During his freshman year at Georgetown, Hansel Guo (MSB ’27) struggled to reconnect with his passion for cooking. It was difficult to cook in the freshman dorms and balance classes with time to pursue his hobbies.
During Guo’s sophomore year, he came up with an idea.
Guo founded Noodles to Guo, Georgetown’s first student-run noodle house, serving dishes like biang biang noodles, jjajangmyeon, and sichuan sweet water noodles. At least once a month, Guo cooks and sells made-to-order Chinese noodle dishes, all from his dorm common room.
Guo is not the only student at Georgetown in his quest to pursue his passions through small businesses. The Voice spoke with four student entrepreneurs about their pursuits and what it’s like to start a business on the Hilltop.
Hansel Guo: Noodles to Guo
With Noodles to Guo, Guo has maintained a lifelong passion and used cooking as a way to connect with his culture.
“Coming from a Chinese family, being born in China, I’ve always been super into learning more about Chinese cuisine,” Guo said. “The flavor palettes within Chinese cuisine are amazing and so diverse.”
When Guo decided to begin a business on campus, he leaned on his friends and other Georgetown students for support. He reached out to upperclassmen with personal shops, learning about the logistical necessities of running a business.
From there, it became a marketing game. Guo focused on making a cohesive Instagram to give customers a clear idea of his shop. Although he knows it can be “annoying” for students, Guo also printed out QR codes for his Instagram to slide under dorm doors.
“You have to just do whatever it takes to really get your business name out there initially,” Guo said.
And it worked. Guo started selling noodle dishes weekly in the Village C East common room, and amassed a large following of friends and acquaintances who wanted to try his dishes. By his second semester, he felt comfortable enough with the business to begin trying new things.
“I started to pivot into more personal creations, trying to integrate my personal understanding of food and what I like to eat or make for myself into the dishes I sell to my customers,” Guo said. “I think the best part came when I started having enough courage to put my personal ideas into the dishes.”
Noodles to Guo has now amassed over 450 Instagram followers and plans to keep expanding.
Despite this success, Guo faced challenges starting his business. One of his biggest problems was budgeting, especially as a college student. He found it difficult to buy all of the ingredients and tools necessary to get Noodles to Guo off the ground, and had to keep an eye on what he was purchasing and what was selling to ensure his business was a success.
Guo also struggled with time management. In his sophomore year, he was recruiting for a finance job, meaning his days were filled with coffee chats and networking. Running a business seemed like an added stressor.
“I got a lot better at the time management part of things through [my] repeated mistakes, like forgetting to do some homework or forgetting to buy some ingredients,” Guo said.
While Georgetown academics and extracurriculars may prove challenging for business owners, Guo appreciates Georgetown’s tight-knit community as a source of customers.
“I feel like everyone’s like a close circle,” Guo said. “You can always find some sort of connection with a different person.”
Donhee Cui: Freelance photography
For Donhee Cui (MSB ’27), community was the key to success for his work as a freelance sports and events photographer. The university and on-campus organizations often hire him for events, and he also takes on freelance orders.
Cui began his work in photography in high school. Being at a sports-heavy school, he saw a market for taking photos of athletes during games.
“I learned that parents were willing to pay a lot for pictures of their kids,” Cui said.
At Georgetown, Cui found a new outlet for his photography: Rangila, Georgetown’s South Asian philanthropic performing arts showcase. His sophomore fall, he went to all three performances to take photos. Once he shared the photos with his friends participating in the performance, he said that orders from new customers “snowballed.” Now, photography gives Cui the chance to work with a variety of Georgetown community members.
“I like being able to engage very closely with people around different parts of campus,” Cui said. “I think the best part is getting to see all of the unexpected parts of Georgetown.”
The experience has also taught him the value of getting to know people, especially on the Hilltop.
“I would say a lot of my customers come from word of mouth,” Cui said. “Whenever I see someone having a club event or doing headshots on Healy steps, I kind of just show up and say ‘Hey, what club are you guys with?’ and introduce myself.”
He added that campus culture has boosted his business.
“Georgetown students are very proud of being a part of the Georgetown community. I’ve had people come to me specifically because I’m a Georgetown student,” he said. “So I think Georgetown students supporting other Georgetown businesses is a really big part of it.”
While he’s been able to amass a large customer base, Cui still finds it can be difficult to satisfy everyone when it comes to photography.
“I’ve had shoots where people maybe weren’t quite satisfied with the photos, and my job was, ‘How can I turn this into a really good experience?’” he said. “That would often come through offering a follow-up shoot, maybe re-edits.”
Cui puts so much effort and pride into his work because the photography business isn’t a side hustle—it’s his main gig.
“It kind of feels like classes have taken a backseat to my work,” Cui said. “Running a business is easy when it’s always on your mind.”
In the future, Cui is interested in photographing for the Premier Lacrosse League and starting a wedding photography business.
Joy Fiske: Pure Joy Nails
Joy Fiske (CAS ’28) sees running her business as an extension of her hobbies. Fiske runs a nail business called Pure Joy Nails, where she designs Gel-X sets.
“It feels like a hangout, and it’s a creative outlet, and I’m getting a little bit of money,” Fiske said.
She was inspired to start the business in part by her own family.
“Being Vietnamese, I tell this joke all the time, ‘It was only a matter of time before someone in my family had to do nails.’ But it is like there’s a bit of a grain of truth in that,” Fiske joked. “In my own network of family and friends, there’s a lot of knowledge about how to do nails.”
Over the past summer, Fiske began learning from this network, hoping to start a nail business in the fall semester. Now, she’s found many clients through word of mouth.
“There’s a lot of demand for cheap nails for girls in college, because obviously, in this economy, people don’t really want to be spending that much money,” Fiske said. “There’s a big market here, and I get to tap into that.”
At times, the demand for Fiske’s services is challenging to balance with her other job and extracurriculars. However, Fiske said that this experience has brought her a lot of pride in herself and her abilities.
“When you earn your first paycheck, it’s such a ‘Yes!’ moment, and that’s a whole other level when you start your own business,” Fiske said. She appreciates the fulfillment of being her own boss and having control over the entire creative process.
For Fiske, running a business is all about taking that first major step to get started, even if you’re unsure of what the outcome may be.
“It was really like, ‘fake it ‘till you make it.’ And it all just falls into place,” Fiske said.
Levi Merenstein: Game On Activities and Georgetown Tutors
In August, Levi Merenstein (MSB ’28) began Game On Activities, an organization for local elementary schoolers that plans various sports and games for after-school groups, birthday parties, camps, and more. At the beginning of this semester, Merenstein also began Georgetown Tutors, an online math and science tutoring program for high school students.
“When I started this August, I was like, ‘Oh, am I allowed to do this? Am I allowed to just start a business?’” Merenstein said. “I’m 19 years old. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
But Merenstein noticed a need in his community and wanted to respond to it. Last summer, while interning with Flag Star Football, a youth flag football program in D.C., he saw a demand for high-quality athletics programs for kids.
“Parents really want to send their kids to people they trust and people that they know are going to treat them really well,” Merenstein said.
With Game On Activities, parents can fill out a form with the school their child attends and the type of programming they’d like to see. From there, Merenstein and his partners plan sports or games that best suits their clients’ needs.
When starting Georgetown Tutors this semester, Merenstein reached out to teaching assistants from various mathematics and science courses to build a team of 11. He found clients through Facebook Groups and Listservs. Merenstein wanted to make sure the organization had enough tutors so that it would be easy for the tutees to schedule meetings.
For Merenstein, running his two startups has been an opportunity to help the people around him.
“The end goal is just to improve customers’ lives,” Merenstein said. “I think kids, especially in elementary school, rely so much on role models. So if you can be a good role model for kids, that really helps them.”
Merenstein believes Georgetown motivates its students to develop something of their own.
“There’s a push for innovation and a push to go get out there and create something. That’s definitely what helped me motivate just to get started,” Merenstein said.
In his time at college, Merenstein has explored the various resources that Georgetown offers for students interested in entrepreneurship. He currently serves as the co-events director for the Georgetown University Entrepreneurship Club and is a student ambassador for Georgetown Entrepreneurship, which is part of the MSB.
The Entrepreneurship Club can be a great opportunity to learn more about running a business, Merenstein said. The club plans various workshops and speaker events with business-related alumni.
“We get people that are interested in entrepreneurship in the same room, talking to each other. I think that’s when many great things happen,” Merenstein said.
Merenstein encourages students to take advantage of Georgetown resources.
“There’s a big network of alumni, like entrepreneurs and residents who have experience that went here, that are willing to help people. So we always encourage student founders to reach out and just get advice, get support,” Merenstein said.
