171 Alex Glenn Gone Fishing Freshman Alex Glenn shares big ideas for his new business, Grade-A Baits. While most new students come to campus with nothing more than a few boxes and hopes for the future, one student brought something else with him—a fishing lure enterprise. Freshman Alex Glenn’s business, Grade-A Baits, aimed to provide hand-made, affordable fishing lures. Glenn began making lures after he entered fishing tournaments in junior high and struggled with the cost of the sport. “It started as a way to save money and to add a level of customization to my baits,” Glenn said. Although he didn’t start with a business vision, he soon recognized that people wanted a cheaper alternative to expensive, name-brand baits. “One day, one of my friends asked to buy one,” Glenn stated. “I realized this was not just a problem I had; even my friends who had grown up fishing had it too.” The business started during Glenn’s junior year of high school when it became his project for Ignite, an extra-curricular program for young entrepreneurs based in Northwest Arkansas. At that point, Glenn started a social media account and online storefront to promote his business. Sophomore Fletcher Stobaugh, a friend of Glenn’s, witnessed the evolution of the operation from the very beginning. “I respect it,” Stobaugh said. “I know he would wake up early every Saturday to make all his orders. It worked really well. He had one of his friends help him out because the orders were getting to be too much.” During the fall 2024 semester, Glenn planned how to start the operation again while balancing school and the special limitations in the creation process. “There’s toxic chemicals and molten lead, so you have to take proper safety precautions,” Glenn said. “Next semester, I’ll have a storage unit for my boat and be able to run the production out of it, and I can do all the packaging in the dorm.” Glenn believed one of the challenges holding many aspiring fishermen back was the volume and cost of baits. “You really don’t need that many baits in each category,” Glenn said. “The issue is how many categories [of baits] there are to fish any situation ‘perfectly.’ That variety can really affect the price for people trying to get started.” Glenn also made plans to expand his business into brick-and-mortar stores across Arkansas. “I have been working with a few local tackle shops about getting my baits into their store—two in Northwest Arkansas and two in Greers Ferry,” Glenn said. Glenn joined the Harding fishing team which proved to be good testing grounds for his products. Fellow fishing team member freshman Max Hutcherson put one of Glenn’s baits to the test and spoke highly of the product. “I used one of his crankbaits the other day and caught quite a few bass with it,” Hutcherson said. “The fishing team will definitely benefit from Alex’s bait company. Being able to make baits instead of buying them is a huge advantage.” Marketing was one area of Glenn’s business that he felt to be the strongest. “At the end of the day, you are throwing a piece of plastic into the water trying to catch slimy fish,” Glenn said. “You don’t need to be wasting 10 to 15 dollars on something that is going to get lost. A lot of the marketing revolves around trying to catch the man and not the fish. I’m trying to provide what makes the most sense.” Written by Asa Fowler
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