Government funding is enabling student entrepreneurs to innovate in diverse fields.
Since 2001, the City of Kingston has provided young entrepreneurs aged 15 to 29 with grants up to $3,000 with funding from the Ontario government. Besides funding, the program provides mentorship opportunities, enabling participants to work closely with local entrepreneurs.
This year, four of the 10 participants are Queen’s University students: Eric Colonna, Mason Rice, Roman Mironov, and Owen McDowell. The Journal had the opportunity to sit down for interviews with the four participants.
Eric Colonna, Comm ’23, is the founder of Pick 6 Athletics, a business he started in the summer of 2020. Colonna first generated a following by posting workout drills and football tips on Instagram.
Using his experience as a defensive back on the Queen’s football team, Colonna hopes to make
high-level coaching accessible to young defensive backs.
Besides content creation, another way Colonna utilized business technology was through Wix, a website provider he used to create a site and mobile application which offers additional workout resources.
A piece of advice he would give to future entrepreneurs is to avoid paralysis by analysis and to start their business as soon as possible. Colonna emphasized the importance of a ive environment, reflecting on the times his family and peers helped him film content.
Mason Rice, Sci ’27, started Rice Photography, which reflects his ion for tinkering with video and film production and specializes in creating short films.
As part of the program, Rice hopes to expand his business under the mentorship of local social media marketing company, James Media.
As an incoming first-year student, Rice looks forward to meeting new people and hopes to take Instagram pictures for first years during special events like Homecoming.
Rice identified consistency as a key trait entrepreneurs should strive for. Despite his engineering course load, he’s still going to try to find free time to keep filming videos.
Once in university, Rice hopes to shoot videos for sports teams, like football and rugby. As of now, Rice has shot an ment for the Kingston Yacht Club, as well as for Roman Mironov, Comm ’25, a fellow participant of the 2023 Summer Company Program.
Mironov founded 199 Media, a consulting company specializing in digital advertising for businesses.
Mironov’s marketing experience started early—he helped his mother’s e-commerce business by making posters on Canva before branching out into social media advertising.
Currently, 199 Media works with small businesses, teaching them how to make effective digital ments, like Google Ads, as well as other marketing strategies, like appealing website designs.
Mironov encourages other Commerce students who feel pressured to internships despite having interests in entrepreneurship to take a chance on themselves.
Owen McDowell, ArtSci ’25, founded World Outta Luck, achieving his dream of starting a fashion business.
McDowell first enrolled himself in an online course by Harvard Business School. He is currently pursuing the Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Creativity certificate offered at Queen’s.
He is a self-taught sewer who specializes in casual and adaptive clothing—apparel designed with accessibility in mind to individuals with varying degrees of disability.
McDowell began making adaptive clothing after his girlfriend’s grandfather had a stroke. The stroke limited her grandfather’s mobility, and he struggled finding clothes he could take off to receive medical care.
Since then, McDowell has sought to create adaptive clothing with features like zippers to increase ease in getting dressed for individuals with mobility limitations.
Originally focused on casual clothing, McDowell transitioned to accessories and outerwear before settling on his current clothing line, but gained valuable experience from each stage.
The main challenge McDowell now faces is clothing distribution. The Summer Company Program ed McDowell by connecting him to Judith Pineualt, his mentor, who is helping McDowell find a clothing distributor and supplier.
On Aug. 16, the Fractal Workspace will be showcasing the 2023 Summer Company Program cohort.
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