As if entrepreneurship weren’t challenging enough, business owners in heavily regulated industries like gaming face even steeper hurdles.
That’s why the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School recently honored several intrepid student entrepreneurs during an event titled “Miami’s Vices: Meet Miami Herbert’s Student Founders.” Each of the panelists runs businesses in fields that receive ultra-stringent governmental scrutiny.
Miami’s Vices “was a really interesting affair, because there are not a lot of spaces where you get to talk about businesses that are a little bit less-known or, are a little bit less-endorsed,” said Mahyoub Yatak, a sophomore entrepreneurship major who owns three profitable smoke shops located in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
“I’m not a user of any smoke shop products,” said Yatak, 20, who employs 14 workers and was a business tech major before switching to entrepreneurship. “I just like business in general and saw an opportunity there, and was able to capitalize on it.”
Sharing the stage with Yatak was the founder of a peer-to-peer fantasy sports betting league; a hemp-derived drink containing THC; a tobacco company; and an app that ensures fair play inside poker clubs.
Each of the Miami Vices business owners participated in a Q&A session with associate professor of professional practice Susan Amat, who organized the event and is Miami Herbert’s director of entrepreneurial initiatives.
Christopher Ward, a junior finance major who’s minoring in entrepreneurship and accounting, is a co-founder of Iso Fantasy, a sports-betting app Ward started with five other university students attending other schools. “We all have strong statistical backgrounds that we apply to sports betting,” Ward, 21, said of his business cohorts.
Visitors to Iso Fantasy’s website can place bets ranging from $5 to $250 on the stats professional athletes will generate in hockey, basketball, football, and baseball, Ward said.
“Dr. Amat has been a great resource for me ever since I was a freshman,” noted Ward, who participated in Miami’s Vices via Zoom because he was studying abroad in Italy. “When she asked me to speak at Miami’s Vices, I thought it was a perfect fit, obviously. Over the years, Dr. Amat has really helped me with public speaking.”
Miami’s Vices panelist George Laopodis worked with University of Miami student Zan D’Agosta to create Crossed, a cannabis-infused soft drink that retails in Miami-Dade and Long Island, New York, where Laopodis grew up.
“If I hadn’t met Professor Amat, I don’t think that Crossed would even be a company,” said Laopodis, 22, a senior who’s majoring in finance and accounting, while D’Agosta, who’s also 22 and a senior, is a psychology major minoring in marketing and entrepreneurship. “I think without meeting professor Amat, I wouldn’t have met the right lawyers or made the right connections to get everything rolling,” Laopodis said.
“Now, Crossed is trademarked. Our slogan, ‘Courageously Calm,’ is trademarked, and we have all of our terms and conditions on our website properly done,” added Laopodis, who launched Crossed last year and doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke.
“It’s been a fun journey,” he said. “A tough one, too.”
