Where the Startup Spirit Leads Him

I am the CEO of the startup Spirit Shop, which allows students, parents, and alumni of K-through-12 programs in the U.S. to design their own school-branded, team, club, class, and event apparel and merchandise online, with no minimum orders. Our Web technology allows us to customize a Web site for every school in the U.S., and our exclusive production relationships let us ship single products the same day. Most important, 15% of the profit goes to the school that generates the sale.

When I finished an interesting but uninspiring summer consulting internship, I knew that there would be no better time to pursue my dream of entrepreneurship (see BW Online, 1/17/05, "Act II: A Biz of One's Own"). I wrote the business plan for this venture at the beginning of my second year at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University Michigan. The staff at the school's Zell-Lurie Entrepreneurial Institute spent hours helping me to refine the plan, presentation, and pitch. Then they sponsored me, along with a classmate, in MBA business plan competitions around the country.

ALWAYS LEARNING.  The day after graduation, as most of my classmates went on vacation, I launched Spirit Shop. To help me get started, the institute sponsored an MBA intern to help me find subsidized office space. The institute's financial support, through grants and awards, funded our initial activities, which allowed us to build the team, raise more money, build the web technology, define the product line, and sell schools on the idea.

Today we are four people strong. As the CEO, it is my responsibility to bring us to a point where the business consistently makes more money than it spends. I must generate a healthy return for my investors and provide the best working experience for the people who have entrusted me with their careers. To do that, I ask more questions than I answer.

My daily responsibilities include raising money, and managing the expectations, perceptions, and personalities of investors, board members, employees, vendors, and customers. Most of all, I try to provide everyone in the organization with the tools and awareness to be as effective and efficient as they can be.

Here is an example of a day in my life:

7:45 a.m. -- I bundle up for the short walk to work through the downtown streets of Ann Arbor, Mich. with my iPod to psych me up for the day's tasks and challenges.

8:00 a.m. -- I turn on the laptop and sync with last night's mid-sleep brainstorms that I typed into my phone. I address some of the shorter e-mails and create the day's to-do list...

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