TRAVERSE CITY ? Two teenage brothers came up with an idea when they were snowboarding: ?Wouldn?t it be cool to light up your board and stand out from the crowd?? A business was born. Now the boys are trying to woo investors on an Internet crowd funding platform to help take their LED light kits nationwide.
45th Parallel Lighting is a business created by two young entrepreneurs; Dakota Porter, 16 and Garret Porter, 13. The business plan doesn?t stop with lighting up snowboards. It also includes kits for skis, snowshoes, bikes, longboards and almost every other vehicle would look sweet if they were lit up.
The LED lighting kits ? powered by a simple 9 volt battery ? will soon be offered for almost any type of vehicle or sporting equipment. The kit’s are waterproof, durable, easy to apply and won?t damage equipment, they say. They buy LED light strings off the shelf and add their secret sauce ? hardware to connect the lights to the sporting equipment or vehicle.
The initial $2000 in funding came from the boy?s parents, said Christina Porter. Now the family is looking to raise $8,800 by May 18 on IndieGoGo.Com/ActionGlow The seed capital will be used to further develop and manufacture the kits, said Dakota Porter. 45th Parallel Lighting has a basic brochure web site, but is not yet offering products for sale online. The boys built the web site themselves.
But they admit they couldn?t have done this with just the Porter family. The boys give a shout out to two organizations that have helped them formulate their business plan:
SCORE, the nonprofit association with Chapters in Traverse City, Petoskey and around the country, dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentoring.
MidMichigan Innovation Center, a full service business incubator, structurally located in Midland with a satellite office at the Traverse Area Chamber of Commerce, and serving all of northern and central Michigan.
For more information, click on 45lights.com
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