Theresa Wilson, 21, Senior Communications Studies (from Cleveland) at Ohio University

Theresa Wilson, 21, a Senior Communication Studies major at Ohio University, drove four hours to attend StartUp Vikes. She originally found out about the event from the Monte Ahuja Twitter account. She didn’t know what to expect coming in as she was one of the few participants who did not have a business idea to pitch. She knew she wanted to go through the steps of starting a business and to hone her business skills.

“I really just looked at this as a weekend of learning and exploring,” she said.

Theresa struggled to pick a team Friday night as there were several that she was initially interested in.

“I utilized all the resources, and I wrote everything down, and asked a ton of questions,” she said.

She eventually chose a group that’s focused on empowering people to own their own homes with a rent to own model that has an amortization scale with decreased monthly payments.  She said she thought it was a good fit as she’s not as experienced with the financial aspect of business and she wanted to learn more about that area. She plans on staying in touch with her peers after the weekend is over so she can further explore ideas.

“I think it’s important to network with your peers and be collaborative. We all want to start a business so we should share our resources and our knowledge.”