Smith Entrepreneurial Marketplace: Varsity Colors

2006 MBA Alumnus Builds Business on Maryland Pride

Looking to spruce up your basement or TV room with a new coffee table that also shows off your Maryland pride? A company founded and run by Derek Vlcko, MBA ’06, may have just what you’re looking for. Not only was Vlcko studying while at Smith, he was building a business the makes a coffee table topped with a replica of the Maryland basketball game floor. The idea for the first coffee table came to Vlcko when he started following Maryland sports while preparing to attend his first year at Smith. Realizing he needed furniture for his apartment, he pulled out an old dining room table from his parents’ basement, painted the top like the Maryland basketball court, and hauled the table to College Park.

The idea for the business would come about a year later, after compliments from friends, a summer internship at Black & Decker, and Vlko’s participation in the Smith School’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship Scholars program. Convinced he had a winning idea that would appeal to Maryland sports fans, Vlcko put up $2,000 of his own money and raised another $7,000 from investors to found Varsity Colors, which produces the tables and sells them for $285. In his first 60 days in business Vlcko sold 18 tables, with sales coming in from the firm’s Web site as well as at sporting and other events attended by Vlcko. Although the business is growing, it remains a side job for Vlcko, who works product management at Black & Decker. Visit http://www.myvarsitycolors.com.

Some of today’s most successful entrepreneurs are Smith School graduates, and each month, Smith Newslink spotlights one of them. If you’ve started a company and want to tell other Smith alumni about your products and services, e-mail editor@rhsmith.umd.edu.

Previously featured Smith entrepreneurs and companies:

Music for Fundraising
Fred Ehrlich ‘84
http://www.musicforfundraising.com