Alumnus Richard Guidry, 27, and current Whitewater senior, Leigh Olszewski, 23, have broken the status quo to fulfill their dream of opening two businesses: a donut shop and a farm.

Guidry, an integrated science and business major graduate, quit his current job to pursue the dream; Olszewski, an entrepreneurship and business management major, dropped out of school to do the same. They made these lifestyle changes to put all their time and money into opening Go Nutz Donuts and Future Tech Farms.

Go Nutz Donuts is a consumer inspired donut making food truck. A consumer can ask for a specific flavor of donut, and Go Nutz Donuts will make it. Guidry and Olszewski were inspired when traveling in North Carolina, and they decided to take the idea back to Whitewater.

Go Nutz Donuts is a partnered franchise which desires to expand throughout the whole Midwest.

The company will start in Whitewater as a test run and branch out as it grows and masters the processes.

Guidry and Olszewski are hoping to incorporate a mobile app and delivery service via bike peddlers after a high return on investment.

While doughnuts are a simple treat, the pair’s other business is a little more complex. Future Tech Farms is an aquaponics and hydroponics farming business.

“We grow contra-seasonal fruits and vegetables so things that cannot be grown in the winter can be,” said Olszewski.

Future Tech Farms will create systems that will grow, produce and sell these systems to grocery stores and consumers. The company aims to use the systems for their regional distribution network, set to start in the Chicagoland area. The types of produce grown will be based off of local demand.

Being members of the campus organization Enactus lead Guidry and Olszewski to the creation of Future Tech.

The Enactus group visited Honduras; while in country, the group met students who came up with the idea of hydroponics. The group also helped the students find funding and gather materials.

“We started to research more into our markets and essentially found out that it is a feasible idea here,” said Olszewski.  “We added in a couple more steps because we have more access to technology here and other resources that we weren’t able to teach them down in Honduras.”

Similar to Go Nutz, Future Tech production will begin in Whitewater and branch out as the company grows.

As is typical when starting a business, Guidry and Olszewski are facing funding issues. The business partners are looking for investors to set Future Tech in motion. Small business development center, SBDC, is working alongside the pair with funding for Go Nutz Donuts. Once Go Nutz Donuts brings in more profit, some money will be sent to fund Future Tech.

“Future Tech is a huge amount of money whereas Go Nutz is something where we are trying to get it started and get it moving so we can use some of that money to fund Future Tech,” said Olszewski.