Business economics teams advance in statewide competition

04/07/2026

When four SUNY Cortland business economics majors conceived of starting a new business, they looked no further than the university's Student Life Center, where they often go to lift weights and spend time together.

Their big idea, Scrap Fit, consists of custom dumbbells and other gym equipment created from melding together junkyard metal scraps. The unique finished pieces will be sold by the pound.

Recently, the four seniors - Chris Youngs, Justin Wolmeldorph, Thomas Wheeler and Luka Kvizhinadze - took their prototype exercise equipment to the first round in the New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC), held recently at Onondaga Community College, and captured first place in the products and hardware category. Their business plan, and that of one other SUNY Cortland team, won a grant for $200 to pay their expenses as they advance to compete against nine other regional competitors in New York state.

The intercollegiate entrepreneur competition is used to show off the most innovative student start-up businesses in New York for six categories: food and agtech; health and well-being; learn, work and live; safety, power and mobility; products and hardware; and software and services.

The second SUNY Cortland startup proposal advancing to the state-level on April 22 at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) will be Next Life, proposed by Ryan Craig. Next Life, which placed second in its category of safety, power and mobility, offers a junk culling service where Craig picks up loads of recyclable materials, usually metals, and sorts the refuse for donation, recycling or scrap.

Thirty-two students formed the 11 teams from Cortland that competed In the Central New York Region against 60 other teams, according to James Wilson, an Economics Department lecturer, advising the teams for a second year in the competition.

The participants at Cortland prepared for this spring's competition by taking two of Wilson's management courses, Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship last fall and then the companion course, MGT 275 Entrepreneurship I, this semester. The spring course requires those enrolled to take part in the competition.

"We have our own internal elevator pitch like a mini competition that gets them used to the concept of developing an idea and creating a viable business concept around it and then pitching that concept," Wilson said. "So we do our own internal small competition in class as a baby step to the larger competition."

Wilson said the level of competition has elevated compared with last year, both in terms of SUNY Cortland and the regional competition. Then, 13 initial teams from Cortland faced off against 30 other teams in the region.

"You know, in the New York Business Plan Competitions, typically there are around 300 teams from 10 different areas across the state," Wilson said. "And so, it begins as a pretty big net cast for these budding entrepreneurs."

SUNY Cortland's first level of competition was against business startups proposed by students from across the region at Syracuse University, Cornell University, Colgate University, SUNY Oswego and Le Moyne College.

The university's two regional winners will now begin additional preparation for the state-level competition at RIT.

Should a Cortland team win the statewide award in their category at RIT, its members will take home a $10,000 prize. Later that same day, those winners will vie across categories for one final $25,000 prize.

In 2025, more than 300 teams competed from across New York state and SUNY Cortland's NIL Finder team won its track and a $10,000 prize.

All Cortland teams also will present their business plans on campus during the university's annual Transformations: A Student Research and Creativity Conference.

The four students in Scrap Fit conceived of their big idea while working out at the Student Life Center, said the start-up's representative Chris Youngs.

"We noticed that even with regular commercial gyms or even university gyms there's really not a whole lot of uniqueness to a lot of the gym products there," Youngs said.

Young noticed that many of the dumbbells look the exact same.

"We wanted to create a product that would be unique in its own aspect, but also we were taking a sustainability route with it too," he said.

"This is a business where we take recycled scrap metal and materials from junk yards, scrap yards … and we turn it into gym equipment," Youngs said.

Members visited several junkyards to find metal covers for electronic wires that became the bar of the dumbbell and various other components like hubcaps that became the weights, Youngs explained. They found a professional welder to fashion the prototype.

So now every piece welded together looks and feels a little different. Selling by the pound provides an easy way to set the price on these very individualized pieces of equipment.

"Right now, we're selling for a $1.35 a pound," Youngs said. "And between paying a welder a commission out of that, our net profits are about 73%, which is about a dollar per pound. So, if we sell a 20 pound dumbbell, we make about $20 profit."

He thinks bringing a product sample with them to the competition may have been what pushed them into the winner's circle.

"If I was a judge, it would been really hard to pick between everybody in our class because everybody did such a good job," Youngs said of two startups that he particularly admired, Throwing Shade, which produces beach equipment, and Shred Air, a self-cleaning fan. Neither team brought in a prototype.

"Just having an actual physical product," Youngs said. "That's what really helped."