How a Couple of College Kids Turned a Silly Sport into a Booming Business

Damon Grace and Lucas Andrews were poking around YouTube one day and landed on a kooky video of some Norwegians playing just about the craziest-looking sport ever. It was soccer -- but every player was encased in a giant bubble that began at their waist and went up past their head. It looked fun and ridiculous. And, the guys thought, it might also make a great business. "Instead of going to play laser tag, bubble soccer is a new entertainment product," Grace says.

Now the question: But what is this business? They could just sell the bubbles, but how many people would want to buy those things? They could launch a league, but that would be cumbersome. Then they got it: They'd rent out the suits, nets and other equipment, and market the game to local colleges, high schools, church groups and parents of bar mitzvah boys. (Grace and Andrews know the market. They're business students: Grace goes to Michigan State University; Andrews is at Western Michigan University.) They raised $4,000 from a venture fund at MSU to purchase 10 suits and became Detroit's first bubble soccer guys.