What does your business do?

FSAEparts.com is an e-commerce site focused on selling parts and supplies to Formula SAE teams around the world. Formula SAE is an international collegiate design competition and race series where teams of engineering students design, build, and compete with their open-wheeled formula race cars. As alumni of the program, we know that many of the parts and supplies needed to manufacture these high performance cars can be expensive or difficult to find, and that's where we come in. We aim to become a one-stop shop for FSAE needs. To do this, we seek out and work with top-notch manufacturers and vendors to provide the student run teams with exclusive discounts to help out with their commonly tight budgets. Additionally, we are working to develop our own affordable products made specifically for these cars. Feel free to check us out on our site, facebook, twitter, and instagram (@fsaeparts).

How would you use the grant money?

The grant money would primarily be used to further develop our website and marketing. This will help extend our reach in the Formula SAE community and also aid in creating new partnerships with parts suppliers to expand our catalog.

What would the grant enable you to do that you can't now?

Our current web building capabilities are limited, so the grant would be a great help to pay for services we can use to make our website more professional and user-friendly. We already have many followers and customers, but improved marketing would definitely help us gain even more interest from FSAE students and companies. Not to mention, this would also help us focus more resources into developing our own custom products.

If Idea Cafe's Grant helps your biz reach greater success, how will you "pay it forward" to help others in some way?

The nature of our business revolves around the idea of "paying it forward". We are Formula SAE alumni and are extremely grateful to have had that experience as college students. It taught us more about engineering, business and leadership than any class we took, and the opportunities it has presented us with are invaluable. That is why we want to give back to the FSAE community. Most of the FSAE teams have very limited budgets and by working with suppliers directly, we are able to save them money by providing exclusive discounts on quality products. Our site and social media also provides teams with a community environment where we share relevant news and help promote the program and its members. We are also hoping to grow our professional network so that we can help these highly-experienced students connect with engineering companies to open up potential career opportunities.