COREY COOPER ’05
Mechanical Engineering
Founder, BOTE
What is BOTE, and what sets you apart in the watersports industry?
BOTE is our passion. It’s a brand embodiment of all the things that my wife, Magda, myself and a special group of people with unique talents found interesting enough to dedicate a decade plus of sweat equity into building. Put more directly in product and business terms, it is a watersports lifestyle brand with products that span from standup paddle boards to kayaks to water floats.
Our mission at BOTE is “Stand Apart through industry-shaping innovation, fresh ideas and simplicity to create a product that defines a lifestyle.”
The mission was important to us because we didn’t just want to build a trinket or another product. We wanted to build an experiential brand, a brand that had soul and emotion. We wanted to package up the Florida lifestyle and create a global community of enthusiasts that shared in our same passion for spending time on the water with family and friends.
What sparked the idea for BOTE?
BOTE was the result of right time and space convergence in late 2009 and early 2010. Magda and I moved to Destin, Florida, about five years prior where we both had started careers, Magda as a financial advisor and myself as a mechanical engineer. We had our first child in February of 2009 and in retrospect I think something “went off” in us that said now is “time to go.”
We first tried stand up paddling in late 2008 and loved the idea but hated the product both in form and function. All the boards we tried were the same thing but with a different name. They were all basically giant, unstable surfboards. It was around that time that I looked at Magda and said, “We can make this better; we can make a board that stands apart.”
Magda agreed. So, we left our successful careers and started making our boats, or what we decided to call BOTE.
When you graduated from Auburn in 2005, did you ever think you’d go on to be an entrepreneur and business owner?
I knew I wanted to create stuff very early in my life. That desire led me to Auburn and a study of mechanical engineering. I didn’t necessarily have a full vector on where I would go or what I would do, but I knew for certain creating and building were in my future. I found out early in my career phase that to be fully satisfied with my output, I needed to be in control of the input. I think this was the internal catalyst driving me toward entrepreneurship.
It wasn’t about money or working hours or any of these things, it was about complete control of the brand and product.
What skills or lessons from your Auburn Engineering experience helped you build BOTE?
In my view, engineering is simply the practice of problem-solving using a fundamental set of laws manipulated to your advantage thereby achieving a desired outcome. I think that alone set me on a successful trajectory as an entrepreneur. Coupled with the practical experience of product design, manufacturing, etc., I was able to be an efficient “one-man band” on the operations side of the business for the first few years, moving from idea to reality much quicker than someone not armed with the experience of a design engineer. Specific things like CAD, materials science and machine shop classes were all invaluable arrows in my quiver.
I have to say though, the ultimate gift from my Auburn experience was the connection to the Auburn Family. I can’t overstate how much being an Auburn alumnus helped me in my business development. People would bend over backward to help me when I needed it. To this day, I will swear that without my Auburn connections, my business would have fallen on its face.
Do you see a natural correlation between fields of engineering and entrepreneurship? Or did you have to work to find a balance?
I think there are a lot of overlapping concepts, specifically on the analytical side. Without much money or an MBA, I was able to build a decent financial business model purely from engineering experience. As our business evolved and matured over the years into a sizeable enterprise that demanded professionalization, I was able to leverage engineering concepts to work with my teams to build corporate data models, dashboards and the controls you would expect from an engineer running a business.
What was the biggest obstacle you overcame in the building of BOTE?
Learning how to manage and motivate people. It was absolutely the most difficult thing for me.
I simply settled on being authentically me. I tried to talk to everyone using the same language and context, and developed a communication cadence and channel that involved everyone and was as transparent as possible. As an entrepreneur, being transparent is challenging — mostly because it involves being vulnerable to those you are supposed to lead. But once you realize that the reality of the details drives people, the transparency — both good and bad — can become energizing.
What’s next?
Roughly 18 months ago myself, Magda, my investment partners Prairie Capital and the BOTE management team completed a successful majority sale transaction with Kent Outdoors.
I left BOTE last October, roughly a year after the close, turning the reigns over to the Kent team while shifting my focus to the future.
I plan on taking about a year off to recharge the tanks and spend some time with my three kids as they grow up. My family and I just moved from Destin to St. Petersburg, Florida, where we are looking to settle in before we launch the next brand.
