HULT NEWS
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Jessica Jackley Live at Hult
Boston, February 2013
“ Loans that change lives”
The Hult Executive Speaker Series welcomes innovative, entrepreneurial changemakers
from the world of business, politics, and charity to inspire and motivate the Hult
community at our five global campuses.
It is with great pleasure that we invite members of Hult alumni to join us at these
inspiring on-campus events. Don’t miss out on your chance to attend check out hult.
edu/en/events/2013 for all the latest details on Hult events.
Former inspirational speakers include: 42nd President of the U.S. Bill
Clinton; Biz Stone, Twitter Co-founder; Wikipedia Co-founder, Jimmy
Wales; Co-founder of Innocent Drinks, Richard Reed; Forbes Chairman,
Steve Forbes; and former CEO, Apple Inc. and former CEO, Pepsi Co.
John Sculley.
Watch the Teach-off for The Economist’s
Business Professor of the Year Award
Hult is supporting The Economist in its USD 100,000-hunt
for the Business Professor of the Year. The award aims to
recognize and reward the professors that have challenged,
influenced, and inspired business students. An expert panel
of judges from around the world will select a shortlist of four
professors to compete in a live teach-off in London where
students and alumni will vote to determine the winner.
The full list of professors can be found at www.
businessprofessoraward.com and the shortlist will be
announced on February 4th. If you’re interested in viewing the
live broadcast of the teach-off on March 14th, you can preregister by contacting: [email protected]
08
BUSINESS PROFESSOR
OF THE YEAR AWARD
The only global contest
to recognise and reward
excellence in business teaching
The Wrong Starbucks, the Right Start
Kenji Yamamura, Master of Finance Class of 2011, MBA Class of 2012, and
Founder of Pashadelic, talks about how his time at Hult and a trip to Seattle
helped spur him on to set up his own business.
Tell us a little about your highs and lows as an
entrepreneur.
Highs: Everything that you have done will come right back
to you.
Lows: I was a victim of fraud and lost about USD one million. When you’re doing business you may hear some sweet
whispers from others. But you shouldn’t venture beyond your
core business even if it seems like you will make a profit.
What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned since
becoming an entrepreneur?
Don’t forget your initial business idea. While developing the
app, I went in the wrong direction. But actually that was the
point. These challenges are the barriers that other people and
companies are facing. If you can overcome the challenges
it means that you are doing something different from the
others. Convenience for a company is inconvenience for a
customer.
I came up with the idea on a trip to Seattle. I really
wanted to take a photo of the first-ever Starbucks store,
to prove that I had visited the birthplace of this worldfamous brand. I took a photo of what I thought was the
original sign outside the original store and was about to
head back home when I noticed the next day that
all the other tourists were taking photos of a different sign just a few hundred meters away.
I had taken a photo of the wrong sign! Imagine the embarrassment if I had posted
the wrong photo on Facebook and the
response of all my Seattle-based friends.
Tell us more about your current start-up.
I was then thinking about how I
would have felt had I visited somewhere in the world that I may only have
the chance to visit once in my lifetime,
and I took pictures of the wrong famous
sites. Over 80% of travelers take a photo
during their travels. Everybody researches in
advance their hotel, restaurant, and places to
visit but they don’t always do the same for their
holiday photos. Sometimes it is incredibly tricky
to find the perfect shot. Most of the time, local
photography fans know the best place to shoot
photos, but tourists are not aware. So, that’s
why I started Pashadelic; so that photography
fans can exchange tips.
I wouldn’t have come up with the idea for my business, Pashadelic, if I hadn’t come to Hult. Everything started at Hult
as Hult inspired me to start my own international business.
If you could give one piece of advice to
aspiring ent ɕ