St. Thomas student business finds success, passion in budding entrepreneur

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - "One man’s trash is another man’s treasure."

The old saying rings true for the University of St. Thomas student who is finding success in the resell business. His message to aspiring entrepreneurs – don't give up.

"17 billion pounds of office furniture is discarded every year in the U.S., and 80% of that is thrown away," said John Costello during an interview with FOX 9's Bisi Onile-Ere.

The 20-year-old is the owner of West Metro Solutions – a company that sells new, used and refurbished office cubicles and furniture. 

"We’re taking the old fabric off and we’re putting new fabric on so it looks like a brand new cube at a quarter of the price," said Costello. 

It’s a one-man operation that he launched three years ago. 

"I learned in high school that there’s a lot of furniture waste, particularly after COVID. I mean everyone was clearing out of their offices," said Costello.

Today the young entrepreneur is a junior, double majoring in entrepreneurship and finance at the University of St. Thomas.

"In the business school they want kids to do cool stuff, and I feel like I owe that motivation to this university," said Costello.

And he says that his business is doing better than ever. 

"We’ve done over a million dollars in sales now," said Costello.

Costello grew up on a farm west of the metro, where he says his entrepreneurial spirit took flight.

"This is like the sixth business that I’ve launched. I’ve been doing this since the fourth grade really, I sold chicken eggs at the farmer’s market and that’s really how it all started and it’s really been a succession from there," said Costello.

However, he’s learned, with success comes failure. A lesson he encourages budding business leaders to embrace.

"I hope that people don’t overestimate the difficulties. I think that people look at the business as really hard, how do you start. I’ll never get there, kind of thing. It’s all about, you just wake up and you say that I’m going to pick up a shovel and I’m going to ask my neighbor if I can shovel their driveway, and then you just keep doing that," said Costello.

The approach is working for this young CEO with big ambitions.

"This stuff takes time, but what I will say is that it is going to happen, you just have to trust the process," said Costello. 

Costello is Schulze Innovation Scholars fellow.

The scholarship is funded by Best Buy founder Richard Schulze’s family foundation.

Costello says that he credits his success to the University of St. Thomas and the business program.