Young, Motivated...and Artsy?

The colorful silkscreened squares of paper that decorate Allan P. Sahagun ’09’s common room don’t exactly scream “entrepreneur.” But Sahagun, with art projects and websites, loves to be creative.

Sahagun and his brother Aaron, a 2006 University of California-Berkeley grad, recently earned a spot on BusinessWeek’s list of the 25 Best Entrepreneurs Under 25 for their social networking site, Alumwire.com. The brothers developed the site, which connects college students and recent graduates with job opportunities, as a response to their own need for career guidance.

And while Sahagun, a Visual and Environmental Studies concentrator, enjoys working at least one or two hours a day on the site during his free time, it is also an outlet for his creative juices.

“I have a business side to me, but most of all I would say I’m creative,” he says. “What I do stems from creativity.”

Sahagun’s friends agree that it’s his persona that has led to early success. “He’s really motivated,” says Lauren E. Yapp ’09. “I think the idea is really good in itself, but also that Allan’s personality is probably responsible for its success.”

Creative entrepreneurship is nothing new to Sahagun. His grandfather hired him for a filing job when he was ten years old. “Instead, I opened up a little restaurant in his lobby,” he says. “I made sandwiches and grilled food for the employees. I guess it was the equivalent of a lemonade stand.”

So future entrepreneurs take note: the lemonade stand just ain’t gonna cut it anymore.