U. Alabama Student Accidentally Emails Thousands of People, Boosting His Pet-Sitting Business
“I was fortunate by having one person trust me, and I did a great job taking care of their dog, and then it started expanding, and then there was a point where I needed to hire people.”
We love stories of student success, especially when it comes to innovation and self-reliance.
Fortune reports:
This 18-year-old college student accidentally emailed thousands of classmates—it turned his pet-sitting business into a valuable side hustle
Hector Gutierrez became an overnight campus celebrity at the University of Alabama earlier this year after an embarrassing email faux pas put him in the spotlight.
While applying for the school’s honor society, he mistakenly sent his business school professor’s recommendation letter to a college listserv with thousands of recipients.
“I started getting phone calls and messages saying, ‘Why did you email me? Why did you email me?’” Gutierrez told Fortune. “My Outlook started blowing up.”
While he initially found himself cringing at the mistake, the exposure turned out to be a boon for his small business. It made him a social media star, earning him a meeting with the university’s president, and landed him a feature in the school newspaper—all of which shone a spotlight on his small business.
Gutierrez, 18, started Hec’s Pet Sitting nearly three years ago. Instead of taking a traditional teen job at his local Publix supermarket, he wanted to start something of his own. The business he started as a high school student in South Florida, has grown into a registered LLC, with 10 part-time employees, and bringing in over $10,000 a year.
“I started simply by going around my neighborhood posting flyers, saying, local pet sitter,” he said. “I was fortunate by having one person trust me, and I did a great job taking care of their dog, and then it started expanding, and then there was a point where I needed to hire people.”
Now in his first year studying business management in Alabama, Gutierrez’s accidental fame is opening new doors—including potential clients in his college town. The business income also helps offset the more than $50,000 annual cost of attendance he faces as an out of state student. But balancing a growing company with a full course load is no small feat—and he’s far from the only one trying.
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Comments
This is great and a happy accident. We need more Gen Z people who can appreciate the actual value and reality of business as opposed to the lazy academic bubble mentality of “corporate greed…we need Government to be the good guy.”
By the way, the frequent use of em dashes in that Fortune article suggests it was written or heavily edited by AI. Just stating an observation.
As a system administrator, pardon me if I decline to celebrate the success of a common spammer, whether accidental or deliberate.
As a recipient of common spam, I see your pain (to a lesser extent).
I am merely celebrating someone getting a business sense of how a capitalist system works and why it isn’t evil to have that ecosystem. We definitely need more of that on higher ed campuses, not less.
$50K to attend Alabama as an out of state student for one year?
Roll Tide? No that’s Rollover Debt.
The best people were the ones asking why they got the email, who hit the “reply all” button.