Entrepreneurs in Our Family
Holy Family University alumni are from the community and for the community. The University makes an estimated economic contribution of $115 million to our local communities in Philadelphia and Bucks County.
Holy Family play essential roles in some of the largest businesses, medical facilities, educational institutions, and cultural landmarks in our region, though many have also engaged in entrepreneurship and established or operated their own businesses in the community.
Four of the many alumni whose thriving businesses are part of our communities share the stories behind their businesses and how their education at Holy Family helped them establish their success.
Cycling to Success
Dana Dobrowolski ’10 opened Northeast Cycle (9910 Frankford Ave, Philadelphia) in June 2019 just a quarter mile away from Holy Family’s Northeast Philadelphia campus. Dobrowolski, who enjoyed fitness cycling long before she opened the business, saw a market for her studio in the heart of her alma mater’s community.
“I felt we didn’t have any boutique, tight-knit fitness classes in Northeast Philadelphia,” explains Dobrowolski. “It was mostly big-box gyms. I saw an opportunity there for something that I am passionate about doing – and I was sick of driving 30 or 40 minutes and paying an outrageous price to take a class!”
Dobrowolski graduated from Holy Family with a degree in Accounting, and she also works as an investment accountant for a real estate fund in addition to owning and operating Northeast Cycle. “In some ways, the jobs merge together,” Dobrowolski says. “Other times they are as far apart as they can be – some days I am talking to wealthy investors who want to invest in our real estate fund, and other days I’m on my hands and knees tightening bolts in a bike. But a lot of the managerial and financial aspects come together and I can apply my skills in both positions.”
While Dobrowolski was able to open the business quickly – “I had the idea, and within eight months we had opened our doors,” she explains –Northeast Cycle was open for less than a year before the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in its temporary closure by public order. Since the business reopened, Dobrowolski notes that Northeast Cycle is seeing a resurgence in interest. “During the pandemic, a lot of people bought their own bikes and now they feel they can’t justify spending money on in-person classes,” she points out. “While we lost some business there, we are definitely growing and seeing new faces all the time. We had a lot of people who bought bikes tell us that it just wasn’t the same and that they sold their bikes and they’re now back.”
Dobrowolski credits her instructors with keeping the business vibrant. “They create an environment where each class we have can be completely different. You’re never getting the same experience twice. They are just as passionate about the business as I am. That’s extremely helpful because it wouldn’t be what it is if it had to be just me.”
A Family Legacy in North Philadelphia
An institution in North Philadelphia for decades, Denise’s Delicacies (2916 N. 22nd Street, Philadelphia) was founded by Denise Gause and is now owned and operated by her nieces, Cynthia Benton M’10 and Keshia Davis. Benton and Davis continue their aunt’s work at her full-service bakery, creating baked goods like cakes, doughnuts, pies, and cookies for special events – or just an everyday sweet treat – throughout the region.
“My aunt started the business out of a passion that she had for baking,” shares Benton. “She was working full-time and baking for her friends and family on the side, and she then started baking out of a commercial kitchen. When the opportunity presented itself to her to buy a building, she purchased the building on North 22nd Street, which was the neighborhood she grew up in.”
Gause decided to retire after fully rebuilding the bakery after a devastating fire that shuttered her beloved business for over a year. After the rebuild, Benton and Davis came on board to prepare to take over the bakery and took full ownership in 2018.
After earning a Bachelor of Science in Accounting at the University of Delaware, Benton completed her Master of Business Administration degree with a concentration in finance at Holy Family in 2010 and served in several financial services roles before taking over her aunt’s business.
While Denise’s Delicacies was already a successful business, that posed a different approach for the new ownership than if they had started a new business. “Acquiring an already-existing business has its challenges, just like how starting a business has its challenges,” Benton points out. “One of the things that happened when we took over the business is that the train had already left the station – we had to keep up with demand and trends that were already going on.”
Just over a year after taking over the ownership of Denise’s Delicacies, the business, like many others, was closed again for an extended period because of COVID-19 restrictions. Like Benton, Davis also has a background in business and finance, and the two were able to navigate the challenges of the pandemic by utilizing their business knowledge to apply for available aid to support the business and their employees – and also received help from the Philadelphia Flyers.
“We were one of the first five recipients of the Flyers’ Hometown Assist Award, which is a $100,000 advertising campaign,” says Benton. “We were also selected as the Featured Winner, which meant we also received press coverage on all the local news channels. It was the first year that the Flyers did this program, and I understand that they are continuing with it, and the Philadelphia 76ers are now doing something similar.”
With the doors reopened, Benton is now looking forward to sharing delicious baked goods of Denise’s Delicacies with the community and beyond. “We’re expanding in wholesale, big box stores,” Benton says. “We have a partnership with Brown’s Family ShopRite. We are currently in three stores and are looking to expand into all 14. We’re also looking to get into more e-commerce and utilize technology to get our products even further.”
Benton is proud of the growth of Denise’s Delicacies since she and Davis acquired the business, and has a belief that other aspiring entrepreneurs can follow the same path if they have the passion to do it. “If you can see it, you can do it,” Benton shares.
“It will take hard work because I believe that the business environment that we're in now is considerably different than we were in just a few years ago. I believe that it allows aspiring and current entrepreneurs to tap into their creativity. There are lots of resources that don’t necessarily cost a lot of money. There will certainly be challenges along the way, but keep your head down, keep working at it, and if it’s something that you truly feel passionate about, I believe that it will happen.”
Growing a Fitness Community
Also part of the local fitness community is CrossFit Raid (309 Camer Drive #6, Bensalem), owned and operated by Justin Rementer ’11. Rementer began the process of opening CrossFit Raid in 2013, just two years after graduating from Holy Family with a degree in Management-Marketing.
A few years earlier, he had become a member of a CrossFit gym – a popular fitness program focusing on high-intensity functional movements. “I’ve always been a gym rat, so I got hooked on the training part of it,” recalls Rementer. “I really have a passion for helping people – even at Holy Family’s gym I would train a few of my friends on the soccer team – and I eventually decided to open my own gym.”
His classes in the Management-Marketing program served as helpful starting points for when Rementer began the process of opening CrossFit Raid. He remembers, “Actively running the business taught me a lot about business, but there were many things I was able to pull from my undergraduate education to get myself going, like writing the business plans and sales forecasts.”
After a successful launch, Rementer faced a significant challenge just after his first year in business – he had to move the gym from its original location in Northeast Philadelphia to its current location in Bensalem. He had 60 days to find a new location for CrossFit Raid. “We ended up able to open our doors in the new location on the fifty-seventh day,” he explains. “At the time, that was quite the challenge and a very stressful time in my life!”
The Bensalem location is a larger facility than the original location, which has allowed CrossFit Raid more room to grow. Since opening the business as a sole proprietor, Rementer brought on a partner who originally started as a member of the gym. “I was lucky that I had someone who was already involved in the gym that wanted to get involved in the business end as well,” he says. “It helped take some of the load off my shoulders and allowed me to delegate some of the responsibilities.”
The gym has grown to feature more than a half-dozen coaches and operates seven days a week, with classes Monday through Saturday and open gym on Sundays. Regarding what his business offers the Northeast Philadelphia and Bucks County communities, Rementer says, “CrossFit Raid gives people the opportunity to improve their health and fitness. It’s a communal place where people can come and develop relationships. We also do charity fundraisers to give back to the community.”
From SureShade and Beyond
In 2007, Dana Russikoff ’92 and her husband, Ron, founded SureShade, a designer and manufacturer of patented retractable sunshade systems for the marine industry. From an initial idea to solve a common problem for boaters to an international business, SureShade played a vital role in the local community.
“My husband was a boater on the Delaware River his whole life” Russikoff shares about the origin of the business. “Shortly after meeting him, I became a boater as well. Something we noticed while we were out on the boat all day long is that protection from the sun is not always readily available. We saw an opportunity for a way to provide better sun protection on boats. My husband’s background is in manufacturing and production, and he had already started a side business repairing boat canvases. I complement him in that he’s more back-office in production, engineering, and operations, and I am everything customer-facing sales and service, project management, and administration.”
After several prototypes, Ron invented an automated awning system for boats. “At that point, I was selling other people’s products, and I said, ‘Well, maybe we can sell this,’” remembers Russikoff. Together the Russikoffs founded a company, SureShade, in Philadelphia in 2007.
The Russikoffs launched their product with an exhibit booth at the 2007 International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition & Conference (IBEX). “The attendees at the trade conference were exactly who our target market was,” recalls Russikoff. “By noon of the first day of the show, we had a meeting scheduled with one of the biggest boatbuilders in the world who was a high-priority target client for us.”
Through the dozen years that the Russikoffs owned and operated SureShade, Russikoff learned a lot of lessons about business. “One of the biggest lessons I learned in my business experience is to never accept a ‘No’ from someone who doesn’t have the power to say ‘Yes,’” says Russikoff, particularly noting a challenging period when they were seeking a loan to expand their business.
She also encourages community involvement. In addition to getting to know your local chamber of commerce and trade associations for support, Russikoff also points out the importance of community engagement, and she is currently an executive committee member of the Riverfront North Partnership, an organization supporting the development of the greenway along the Delaware River. “Get to know your community and local elected officials and let them know what you are doing. We established a manufacturing start-up and created more than 20 jobs in our 10 years of existence. We wanted people to know our success story, and we sponsored community events and supported non-profits that were doing wonderful things for the community.”
Russikoff shares that she and her husband always had the intention of eventually selling SureShade, though they did not have a timeline in mind. “Around our 10-year mark, there was a lot of consolidation going on in the industry,” recalls Russikoff. In October 2019, Lippert Components, Inc., a leading manufacturer and supplier of products for the RV, marine, automotive, commercial vehicle, and building products industries, acquired SureShade. “Marketing ourselves for sale was a long process that took several years, but the decision to sell our business at the time that we did and to the company that we did was something we felt very good about. We never wanted to be in a position where we felt like we had to sell, so we remain quite proud of our decision.”
Through Rodan Enterprises – the original parent entity of SureShade – Dana and Ron Russikoff continue to innovate and develop product concepts. “We want to carry the same mindset behind SureShade into other products,” says Russikoff. “For example, we’ve developed a new type of PPE that we think will revolutionize the market.”
At Holy Family, Russikoff – a graduate of Cardinal Dougherty High School – majored in International Business. “It worked out for me that a college that had an International Business major was a bus ride away from my house as opposed to me having to pack up and move to another state.”
Russikoff’s education in International Business was helpful when she was preparing to graduate. “In my senior year, I received a co-op opportunity to work for a manufacturing company in Kingsbury. Right out of the gate, I was doing exactly what I went to school for. While a lot of college students have trouble finding jobs right after graduation, the company offered me a position in October of my senior year, so I knew that I had a job lined up upon graduation. I credit Holy Family for not just what I learned, but for the opportunities it provided.”