Drink Out of Your Glass and Eat It, Too

Entrepreneurs: Chelsea Briganti and Leigh Ann Tucker, who met while attending Parsons The New School for Design in New York, created Loliware, a line of edible, biodegradable drinking cups that look like colorful vintage glassware. "Loliware was born because, as designers, we wanted to have fun getting super-creative with a material, but we have a bigger vision that Loliware will replace a percentage of the plastic cups destined for the landfill," Tucker says.

"Aha" moment: After their 2010 graduation, Briganti and Tucker (along with two other Parsons alums) entered a few design competitions. For the Jell-O Mold Competition, they designed an edible drinking glass, experimenting with several materials, including gelatin, before settling on agar, a seaweed-based gel that is odorless and tasteless and can be flavored in infinite ways. The product, originally called Jelloware, earned a prize for structural integrity and generated a lot of buzz. When vodka-maker Absolut inquired about ordering 60,000 agar cups for use at an outdoor concert, the designers realized that a project that was intended merely to boost their portfolios could become a viable business. Briganti and Tucker formed a partnership to move forward. (The other two decided not to pursue the project.)