When he started his own business in telecommunications right
before he began attending UCLA, Shaun Tan did it without the
advantage of having the advice of older, more seasoned
entrepreneurs.
In an attempt to give enterprising students the edge he did not
have, Tan, now an alumnus with several years of experience as an
entrepreneur, founded the nonprofit Entrepreneur Mentor Society, or
EMS, this past October with cofounder Amy Wang.
Projects already in the works by UCLA students involved in EMS
include a virtual karaoke start-up and a business that caters to
the formal attire needs of male students.
“The program is for anybody … who wants to be a business
owner someday,” Tan said.
Providing students with business cards and connections to
knowledgeable businesspeople, the program gives students access to
professionals and allows aspiring business owners to network with
students from other schools.
Ideally, EMS will fill a problematic gap in networking and
business opportunities sometimes encountered by students interested
in starting their own business while at UCLA, which does not have
an undergraduate business program, said Wang, a third-year
economics student.
Students are well-positioned to put their business ideas into
practice and, as a whole, are generally “at that stage of
life where (they) don’t really have anything to lose,”
Wang said.
The networking opportunities and advice from speakers featured
at the program’s meetings have been helpful to Joseph Lei, a
third-year business economics student who has just started his own
business.
“I’ve started a men’s apparel company for
formal wear targeted at college students,” Lei said.
By providing low-cost formal men’s attire and wardrobe
suggestions, Lei hopes his company will help third and fourth-year
students who are attending career fairs and going on job interviews
to cope better in those situations.
The business, called Campus Suits, should be active and on
campus within two weeks, he said.
Lei is currently talking with the UCLA Career Center and
business organizations and clubs on campus, attempting to create
partnerships with them to help create a market.
The EMS program has given Lei opportunities to meet and network
with people he believes he would not otherwise have had access to,
he said.
“It’s very hard to find mentors who are invested in
you and who care about what you’re doing,” Lei
said.
The opportunities EMS has provided Lei with are “one of
the greatest things I’ve come across in college life,”
he said.
Of the 45 students currently in the EMS program, approximately
14 already have businesses started, Tan said.
Students from schools including USC and Loyola Marymount
University are involved, as well as students from the California
Institute of Technology.
Applications have recently come in from students from Johns
Hopkins University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
Harvard, Wang said.
“We’re really expanding,” Tan said.
Each semester, 45 students from across Southern California are
accepted into EMS, which meets twice a month on Saturdays, to
expose students to current successful entrepreneurs, who speak at
the meetings.
Teresa Chiao, a second-year business economics student and
current EMS fellow, said she has been inspired to start a business
of her own after receiving advice on how to go about it from her
mentor through the program.
She is currently working on pulling together the technology to
start a virtual karaoke business, which she expects to start in a
few months.
Business aspirations such as Chiao’s and Lei’s are
the types of ideas EMS was created to foster.
“That’s what we’re about, giving these kids
opportunities,” Tan said.
The program’s goal over the next 10 years is to have 45
students a semester to start companies, Tan said.
More information about the Entrepreneur Mentor Society can
be found at emsociety.org.