Vassar Students, Faculty, Administrators and Alums Gather to Celebrate Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship can take many forms and lead to different career paths that are far from linear. But a grounding in the liberal arts ensures that founders are uniquely positioned to approach problem-solving with both creativity and conscience. That was the message from students, faculty, alums, and administrators from 13 colleges and universities who gathered for a two-day conference at the The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts on March 11 and 12.
The conference, titled ‘The Entrepreneurial Mind and the Liberal Arts,’ was hosted by Vassar’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program. Julian Aguilar ’23, who leads Vassar’s entrepreneurship program, pronounced the conference a success. “The goal was to understand this question of what it means to be a liberal arts entrepreneur and to do entrepreneurship the liberal arts way,” Aguilar said. “So to hear that other institutions are curious about how we do things here at Vassar, curious about our alums and their journeys and how they’ve gotten to where they are, was exciting.”
Throughout the event, those attending learned that entrepreneurship can take many forms. Keynote speaker Elisa Strauss ’98, renowned cake designer, author, and founder of Confetti Cakes, offered tips on how to succeed in launching a startup venture. Johnson Lin ’21 told the audience about the multiple failures he and his business partner endured along with the success they ultimately achieved in launching a tech startup company. In addition, Town of Poughkeepsie Supervisor and Professor of History Rebecca Edwards and Dutchess County Legislator Lisa Kaul, spoke about the entrepreneurial elements required to run for office and serve in local government.
Strauss founded Confetti Cakes in 2000. Her creations have appeared on numerous television shows and have appeared more than 10 times on the Food Network, including the show, “Extreme Cake Challenge,” where she won the grand prize. She founded the company while she was working in fashion design at Ralph Lauren, and made Lauren a cake in the shape of his beloved Bugatti for his 60th birthday. Strauss left Lauren in 2004 and recognized how her time there shaped her as an entrepreneur: “I learned a lot there, including the importance of branding. But the long hours and low pay prompted me to go out on my own, and there was no Instagram or TikTok to totally destroy my self-esteem. My friends urged me to go for it saying, ‘If you don’t try, you’ll never know.’ Those words empowered me to take that giant leap, and here I am 24 years later.”
Using her cake company as an example, Strauss offered this advice for those thinking of making such a leap:
- Love making cakes (or whatever your product is). But if you don’t have a burning passion for what you’re doing, it will be a painful experience.
- Learn to take your own pictures. It’s important to teach yourself all the skills that are mission-critical and not yet easily outsourced affordably.
- Be a ‘media whore.’ I have been relentless in promoting myself in any way I can.
- Get another baker (or someone in your field) to pay your rent. I found a space in Manhattan for my business, equipped it, and then found another baker willing to pay the rent in exchange for using the space, mitigating some financial risks.
- Find your peanut guy (or a mentor in your line of work ). I found fellow Vassar alum Lee Zalben ’85 who founded Peanut Butter and Co., and we have traded advice and collaborated ever since.
Strauss closed with a quote from actor Denzel Washington: “‘A man goes down to the ocean and tries to fit all of the knowledge of the ocean into his brain instead of leaping into the water,’” she said. “So jump in, keep swimming, and maybe in 25 years you’ll be a keynote speaker at an event like this one at Vassar.”
A Vassar alum, Johnson Lin ’21, who took a similar ambitious leap, told attendees about the failures that preceded his success in creating a tech startup called FSHTech, which helps local governments develop apps and software. “Nobody has ever gotten it right on the first try,” Lin said. “My first two ideas failed, but I had raised $1 million and remembered what my Vassar commencement speaker (tech entrepreneur Jessica Matthews) had told us: ‘Just don’t be the worst at what you’re doing, and you’ll have time to grow and learn.’”
Town of Poughkeepsie Supervisor and Professor of History Rebecca Edwards and Dutchess County Legislator Lisa Kaul both observed that running for political office involved the same kind of risk taking as starting a business, and the learning curves for running for office and serving in local government can take time. “There’s the campaign side, and there’s the actual job of being an elected official,” Edwards said, “and they require different skill sets.”
Kaul said one key to success in politics is finding a common language among others who may not agree with everything you say. “When I was addressing the issues of waste management in Dutchess County, I approached it with a goal of a ‘zero waste’ solution, while others were in favor of keeping the county’s incinerator. I realized we all had the same goal—getting rid of the waste efficiently—so I had to find the language that people on both sides of the issue can understand.”
Edwards said that like founding a start-up company, the first step in running for office is to find issues you are passionate about. “There are many committees and commissions in local government that you can serve on before you run for political office,” she said. “That’s a natural way to get started.” “Being part of local government is very entrepreneurial,” she continued. “It’s about identifying problems and working with others to seek solutions.”
As the conference drew to a close, participants said they had gained some important insights into how to proceed with their projects. “I met some amazing mentors who will be able to show me how I can expand my business,” said Cher Mei ’26, an entrepreneurship program student who runs a nail salon out of her Vassar dorm room. “Events like this are about making connections, and having the opportunity to help small entrepreneurs like me get their projects off the ground, to really get rolling.”
Shaeer Adnan, a high school junior who runs a not-for-profit organization that helps others launch their own start-ups, said he had learned a lot during the two days of the conference. “My start-up is designed to help other high school students get involved in entrepreneurship,” Adnan said. “The most important thing I learned here is that when an idea fails, you learn how to pivot to something else.”
Carolyn Strobel-Larson, Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Colgate University, said the conference had reinforced her belief that the skills students learn in the liberal arts are essential to their success in starting a business. “The topic of entrepreneurship and the liberal arts and how they connect is really at the core of what we think about in my office at Colgate,” Strobel-Larson said. “So I was really interested to come to be part of the conversations and hear how Vassar is thinking about those two things, and how colleagues at other institutions are as well.”
Vassar Assistant Professor of Economics Alicia Atwood said the conference had given her the opportunity to learn how to take some of the ideas expressed by presenters and other participants to the next level. “The biggest next step, and this is something I’ve tried incorporating in my classroom before, but it really hammered at home today—is having a concise pitch and being able to articulate your goal, your vision and whatever your project is. It’s something that came up in multiple sessions, and it’s something that I’ve had students do with projects in the classroom. What we’re doing in the classroom will actually translate into their life when they’re in a job or they’re starting up their own business or they’re just trying to express something new to the world.”
Aguilar said he was eager to see how the questions that were raised and the answers that were posed would move Vassar’s entrepreneurship initiatives forward. “The sessions, workshops, and insights shared here have reinforced that entrepreneurship within the liberal arts is not just about the pursuit of economic success, but about fostering meaningful change,” he said. “It is about developing ventures, ideas, and initiatives that challenge norms, uplift communities, and create sustainable solutions.”