Balancing Entrepreneurship and Education

Transcript

We’re now heading over to Canyon Ventures, a business startup incubation center here on campus, and we’re gonna meet up with Weston Smith. His undergraduate degree was in Mechanical Engineering, and now he’s an MBA student with an amazing startup business story. And he’s gonna speak about balancing entrepreneurship and education here at GCU. Hey, Weston, how are you, my man?

– I came to Grand Canyon University because I wanted to attend affordable Christian university that had a vibrant community, and also offered an engineering program. And it’s been transformative to be a part of a school that has such a strong entrepreneurial focus. A university where the gap between business and engineering is bridged, where a student entrepreneur like me could come with an idea and launch it into a full-scale business. I came to GCU to study mechanical engineering because there’re extensive machine shop in engineering labs. Academics were rigorous, but they had one encompassing idea. GCU wanted to prepare us to be problem solvers, and use our education to better people’s quality of life, and that’s what led me to launch Lux Longboards. Coming into my freshman year of college, I was immediately faced with the issue of transportation on campus. On my sophomore year of college, I actually purchased electric longboard on a whim, and this immediately transformed my college experience. I could get around campus anywhere within five minutes versus spending up to 30 minutes a day walking. After having students continually stop me on campus to demo my electric longboard, my entrepreneurial instincts kicked in to solve their problem, which was commuting on campus. My sophomore year, I launched Lux Longboard Rentals LLC with the help of Professor Tim Kelley. At that time, I was taking a class taught by him that combined engineering with entrepreneurism. My mission was to save students time through electric longboard rentals. So I created a self-sustaining electric longboard rack that I designed in the engineering labs, and then I welded in the engineering machine shops. This led me to begin developing my own product line. We pivoted from longboard rentals and began electric longboard manufacturing. Our headquarters, unlike manufacturing spaces, is located here in GCU’s Canyon Ventures, a premiere innovation incubation hub. Is it a unique space? It is home to almost 30 ventures, where students can come and get real work experience with entrepreneurs like me. at Canyon Ventures, I get a plethora of consulting and mentorship that helps me grow my business. The support from the staff, faculty and leadership, it has helped me. As a young entrepreneur, has been overwhelming. It has helped me grow this idea and solution into a full-blown business. GCU’s innovative approach to bridging the gap between business and engineering continues to be a game changer for me. I am living proof that a good idea, a hard work ethic, and leaning into the resources provided by GCU can lead to success as a student entrepreneur. Lux Longboards is a product of amazing entrepreneurs, and taught here at GCU. And I know that if you have an idea or a small business, it will flourish here at GCU because this college is built for young entrepreneurs. Back to you, Alex.

– Weston, what an unbelievable story. Starting a company from scratch is so tough. And seeing how GCU came in behind and helped you build this into a full fledged company is absolutely spectacular. Thank you for sharing that. By the way, I’m buying one of those skateboards. Cheers, Weston.