Earlier this week Tacoma entrepreneur and business-man Derek Young came to class to talk about his experiences in creating start-ups and running companies. Young started out as a Biology major who had independent interests in technology and coding, something he pursued and learned on his own aside from his biology degree. After working at REI for 10 years, Young produced software which slowly started to become popular, inciting him to start up his company, and left REI after obtaining his MBA in biology, showing "no fear in his endeavor".
Throughout the years Young has started and closed many companies, claiming that he likes to try out things to see if it works out, and if they don't he can always get back on his feet. Young reclaims that he enjoyed his time living and working in London, mentioning that the constant flights back-and-forth had been very exhausting and decided it'd be the best move for him and his significant-other. The companies that Young would start would often be smaller companies working for another company, which in turn would also have an even smaller company working for his small company. Young believes that creating things: "is awesome", he often creates programs catered for his own personal use, that are often seen as useful and/or benefit many others, some even making the demands that motivate the supply for such products, and towards creating another startup.
Young had many good advice to give to the classroom, commenting that "Companies grow well with a variety in management. Fresh, new minds can benefit a company more than that of the old founders,...running businesses is always something that have mistakes and always growing from these mistakes." Currently, Mr. Young has a handful of companies he works at/on/ is a partner of, these include:
http://www.tacomarunners.com/
http://www.seasonalview.com/
http://www.exit133.com/
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