Two years ago, Kasper Kubica was the valedictorian of Salt Lake City's West High School.
Today, he's an entrepreneur going into his junior year at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Kubica and his friend, David Spratte, a junior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, last month launched Carpe Lotion, an antiperspirant lotion for the hands. Carpe is Latin for the word seize.
The lotion is being sold on their young company's Web site, in some Durham stores and on Amazon. It's getting rave reviews from musicians, athletes and business people who don't like having sweaty hands. And as of Friday, Carpe Lotion had a 4.8-star rating (five stars is tops) on Amazon.
Kubica said in a phone interview that both he and Spratte often have sweaty hands, particularly when they're nervous. Neither has hyperhidrosis, a medical condition that causes excessive sweating in the palms, feet and armpits, he said.
But "sweaty hands are a daily nuisance to a lot of people," Kubica said.
Spratte had attended a Catholic high school, and noticed that he and many other students were always wiping their hands before exchanging the sign of peace during mass.
"He tried all the solutions out there and none of them really worked," said Kubica, who is from Ogden.
By the time the two became roommates last summer, Spratte had a full-blown dream of inventing a lotion for sweaty hands and marketing it and other lines internationally.
A chemistry major, Spratte had already enlisted another UNC chemistry student, Chris Jenks, to work on lotion formulas.
Kubica, a double major in physics and computer science, bought into the dream and he and Spratte founded the company in late 2014.
The three of them tried 50 different formulas before settling on one that had all the features they wanted. It's sweat-stopping, but still moisturizing. And it doesn't leave a residue on the skin.
The active ingredient is the same one used in prescription antiperspirants — aluminum sesquichlorohydrate — but at a level that can be sold over the counter.
During the spring, they attracted an investment of around $100,000 from Bootstrap Advisors in Durham, and found a factory to make their lotion, which complies with U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements.
Kubica figures he'll be too busy with the company and schoolwork to attend more than one party this semester, but that's OK. His hope is that Carpe Lotion will someday be as common as sunblock. Before that was invented, people had to cover up to avoid sunburn.
"Now it's ubiquitous. That's what I'm hoping Carpe will become."
kmoulton@sltrib.com
| Courtesy photo Kasper Kubica of Ogden, left, and business partner David Spratte, are shown during a company start-up competition at the University of North Carolina. Their company, Carpe Lotion, sells a lotion for those with sweaty hands.
| Courtesy photo Kasper Kubica of Ogden, a West High graduate, is a junior at Duke University and an entrepreneur. Here, he points to a batch of antiperspirant lotion that is at the heart of a company, Carpe Lotion, that he and a partner have formed.
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