Southern Adventist University alumnus Seth Hill started a new company called Kinetik Sourcing to produce Personal Protective Equipment in response to the coronavirus pandemic.Since the company began, Hill has sold 50,000 units of PPE – both to hospitals and other consumers in need.
Hill started at Southern with a construction management degree, but after going on a mission trip he decided that he wanted to pursue business. He started his entrepreneurial journey with Swayy – an insulated hammock and camping gear company.
“I knew that I wanted to do something different with my life,” Hill said, “I realized that I really liked creating new things, creating brands and designing things people would flock to.”
With his establishment of Swayy, Hill decided to create Kinetik Relations - a consulting company in Asia. But with the escalation of COVID-19 in Wuhan, Hill’s colleagues in Asia asked if his company could start providing masks to the area.
“We shipped them protective equipment,” said Hill. “I reached out to a couple of my friends who worked in health care just to gage the need [for masks] … it was a barrage of emails of people inquiring about getting PPE.”
The increasing demand for protective equipment has made Kinetik Relations – now renamed Kinetik Sourcing– more successful than Swayy.
“We’ve made more revenue in two weeks [with Kinetic Sourcing] than Swayy has made in its entire life,” Hill said.
Kinetik Sourcing now serves various businesses and hospitals including Dominion Senior Living Center, Morning Pointe Senior Living and several clinics across the U.S.
Hill has also been providing masks to the common public on the direct consumer info and order page on Swayy’s website. Hill claims to lower the price by grouping individual orders into one, larger order. He said this provides a “competitive price” so consumers can buy what they need without paying too much for an excessive amount of masks.
According to Hill, Kinetik Sourcing produces KN95 masks which are currently approved by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as an alternative protectant to the N95 mask. Both are said to decrease the spread of contamination through respiratory droplets.
While Hill has been successful in providing masks to consumers, he still encounters challenges.
There is a lot of stress involved with meeting such a large demand for face masks, managing shipping problems, as well as staying up-to-date on CDC regulations.
Even so, Hill loves being a part of his business as he enjoys, “working together to see a project come full circle.”
Ultimately, Hill said that he wants Kinetik Sourcing to enable people to be “together more” as he believes that together we are stronger, and together we can overcome this situation.
“We’re still offering security and comfort to a lot of people by being able to provide this type of gear,” Hill said. “[We give them] confidence to be able to walk forward, to go onto the front lines or wherever they are.”
Hill encourages other businesses to help in this crisis.
“Do what you can. If there’s an opportunity for you to be able to supply people with what they need – do it… There are a million different things you can do,” Hill said. “I would say don’t be afraid to act…. I believe if you have good intentions and are making smart decisions… and if you have God on your side then there’s nothing you can’t do.”
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