This three-part series profiles three Syracuse University student entrepreneurs — part 2 of 3.

One night during her freshman year, Courtnee Futch checked her bank account to find she had only $6.

Panicked, she whipped together a batch of bacon-cheesecake brownies in a makeshift oven, advertised the treats on Facebook and promptly sold them all in less than an hour.

Now, Futch is the 19-year-old CEO of her own business, ThunderCakes By Courtnee, LLC.

Futch, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, began taking orders and selling cookies through a Facebook group. Business began to grow, and she decided to make it a full-fledged venture.

The name ThunderCakes, Futch explained, comes from her freshman residence hall, where it all started. Her floor mates nicknamed her “The Chocolate Thunder,“ and it gave rise to the only name Futch ever considered for the company.

The “thunder” moniker has become integral to Futch’s personality and business. She added “thunder” to a number of terms, calling her employees the ThunderTeam and describing what she does as “thundering.”

The ThunderCakes menu is wildly creative and features everything from peaches n’ creme caramel cake to bacon-cheesecake brownies. Futch’s baking repertoire also includes cookies, breads, sweet rolls and cupcakes.

Futch said she follows her own tastes and cravings when coming up with recipes.

“I see how far I can go before going too far,” she said, explaining that she comes up with outrageous ideas, then edits out certain components to achieve a perfect balance.

Futch credits the Syracuse University community with helping her company succeed. Classes within her information technology, design and startups minor helped hone her business sense and pitching skills.

When the time came to learn the legal aspects of starting a business, Futch enlisted the help of Doug Gorman in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and Couri Hatchery, a student-focused small-business incubator. She also got help from Martin Butts of Small Potatoes, a Syracuse-based consulting firm that helps local food-related businesses.

An especially significant bit of help from the SU community came to ThunderCakes in April 2013. Futch pitched her company to the Raymond von Dran Innovative and Disruptive Entrepreneurship Accelerator — part of an initiative by the School of Information studies to support student entrepreneurs — and won $5,000 to invest in her business. That money allowed her to expand the company.

She invested in equipment to begin shipping orders, paid legal fees and hired interns. ThunderCakes now has a staff of 35, most of whom are students. The team has positions of all kinds, including interns, sales representatives and a marketing team.

Malcolm Whitfield, a junior photography major, has been a team member since the very beginning. The two met during their freshman year and instantly became friends. Whitfield gave Futch encouragement when ThunderCakes was in its infancy and helped spread the word about his friend’s products.

“I’m the No. 1 fan of ThunderCakes,” he said.

At first, Futch paid Whitfield and other helpers with her baked goods. Even though Futch now has money to pay her employees, Whitfield said he sometimes chooses treats instead of monetary compensation. Currently, he favors Futch’s peach cobbler cupcakes.

As the company has expanded, Whitfield and Futch have maintained a close friendship. Their mutual involvement in the company has given them both a sense of direction and drive.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do with photography before I met Courtnee,” Whitfield said. Now, he sees a potential future for himself in food photography.

Though she helped Whitfield find direction and certainly has an established path of her own, Futch is still trying to figure out what to study at school. She said she tries her best to attend all her classes, but it can be difficult to run ThunderCakes while also being a student.

“I know what I want to do when I graduate, but that doesn’t match up with what I want to do academically,” she said.

Because she spends so much time on ThunderCakes, Futch has started describing the business and her employees as family.

“There is a community around ThunderCakes, and I think a lot of that comes from the fact that when I started the business, people already knew me for what I was doing,” Futch said.

Even before creating the company, Futch used her baking as a way to bring people together. She remembers hanging out with friends during freshman year and baking treats for them in her room while singing duets with her roommate.

Moments like that, where food and happiness come together, are what Futch said she wants to give to her customers. After launching ThunderCakes, she realized that people associate memories — especially happy ones — with certain foods.

Teresa Allen-Futch, Courtnee’s mother, said her daughter’s happy spirit has flourished since creating the business.

“She always had positive energy, but she took it to another level [with the company]. Her eyes light up when she talks about ThunderCakes,” she said.

In the near future, Futch will focus on increasing her weekly order count and shipping orders throughout the northeast. And she has even bigger plans for the next two years. During that time, she hopes to establish a commercial kitchen and a ThunderCakes storefront on Marshall Street.

Said Futch: “I can’t say that I would have done this had I gone anywhere else, so I really want to contribute back to Syracuse. I want to give the people what they want.”

Published on September 25, 2013 at 12:56 am

Contact Ian: insimonc@syr.edu