http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/204557/publisher_ID/40/

Published May 26, 2011, 03:56 AM

Former UND student Michael Shope will be honored as the young entrepreneur of the year for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Region VIII, which includes six Midwest and Mountain states. The Chamber will also honor SBA business persons of the year in North Dakota and Minnesota and winners of The Chamber’s Mike Maidenberg Emerging Leader Award and the regional Athena Award.

By: Tu-Uyen Tran, Grand Forks Herald

When Michael Shope was a 20-year-old aviation student at UND, he started a business making and selling tiny LED flashlights that pilots could clip to their headsets; the lights were useful for scanning maps and pilots had a choice of three colors that could preserve their night vision.

Demand eventually forced him to stop making the flashlights himself at his fraternity house and work with a Chinese factory.

Now 29, Shope has long since sold Pilot Friendly Products, the flashlight business. He now heads another one, Clean Republic, selling electric motor kits for bicycles, developed while at UND.

After a year and a half, the company is approaching sales of 2,000 units and $1 million in sales, mostly through its website, Shope said.

Tonight, he’ll be honored by The Chamber of Commerce of Grand Forks-East Grand Forks as the young entrepreneur of the year for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Region VIII, which includes six Midwest and Mountain states.

The Chamber will also honor SBA business persons of the year in North Dakota and Minnesota and winners of The Chamber’s Mike Maidenberg Emerging Leader Award and the regional Athena Award.

Local resources

Clean Republic, like Shope’s other company, started at UND, where he met Yong Hou, a visiting professor in the College of Business and Public Administration. Shope graduated in 2005.

According to Shope, he and Hou shared a passion for alternative energy and Hou had once run a lithium battery factory in China. So, they began looking for an application that could use Hou’s knowledge of battery technology and North Dakota resources.

Noticing the popularity of electric vehicles, they decided to use the rechargeable batteries in a kit that converts ordinary bikes into electric bikes, giving tired riders a boost of power whenever they need it. It’s called the Hill Topper for a reason.

Clean Republic made use of various state and university programs aiding entrepreneurs, according to UND’s Center for Innovation. First, finding cheap office space in the business incubator at the center and eventually winning a $20,000 investment from the university’s Dakota Venture Group, a student-run venture capital fund.

Last year, Clean Republic won $10,000 in the state Commerce Department’s Innovate ND competition.

Branching out

At first, the company focused on getting its product into bicycle stores in areas where cycling is popular and the climate is relatively
warm, say California or Florida, Shope said. But while that was going on, he said, he and Hou noticed growing sales from all over the nation and abroad on their website, www.Electric-Bike-Kit.com.

They decided to both be a retailer and a manufacturer, which itself sells to dealers and affiliates around the world. The website shows dealers from Colorado to Japan to Brazil, and affiliates as far afield as Kazakhstan and Australia.

The company’s web division is a two-person outfit based in Shope’s hometown of Seattle and its manufacturing division employs six at a warehouse at the western end of University Avenue in Grand Forks, according to Shope.

He said the company is also branching into solar water heaters, now sold on its website, and small wind turbines, ready for market in maybe a year’s time.

Reach Tran at (701) 780-1248; (800) 477-6572, ext. 248; or send e-mail to ttran@gfherald.com.