I know that entrepreneurs can be anyone from the owners of mom-and-pop stores to the developer of an app, but my first notable exposure to entrepreneurship was meeting the founder and CEO of Study Edge, Ethan Fieldman. He came to tell his story at meeting in the Leadership Development Program during my freshmen year of college.
For those of you who may not know, Study Edge is a tutoring service that creates video tutorials and other online learning supplements for over 50,000 University of Florida students. Ethan Fieldman came to talk about his college journey that led to the its creation. It began when Ethan blew quickly blew through all his scholarship money at the infamous midtown. Out of a need to pay the bills and the realization that people enjoyed listening to him tutor, he advertised a review session for Managerial Accounting and made payment optional. Astonished at the number of people that showed up and the number of people willing to pay, he continued to hold tutoring sessions and it soon took off.
Hearing Ethan’s story was inspirational. He hit an all-time low when he spent all his scholarship and was able to make a come-back by identifying an unmet need. This reiterates the point that being an entrepreneur doesn’t always mean doing something grand or new.
I joined this class to learn more about what the process of entrepreneurship is and what defines an entrepreneur. Does a new idea create an entrepreneur? An improved idea? So far, I have learned that recognizing an opportunity is the first step in being entrepreneurial. But beyond that, I was forced to think of opportunities myself (such as how to improve parking at UF, or how to get all online lectures to have closed captioning). Moreover, I have never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur or an innovator because I was under the impression that it takes many resources (including lots of money and time). It is only week three of the class and I have already learned that this is not always the case. In fact, learning that most start-ups only begin with 10k in funding was eye-opening.
In addition to learning about and applying the entrepreneurial process, I am excited to read books from the class reading list. I have read similar books including “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time,” and usually enjoy classes that force me to allot some reading time.
For those of you who may not know, Study Edge is a tutoring service that creates video tutorials and other online learning supplements for over 50,000 University of Florida students. Ethan Fieldman came to talk about his college journey that led to the its creation. It began when Ethan blew quickly blew through all his scholarship money at the infamous midtown. Out of a need to pay the bills and the realization that people enjoyed listening to him tutor, he advertised a review session for Managerial Accounting and made payment optional. Astonished at the number of people that showed up and the number of people willing to pay, he continued to hold tutoring sessions and it soon took off.
Hearing Ethan’s story was inspirational. He hit an all-time low when he spent all his scholarship and was able to make a come-back by identifying an unmet need. This reiterates the point that being an entrepreneur doesn’t always mean doing something grand or new.
Pictured: Ethan Fieldman at the Gator100 Awards
Why am I in ENT3003:
I joined this class to learn more about what the process of entrepreneurship is and what defines an entrepreneur. Does a new idea create an entrepreneur? An improved idea? So far, I have learned that recognizing an opportunity is the first step in being entrepreneurial. But beyond that, I was forced to think of opportunities myself (such as how to improve parking at UF, or how to get all online lectures to have closed captioning). Moreover, I have never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur or an innovator because I was under the impression that it takes many resources (including lots of money and time). It is only week three of the class and I have already learned that this is not always the case. In fact, learning that most start-ups only begin with 10k in funding was eye-opening.
In addition to learning about and applying the entrepreneurial process, I am excited to read books from the class reading list. I have read similar books including “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time,” and usually enjoy classes that force me to allot some reading time.
Iswarya,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the premise of this post because I am also inspired by Ethan Fieldman! Study Edge is truly a resource that I have personally trusted and relied on for multiple classes. I agree with your statement stating that being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean you need to invent something big and grand, but rather something that fills the gap of the consumer’s needs. I too am excited to read books from the class list and enjoy the topics they discuss. Great work!
Iswarya, I never knew of Ethan Fieldman until now! I can see why one would be inspired by him to become an entrepreneur. It's easy to blow all your money, despite needing to eat and pay bills. It's that spirit to utilize your skills to start something new that makes you an entrepreneur. I was shocked too when I learned that most start ups only have 10k. I'm also interested in reading the books off the list, since I know they'll give me good insight into the minds of other people who saw opportunities. I hope you enjoy the class and get lots out of it!
ReplyDeleteIswarya, I’ve never heard Ethan Fieldmans story before and found it very interesting. He seems to be a great example of someone who didn’t just have a good idea but found something people needed. I can imagine the difficulty in starting something that hasn’t been done or finding ways to do it better in as saturated of a market as Gainesville. I hope this class proves valuable to you.
ReplyDeleteHi Iswarya,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post! I have used Study Edge for multiple courses and I have always been curious about how the company came to be. Hearing Ethan Fieldman talk about his business journey must have been a great experience! I also joined this class in order to learn more about what it means to be an entrepreneur. Like you mentioned, I am also looking forward to reading some of books for this course.