Entrepreneur student starts own company in production
By CHRYSTA WILSON
Staff Writer
Little did David Rosen know
that when he got his first stereo in junior high that it would lead to a
self-made proprietorship and a success beyond belief.
Rosen is not only a
full-time senior majoring in business with an emphasis in entrepreneurial
studies and a member of the prestigious Marshall School of Business' Lloyd
Greif Entrepreneurial program, he is also a DJ and the head of his own
company called Kinetic Productions. He books bands, DJs and produces
concerts and shows.
It was in 1989 that Rosen
realized that he loved being a DJ. At this time he also realized that hard
work was the only way to make his dream turn into a shimmering reality.
"I didn't get right into
DJ-ing," said the 21-year-old from Los Angeles. When he decided that being
a DJ and producing music shows were his chosen path, he sold that stereo
and worked for minimum wage to buy his dream system, piece by piece.
Rosen said he began his own
business on instincts by watching his mother through the years.
"It was an implied learning
experience," he said of his mother who is a self-employed interior
decorator.
Despite looking up to his
mother as an example, Rosen never received any financial backing from his
parents for his business venture.
"My dad made me earn (the
money)," he said.
Successful in both school
and business had its costs. Rosen agreed that balancing a full class load
of challenging programs is enough to feel the grind.
"It wasn't all that
difficult in the past, but this year is very difficult," he said. "I'm
doing more shows. Better and bigger shows, and shows out of town." Just
last weekend Rosen flew to San Francisco to put on a event.
Rosen attributes much of
his success to the fraternities that supported Kinetic Productions early
on. "I feel that the fraternities that hire me for their events have given
me a foundation for my business," he said.
Currently Rosen and his
two-year-old company of about 25 employees does a lot of work for parties
on the Row. As DJ, he primarily spins rap and hip-hop music and is now
expanding the music selection to Frank Sinatra, oldies, Œ70s and Œ80s.
Most of his clients are
college groups, evenly split between USC and cross-town rival UCLA.
Another group Rosen
attributed his success to was the Marshall School of Business.
"From day one sitting in
class, it feels it's like no other class," Rosen said. "The faculty and
students are very encouraging and supportive."
Kathy Allen, associate
professor and coordinator of the Undergraduate Entrepreneur Program, said
that this program was a very exciting one, especially to the faculty that
has been a part of it.
The school receives about
150 applications every spring and about 110 are chosen, Allen said.
"Thirty percent of students
in the program start businesses before or after they graduate," Allen
stated.
"Some of the
characteristics that the students in this program share are their energy,
their motivation, their great sense of humor," she said. "They are hard
workers, self-starters and they take an idea and run with it."
Other students from this
program have ventured out to do their own businesses as well. One student
is selling wholesale computer parts to retail stores and another is selling
casino software that allows gambling over the internet, Rosen said.
Copyright 1998 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 135, No. 29 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998), beginning on page 1 and ending on page 11.