Founder/CEO of Custom Merchandise Company

In my senior year in high school, I took a class called Applied Entrepreneurship. Menlo School, situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, created this course to give students the opportunity learn about the exciting world of entrepreneurship through hands-on experiences and featuring relevant guest speakers.

The capstone project was to create our own business venture selling Menlo-branded merchandise. In our previous assignment to give an elevator pitch on yourself, mine was voted best in the class so I got the first pick to select my 2 partners for the company.

When brainstorming potential products, I observed that every other group went with a typical approach of using a customized apparel and accessories company like CustomInk to manufacture and ship their products. Recognizing the global supply chain disruption due in large part to Covid-19 at the time, I proposed a Lean Business Model designed to minimize manufacturing costs and downtime waiting for inventory while maximizing our profit. My teammates agreed and we created our company.

Our business, Menlo Makes, sold customizable accessories like ornaments, coasters, magnets, and more. We create all of our products in-house, to-order using a readily available 3d printer and laser cutter (at the school lab) that I already had experience with. We partnered with the official Menlo School Campus Store to sell and distribute our products on their online site and storefront on campus, thus saving us the expenses and logistics of running our own e-commerce site and distribution service.

This is our company slide deck that we pitched to our professor to get the business approved as well as to the school Business Office for the campus store partnership.

While this business proposal was approved, we ran into issues with the customizable feature of our product. We pivoted to focusing on selling standard designs and only doing custom for bulk orders. Since the holiday season was approaching, our products were designed to be ideal decorations and gifts.

Our timing and optimal marketing provided a strong, consistent stream of sales for the course of the project. While we did run into major issues, such as both our 3D printer and laser cutter breaking, our thoughtful business model and company organization helped us stay on a highly successful track.

By the deadline of sales for the companies, our net profit of $2,000 was more than the rest of the teams combined. I attribute this achievement to multiple factors. First, our choice to manufacture our products gave us a considerable advantage on lead time (48 hours from order to delivery) and profit margins (average of 90%). Second, the partnership with the official Menlo Campus Store allowed us to utilize their platform for marketing and transaction management as well as order fulfillment. Third, thoughtful planning and decision-making enabled us to only spent a total of $120 on materials and any other assets.

Over the course of this business venture, I learned many invaluable skills relating to running/being part of a company. As the designer and manufacturer of our products, I learned the importance of timing. Whether it be relating to order fulfillment, equipment malfunctions or trends in sales, I always needed to have good time management. As CEO, it was my responsibility to make major, often difficult decisions, maintain clear communication between everyone involved, and ensure the company is on a successful trajectory.

This unique opportunity ignited my passion for entrepreneurship that I am continuing to engage with at Santa Clara University to pursue my goal of creating future ventures in my career.