It’s every entrepreneur’s dream: an opportunity to pitch his/her wares on a national stage.
And what better venue to market your startup than the White House? How about the Oval Office and an audience with its chief occupant – POTUS?
When freshman business major Jesse Horine found himself standing next to President Barack Obama, the fly-fishing entrepreneur from Fort Mill, S.C., delivered his best elevator pitch before presenting the leader of the free world with a special stars-and-stripes–themed fly.
Organized as part of National Entrepreneurs’ Day last November, the visit was not the first time Horine has been recognized for his plan to create an online retail store for fly-fishing gear and apparel. A month before the White House trip, Horine’s business plan took second place at the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s National Challenge in California’s Silicon Valley. He qualified for the national competition after placing second in the YEScarolina State Business Plan Competition, held at the College of Charleston in June 2014.
Horine decided to start his own business after taking an entrepreneurship course at Fort Mill High School. He describes the business, SouthernFly, as a “lifestyle brand that sells convenience and a complete experience for outdoor enthusiasts and fly fishermen.” He designs, makes and tests the flies himself.
“It’s very challenging. That’s why I like it,” he says. “I would like to teach more people how to do it. Longer term, one of my goals is to expand the market.”
He credits an uncle for getting him interested in fishing and his girlfriend’s father for teaching him about fly fishing. As he learned more, Horine realized he had a knack for tying the flies, and, when he came to the College, he brought all the raw materials – furs, fibers, lead eyes, hooks and threads – he uses to make his flies and set up his workshop in his room in Craig Residence Hall.
To watch Horine tie a fly is to watch an artist practicing his craft. His tools are simple – a bobbin, tiny scissors, glue and clear nail polish. His work area is sparse, consisting of his desk and a small vise to hold the steel hooks that form the bodies of the flies. The creative magic is in the precision movements of his hands and fingers – a blur of winding, snipping, smoothing.
He enjoys conceiving and designing different lures for various types of fish and water and customizing flies for gifts – like the patriotic version he gave to President Obama. The possible combinations of colors and materials are limitless. Each one is unique.
But the ultimate test is whether they perform on the water, he says. “I test all of my products. Sometimes I have a perfect fly in my head, but, unfortunately, it just won’t catch fish.”
As for the business plan Horine drew up in his head – well, that’s a different story. He threw it out there, and it hooked a lot of people. And that’s no fish tale.
– Photo by Kip Bulwinkle ’04
