Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/63444
NEW VENTURES What do an invasive plant control specialist, an investment broker, a computer consult- ant, a software provider, a product devel- oper, and an owner of an organic cof- fee shop have in common? All are young entrepreneurs ready to take on just about anything to make their busi- nesses work. And although their cho- sen professions are diverse, all point to the same prerequisites for success: Follow your passion, ignore the naysay- ers, and above all, don't give up. Get Fresh! Chantelle Ludski MBA '00, London Business School fresh! London, England not the kind of startup that got noticed, especially in 1999. "Here I was trying to start a business at a time when peo- It's taken "sheer bloody-minded- ness" to keep Chantelle Ludski on track to her goals for fresh!, her organic coffee shop and wholesale organic food operation in London. After all, a business that promoted organic foods in the marketplace was and, instead, struck out on their own. Much of what they have learned since they started their startups they didn't learn in business school, they say. But what they did learn at school about the nature of running a business was crucial to their success. preneurs took them to business school before taking them to the bank for business loans. Entrepreneurship does not require a busi- ness degree, they point out—but it can help a business owner avoid some of the pitfalls of running a business. Meet Chantelle Ludski, Steve Manning, Jim Kucher, Angel Chi, Eric Valenzuela, and Mattias Starck, six entrepreneurs who eschewed traditional corporate employment The respective paths of each of these entre- ple only wanted to give money to the dot-coms, and I was telling them I wanted to sell organic coffee and sandwiches. That didn't always appeal to them." Originally an attorney from Cape Town, South Africa, Ludski came to London in 1992 to obtain international expe- rience in corporate law. She worked as corporate counsel for a company in the food and drink sector. Because of her love of the food business, however, she started her first restaurant with a partner in 1995. Soon after, she decided to earn her MBA. While at business school, she quickly realized that there was no coffee shop on campus, in spite of an obvious demand for the beverage. As a result, she decided to open one herself, with a twist. The shop would sell only organically grown cof- fee and other edibles. "I had been an organic consumer for years," explains Ludski. "It just grew from there." Although she knew that her business plan had to focus on ry of media attention, from a front-page feature in the Sunday Times to an article in The Observer. "I was doing a so-called 'old-economy' business at the height of dot-com BizEd MAY/JUNE 2002 organics in some way, not everyone thought her idea was a winner. "People told me that organics would not be enough, or they told me not to focus on organics at all," she says. "But I think you just have to stick to your guns; otherwise, you end up doing something so far from what you originally envisaged, there's no point in doing it at all." Since the cafe opened its doors, fresh! has garnered a flur- 27