Charlie Ryks and Tom Kuriscak have a lot in common.
Both are athletes at Saint John’s University who have experienced what it’s like to deal with injuries.
And both possess an entrepreneurial spirit, which they cultivated as part of the Entrepreneurial Studies Program (E-Scholars) at CSB and SJU. The program offers students from all disciplines the opportunity to design and implement an entrepreneurial venture.
For Ryks and Kuriscak, that venture is Superior Recovery – the company the two started together last year.
By sub-leasing custom sauna trailers and cold plunges, Superior Recovery offers athletes a mobile therapy unit, allowing them to receive treatment for ailments – especially soft tissue injuries like muscle strains, sprains and tendonitis – immediately after their competition.
The company has already provided service at SJU, as well as at Breck (Minnesota) High School in Golden Valley.
Next week, they will be back on campus, offering a Sauna Village on the CSB Mall, Feb. 25 through March 1. The event is part of the inaugural True North Winter Festival.
In all, four mobile saunas will be on hand for use. Hours run from 3 to 7 p.m., Feb. 25-27 (with exclusive Bennie hours from 5 to 7 p.m.) and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Feb. 28 and March 1.
“It’s going to be a really cool experience in the sense that we get to show what we’re doing to our classmates and teammates, and offer them a different form of community building,” said Ryks, a senior defensive back on the Johnnie football team last fall and a double major in accounting and finance.
“It’s a chance for people to come together and socialize in kind of a unique way.”
Superior Recovery had its genesis during an E-Scholars trip to Silicon Valley where the pair met with 2017 SJU graduate Alec Dewitz, then working as a lead member of the technical staff at Salesforce.
Part of the E-Scholars experience includes taking such trips, during which students set up informational interviews, tour companies, meet with alums and experience real world situations both in the U.S. and abroad.
It was during that particular meeting that Dewitz passed on a bit of impactful advice.
“Alec told us the biggest thing is just to get a venture started,” said Kuriscak, a senior goalie on the Johnnie hockey team and a biochemistry major. “You can always rotate once you’re up and running. But the biggest thing is to take that first step and get going.
“Charlie and I talked about that in the elevator ride down and in the taxi ride over to our next meeting at Apple headquarters, where we were going to meet with (Mitch Van Bruggen, an SJU alum who is a health studies engineer there). (Charlie) told me about research he’d seen involving contrast therapy that used saunas and cold plunges and the evidence that was there about its benefits for athletes’ recoveries.
“By the time we got out of the cab, we’d decided we were going to try and do something.”
Now the company is a reality. But both athletes said that wouldn’t have been possible were it not for the opportunities the E-Scholars program provided and the power of the Bennie/Johnnie alum network, on which they’ve been able to draw.
“The E-Scholars program really changed my approach to life, and especially how I think about learning,” said Ryks, who also had an internship as an analyst with Exit 156 Capital, an investment fund (unaffiliated with CSB and SJU) named after the Collegeville exit on Interstate 94 and formed by SJU graduates Josh Robinson ’06, Mike Nathan ’97 and Brian Kueppers ’89.
“A lot of times, school is about these two-dimensional lessons. You read about something or watch a video. But E-Scholars is more of a three-dimensional experience. It gives you the chance to get outside in the real world and get your hands dirty. You get real feedback on your idea and pick up real-world experience.”
“To have the opportunity to successfully launch a business venture by the time you graduate is amazing,” said Kuriscak, who will enroll in the ESTEEM graduate program at Notre Dame after he graduates this May. “I didn’t know this program existed until I decided to come to (Saint John’s). Now I can’t imagine not being part of it. It’s changed my life and really opened my eyes to what’s possible.
“There’s no roadmap for establishing a successful business,” he continued. “Anyone who tries it is stepping into uncharted territory. But we’ve been able to get great guidance from Paul Marsnik (the academic director of the E-Scholars program and the director of the McNeely Center for Entrepreneurship at CSB and SJU) and Bardia Bijani ’20 (a professor at the two schools).
“And we’ve been able to use the amazing alumni network here, as well as our own contacts, to open doors.”
Next week’s Sauna Village is the perfect example of that. Not only did Aaron Voth, the assistant dean for student leadership and engagement at CSB and SJU, recommend the duo, but the pair are also sub-leasing from a couple of companies with CSB and SJU ties. Those include ROAM Sauna Co., run by SJU graduate Joe Henry ’05, and Hamel Nordic Sauna, which has had a presence at SJU football games.
“When we were talking about events to include as part of the True North Winter Festival, we wanted to find ways to get students outside in the winter,” Voth said. “Instead of hibernating, we wanted to find ways to gather in community together. Not everyone is an athlete and wants to take part in winter sports (like skiing, ice fishing or snowshoeing). But a sauna is a great way to not allow the cold to be a barrier to getting together and there are some amazing health benefits there we wanted to promote for our students’ well-being.
“We had a company that brought in a sauna last year and they were fine. But I knew (Ryks and Kuriscak) were current students who had launched this sauna venture as part of the E-Scholars program. I just thought it would be really cool to use them. We hired them for a couple of events last year, including the Fruit at the Finish Triathlon and they were very professional. So I knew we’d get excellent service, and to have the chance to support something our students are doing is a great bonus.”
Ryks said he is just glad to get another opportunity to show what he and Kuriscak have created.
“Getting this company going has taken a lot of time, but it’s something we’re both really passionate about,” Ryks said. “We’ve both dealt with injuries as athletes and it’s an area we feel like we can make a difference in.
“When you care about something like that, you’re going to find time in the day to make it happen.”