Founders can’t do it alone - Support + Share provides space for students to build success.

It can feel overwhelming and lonely being a founder. Support + Share is the newest program from FORGE (Finding Opportunities and Resources to Grow Entrepreneurs) and it aims to ensure that student founders have the support they need to create success.  Support + Share meets monthly on the University of Arizona campus, helping student founders balance their full-time studies with starting a venture and offering a place for students to network with peers who are navigating similar experiences.  This program recognizes the unique challenges that come with both being a student and a founder including how to prioritize schoolwork when scaling a business and how to balance classes with the research it takes to develop a new idea. 

During the meetings, students work together, receive feedback, and are directed to helpful tools and resources for coaching. FORGE Support + Share is open to student founders at any stage in their venture and can include for-profit, non-profit, social impact organizations, small businesses, and scalable startups.  The monthly events meet on campus every other Tuesday at the  STEAM FORGE location in Electrical and Computer Engineering Room 234.  Students are not required to commit to coming every month but are asked to register in advance.  The meetings provide a casual, approachable, friendly, and inclusive environment with a safe space and confidentiality within the group. Participants range from first-year students to PhD candidates. 

The program was developed and launched by Julie Barbier Bularzik, the FORGE Coordinator for Venture Development Education.   

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“Founders can’t do it all alone,” said Bularzik.  “Even on a bootstrapped, shoe-string budget, you’ll need help. Any founder will tell you the roller coaster of emotions they go through putting so much of themselves into their venture and taking risks. There’s a lot of power in coming together with others who truly understand what you’re going through. From celebrating accomplishments to contemplating “failures”, it’s all a part of the process, and having a group to share with can make all the difference.” 

Bularzik brings much of her personal experience to the program.  She has opened and managed locations for an international retail company and owns a small business in Tucson.  Since coming to Tucson, she has found incredible support from the small business community and has firsthand knowledge of how valuable that kind of support is to a business owner.   

“We form relationships and have each other’s backs. We give each other advice and feedback. We answer questions for each other when navigating situations we haven’t been in before. We help each other make connections and we lift each other up when we encounter challenges,” said Bularzik. 

That experience helped her design Support + Share, providing a space for students to come together to share resources and give advice. The students attending can talk with one another about tools and resources that have been especially helpful for them, and even give advice on some to avoid.  “They witness each other in the full spectrum of emotions—wins, losses, and the messy in-betweens,” comments Bularzik, “this gives them space to have conversations that foster their growth and knowledge, allowing them to explore their ideas and gain valuable insights.” 

The program brings in guests from the wider business community to answer questions on topics that students want to learn more about. At one Support + Share Crystal Royce, CEO of The Royce CPA Firm, answered questions from students regarding business accounting and taxes. At an upcoming Support + Share, students will meet with the founders of the gaming mouse business, GRAV.  The founders are UA alumni, part of the FORGE Ahead program, and part of the McGuire New Venture Development program. Support + Share is still developing partnerships, but looks to leverage the vast amount of knowledge present on campus by inviting professors and experts to future meetups.  The program also looks to partner with the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, CATalyst Studios, US Patent and Trademark Office, and Bluestone Venture Capital. 

“My favorite part of the program is that it is all about peer support and students helping each other,” said Paul Valdez, Manager of the FORGE Student Venture Pathways programs. “Finding community and support is a critical part of the entrepreneurial journey.  Through Support + Share, we hope to build meaningful connections between student founders so they can be there for each other to celebrate successes and provide support when things get challenging.”   

“Ventures are a reflection of you,” said Bularzik, “they are a creative extension, projects filled with passion, perhaps blood, sweat, and tears—so it’s a deeply personal journey. When students are shown they can be themselves—their whole selves—they take these examples and models and build the future. Nothing is more powerful to me than being a part of that.  My favorite thing about the program is getting to know students and their big ideas. I love being able to cheer them on while providing practical tools that I know will get them to where they want to go. I love validating the students by showing them that their ideas are good, can be taken seriously, and that there are concrete steps to move forward. There’s no doubt that starting a venture can be an overwhelming experience, but when they have support while they zoom in and out, big picture to small details, they gain an undeniable confidence that stays with them.” 

To learn more about partnering on an upcoming Support + Share, please email Julie Bularzik at jbularzik@arizona.edu  To register for an upcoming Support + Share event, visit our Events Page.