It is one thing to worry about school alone, but it is another to juggle school and run a business.
Recently, more and more BYU students are creating their own businesses while still in school. Students’ natural drive and ambition combined with a great idea sparks the perfect combination to launch a new business.
Logan Bird and J.D. Schoen are one team of student entrepreneurs at BYU. Bird is a sophomore from Columbus, Ohio, studying Latin American studies, and Schoen is a sophomore from Gilbert, Ariz., studying industrial design. The two met while serving LDS missions in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and have been inseparable ever since. They came up with the concept for their watch company, called Lyke Watch Company, while in Brazil.
“We found a watch concept that we thought was extremely cool,” Bird said. “It wasn’t something that we had seen before in United States and we’re both big fans of watches … we wanted to do it our own way.”
Their company, which they launched in September, features multi-colored plastic watch bands that customers can easily interchange depending on what they want to wear that day. While most the of their sales currently come from their website, the company has recently been selling their watches in local Utah stores such as Called to Surf, located in the Riverwoods.
According to Schoen, when the duo returned home from their missions, they researched how to manufacture the watches and how to start a business on their own, since neither had any previous experience.
“I would not trade [this experience] for the world,” Schoen said. “If the company sank and died right now, I’d be completely happy with what I’ve taken away from it.”
Brad Moss, a second-year MBA student from Salt Lake City, recently was named the Student Entrepreneur of the Year, an award presented by the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology in the Marriott School. In an email, Moss explained that his childhood love of video games inspired him to create a company. His company, called React Games, is a video game development studio. Moss said his company develops games for clients, including EA, Hasbro and Intel. The company’s platform is primarily focused on social media, including Facebook and mobile apps.
Being an entrepreneur has allowed Moss to express his passion and focus his thoughts on creating something worthwhile. He said his experiences from creating his own business has taught him a lot about himself and the business world in general. He hopes to apply what he learned in this endeavor to other projects in the future.
“I’d guess some of that success can be attributed to the fact when I dive into something new, I put my entire heart and soul into it to make sure it succeeds,” Moss said. “I love entrepreneurship because I love creating.”
