Class of 2017: Entrepreneurs revolutionize business education
When Jake Hurwitz and Nathan Moses met, neither predicted they’d wind up as business partners.
Both are students about to graduate from CU Boulder, but in almost every other way they couldn’t be more different.
Hurwitz is a fast-talking East Coast transplant earning a bachelor’s degree in strategy and entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business. Moses is an easygoing student from Idaho, majoring in critical media practices in the College of Media, Communication and Information.
The two met when Hurwitz hired Moses to do videography for an agency Hurwitz created.
"He came in and just started crushing it over the summer—totally showed that he could handle a lot more than just being a videographer intern," Hurwitz says.
Eventually, the two teamed up on Eyesight Collective, an online video series aimed at helping student entrepreneurs gain business skills by learning from industry leaders.
"We identified that throughout this country there are millions of kids that truly struggle with talking to adults, talking to business people and actually progressing their business careers," Hurwitz says.
As a sophomore at CU Boulder, Hurwitz had already began running his own agency. This meant that, despite the fact he was still an undergraduate student himself, Hurwitz identified mostly with local business owners frustrated by students’ lack of communication and basic business skills. Moses, however, noticed the same problem from the perspective of a skilled student lacking business training.
The solution required the pair’s unique set of talents. As the company’s chief executive officer, Hurwitz flexes his business sense and networking skills. Contacts he gained as a Leeds Scholar have proved especially useful, he says.
Moses, the chief creative officer, handles the website’s content, directs video shoots and handles most of the editing.
"We’re perfectly complementary," Hurwitz says. "If we were perfectly the same, what’s the point in having two of us?"
As two full-time students starting a business, the partners agree one of the most important skills they’ve learned is time management. Networking and learning from new people is the other activity the pair say future student entrepreneurs should pursue.
After graduation, Moses and Hurwitz plan to make Eyesight Collective a full-time venture. They’ve already had success with the company—which was voted one of the top startups to watch in 2016 and 2017 by Built in Colorado—and they have far bigger goals for the future.
"It sounds silly, but we’re going after every single 18- to 24-year-old looking to get their career off the ground in the U.S. right now," Hurwitz says.
The duo hopes their own venture will help future students start successful businesses of their own.
"It’s getting kids out there and helping them meet the people that they need to meet to push their ventures forward," Moses said.