{"id":4337,"date":"2015-08-06T13:36:37","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T17:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/?p=4337"},"modified":"2024-02-14T10:38:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T15:38:14","slug":"spotlight-on-andrew-of-mint-ultimate-sneaking-into-classes-to-pursue-his-entrepreneurial-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/blog\/spotlight-on-andrew-of-mint-ultimate-sneaking-into-classes-to-pursue-his-entrepreneurial-passion\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Andrew of Mint Ultimate: Sneaking Into Classes to Pursue His Entrepreneurial Passion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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From a young age, Andrew Oh wanted to help people. His job in the retail industry didn\u2019t allow him to do that and for Andrew, that was a nonstarter. \u201cI hated how horrible the customer service was where I was working, and I had no power to control things. This was the turning point,\u201d shared Andrew.\u00a0“I wanted to be my own boss, have the control, provide better customer service, and play a fair game where how far you get is determined by the individual and not others.\u201d At the same time Andrew, who played ultimate frisbee for 8 years, saw an opportunity to create a better ultimate frisbee glove.<\/p>\n

Andrew, who was studying Psychology at York University<\/a> at the time, didn\u2019t have the skills to start his own business, so he snuck into an entrepreneurship class at his university in the pursuit to learn more about starting a business. However, he was caught by the professor. The professor saw promise in Andrew, and decided to help him enroll in her undergraduate entrepreneurship class. \u201cThe rest is history,\u201d Andrew explained. \u201dThe same professor is my most trusted advisor and friend who was there from the beginning, and will be there at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With the right skills to start a business, and a trusted advisor and mentor, Andrew set out looking for a manufacturer for his premium ultimate frisbee gloves. Determined to find the perfect glove, Andrew sampled different gloves for a year before finding the right one. \u201cPaying sampling fees proved to be very expensive with no guarantee, but it paid off in the end.\u201d With the help of some friends with computer and website development skills, Andrew crafted his company\u2019s website<\/a>. He then proceeded to make his first order of 1000 gloves in December 2014.<\/p>\n

Now distributing gloves internationally, and having sold in over 15 different countries, Mint Ultimate<\/a> is a brand that has been growing rapidly. Andrew has been and continues to be challenged day in and day out. Starting a business while in school wasn\u2019t easy, and Andrew had to quit his part-time job and drop many of his outside activities in order to dedicate his time to the business. Coordinating with manufactures across the globe hasn\u2019t been easy either. Andrew regularly schedules calls with his manufactures in the evenings in order to account for the time difference. Today, Andrew\u2019s biggest challenge is fully realizing the potential the US market has to offer. \u201cMy transactions are facilitated in US currency, and most of my customers are American, making doing business in Canada\u2019s business environment extremely hard and painful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Andrew is currently deploying a lot of time into a \u201csecret\u201d new product. \u201cI\u2019ve wanted to annihilate my competitor\u2019s business, and the next product I\u2019m planning right now is to do just that,\u201d Andrew explained. From the beginning, Andrew knew he could create an ultimate frisbee glove that was better for the players. Through his business, Andrew is able to realize his childhood dream of helping people. \u201cWhen a high school kid tells me he can\u2019t afford to pay the full price for a glove or a university student in the US with tuition of $45,000 USD asks for a discount, the ability to help them makes my job intrinsically rewarding,\u201d Andrew shared \u201cI\u2019m helping people. It\u2019s what I\u2019ve wanted to do. Because I have full control, I can be fair, sympathetic, and break the rules and norm. This makes it a career I prefer over the alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew chose the path of entrepreneurship; while juggling school and turning an idea into a product, he managed to develop a career that he is passionate about. Andrew left us with one piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. \u201cDream big, start small. Work smart. Get credibility, then move forward. After you launch, it\u2019s not hard to maintain and grow. You just have to use your head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written by:<\/strong> Christopher Fletcher, Futurpreneur Canada Intern\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From a young age, Andrew Oh wanted to help people. His job in the retail industry didn\u2019t allow him to do that and for Andrew, that was a nonstarter. \u201cI hated how horrible the customer service was where I was working, and I had no power to control things. This was the turning point,\u201d shared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-futurpreneurs-and-partners"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}