International Affairs and Business Administration Graduate Adds Two New Words to Her Resume: Business Owner

ORLANDO, Fla. – A 25-year-old world traveler who backpacked through 15 third-world countries, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and won best-in-show at a Central Florida art festival, recently took on her most daunting challenge ever by starting her own business. Alexandra Gramatikas and her partner, Tripp Driskell, are the masterminds behind ALTR, a new off-site internet business client of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program–Orlando. The product: decorative button covers. “We had a nautical-themed wine tasting and we wanted our blazers to have gold buttons, but we didn’t want to sew on new ones or buy new blazers just for the buttons,” Gramatikas said. After creating button covers for style, she quickly realized there was a huge market for branded button covers. “UCF and University of Florida button covers inexpensively customize whatever you’re wearing and they’ve helped us build a grassroots market during our early stages,” she said. A Florida State University graduate, Gramatikas majored in international affairs and minored in business with an emphasis on marketing. She received her MBA from the University of Central Florida earlier this year and soon afterward decided to become her own boss. With the idea in mind, the two entrepreneurs needed a model in hand. They turned to Mydea, a graduate of the Incubation Program, to create their first button cover. Once the prototype – a molded plastic cover with a slip-on, fork-like back – was complete, Gramatikas said Mydea also helped build her first injection mold machine and create the final product. She and Driskell used the prototypes to win a UCF “joust” for new business ideas and were awarded $10,000 in seed money, which they have used to produce about 10,000 button covers. Melissa Wasserman, site manager at the UCF Business Incubation Program-Orlando on Colonial Drive, is excited about ALTR’s rapid advancement. “They’re about to secure the UCF license and launch locally,” said Wasserman, who worked with Gramatikas when she was a marketing executive for Brand Advance, another UCFBIP client. “ALTR is a great example of how to take an idea, create a product and turn it into a valid business.” The button covers currently are being produced in gold and orange and are decorated with a UCF Pegasus or a capitol “F.” They come in two sizes in boxes of four or six. When the products officially launch later this month, each set will sell for $12. “Our five-year plan is to offer button covers for all the schools,” she said. “We’d also like to do customized covers for holidays, elections and other special occasions.” For now, she may just sell button covers, but Gramatikas doesn’t want her company to be pigeonholed. That’s why the name ALTR [the founders’ initials] was chosen. “We plan to look beyond the button cover,” she says, keeping her eyes and ears open to other ideas for ALTR to latch onto. As her business card reads: “Life Was Made to ALTR.” To learn more about the company and its products, visit www.madetoaltr.com or call 407-492-1423. About the UCF Business Incubation Program: Since its founding in 1999, the UCF Business Incubation Program has helped more than 300 emerging companies (including more than 134 current clients) create over $363 million in annual total economic output and more than 3,120 new jobs (taking direct and indirect and induced impact into account) with an average salary of $60,000. With ten facilities across the Greater Orlando community, the Business Incubation Program is a collaboration in economic development among the University of Central Florida, Orange County, the City of Orlando, Seminole County, the City of Apopka, the City of Winter Springs, the City of Sanford, Lake County, the City of Leesburg, Osceola County, the City of Kissimmee, City of St. Cloud, Volusia County and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. For more information about the Program and its clients and graduates, please visit www.incubator.ucf.edu and UCFBIP on Facebook, on www.facebook.com/ucf4bip.