How the U.'s Master of Business Creation is fostering scores of student-entrepreneurs

SALT LAKE CITY — Board Budder founder Erik Smith had planned to be a dentist — even claiming an undergraduate degree in biology.

But while going through the arduous dental school application process, Smith began making an eco-friendly, plant-based wax for skis and snowboards in his kitchen. It was a fun way to ease a bit of the application stress.

"I ended up having kind of an early midlife crisis, and I realized that I didn't want to be a dentist," Smith told the Deseret News, laughing.

Instead, Smith followed an impulse to venture into the never-boring-sometimes-scary world of entrepreneurship.

The Oakley, Summit County, native grew up snowboarding and skiing and started making plant-based ski wax as a hobby. But soon his product — which he dubbed Board Budder – was gaining traction in the snow sports industry.

Smith realized that his kitchen avocation was evolving into a full-fledged business, but he wasn't sure how to move forward. His formal training was in the natural sciences, not business. He realized quickly that he lacked fundamental understandings of finance, market strategies, marketing and sales promotion.

Smith had a product in hand. He knew there was a demand for his product. But he needed a boost to move Board Budder to a broader and, yes, profitable level.

Meanwhile, in another corner of Utah, Taby Davila was hustling to fill a market niche in an industry far removed from Smith's.

Davila creates fashion-forward clothing for women in inclusive sizing ranging from XS to 5X, exceeding what most clothing brands offer.

She had long been troubled by the limited variety of clothing options widely available to women of all body types. So in 2019, she opened Shop Taby — an online clothing store offering "empowering, nostalgic and comfy threads" for women of all sizes.

Founding Shop Taby, she said, "came out of a desire to belong and feel seen."

Davila was confident in her product — but, like Smith, she knew she needed outside support developing the financial models needed to track numbers, recognize trends and discover a business path that will help foster long-term success.

For both entrepreneurs — Smith and Davila — the community and training they were anxious for has been found in the Master of Business Creation, or MBC, program offered at the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business.

The MBC program: Anchored by mentorship, community

Introduced in 2019 as a first-of-its-kind program, the University of Utah's MBC program has become a launch pad for hundreds of local student-entrepreneurs like Smith and Davila who are committed to growing their startup companies.

Highlights of the MBC program — which is part of the university's entrepreneurship program, ranked among the top 10 in the nation — include one-on-one mentorship with veteran entrepreneurs from the community, an evolving curriculum and a community of fellow student-founders that doubles as a remedy for the often lonely world of starting a business.

The program's U.S. director, Paul Brown, calls the MBC program an "entrepreneur finishing school."

"It's really practical entrepreneurship at an operationally sophisticated level for people who have companies and want to build and grow them," he told the Deseret News.

Most of the graduate students enrolled in the university's MBC program are already operating real-world businesses. They just want a boost to build and grow. "That's what's special about this program, in terms of a value proposition," said Brown. "You get a top ranked master's degree. It's high value. It's very affordable. And it's very practical.

"We're not doing a bunch of cases like you would to get an MBA. We're actually making your business the case," he said.

Program lessons on, say, building financial models and marketing plans are applied directly to each student-founder's unique business.

Brown added that each MBC student's exposure to dozens of program-sponsored mentors — entrepreneurs, investors, finance professionals — is the "key differentiator" of the program. "Each of the entrepreneurs that comes into the MBC program gets paired with one of these people, and they meet multiple times per month."

Program mentors — including many who have multiple startups on their resumes — offer students personal perspective, thoughtful criticism and plenty of entrepreneurial common sense.

Those program "preceptors," added Brown, "are a huge part of our program."

Starting a business has traditionally been a lonesome venture — often happening in a founder's apartment, garage or backyard. But MBC students such as Smith and Davila say they have been fueled by the validating support of their fellow student-entrepreneurs.

The fancy term for such a community, said Brown, is "cohort-based learning." But it's really about being fully invested in the program alongside fellow business founders.

"In our program, there are no electives; no way to just dip your toe in," said Brown. "You're either in all the way with a cohort going through all the classes at the same time, or you're not in at all.

"This builds incredible camaraderie where the students are all going through this really intense and engaging program together, and they're constantly helping one another," Brown said.

Brown noted that the MBC program also offers its students "a deep network" to help with business-essential resources such as marketing services and public relations experts who can review company websites. Micro-grants are also available for students who need a few extra bucks to, say, develop a prototype or attend an industry conference.

The program can also help connect students with would-be investors.

A home for global student-founders

The University of Utah's MBC program is not a business incubator or a product development company. Brown estimates about 85% of the program's student-founders already own a business entity. Most have revenue and are already selling their product or service.

Instead, the MBC program is about helping student-founders develop, perhaps, those missing skills that might be keeping their business from flourishing.

The MBC student profile is as diverse as the students' businesses. There are participants in their early 20s — and others in their late 50s.

"We have historically done really well with female entrepreneurs," said Brown. "It varies a bit from cohort to cohort, but we've historically had about 45% female entrepreneurs, which is way above what you'd see in other analogous programs."

Utah's MBC program is also committed to assisting promising entrepreneurs far beyond the borders of the Beehive State.

Last October, the program introduced its MBC Global option for founders living in other countries. The global option enrolled its first 20 founders from Africa starting in the fall 2024 semester.

"We are working quickly to expand the MBC Global option to every continent," said Jeff Davis, director of the MBC Global program and a professor in the marketing department at the Eccles School, in a school release.

"We want entrepreneurs everywhere to have the opportunity to participate in this unmatched program for working entrepreneurs. Within a couple years, we expect to have founders from every corner of the world participating," Davis said.

While residents in the U.S. can enroll in two formats of the MBC program — a flexible, three-semester format or an in-person, full-time, two semester option — the MBC Global option is offered online. International founders join a cohort with other entrepreneurs from their region.

'The power of the cohort'

Smith founded a business specializing in plant-based snowboard and ski wax. His classmate Davila is utilizing her fashion savvy to design and sell clothing to women of all body types.

The two are operating entirely different companies for entirely different markets — but both say they could not have survived without the lessons and support provided by the University of Utah's MBC program.

Without the MBC program, said Smith, "I don't think Board Budder would exist, at least not full time ... the MBC was one of the best decisions I've ever made."

Davila, meanwhile, said participating in the MBC has required sacrifice. She's a Provo resident, which means long, frequent commutes to the Salt Lake City campus. And there never seems to be enough time in the day (or late nights) to manage a startup business.

But enrolling in the MBC program "is one of the best things I think I've done up until this point in my life," Davila said. "Just being in the room with so many like-minded people — it's the power of the cohort."

Related topics