Baylands Summer Run - Co-Founder

The Baylands Summer Run was a 5K/10K race I co-founded with a friend during our freshman year of college. It started as a side project and quickly turned into a crash course in entrepreneurship. We managed everything from scratch – fundraising, logistics, marketing, website design, and staffing.

We attracted 350 runners and secured 16 local sponsors, raising a total of $22,000. After covering $16,000 in event costs – including permits, police coordination, insurance, and gear – we donated $2,000 to the Palo Alto Community Child Care (PACCC). It was our first time running something end-to-end, and despite some early stumbles (we under-budgeted for registration demand and had to scramble to cover a short-term loan), the race went off smoothly and was well-received by the community.

The experience gave me early exposure to the complexities of organizing a public event: vendor negotiations, managing volunteers, financial modeling, and fundraising – all while being a teenager and trying to convince businesses to write checks. It also taught me about follow-through: shutting down the entity, paying out debts, and finalizing donations wasn’t glamorous, but it was necessary.

The Baylands Summer Run ended up being one of those rare first ventures that actually worked – and it gave me a blueprint for how to take an idea from zero to live.