Category Archives: Student Profiles

Student Profile: Ryan Lieberman – Co-Founder of Camp SPARK

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Student Profile: Ryan Lieberman – Co-Founder of Camp SPARK

Ryan Lieberman, a freshman in the program, started Camp SPARK, with his brother Blake, in the Summer of 2010. As a freshman in high school, Ryan knew he wanted to gain experience in operating a business. He decided to merge his passions for community service and athletics to create Camp SPARK. The camp has come a long way from the first session held in Ryan’s backyard. It is now available nationwide. Learn more about Camp SPARK and Ryan’s plans for the future as a BHP student.

What is Camp SPARK?

SPARK stands for Strong Powerful Athletic Rocking Kids. The camp is as much about sportsmanship as it is sports and it helps kids learn social skills in a way that they can easily connect with and understand, through sports and activities. At Camp SPARK, campers play games altered to the camp such as “Extreme Duck, Duck Goose.” Children ages 5–13 can participate in Camp SPARK. It’s a camp run by kids, for kids, because the set-up is unique in that it’s a business opportunity for high school students to start camps for younger kids.

How were you inspired to start the camp?

I’m very much an entrepreneurial-type of person. I love the idea of being my own boss and working for myself. So, the summer after my freshman year of high school I started thinking of ways that I could start my own business to gain experience being my own boss and familiarize myself with the processes involved in building a business.

I’ve always been passionate about community service and have been very active in Big Brothers Big Sisters. The bond I built with my “little” is a big part of what inspired me to reach out to children. I love the idea of directly influencing someone’s life and seeing change happen – knowing you were part of it. As for the idea of a camp, I went to summer camp all my life and just loved it. I knew opening a camp would be fun, something I could do well, and it would lead to a good experience.

The support of my parents was also influential. My dad is my biggest role model and he really encouraged me to do what I love and run the show.

How did you get the camp up and running?

The first summer, my parents were very supportive of what I was trying to accomplish and agreed to sponsor the start-up of Camp SPARK. The camp was run out of my backyard the first year. To get campers, my brother and I called and emailed over a hundred parents from our school directory and got 12 campers to enroll for the week. I didn’t make a lot of money the first summer, however I learned a lot of lessons.

The next summer I was a lot more organized and a much better marketer. I set up a Facebook page and sent out a video link to my email list. I also received a lot of good word of mouth promotion.  Participation almost tripled to 35 kids a day. I ran the camp twice as long and profited nearly $13,000. The next year, we created a website and increased marketing. A larger facility became a necessity. I negotiated a deal with my school and relocated the camp. It worked out really well. That’s about the time I realized that I had a reproducible business and that if I could do this, other people could too. I began looking for city partners to initiate Camp SPARK in their area. Not just in Texas, but nationwide. We opened a girls’ camp that summer and our first camp outside of Dallas with my cousin Zach in Austin and they both went really well.

The following year we put an ad on Facebook and everything really took off from there. Over the last four summers we have grown from a backyard camp into a nine-location business in five cities across the country (Dallas, Austin, San Francisco, Boston and Denver). Hundreds of kids are now Camp SPARK campers.  We have four boys’ camps, five girls’ camps, six city partners and employ over 60 people.  We have an accountant, a lawyer and an insurance agent. We have learned how to create really good systems and how to protect our business and ourselves.

Each camp is tailored to the location. For example, in San Francisco, the surrounding neighborhood has a lot of under-privileged kids, so that camp is corporate sponsored and doesn’t charge campers and places a special emphasis on reinforcing the importance of education. It’s important to know the community and the needs of that community so a difference can be made.

What does the future hold for Camp SPARK?

I hope Camp SPARK continues to be as successful as it has been. Now that I’ve started college, I still want to grow Camp SPARK and keep it as a source of income, but I’m looking for someone to take over my role of overseeing all of the operations. Starting and running the camp has been an amazing experience and now I’m ready to see what my next endeavor will be.

What does the future hold for you?

Running a sports camp has been a lot of fun and a great experience.  I plan to start more businesses and hopefully continue with sports-related work, but not necessarily in the camp setting. I know I ultimately want to be my own boss, so any experience I can continue to gain in operating businesses would definitely be of interest to me. My plan is to use what I am learning to pursue my next business ideas and also to help other kids start their own businesses.  One of the things I am excited about within the Business Honors program is the people in it.  I am going to have great classmates to learn and work with, and hopefully one day start businesses together with.

Student Spotlight – Doug Daniels, Class of 2013

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Student Spotlight – Doug Daniels, Class of 2013

BHP class of 2013 graduate Doug Daniels is taking a different path than most of our graduates. Doug was selected to receive a prestigious Fulbright research grant to conduct research at The University of Cologne in Germany. Doug will spend the next year researching Germany’s perception of risk and lending practices for Germany’s Mittelstand. We recently spoke with Doug to learn more about his planned research.

Where will you be and what will you be researching?

I will be researching how the recent financial crisis has affected Germany’s perception of risk and its lending practices for the Mittelstand – a  term used to refer to small and mid-sized German enterprises. Since the financial crisis, Germany has created new legislation that could restrict several Mittelstand companies from refinancing their loans with the original bank. My research will examine alternative refinancing options for these companies. I will conduct my research under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Monika Trapp at The University of Cologne in Germany where I will also be enrolled in finance and German courses to supplement my project.  I also plan to keep a blog to document my research progress and cultural experiences.

Why are you interested in researching this subject?

The research is an extension of my senior thesis, “Refinancing the German Maturity Wall.” McCombs students are able to receive credit for writing a thesis by enrolling in an independent research / study course.  My thesis was under the supervision of Sandy Leeds and was submitted as a part of my Fulbright application.

In the U.S., leveraged loans are priced and sold according to credit quality and institutional investors’ appetite. However, German loans are much more controlled by local banks which often hold the entire loan. New legislation in Germany has increased regulations for local banks which will restrict lending practices. Mittelstand companies need to refinance billions of dollars of loans and many will have to find new lenders.  I am interested in exploring potential international lending opportunities for the Mittelstand.

What was the process like to receive the Fulbright grant and how competitive was it?

Last summer, I interned for a specialty lending group that funded leveraged loans for private equity deals. While the bank made me an offer to start full time after graduation, I declined the offer to take a year to go to Germany and research. It was a difficult decision because I truly enjoyed my job but moving to Germany has always been a life goal of mine. To make the decision harder, I had to turn down the offer before I even started applying to grants for Germany. Luckily, the German government offers several different grants for foreign researchers.

I applied to three grant programs, each with its own application. UT has a very strong program for Fulbright. Applicants first apply through the University where a panel conducts an interview and critiques the research proposal. After the interview, applicants are assigned a mentor to help redraft their proposal. My mentor, Dr. Jane Lincove, was extremely helpful as I rewrote my proposal. Applications are then sent to the U.S. State Department who select finalist that are forwarded to the German Fulbright Commission in Berlin. The German Commission selects the final 80 grant recipients.  The most difficult part of the application is finding a German affiliation. All applications need to have the written support of a German university and professor. I sent my thesis to dozens of universities and ended up affiliating with The University of Cologne and Prof. Dr. Monika Trapp who specializes in credit research.

When did you find out you received the scholarship and what was your reaction to the news?

I submitted all of my applications in October but did not hear any response until the following April. It’s a very long and stressful wait, especially after turning down a full-time offer. I was very excited to receive multiple grants and ended up selecting Fulbright because it gave the most flexibility for my research.

What would you like to do once the grant has ended?

I plan to spend a year at The University of Cologne conducting my research. When I return, I hope to join the specialty lending group where I interned last summer. I believe that my research will provide an interesting perspective to my work.

I want to encourage other business students to apply for a Fulbright. It is a great opportunity to have a paid year abroad. The program lets undergraduates of any field study in any country. While the program is popular in the liberal arts college and engineering school, few business majors apply at UT.

 

For more information on Fulbright, please visit http://us.fulbrightonline.org/ or email Doug Daniels at DougDaniels@utexas.edu.

Student Profile: Jed Cole and Phillip Niels – Owners of Cole Niels & Co.

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BHP seniors Jed Cole and Phillip Niels started their own custom apparel business, Cole Niels & Co., together in 2011, and have printed close to 50,000 shirts since then and continue to bring on new customers. There were some bumps along the way, but their business has expanded significantly since that time and so has their knowledge of what it takes to run your own business. Jed will go to McKinsey after graduation and Phillip has one more year in the MPA program, but both plan to continue growing Cole Niels & Co. We sat down with them to learn more about the challenges they faced and the lessons they learned.

What is Cole Niels & Co.’s niche?

Phillip: We have positioned ourselves to serve student organizations, fraternities and sororities. They could get the same deliverable from other vendors, but our service is unique and valuable.

Jed: Leadership in student organizations and Greek organizations turns over each year. Our value proposition is that the new person coming in to handle orders won’t have to start from scratch. We tell each girl from the beginning that they can be as creative as possible, and we will take care of everything else. Because we know what they need from their previous orders and have a very high level of service, it is very easy on them to hit the ground running.

How did the idea for this come about? Had you always been interested in starting your own business?

Phillip: BHP brought the two of us together. We both had talked about wanting to start a business. We were on a train in Scotland, studying abroad the summer after our sophomore year, and that is when we really started talking about the business and how it could work. I had familial ties to screen printing shops and there was clear need, so it made sense. Jed got us our first client that August to do a print job for OU weekend.

Tell me more about how you got the business off the ground.

Jed: I called a girl I knew who was the apparel chair for her sorority and asked if we could lighten the burden on her by making their shirts and she agreed to let us do their OU shirts. On our first order we made some mistakes with trademark issues and therefore didn’t get to print all of the items. We learned a valuable lesson with that order to promise less and deliver more. From there I started connecting with other sorority apparel chairs and asking if we could work with them. The first quarter we had only worked with two sororities, but by the end of our first year of business, we were serving more than 10 groups, including fraternities and other student orgs.

Phillip: The business is very seasonal, so in the fall it is a bit slower, but by that spring we had a lot of orders. We have grown pretty drastically.

How did your coursework and BHP community help you in starting the business?

Phillip: Being in BHP, you are surrounded by natural entrepreneurs. The coursework along with the social aspect of it was inspiring. We have learned to be analytical and thoughtful in our decisions.

Jed: We started it in our junior year, so we had built a lot of the skills we needed in our classes. It felt very natural and comfortable to us.

Phillip: We also had to learn a lot along the way about how to start a business – things we hadn’t learned in a classroom. We had family and professors support us and offer advice.

What advice do you have for other students wanting to start a business while also managing school and other commitments?

Phillip: My attitude is that although as a student you will spend a lot of time in class, if you manage your time properly, you can accomplish pretty much anything. We did a lot of planning, and kept each other accountable. It is also crucial to be flexible. I think any student in BHP can accomplish whatever they set out to do, if they really set their mind to it, stay disciplined, and are passionate.

Jed: One of my favorite quotes is “don’t let school interfere with your education,” said by Mark Twain. I think that is very applicable. Starting our business has been an education in its own right. I think it is really fun and exciting and it is great working with a friend. It is like the greatest group project ever.

What were and are the biggest challenges you faced?

Jed: Being able to balance the line between friendships and customers. Our business revolves around the fact that we are friends with our clients and when something doesn’t go right, it is more personal because we feel like we have disappointed our friends. It makes it harder to leave work at work and not take it home with you.

Phillip: Being an entrepreneur, there is never a moment of the day when my work is not on my mind. I am always thinking about what needs to be done next for the business, so that has made it a bit harder for me to manage my time and give time to other projects and organizations.

How do you plan to keep the business growing after you graduate and leave campus?

Jed: Phil is MPA so he will be on campus another year. I will have to take on more of a supportive role since I will be in Dallas. We are going to try to bring a sophomore BHP student into the business next year to keep it going  while we can help facilitate forming relationships with the new apparel chairs before we leave. We hope to then pass off some of the workload to them once Phil graduates. We will always want to be involved, even when we move to other cities.

Phillip: We have done a good job of streamlining our process, so I think we can pass that on pretty easily. With our oversight, I think we will continue to grow and refine our services.

When you reflect upon your time in the BHP and on the 40 Acres, what do you think will stand out most to you?

Phillip: I was so excited when I got in to the program, but didn’t really know what it was going to mean to me. Now, I feel very fortunate to have been in the BHP and received such a strong education. I don’t think we would be where we are with the business without BHP. We are used to doing things at a high level. More than anything, the friendships will stand out along with having created a business that is successful. It is fun walking around campus and seeing everyone wearing a shirt that you helped make. We have made more than 50,000 shirts now.

Jed: It has been fun to start a business that meshes so many of our interests. We have gotten to meet so many new people, make new friends, and help organizations. It is the same thing we are doing in other orgs we are involved in, but it is also a business. It is also fun to see people happy when they receive their orders.

What are you most looking forward to about this new phase of your life?

Phillip: I am excited about starting another business in the future that is bigger, but also merges my interests like this one did.

Jed: We are both going to see what it is like to work for large businesses. I am going to Mckinsey and Phillip is interning at Bain this summer. I am excited to get back together after we have worked in this new big business environment and look at starting a business through a new lens. I think we would both like to start another business together again in the future. I never imagined that I would have a business capable of putting me through college and so it’s exciting to think of how high the ceiling can be 4 years from now as we expand our horizon’s and ambition’s.

Student Spotlight: Jeff Stevens – Senior BHP and Finance Major

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Student Spotlight: Jeff Stevens – Senior BHP and Finance Major

Senior Jeff Stevens was recently honored with the Barbara Jordan Business Leadership Award, the BBA/MPA Alumni Advisory Board’s Rising Star Award, and the BHP’s top honor, the Doenges Award. What has set Jeff apart this year is not only his stellar leadership, service and academic accomplishments, but also the fact that he stepped up and took on several additional service and leadership positions in his senior year. During a time when most seniors take a step back, Jeff kept pushing himself to give more and have more of an impact before graduating. This year he lead the BBA Legacy campaign, headed marketing for the BHP Make-a-Mark campaign, served as a BHP recruiter, joined the Financial Analyst Program Advisory Board, and coordinated the BHP senior newsletter. We visited with Jeff to get some final thoughts on his time here before he leaves.

You have said that being a recruiter for the BHP was your favorite thing you did. Why?

Yes, there are two things that stick out to me about the experience. Being a recruiter has really made me feel like I am giving back to a program that gave me so much. I like to recruit the type of students who are going to make this program and the value of my degree even better. I also like interacting with the students. It gets me excited about school and has helped me push through all I do for my classes and extracurricular activities. In order to recruit the best students, I have to be on top of my game too. In order to sell BHP to them, I have to be able to tell them what I love about the program and all of the things I am doing.

How did you find your path of which organizations to be involved in?

I was drawn towards the people in the Undergraduate Business Council from the start. That was the vehicle through which I got involved in a lot more at McCombs. I had to pick and choose what was most meaningful and which I could give back to the most. I got involved in things my mentors were involved in. Michael Daehne and Bhargav Srinivasan were probably my greatest mentors in terms of how to be a leader and connect with people and how to choose which organizations to get involved in. My work this year on the Legacy campaign was motivating and I felt I could really make an impact on that campaign and improve it. I had a wide range of experiences at UT, which helped me explain to people why giving back to McCombs is important. A lot of the success of this year’s campaign was due to the strength of the committee and their network. We hit 28% participation, which was more than double the rate of any past campaign.

What lessons have you learned from all of the leadership positions you held? Were there any common themes?

I have always been good at managing tasks and getting things done, but I learned how to better manage people. Leading by example is very important, especially when interacting with underclassmen. I never approached them with the idea of me mentoring them, but I found that if I was open to learning from them and was open to answering any questions they had, that sort of mentorship relationship naturally progressed. I think it is important to always been kind to people and take time out of your day to develop relationships, and not just constantly ask people to do things.

What will you remember most when you look back on your time at UT?

Being a part of the VIP Distinguished Speaker series was amazing. I got to hear from C-level executives, including Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo. I learned so much from them. I have also really enjoyed being involved in Make a Mark and reconnecting with all of my classmates who I haven’t had classes with in a while. Going to the football games is great and I have also enjoyed checking out the Austin food scene.

What are you most proud of and why?

I am most proud of the relationships I have built with not only those in my class, but also underclassmen. I have really enjoyed the mutual opportunities for learning from these relationships. Being a cheerleader for other’s success is so much more rewarding than just being successful yourself. I really enjoy helping people succeed and again, I think that is part of why I enjoyed being a BHP recruiter and helping students see how BHP can help them accomplish their goals.

If you could go back and give advice to yourself as a freshman, what would you say?

I would say not to give up anything that you are passionate about.  I was really passionate about band and music in high school and that is my greatest college regret that I didn’t pursue it further once I got here. I probably would have joined Longhorn Band if I had it to do over again.

What are you going to be doing after graduation?

I will be working for Exxon Mobil in Houston. My role is yet to be determined there, but I did my internship there last summer in their Internal Audit Division and really liked it. I feel confident in saying that I will stay with the company for many years. I hope that will afford me the opportunity to live and work in other countries. The travelling and study abroad experiences I did in college really opened my eyes and I would like to continue to broaden my world view and experience how business is conducted in other countries. I am actually going to be travelling this summer before I start my job and will be doing an internship in Shanghai, China. I found a program through the UT International Office and decided it would be a great opportunity. I will be working for an energy think tank, the China Energy Fund, doing research about the energy needs of China. That research will then be passed on to oil and gas companies operating in China. I am excited to start a new phase in my professional and personal life, but am also looking forward to staying connected to UT through my involvement with the BBA/MPA Alumni Advisory Board.

 

Student Spotlight: Jay Shah – Texas 4000 Rider

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Junior Jay Shah is majoring in BHP, Finance and Computer Science. Much of his time this year has been devoted to being a member of the Texas 4000 team. He will be one of about 70 students to ride from Austin to Alaska this summer to raise money and awareness for cancer research. We sat down with Jay to find out more about him and his experience so far with Texas 4000. You can read more about Jay on his blog at jayshah.me.

What have you enjoyed most about being in the BHP?

I come from a small high school, TAMS, and was used to having a close-knit community and it has been nice to have that experience again in the BHP. I transferred in my sophomore year. I really wanted to be a part of BHP and take advantage of the small class sizes and great community. BHP students are eclectic and high-caliber. It is refreshing to be around people that are so driven.

You are also a computer science major. How do your degree plans complement each other and what do you plan to do after graduation?

Both degrees challenge me in different ways and the culture of both majors is very different. I feel like I am having a very holistic experience doing both majors. In computer science, everyone is very focused just on that, but in business, there is a lot more career diversity. In computer science you are thinking very logically and technically, but it is not strategy like it is in business with the cases we work on. Computer science is almost all theory. After graduation I would like to go into consulting or tech management.

Tell me about Loku, the start-up that you are involved in?

Loku is a website and a mobile app. Their moto is helping you live local and they aim to connect people with every local aspect of their community. It was started by a BHP alumnus and I heard about them my freshman year. They reached out to me and asked me to help them with their business development. I ran the sales team for a month, helped with user acquisition strategies, helped with the PR and social media, and much more. Being at a start-up you get to wear multiple hats. I learned so much that summer – from management to sales, to marketing, and even some engineering.

What is the Texas 4000 for Cancer and why did you get involved in it?

It is a group of about 70 students who bike from Austin to Alaska to raise money and awareness for cancer. We ride for 70 days, for a total of 4,500 miles. All proceeds go to cancer research at MD Anderson, and last year they raised $350,000. The non-profit has raised around $4 million since its inception in 2004. I really wanted to do something outside of the business school and learn more about non-profits. Leadership is stressed at McCombs, but this program has helped me learn how to really connect with people and be a better leader. The people in Texas 4000 have different ways of thinking, yet we all do it for a common cause. I think the program has helped me learn how to motivate people and connect with people on an emotional level.

What is your role in it this year and what are your personal goals related to it?

I am on the program committee, so I am the program lead. We host programs in every city we stop at along the way. We share information about why we are riding, cancer statistics, and encourage people in the local community to get cancer screenings. I am in charge of that programming. I train our riders on how to connect with people when presenting and be memorable. If more people get screened earlier and donate to the cause after hearing the program, I will feel we have been successful.

Every rider is required to raise a dollar for every mile we ride ($4,500), so we have all been reaching out to our friends, families and communities. Riders in the past have raised as much as $20,000. I would love for anyone who wants to donate to the cause to help support us. No amount is too small. Every day we share stories about how cancer has affected people, so people who donate whose life was impacted by cancer can let me know and I will share that with the group. My donation site is Bit.ly/donatetojay.

You have participated in multiple case competitions during your time here. Why do you enjoy doing them?

Case competitions are great because you get the chance to apply what you learn in the classroom to real life examples. It isn’t just about how strong of a solution you have, it is also about how well you can convey your ideas and how strong of a speaker you are. It is also a great creative outlet, where you can take what you learn and find new ways to apply that information to solve problems. I find it interesting to learn how companies critique ideas to help prepare for the workplace. Judges will ask certain questions that you never really thought about. It is also a great way to work with a team and learn more about your personal strengths and weaknesses.