Startup Club encourages entrepreneurship at Carlmont as it offers a pathway for those interested in starting a business.
Club leaders teach different skills and ideas at their meetings, imparting entrepreneurial values and inspiring members to take action creatively to solve problems around them.
“Mainly by bringing in guest speakers, we have achieved great success,” said sophomore Raya Skaf, the club’s chief marketing officer.
Successful entrepreneurs come to meetings as guest speakers to talk about their business experience and advise ambitious students.
“It’s cool to listen to people talk about how they started their company, even if you’re not necessarily interested in starting a business,” said sophomore Nico Golomb, a Startup Club member.
While the prospect of guest speakers is intriguing and valuable, coordinating the speakers can be challenging.
“We try to use our connections,” Skaf said. “We also get together twice a month and send out a bunch of cold emails to try to find some guest speakers.”
On days without guest speakers, club officers teach different entrepreneurial skills or host activities to help improve other business-related attributes.
“Every week, we have new slides that depict something like marketing or how to find ideas,” Skaf said.
Startup Club leadership constantly works to improve the club for their members, spending much of their time brainstorming.
“In the beginning, me and a couple of officers spent around four hours discussing the club, often on calls late into the night,” said junior Leonard Jin, the founder of Startup Club.
Since its founding in the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, the club’s mission and purpose have shifted.
“I created Startup Club to get a group of like-minded individuals to start a business,” Jin said. “It was crazy when I started; we put up about 1000 posters in total.”
These posters were used as advertisement for the club’s meetings. Today, the club’s goal has shifted to helping students start their own businesses.
“Right now, I want to bring as much value to students as possible by inviting guest speakers. I want to encourage students to start their businesses in their own time,” Jin said.
Overall, the club provides a foundation for students in entrepreneurial skills and how to create a business.
Startup Club continues to help create the next generation of entrepreneurs and business founders.
“I love entrepreneurship. I believe anyone can come up with a good idea, and I want to help others find that passion,” Skaf said.
