This guy is the kind of entrepreneurship I truly admire. He swept floors in a pet store at the age of 13 and decided that he liked coral–the colorful kind that ends up in freshwater fish tanks. He learned that he could grow coral himself, and he set out to do so. He became respected as an expert on sourcing coral and caring for coral to the point that he now has a wholesale business supplying coral to people around the world who want unique specimens for their tanks. He told me he was somehow distantly related to the McMenamins of the beer pub McMenamins, but that they had no way financially supported him. This is all his doing. Today, he rents out an entire apartment near campus just to house all of his tanks that grow his coral. This article about Ian appeared in the Fall 2011 edition of Eugene Magazine, in their Entrepreneur column. For the complete PDF, please click Coral Guy Fall 2011.
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