High School Students Start Fish Supply Business

SAN DIEGO一 What started as a school project has turned into a small business for a group of high school students out of San Diego.

 

The team of five has created YUFISH, a business building and shipping pre-made fishing rigs for anglers.

 

“Our company started as a school project,” said 16-year-old high school junior and CEO Ethan Blaszkowski. “We are all a part of a class called Advanced Business Management and, in this class, we make our own businesses, and we decided to make a fishing business.”

Blaszkowski, a lifetime angler, and his friends have been able to use the business not just for classwork but as a way to find either a new hobby or a way back to one they enjoyed as kids, in addition to finding enjoyment in stepping out of the classroom to create a business and enjoy fishing.

 

“Another factor in my opinion, is extending beyond the world of academia and doing something in the real world, and that is most valuable to me,” said an 18-year-old senior and COO Alan Yang.

 

The team pulled inspiration from their own experiences with fishing and the inconvenience of tying their own rigs.

 

Looking to mitigate the inconvenience, they put their heads together and found a way to mix their enjoyment of fishing with their classwork to create a business and what they hope will be a lasting experience.

 

“Our ultimate goal is to make a business,” said Blaszkowski. “We really want to start getting our sales up. We want to create a business that holds and creates a difference for fishermen.”

The way the business works is that anglers go on to the website and fill out a form with three questions asking about the type of fish they want to catch, where they want to fish, and what the conditions will look like that day.

 

YUFISH pulls the answers, uses them to tailor a rig to the angler’s needs, and then ships them out.

 

Aside from their aspirations, the teens look to donate part of their profits to their hometown.

“We wanted to recognize a problem that a lot of people had, and tying rigs can be difficult for some people and beginners,” said 16-year-old junior and CFO Jitendrakumar Jeenagala. “And also, we want to help a cause which is why we are donating 10 percent of our profits to charity.”

Fishing is tied to the environment, and anglers know the amount of waste that ends up on the shore; the kids are looking to help the clean-up effort.

 

“Here in San Diego, our waters are really a part of our life, and living next to the beach is the best part about living in San Diego, and we want to keep these areas clean,” said Kumar. “So, we are donating a part of our profits to beach clean-up organizations, and really, we think it will be helpful for our communities that are part of the motivation behind the company.”

 

YUFISH hosted their first pop-up shop on March 6 at the Mission Bay Jetty and will continue to host pop-up shops throughout San Diego.

 

For more information, contact them at yufish.contact@gmail.com, 310-447-2345, follow them on Instagram @yufish.sandiego or visit their website: https://sites.google.com/my.sduhsd.net/yufish.