At the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, student entrepreneurs have the opportunity to turn their big ideas into reality. These self-starters say entrepreneurship becomes more fulfilling as they work to develop themselves and build relationships.
Emmalyn Kartchner, global supply chain student at the BYU Marriott School of Business, started a business, Tulip, with her brother after being surrounded by entrepreneurial friends during her first semester of college. However, with her entrepreneurial knowledge only being what she learned from books, she says the idea of starting the business was daunting. “I used to base my identity and worth off my achievements,” Kartchner explains. “It was scary because measuring success in starting a business is a lot harder than it is in school.”
But, as Kartchner gained more experience in running Tulip, she says she found a new perspective on what it means to succeed. “I learned that if I measure the risk and am willing to live with the worst possible outcome, then why not make that bet and go for it?” she says.
In addition to the individual growth that comes from founding a business, cultivating positive company relationships is a key part of entrepreneurial culture, says Rachel Bankhead. A BYU Marriott entrepreneurship alumna, Bankhead explains that she's seen the value of relationships within her startup, Zig Kids, where she offers an online space for local businesses and intended customers to connect with each other. “The real reason I go to work every day is because I get to see people and I feel that I’m making a difference,” Bankhead says.
Bankhead adds that business relationships require listening with humility. While she and her team at Zig Kids were trying to solve system issues, differences in educational backgrounds sometimes made communication unclear and execution difficult. Bankhead found that asking questions, delegating intentionally, and listening through step-by-step approaches led to the strongest solutions. “Explaining our different fields of expertise is what we do as co-founders,” Bankhead says. “We’re teaching each other and learning together.”
As entrepreneurs learn together, they also experience joy in the community that grows around their products, says BYU Marriott entrepreneurship alumna Samantha Jex and co-founder Abby Averett. For Jex and Averett, community began when their husbands introduced them during a double date. “We immediately clicked and we both had a super strong passion for running, the desire to start a business, and to create something bigger than ourselves,” Averett says.
They had the idea for their women’s athletic sock company, Saturday Strides, and they hit the ground running. “We started texting about our company the night we met and we haven’t stopped texting each other since then,” Jex says.
But Jex and Averett say developing and running their company hasn’t been a carefree journey. The co-founders learned to navigate challenges like selling out of socks much sooner than anticipated and a new shipment going to the wrong address. However, they say the struggles are worth it for the community of runners they’ve built. "Building that confidence inside of women has been my favorite part of Saturday Strides,” Averett says. “Seeing this community that we didn't even know we were capable of being a part of, let alone starting, feels like a movement.”
No matter if the impact is personal or community-wide, these BYU Marriott entrepreneurs say they find the purpose of growing their businesses in the people they interact with. “I'm a very belief-based person,” Bankhead says. “I think it'd be difficult to do the day-to-day if I didn't see how I'm helping toward my values, helping the company, or making the world a better place.”