From joking with a friend to signing legal contracts, the idea first struck him while scrolling through TikTok. Scrolling through, he notices people wearing rings. While everyone usually goes out and buys their jewelry, he saw this as an opportunity. 

Senior Akash Chinta’s proposal is to create a jewelry business where he will utilize gun casings from shooting ranges to create rings. By doing so, he would melt the metals, turn them into bars then cut them up and shape them into the ring sizes people desire. With companies overpricing their rings, he aspires to make his jewelry affordable for customers.

“Nowadays a lot more people are getting into jewelry,” Akash said. “But like many companies, the prices are really expensive. I wanted to see if I could create an alternative that is a lot cheaper but with the same quality.” 

Akash is in INCubator: a course that allows students to create and develop their products or services with the help of real-world entrepreneurs and business experts. The program has enabled Akash to put his ideas into practice to create his own jewelry business. However, his teammates switched to virtual learning later on causing him to turn into a one-man show.

“It’s hard having fewer people to work with because you don’t have a collective mindset,” Akash said. “Only one person is giving the ideas instead of having two or three people working together. But honestly, I’m fine. I knew what I was going to do and what I was going to stick with no matter what.”

INCubator teacher Valerie Cooper pairs her students with mentors. For one hour each week, these financially-experienced individuals collaborate with students. Akash kick-started his business after presenting his project to the board of advisers. 

“I can’t imagine being 18 and presenting my business plan to a room of adults, especially adults from all different backgrounds and success,” Valerie said. “Sometimes I get nervous just being the teacher in the room, so I can’t imagine Akash expressing his idea of a business and how they are going to make money and [confidently] articulate it to [the point] where these people are like ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a great idea.’ You don’t know until you get up there and lay it all out for them.”

Akash’s mom, Aneela Chinta, said she believes his creation will later achieve bigger milestones. His desire to pursue business did not surprise Aneela, as the family has a history in business.

“We have a lot of business background in our family, but even before any of that came to the surface with Akash, he had already created businesses beforehand,” Aneela said. “He has always loved the business aspects of things. Akash has created many businesses in the past, starting from freshman year. I have no doubt this will also become a pretty successful business as long as he puts in the effort.”

Akash will attend a competition called INCubatoredu Final Pitch in May, during which he will compete for a cash prize of $5,000 while presenting his business idea to judges. With several supporters by his side, Akash looks forward to his future and strives to do his best.

“I do think I can see myself getting somewhere with this,” Akash said. “My future plans are to start making the rings first. Once I get the supplies to come, I want to start making maybe like 10 per week. Then I want to advertise it and maybe start giving them away for free for people to post on social media so I can gain attention. Hopefully one day I can make it big.”