Cheni Y- Managing Partner of Sunshine NY-recently sat for two multimedia interviews.
One, with Moviestar entrepreneur, is here, and there’s a podcast with The Hopkinson Report here. Both of these interviews offer one of our own resident serial entrepreneur advice on how to make your dreams reality.
Sunshine Managing Partner Cheni Y recently sat down with a fledgling entrepreneur of the youngest sort-an 8th grader who turned out to be an excellent writer and incredibly inquisitive-for an excellent interview.
Start-ups take tons of money. I mean look at the recent start-up Dropbox, before you can get capital from investors, your going to need a place to network and build your company, for a cheap price. Once you have a basic business plan, investors will come to help you build your company. Won’t you need a place to do this, to create your business plan? Once you have your buisiness going, won’t you need a place to run it? That’s where Sunshine Suites steps in.
Read the rest of Jake Smith’s excellent article here.
Over at the Another Sam Chan blog, there’s a great interview with Sunshine co-founder Cheni Yerushalmi , where he talks passion, drive, entrepreneurship and sports. It’s a really strikingly candid interview where Cheni offers words of wisdom for young, fresh-out-of-college men and women:
“I think that you have to have that ‘itch’ that you can never finish scratching. I think you have to notice opportunity and you have to be hungry because people’s biggest fear is change. That everybody’s not set out to be an entrepreneur? I agree with that. If you’re too content with your life, and you don’t have anything to reach for or you’re afraid (for better or worse) of change? Then you’re probably not meant to be an entrepreneur. The people around here, and there’s thousands of them. They all have one thing in common. They’re all hungry. You could see it in their eyes. Between all these entrepreneurs, I think you can tell very quickly on a person that they are constantly looking for opportunities.”
Be sure to read the whole interview here.
Sobridge Media recently threw some very, very kind words the way of Sunshine:
Sunshine Suites is a place where you can grow your own start-up. A place to grow your own and become something more than what you already are. I rarely promote other companies, but I believe Sunshine Suites is one of few companies that actually work as a good incubator!
To read the rest of the post, which serves as a call-to-arms to taking 2010 by the horns and living the entrepreneurial dream, click here.
Sunshine Managing Partner Cheni was recently interviewed on “Fearless Business”-check the video interview below!
Over at SmallBiz Central, there’s a brief, interesting look at the way the entrepreneurial spirit has impacted the way that way we experience the traditions of Thanksgiving:
Did you know small businesses play a major role in making our Thanksgiving dinner a reality? Well, think about the star of the Thanksgiving feast — the turkey. There are 319 firms involved in poultry processing, with 265 (83%) employing fewer than 500 and 150 companies (47%) with less than 20 employees…
Read the rest of the fascinating facts here, and have a safe and happy holiday.
The great video blogger J.L. Zoeckler, who makes it his passion to “turn the ordinary into extraordinary”, just posted an interview he did with Sunshine managing partner and “serial entrepreneur” Cheni.
Check it here!
Last week my business partner and I were invited to an event by Sunflower Children, an organization that helps disadvantaged children around the world-one of the charitable organizations that we donate free office space to.
The event was a release party for a book written by two (married) Pulitzer-prize winning journalists titled Half the Sky. The title of the book was based on a Chinese expression – “Women hold up half the sky.”
While some celebrities (Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Marissa Tomei) were there, I was more moved by the journalists who had written this book about empowering women. I was amazed to hear a story Nicholas Kristof briefly spoke about – one that is written about in much more detail in the book.
He told of a Cambodian woman – a farmer whose family was very poor. Since her parents needed money, she found a job as a waitress in a restaurant in Thailand. She embarked on the long journey to Thailand with a friend. When she got to the “restaurant” she was escorted by men deep into the jungle and then repeatedly raped and beaten. She was then eventually sold to a brothel in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia where she was drugged, repeatedly beaten, and eventually forced to become a prostitute with about a dozen other girls who had been exposed to similar circumstances. She was beaten if she asked the customer to wear a condom, and kept naked at all times to prevent her and the other girls from stealing and from running away, and bussed from their small room to the brothel with security guards daily. She eventually escaped with three of the other girls. When she went to the police, she was raped and beaten for illegal entry to Malaysia, and then escorted to the border of Thailand.
Eventually she made her way back home to Cambodia, where she secured a loan for $400. With that money she purchased a small kiosk on the Thailand Cambodia border. Eventually, she expanded to a store, then took over the store next to hers, creating a mini-empire. She employs many other women, sends money back to her family weekly, and is now happily married with children.
I was astounded at the pain this woman went through, and at her amazing recovery. I don’t think I could do anything like that, and am thankful that I will never have to find out (knock on wood). One of the best organizations I’ve been a part of for the past three years is Kiva. Kiva sets up micro-lending for small businesses – 85% of them women-owned.
The great thing about this charity is that once you put money in, you actually get it back in only a few months!!! I’ve contributed around $800 over three years, and helped fund around 50 small business loans to people who really need the help. Recently Sunshine Suites formed a lending team at Kiva, which can be found at http://www.kiva.org/team/sunshinesuites. If you’d like to get involved, I really encourage you to sign up and make a few loans – you can make one for as little as $25. The great thing is, if you need the money, you can get it back in a few months. If you’re like me, you can also use it as a savings account that constantly does good for others. I love getting paid back on my loans, simply because it allows me to then lend to another group. To date, after 3 years and around 50 loans, I’ve never lost a penny, and its made me feel great and grateful to read about the ambitions of these people I’ve never met, and the businesses they aspire to start or to grow.
Live, Love, Laugh and Learn.
Joe Raby
One of our very own Shiners, Guilherme Cuna of The Blend NYC, joined in the trip to Sunshine’s Vermont cabin recently, and wrote an awesome blog about the trip, Sunshine Suites managing partner and trip host Cheni, and the correlation between mountain biking and entrepreneurship.
In the entrepreneurial world it’s important to have a business that is in the right market. The right “vehicle” and industry you choose should have at LEAST a 5 year outlook, if not 10. Longevity is an element of success because products and services change. To be truly successful, it becomes imperative, to pick an industry where the wind is blowing in your direction and where you can take advantage of the natural industry momentum.
This post is definitely worth your time reading in full, and you can do so here. Also, be sure to RSVP now for The Blend NYC’s next event, Oct 19!
Great AM New York article went out a bit ago that nicely emphasized the intangible networking aspects of Sunshine NY:
One of the big draws for Robert Leocadi, president of Resolution Expediting, when joining the suites was the connection to other entrepreneurs.
He was feeling isolated working out of his Upper East Side apartment.
“My networking was limited to people I met in the industry or went to school with. Networking was a chore and task,” he said. “When I came here it was instant networking. My business increased by 25 percent.”
Read the rest of the article here
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I am unable to wrap my head around the fact as to why any entrepreneur in NYC would not be in this building considering the price and networking opportunities.
We will certainly never find a better price and I would be surprised if we will ever find the same service we get at sunshine.
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