to turn down a little free 冰淇淋.

“The first samplings we ever did were with some of the sports teams at Aquinas,” he 说. “They actually really helped us get off the ground.”

After 20 recipes, 瑞斯 和 Meadows realized that they might need some professional 冰淇淋 advice 和 started looking at local 冰淇淋 shops. They found a perfect partner in Love’s Ice Cream founder Chris McKellar. Very few 冰淇淋 shops make their product from scratch, but Love’s Ice Cream does 和 McKellar loved the idea.

“He’s like an 冰淇淋 wizard,” 说 瑞斯.

With a recipe nailed down 和 samples to distribute, the team started entering pitch competitions, including Start Garden 100, the largest pitch competition in the state 密歇根. That’s where they met Meijer representatives who mentored them right into Bridge Street Market, where Meijer tests local products. 

瑞斯 says it was courses at Aquinas that gave him the skills he needed to craft an effective pitch, particularly his communications professor, Dr. 大卫Wein和y.

“Dr. Wein和y was the best,” 说 瑞斯. “I learned that the more I practice, the better I'm gonna get at public speaking. After that class, I would practice pitch literally hundreds of times before presenting it, 和 we've just been winning almost every pitch competition.”

He was also deeply thankful for his accounting professors: “(安东尼)Burdick 和 (凯文)负责人 taught me the importance of tracking your finances 和 keeping your books straight. Those classes really prepared me to start a company.”

瑞斯 loves working with Meadows 和 McKellar, selling a product that’s not only delicious, but helps people reach their fitness goals. He takes pride in how far the company 来了. It’s been a long road from the soccer field at Aquinas to Bridge Street Market, 和 he took it one step at a time.

“It's basically solving 1000s of problems 和 answering 1000s of questions,” 说 瑞斯. “Every day you solve like three big problems 和 maybe five small ones. 你 just do that every single day. And eventually you have a company.”

看看 the Protein Pints website to learn more 和 head over to Bridge Street Market or Gr和 Rapids City Gym to try 它自己.