Student Success Story - Reuben Holdaway & Jaden Lynn

If you’ve been involved in business, even a little, you’ve probably heard “find the need and create a solution” tossed around quite frequently. Meeting needs is at the heart of entrepreneurship, and that’s exactly what Reuben and Jaden, UVU student entrepreneurs, are doing with their company.  

Reuben, a junior majoring in communications with an emphasis in public relations, caught the entrepreneurial bug at a young age by selling food at yard sales and hiring his siblings to work for him and help turn a profit. After working for a while in the event planning industry, he noticed a need.  There was a lack of consistent staffing to help with events. Most of the options available included using venue staffing or hiring temps, but he needed people who knew the events space extremely well. He decided to branch out on his own and launch Wasatch Event Services, an event staffing and service marketplace.  

He expressed that his and Jaden’s biggest challenge was discovering their target client. At the beginning, they believed that
anyone
could use staffing but, through trial and error, narrowed it down to a specific demographic of high budget events of 20k or more. Once they focused on this target market, it showed in the bottom line of their quarterly revenues, and they have been extremely successful ever since.

Reuben equates one of the keys to his success to getting help from other people.  After trying and failing at some previous ventures, he realized that having help from people who are different from you, who have varying opinions, and who are passionate are all must haves. He found such a person in Jaden, a business management major with a focus in international business.

Jaden began by helping Reuben with a one-time gig for a wedding that needed staffing. Afterward, they both did some research into the market, realized it was a viable business model. They have been working together ever since. Jaden hasn’t always considered himself an entrepreneur, but he enjoys the freedom and positive atmosphere that it brings. “I think I slowly realized that if I form my own company, I can always just do my own thing and help others at the same time, which is an amazing opportunity.” He also describes the culture of Wasatch Event Services as being a fun and positive one, especially when the whole team works together to pull off a great time for their clients.

For Jaden, his finds his biggest challenge to be balancing business and school. Running a company takes an incredible amount of time and effort, and when you add classes on top of that, there isn’t much time or money left for family, dating, or a social life. The sacrifice can be extremely worth it though, especially when you see the company grow. He described seeing the growth as his favorite part of the entrepreneurial experience so far. 

When asked what advice they would give other student entrepreneurs, they both said something similar: just do it!  Reuben advised “...just go for it. Don’t wait for a degree, capital, or experience. Just leap and see what happens. Worst case scenario you learned a lot for the next startup.” Jaden recommended, “My advice is just start the company you want to run! Don’t plan on your first company being your last and always be ethical and thinking of ways to give to the community instead of thinking of what they can give you.”

If reading Reuben and Jaden’s success story has inspired you, come see us at the Entrepreneurship Institute. Our goal is to help students get going with their business, and provide them the resources they need to get started. Make an appointment now: https://www.uvu.edu/entrepreneurship/. Also, if you are already a student entrepreneur with your own business, check out the competitions coming up for a chance to win funding for your company! https://www.uvu.edu/entrepreneurship/events/index.