After graduation, many students hope to attend college, earn a degree and find a job. However, three Wayland High School alumni took a slightly different path. Alex Schultz, George Keeler and Max Gredinger decided to take their careers into their own hands and start their own companies.

Gredinger, 20, a Wayland Public Schools student from first through eleventh grade, started a business called Hold My Coat. Hold My Coat represents young, talented musicians.

“I started working in music when I was introduced to Mike Posner when I was 16 and started doing marketing work for him,” said Gredinger.

After Posner signed a record label, Gredinger entered the musical industry and started to learn the ropes.

“I was working with [Posner’s] manager more than I was directly with him. The managerial world became really intriguing to me,” said Gredinger. “Being able to work directly with an artist and be one of the sole reasons for their career to lift off the ground was an awesome concept.”

In 2009, Gredinger launched Hold My Coat and now manages Aer, a group composed of seniors David von Mering and Carter Schultz.

“In the early stages, when I wasn’t seeing immediate results with my first artist, it was a bit frustrating, but as cliché as it sounds, it’s all about perseverance,” said Gredinger.

After the founding of the company, Gredinger faced more challenges, one of which was building a strong team.

“I don’t want to surround myself with people that don’t have the same vision or passion for Hold My Coat as I do, so it took a lot of moving around to get situated with as solid of a team as I currently have,” said Gredinger.

Gredinger currently attends Syracuse University and hopes that one day Hold My Coat will become a major force in the music industry.

“I’d like to be sitting at my office in NYC with 2 or 3 other managers on my team working full time on Hold My Coat,” said Gredinger. “I also would love to have a music supervision branch, essentially placing music into television and movies, which has been a longtime dream of mine.”

Like Gredinger, Alex Shultz, and George Keeler, both 24, started a company of their own. Schultz and Keeler graduated WHS in 2005, then reconnected after college. They then created George Guest, a company that makes high-end backpacks.

Keeler’s interest in business started in high school through business teacher Jim Page’s classes. The idea for George Guest blossomed when Keeler couldn’t find a backpack that suited his needs.

“I wanted a backpack that had a low profile like a drawstring bag, but was weatherproof and could be used on campus as well as in the outdoors,” said Keeler.

Like any business, operations don’t always run smoothly.

“Money is always a challenge because there’s so much we want to do,” said Schultz.  “Also, breaking into a crowded market with a higher end product [is another challenge].”

George Guest is still waiting for its big breakthrough, but Schultz and Keeler have high hopes for the future.

“[I want to be an] international [company] with an expanded product line and brand people can identify with,” said Schultz.

“I would like George Guest to be an international company with headquarters in different places around the world,” said Keeler.

With a solid foundation and big plans for the future, only time will tell if Hold My Coat and George Guest will become household names.