Identical twins Andrew, left, and Michael Ritter ’05 have scads in common. At USC, they were both on the 2001 Pac-10 Championship baseball team. They were both in fraternities, and both minored in business. And before they graduated, the young entrepreneurs both launched million-dollar companies. Michael, a communications major, publishes Saturday Night Magazine, a lifestyle and entertainment guide for twentysomethings. Andrew, a political science major, developed and sells Lactagen, a nutritional supplement that counteracts lactose intolerance.

Now at age 25, the L.A. natives run their successful businesses side by side, on opposite sides of the elevator on the same floor of a Century City office building.

But it was a fundamental difference between the brothers that spurred Andrew to start his business. As a child, he had severe lactose intolerance. Michael could eat anything he liked, but even a tablespoon of milk or ice cream would leave Andrew with ghastly stomach cramps. Doctors said he would just have to live with the condition – but “tough luck” isn’t an answer that sits well with the Ritter twins.

At age 13, Andrew began researching lactose intolerance, contacting leading scientists and testing potential remedies on himself. He combined microbiological ingredients until he came up with a product and program that alleviated lactose intolerance – and won the California State Science Fair with it. His enterprise earned him a spot on Los Angeles’ Commission for Children, Youth and Their Families – as the youngest commissioner in the city’s history. While at USC, Andrew worked on raising capital to conduct clinical trials and market his invention, which he called Lactagen.

While Andrew mixed potions, Michael made headlines as sports editor of their high-school newspaper. He yearned to be editor-in-chief, but when the position went to someone else, Michael – like his brother – turned that “tough luck” on its end. He wrote to 50 magazines offering to be a correspondent, and Seventeen magazine chose him for its teen advisory board. The gig landed him on the cover of Newsweek for a story called “What Teens Believe.”

At USC, he applied for a job on the Daily Trojan staff. When no one got back to him, he decided to start his own campus magazine using money he’d saved from summer jobs. He wrote, edited and designed it from his fraternity room at Alpha Epsilon Pi. When he decided to expand the magazine to other campuses, he called 50 USC alumni and spent the summer of 2004 having “breakfasts, lunches and drinks” with helpful alums who gave him advice on printing, potential advertisers and marketing. The 64-page Saturday Night Magazine now distributes regional editions to more than 40 California campuses. Michael plans to continue expanding it throughout the country.

Andrew’s business has grown, too. To date, more than 10,000 lactose-intolerant people – including himself – now can tolerate dairy products. He markets Lactagen online and on TV infomercials.

Despite their success, the Ritter brothers still find time to see each other. They play baseball on weekends, meet up with mutual friends some evenings and slip out of their offices for an occasional lunch. “He gives me advice on marketing and distribution,” says Andrew, “and I help him with sales.”

The best part? Now they can both order whatever they want. Confesses Andrew, “I like ice cream and milkshakes a lot.”

 – Starshine Roshell