FOL-Entrepreneurship

Adelyn Dozier (Entr’26)

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 17:25:09 +0000

Adelyn Dozier (Entr’26) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/15/2023 - 10:25

Caley Kadlecek , Student Writer

Just weeks before her freshman year of high school, Adelyn Dozier’s family moved from Texas to Colorado. Like any other teenager, the prospect of having to build a new community of friends at a new school in an unfamiliar state weighed heavily on her. Then came a second blow.

Shortly after starting school, Adelyn was diagnosed with severe rapid-onset scoliosis, a condition characterized by the accelerated development of an abnormal sideways curvature of the spine. It caused immense pain and discomfort, forcing her to undergo a complete spinal fusion–the insertion of multiple rods and metal screws into the vertebrae of her spine to keep it straight.

Adelyn recalls her slow recovery after the surgery: “It was like learning how to walk again.” But eventually, with her family's love and support, she was able to overcome the mental and physical hardships she endured.

By the time she graduated high school, the obstacles had shaped her into someone who knew how to face life’s challenges head-on–so much so, she decided to postpone college and help others overcome theirs.

“I think I got to learn the importance of having everything stripped away from me and feeling a lot more fulfilled in my life when I’m just serving others. I’ve always believed that the more you can give love, the more you’ll receive,” she says.

She embarked on a service trip to help people in Guatemala, South Africa and Ecuador. She provided support in a myriad of ways: helping students in a classroom, preparing food behind a counter, and offering emotional support to those who needed it most.

“I feel much more confident knowing you can just take a risk and then learn as you go.”

Adelyn Dozier (Entr’26)

Today, Adelyn is studying Strategy and Entrepreneurship in her second year at Leeds. It’s something she’s always been drawn to; growing up, she watched her parents open their own coffee shop. Root House Coffee proved to be a steep learning curve for her parents, who had to learn everything along the way with no prior business experience. But Adelyn learned with them.

Now, she dreams of starting a business called Root for Each Other. She doesn’t know what kind of business it’ll be yet, but she hopes it’ll be one that will fill others' lives with joy. “I want to bring purpose into whatever business I have and share my story through it,” she says.

When it comes to business, and life, she’s learned that some risks are worth taking.

She tells the story of how her team won their final case competition in her Communications Strategy class. As the opening speaker for her group, she did so well that two of her professors recommended she speak at Leeds Launch Day, an orientation for incoming students.

Her first instinct was to reject the offer. How could she get up and speak in front of so many people? But she’d overcome challenges that scared her before, so she decided to take the risk.

Every life lesson she’d ever learned came back to her that day, giving her the courage and confidence she’d been cultivating for so long–from when she was forced to rebuild her life in a new town to when she battled and triumphed over her health crisis.

She stepped up to the podium, and she nailed her speech.

When it comes to business, and life, Adelyn Dozier has learned that some risks are worth taking.

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Grace Vaughn (Entrep, Strat’23)

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Grace Vaughn (Entrep, Strat’23) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/21/2023 - 00:00

Executive Director, Kobu Foundation

Letting go can be hard to do. Grace Vaughn knows all about it.

Grace started volunteering with the Kobu Foundation—a food donation and distribution nonprofit created by Leeds alumni during the pandemic—as a sophomore, and when its founders graduated, they handed things off to her.

While she wasn’t exactly creating a business from scratch, Grace had to figure out how to turn an all-volunteer charity designed to operate amid lockdown into something that was a substantial part of the community—food donations, yes, but also other kinds of help, like newsletters containing resources, to help people feel seen and supported.

And now, as she prepares to graduate, she has to hand Kobu off to the next generation—ideally, someone who can grow it beyond Leeds and the Diverse Scholars Program, which has provided a strong set of regular volunteers. For her, passing that baton is the ultimate lesson in leadership.

“I didn’t realize how much of a doer I have become through Kobu,” Grace said. “As much as I’ve had the freedom to take initiative and make things happen, I’ve had to provide a lot of structure and motivation for our executive team and volunteers—most of whom haven’t been in this kind of startup environment, including myself. It’s been interesting learning that, as a leader, it’s not always about the big ideas, but how the little things get done.”

“As a leader, it’s not always about the big ideas, but how the little things get done.”

Grace Vaughn (Entrep, Strat’23)

The opportunity to be a leader was an important consideration for Grace as she made the adjustment to college life. She chose Leeds in part for the mentorship programs it offered, including the Peer2Peer program that matches first-years with older students to help them get the most out of their Leeds experiences. Through Peer2Peer, Grace made a lifelong friend; the two of them will be relocating to New York to pursue work after graduation.

Mentorship matters

“Mentorship at Leeds really has lived up to my expectations,” she said. “When I would talk to my other friends at other schools, they wouldn’t even have something as simple as a four-year plan, whereas I had the next three years lined up. It played a big role in deciding to graduate a year early and making sure I was on track.”

Knowing what’s coming down the road has helped Grace be comfortable spending a lot of her time volunteering, with Kobu and SWAP—the Student-Worker Alliance Program—which pairs students with campus employees seeking assistance in mastering English.

“Part of this whole new business world is bringing empathy and compassion back into organizations—and volunteering is an important part of that,” Grace said. “So much of charity work today is funneling money to a place you’ll never see. The tangible impact of volunteering, of seeing the good you’re contributing to your community, is important for any business student. Doing that really hands-on work has a much bigger impact than just hitting a donate button online.”

Creating impact

It’s probably no surprise that when it comes to her career, Grace is less interested in a particular industry and more keen on finding ways to make an impact on people.

“The most important impact you can have is within the 30, 60, 100 people around you,” she said. “I want to find ways to change business within one company—within one floor of one company—through caring about people.”

As she figures out exactly what that looks like, she’ll lean on experiences from Leeds—especially from her mentor and professors, who challenged her to find her voice and stand up for herself and others—to find the best way to create meaningful impact in business.

“When I was a kid, and people would ask me what I wanted to go when I grew up, my goal was always to be a good boss, a good manager, and Kobu was my first real opportunity to do that,” Grace said. “So it wasn’t just about growing the team, but about making sure volunteers are prioritized, that the community feels valued, and that we establish Kobu as a real, visible presence in the community.”

More Faces of Leeds Undergraduate programs Diverse Scholars Program

Taking a nonprofit foundation from startup to stable is a challenge for even a seasoned leader. Grace has managed it in stride.

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Holly Henderson (MBA’23)

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Holly Henderson (MBA’23) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/03/2023 - 00:00

Founder, Free Takeout

It takes a special kind of person to launch her business in the frantic period between Thanksgiving and the beginning of final exams.

Holly Henderson is definitely a special kind of person.

“I love the chaos of it,” said Holly, who launched the Free Takeout clothing brand on the first day of exams with two partners, both MBA students in her cohort; the company's latest release dropped March 2. “It was the craziest, most insane two weeks ever. I was calling my business partners at least 10 times a day, and they would say, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so stressed out,’—and I was like, ‘But aren’t you having the most fun you’ve ever had?’”

While starting a business at such a busy time has had its downsides, Holly said applying what she’s learned as a student has been an incredible complement to her studies. “We’re in our second year in the program, so: Where are our gaps in knowledge, what do we need to know more about, how can we find more interest in the classes we’re taking, because we have something to directly apply it to?” she said.

Like many entrepreneurs, Holly’s path has been far from straightforward. She graduated from Central Michigan University with a degree in graphic design and a warning from her professors that she wasn’t cut out for agency work “because I did projects the way I wanted to do them, not how they wanted them done,” she said, laughing.

So instead of going the traditional designer route, she wound up at a startup retailer in Michigan, where she found she enjoyed the pace and size of a smaller enterprise. Getting an MBA was a way for her to get the business skills she needed in order to be prepared for her next move.

“It’s interesting being a leader in a room full of other leaders, because you really need to knock down your ego and let everyone shine for who they are.”

Holly Henderson (MBA’23)

The next move wound up being to Boulder, as she looked to immerse herself in the outdoor culture of the West while benefiting from Leeds’ emphasis on entrepreneurship.

‘Leeds encouraged exploration’

“Especially coming from a startup, I’m not really big into the corporate world,” Holly said. “A lot of business schools try to push you in that direction, but Leeds encouraged exploration.”

Holly has certainly made the most of the experience. In addition to her foray as a founder, she’s co-president of MBA Women in Business and vice president of community outreach for the MBA Association; she also ran a clothing swap in November to benefit the nonprofit TGTHR, in Boulder. And while Free Takeout is a three-woman effort, hatched on a camping trip, Holly’s comfort in leading—not to mention her fashion experience—has put her in the driver’s seat.

“It’s interesting being a leader in a room full of other leaders, because you really need to knock down your ego and let everyone shine for who they are,” she said. “With Free Takeout, it’s been an interesting challenge in leadership because it’s me and two of the closest friends I made in the program. Figuring out how to lead your two best friends has helped me grow and develop as a leader a lot.”

That friendship is a key part of what fuels Free Takeout’s mission.

“The three of us all moved here for the mountains—skiing, hiking, camping,” Holly said. “But what matters so much more is the memories we made with the great people we were surrounded by. We wanted to create a brand that embodies the idea of human connection and how important it is to value the people you’re spending your time with.”

The designs in her latest collection, which debuts this month, feature vintage photographs from her family and friends skiing, including a hoodie featuring her mom and a T-shirt with her dad visible in a crowd. The look further speaks to her ideas around emphasizing the people you're with, more than the activity you're doing together.

As she works to complete her MBA, Holly is now figuring out what she’ll do full time after graduation, though she plans to keep running Free Takeout on the side, with the hope of scaling it up in the future.

“At Leeds, I found the path for myself and had a self-exploration journey that helped me create something truly meaningful,” she said. “I couldn't have done it without the friendships I made through my MBA.”

More Faces of Leeds Leeds MBA programs Graduate programs

Starting her own fashion line as a student has been a challenge—but it means Holly’s business gets the benefit of her MBA lessons.

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Laura Moore (Psych’15)

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Laura Moore (Psych’15) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/17/2023 - 00:00

Founder, Silk By Laura and program manager, Diverse Scholars Program

Silk by Laura is the story of a growing small business that very nearly wasn’t.

Like some success stories, the business started almost by accident; in this case, Laura Moore’s friends and family telling her how much they loved her homemade shea butter, convincing her to set up shop as an LLC despite not having a business plan.

“I didn’t have a financial plan, or a website—I was using a Google form for orders,” Laura said.

She paused the business after the holiday rush to put a plan in place, build a site, restock her inventory—and when she reopened, her customers were gone. Feeling defeated, she prepared to close out the business, attending one final event that she’d committed to—“but that one day, I made $800 in sales,” she said. “That was the push I needed to keep going forward.”

That’s not the only nudge she’s needed—she was accepted to the selective Catalyze CU accelerator, but turned it down before being talked into it by the program’s director—but those little pushes have changed her outlook on her business.

“When I have conversations with many people about Silk, they’ll tell me, ‘Your story is unique, and it doesn’t just happen like that,’” Laura said. “So, I’m now taking every opportunity I can, because they’re presenting themselves to me.”

Her homemade body butter is actually Laura’s side hustle. She’s better known for her work supporting students through their academic journeys as a member of the Office of Diversity Affairs at Leeds. She was a high-school student serving as president of the International Baccalaureate Black Organization when she discovered her passion for DEI issues and helping students feel a sense of belonging.

But being a part of the business school has helped her think about her own enterprise while making her an approachable expert for entrepreneurially minded students.

“Obviously, my background is more in education,” said Laura, who also owns a master’s in counseling from CU Denver, which she completed in 2021. She had a strong sense of business ethics from watching her father, who owned his own insurance agency with Allstate, “but I didn’t have a set financial plan, or speak the business lingo.”

“Catalyze helped me grow tremendously, and gave me confidence in my pitch and in talking to investors, because I was very intimidated by those kinds of conversations.”

Inspiring student entrepreneurs

And Leeds students are taking notice—both those she advises as well as those whom she teaches, especially in the required Design Your Leeds course all first-years take. She also started teaching a course called Dynamics of Leadership and Power this spring.

“Having Silk be a part of my life while being in the business school has been amazing,” Laura said, adding that Silk was accepted into CU’s entrepreneurship law clinic in the fall. “As a small-business owner, I’ve really seen firsthand the lack of diversity, especially among women, in this space—and I’m seeing how impactful it is for a lot of my female students, who feel they can learn from me and the example I’m trying to set.”

“I’m now taking every opportunity I can, because they’re presenting themselves to me.”

Laura Moore (Psy’15)

In her day job, Laura supports students in the Diverse Scholars Program as they navigate college life. Many of these students complete one of Leeds’ precollege programs in the summer, so she’s building relationships with the incoming class well before they start taking classes—the big reason she almost turned down Catalyze, though money from the program helped her hire an intern for the summer.

Her near-term plans for Silk include moving into B2B, so that other retailers stock her products, and developing philanthropic goals for the business, especially in the area of supporting people with disabilities. But she’s not planning to leave the Office of Diversity Affairs anytime soon.

“I truly enjoy teaching—working with the students, providing workshops, and offering learning and professional development opportunities,” she said. “And being a co-advisor to the Women in Business group has been an incredible opportunity, as well.”

More Faces of Leeds Office of Diversity Affairs Catalyze CU

Like many startup success stories, Laura’s foray into founding a business was almost an accident.

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Chris Wirth (MBA’97)

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Chris Wirth (MBA’97) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/27/2023 - 00:00

Co-founder, Liberty Puzzles

Chris Wirth is in his element.

As the co-founder of Liberty Puzzles talks about the concept behind his business and the Leeds experiences that helped him build it, a steady stream of customers wanders into his Pearl Street showroom in search of unique holiday gifts.

“For us, 2022 has been kind of a normal year, like 2019 was,” Chris said. “When we started the business, in 2005, we worked so hard just to get off the ground—like 12- and 14-hour days. Those early years were the hardest, until the pandemic hit, when we worked just as hard to stay alive. Those two periods were the biggest challenge for us.”

Unlike die-cut, cardboard puzzles, Liberty’s are wooden and filled with so-called “whimsy” pieces, named because workers running jigsaws would cut them on a whim. Chris’ work is inspired by Falls puzzles, created in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, during the Great Depression; each Falls puzzle included a signature whimsy piece of a girl falling. The Liberty signature piece is an eagle, and each puzzle includes whimsy pieces unique to each work. A Forever Buffs puzzle, for instance, shows Old Main and includes pieces of buffalo, hikers, books, even the Colorado state flag.

Chris said he inherited about 30 Falls puzzles from his mother, and on vacations, the family would work together to solve one.

“It got to the point where I’d call my dad before we left for a trip, asking if he picked out a puzzle yet,” he said. “I finally had my a-ha moment when we were in Puerto Vallarta together. It rained all weekend so we stayed inside working on the puzzle, all having a great time. And I realized, if I could find a way to make these and sell them for $100, that would be a good business.”

His grad school experiences were helpful not only as he overcame early-stage obstacles, but as he scaled up in response to demand.

“What I learned in studying law and business was to understand the perspective of any kind of problem you’re up against,” Chris said. “So, when you’re finding solutions, you think, are we within the ballpark? Does this seem ethical, logical, reasonable? It gives you a level of judgment that is so helpful in running a business.”

And he never needed creative problem-solving skills more than in the pandemic. In the first weekend of lockdowns, customers placed about 15,000 online orders.

“One of the things we’ve always been is entrepreneurial by necessity. We’re not afraid to tear stuff down and rebuild.”

Chris Wirth (MBA’97)

“We were panicking,” Chris said. “We had to close our factories because of lockdown, so we had no way to fulfill those orders. In the end, we went old-school—the two highest-level officers in the company making the puzzles, along with my laser floor manager—and the three of us kicked out all the orders in two months.”

Staying innovative

By then, even more demand had built up. To keep customers satisfied, Liberty created a token system that allowed people to reserve a token, which enabled buyers to order a single puzzle on the day it was valid—designed to keep orders to a manageable 500 a day while not locking out customers who weren’t tech savvy. That involved changing the company’s website from a virtual storefront to a kind of Ticketmaster—especially when scalpers caught on, requiring even tighter controls.

“One of the things we’ve always been is entrepreneurial by necessity,” Chris said. “We’re not afraid to tear stuff down and rebuild, like putting that token system in, or adding a new factory. But it’s interesting because, as we get bigger, it’s harder to be that. You can’t pivot as fast.”

With 130 employees selling some 700 puzzle designs, along with three Boulder factory locations and the showroom, Liberty has comfortably outgrown its status as a small business—but it hasn’t forgotten its roots. Chris showed off a 1,600-piece Falls puzzle of the British Isles that he has framed on his Pearl Street store, one of only two displayed designs his company didn’t create. He estimated its worth at $10,000.

“In the Depression, people wanted cheap forms of entertainment, and jigsaw puzzles fit the bill,” Chris said. “More than that, they created this social experience as people solved them together. That idea of bringing people together was where our initial business concept came from.”

More Faces of Leeds Why Leeds Leeds MBA

A Leeds MBA was the missing piece Chris needed in order to successfully launch his puzzle business.

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Joe Constancia (Entrep, Strat’24)

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Joe Constancia (Entrep, Strat’24) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/02/2022 - 00:00

Plenty of students can tell you about how visiting the Koelbel Building, with its magnificent views of the Flatirons, helped them decide Leeds was the place for them.

Joe Constancia remembers his first time in the building, as well. But it wasn’t to look out the windows—it was to empty the recycling bins.

Joe called his time working with Facilities Management “the greatest job I’ve ever had in my life”—partly because it was a break from his work as a plumber and farmer, but also because it set him up for further professional opportunities and, eventually, coming to Leeds as a full-time student.

Leeds ‘put the clothes on my back’

Joe emptied the bins at half the buildings on campus, including the Administrative and Research Center, where his big personality and love of talking to people played a role in getting work as a receptionist, eventually rising to work in talent acquisition and leave. On his last day of emptying bins at Koelbel, the team in Leeds’ dean’s suite surprised him with a cake and “the nicest card I ever received, which had $64 and a whole bunch of kind words in it,” he said. “I went to every Salvation Army and Goodwill in the surrounding counties, and with that $64 I got two weeks’ worth of professional clothing for my new job. Leeds literally put the clothes on my back.”

While he enjoyed his responsibilities at work, being in a professional setting gave him a taste for bigger possibilities, which is what led him back to Leeds.

“I didn’t have a degree, and there were certain jobs I wanted that required one,” Joe said. “My wife and I talked about it and decided it was time to rip the bandage off and knock it out.”

Since then, it’s been an incredible ride. He was the lone Leeds student on the team that won the New Venture Challenge’s Cross-Campus Collaboration event in the spring, helping the engineers on the team refine their concept for a self-stopping braking system for four-wheeled walkers.

“Engineers definitely have their own lens of looking at the world,” Joe said. “For me, it was an opportunity to work with people who are incredibly smart and detail oriented, and be able to help them not let perfect get in the way of good enough. They’re smart, they have all the talent in the world, but are so hard on themselves. Instilling a little confidence was something my business education helped me do.”

“Leeds and CU have taken great care of me. Now, I want to do something meaningful with my work.”

Joe Constancia (Entrep, Strat’24)

Joe’s education also has helped him forge incredible friendships with students, who like to hear about “the old guy” in class and his perspectives on life and business.

“When I was their age, I had a lot of people telling me what to do—but not a lot of people encouraging me to do what I wanted,” he said. “I try to offer that perspective to help them navigate their way through life.

“Strategy and entrepreneurship, to me, is about freedom—my schedule, my colleagues, my ways of working,” Joe said. “I never had that before I came here. Before they let me answer a phone, I was content to work until the day I died. Now, I want to do something meaningful with my work, and retire one day. Leeds and CU have taken great care of me.”

More Faces of Leeds Why Leeds Undergraduate Programs

Joe’s first trip to Koelbel wasn’t for orientation. It was to empty the recycling bins.

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Kristin Apple (MBA’08)

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Kristin Apple (MBA’08) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/21/2022 - 00:00

President, LINUS

Sometimes, it’s the offer you don’t accept that winds up changing your life.

As an MBA student, Kristin Apple wound up interviewing for an internship at a consulting firm specializing in innovation and strategy—an opportunity she credits to her professors, who encouraged her to explore that path.

“In my second semester, I took a course in new product development—and even though I did my undergrad in marketing, I had no idea that the type of work that I learned about in this class existed,” she said. “I turned down the offer, but started looking closer to Boulder to see if there were other companies that did this kind of consulting work.”

In fact, the start of her 11-year career with Egg Strategy—which ended with her as managing director of its health vertical—started “with me just calling to see if they needed an MBA intern, and they said yes,” Apple said.

‘The love continues’

And, as she put it, “the love continues with Leeds.” Apple and her family moved to Boulder for her MBA, and still live near campus, giving her plenty of options to stay connected to Business Buffs. That’s not just giving guest lectures—it’s her book club, the friends her kids make and the talent she’s been able to hire at LINUS, a strategy and innovation consultancy focused on the life science, health and wellness industry.

“We’re always looking for talent from Leeds,” she said. “They’re curious, they’re driven, they go above and beyond.”

And she knows firsthand the incredible faculty students get to learn from.

“The reason I chose Leeds was the close-knit community—and it has paid dividends that I never even imagined.”

Kristin Apple (MBA’08)

“I chose Leeds because it was a small program, so I’d be able to get to know all my classmates and develop relationships—but I didn’t realize how much of a meaningful impact that my professors would make on me and my career,” Apple said.

That career has put her on the front lines of a healthcare industry undergoing rapid transformation, thanks to technology, regulation and the aftereffects of the pandemic.

“I love focusing on what’s next and asking how can we deliver healthcare in a better and more meaningful way,” she said. “How do we use what we’ve learned during the pandemic to be healthier, to be more informed and to alleviate the burden on our front-line clinicians?”

As she and her company continue to help innovate in this industry, she’s grateful to do so with a group of thought leaders and scholars just a short walk away.

“The reason I chose Leeds was the close-knit community—and it has paid dividends that I never even imagined,” Apple said.

More Faces of Leeds Why Leeds Leeds MBA

As Kristin Apple can tell you, sometimes, it's the offer you don't accept that changes your life.

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Olivia McKeen (Mktg’23)

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Olivia McKeen (Mktg’23) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/15/2022 - 00:00

Founder, Marshall Fire Resource Guide

Olivia McKeen is good at turning tragedy into alacrity.

When her family lost their Louisville home to the Marshall Fire, McKeen—like many others—was in shock, but she quickly pivoted to how she could help others affected by the disaster.

“I was able to get out safely, my parents got out, our pets got out,” she said. “We even got some of our stuff out. And that was certainly not the case for everyone.”

Enter the Marshall Fire Resource Guide, a comprehensive website for those who lost their homes as well as people seeking to support displaced families. It’s the result of a group project McKeen led in her digital marketing course to develop and market a website.

A focus on user experience

The idea came from a Slack channel for fire victims, which had a lot of information, but was poorly organized. “And a lot of older people who lost their homes don’t know how to use Slack or Facebook, but they’re comfortable with a website,” McKeen said.

Those audience considerations helped drive the site’s design aesthetic, which is equal parts professional and accessible. Even its logo and the shade of blue she used were chosen “because it’s a calming color,” she said.

McKeen is no stranger to digital marketing—she started doing internships in the industry in high school, as a way to explore her interest in the discipline—and is currently interning with startup Sol Vae, founded by Bridget Thorpe (OpsMgmt, E’ship’09). That opportunity came about after Thorpe spoke at a networking event at Leeds.

“Right now, it’s just the two of us, which is exciting,” she said. “It’s like getting to be the head of marketing, with a lot of freedom to try new things and see what works.”

She’s also very involved on campus, including membership in Delta Sigma Pi, Women in Business, the Dean’s Student Cabinet and Kappa Alpha Theta.

“I would love to use my degree to do something that helps people.”

Olivia McKeen (Mktg’23)

Developing the website was equal parts group and passion project—and she continues to update it with news and resources—but McKeen is now in talks with Boulder County about a takeover of the site, to further broaden its reach.

The project has helped McKeen think about a career doing digital marketing for a nonprofit.

“I wanted to come out of Leeds with a meaningful degree and a meaningful job,” she said. “I would love to use my degree do something that helps people.”

More Faces of Leeds Why Leeds Undergraduate Business Programs

Her digital marketing course inspired Olivia when a devastating fire destroyed her home and countless others.

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Kai Suematsu and Samariddin Meliboev (Info Mgmt, Bus Analytics’21)

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Kai Suematsu and Samariddin Meliboev (Info Mgmt, Bus Analytics’21) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/11/2022 - 00:00

Co-founders, Kobu Foundation

Ironically, Kai Suematsu and Samariddin Meliboev realized they had good chemistry when they met in a high-school chemistry class in Denver’s George Washington High School.

Since then, the friends and recent Leeds graduates have been a force for change in helping Colorado’s less-fortunate population through several initiatives focused on food donations and delivery.

“When people say, ‘What do you do for fun?’ and you say, ‘I volunteer,’ people think it’s weird,” Kai said. “But it’s really just hanging out with friends, and volunteering while you do it.”

Kai and Samariddin created Denver Club of Humanities, a food pantry, in high school with classmate Kelly Trang, also a CU Boulder student. Because of their different schedules in college, Kelly and Jamal Giornazi—another CU Boulder student and Washington alumnus—have not been as involved with Kobu, “but Kelly had such a big influence on how we run Kobu, especially in terms of how she helped us create a culture at Denver Club,” Samariddin said.

The friends started Kobu after searching for ways to pick up the threads of Denver Club of Humanities, and found their answer when pandemic-related quarantine measures made it harder to get food donations to the people who needed them. Since then, Kobu has delivered some 150,000 meals, powered by both donations and the volunteer efforts of CU Boulder students who help prepare donations for delivery. On top of that, Kobu has awarded more than $15,000 in scholarships to students—the founders’ acknowledgment of the scholarships they received and their role in making an education affordable.

“Business classes taught us how to network with the community, which helped us quickly get started when the pandemic hit.”

Samariddin Meliboev (Info Mgmt, Bus Analytics’21)

In turn, their education has given Kai and Samariddin invaluable perspective on how to build a better, more sustainable vision for their volunteerism.

“Business classes taught us how to network with the community, which helped us quickly get started when the pandemic hit,” Samariddin said.

Learning when to pivot

Kai, who also completed a certificate in entrepreneurship as part of his Leeds studies, said the ability to iterate and shift is core to almost every class he’s taken.

“Knowing when to pivot, knowing what the big idea is and figuring out how to fill a needed role is something we learned about a lot,” he said.

Their business skills are especially important now, as the pair decide what to do with the nonprofit they’ve built. Both have started work after graduating early (Samariddin at Kaiser Permanente, Kai at Accenture) and are now weighing an acquisition offer from a larger, more established organization.

“We’d like to see Kobu get to the next level, and this organization has the systems, grant money and scale to do that,” Kai said. “But there’s also value in having it stay with CU students.”

More Faces of Leeds Why Leeds Undergraduate Business Programs

The founders of Kobu delivered more than 150,000 meals to the needy during the pandemic while raising money for scholarships.

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Court Rye (Mktg’06)

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Court Rye (Mktg’06) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/21/2022 - 00:00

Founder and CEO, ElectricBikeReview.com

Court Rye knew there would be sacrifice involved in pursuing his startup business full time. So the two years he spent living in his Toyota Prius were all part of the plan.

“Your business is a living thing—you need to take care of it for it to work,” Rye said. “I’m doing this because I want to have something authentic that helps people looking for honest answers when they buy an e-bike.”

Rye’s business, ElectricBikeReview.com, offers thousands of bike reviews for hobbyists and newcomers alike. In almost 10 years, the site has generated millions of page views from people who come to EBR for simplicity and authenticity, instead of being sold on some fancy marketing.

Rye has worked at big companies—including Google and Accenture—as well as smaller ones over the years, but he’s always had a taste for the startup life. On nights and weekends, he would practice programming and launch side projects, two of which he sold when he lived in Silicon Valley.

‘There’s no extra credit’

Turning to startups was a natural, but not always smooth process for Court. He participated in the entrepreneurship program at Leeds, but failed to earn the official certificate after receiving a C in the capstone course.

“I’m really thankful for that C,” Rye said. “It was the lowest letter grade I earned at CU and it reflects the reality of business—it’s not just about how hard you work, and there’s no extra credit.”

“Your business is a living thing—you need to take care of it for it to work.”

Court Rye (Mktg’06)

It’s safe to say the lesson stuck—EBR shows no signs of slowing down. Rye still creates virtually all the content for the site, and even a brief sampling of his videos shows obvious enthusiasm for what he does. Luck and timing have played a role in his success, he said, but so does his hard work; the site is the longest running independent resource for e-bikes on the web.

“I’ve had a couple of good offers to sell,” he said. “But it’s honest, it’s a special place, and I want to preserve that. My plan is to keep EBR independent.”

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The ultimate sacrifice Court made for his company was probably living in his car for two years.

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