Sam J. Serio '16

Founder, LA Tank Student Entrepreneurial Program and Livelegato.com
September 2016

During his senior year at Loyola Academy, Sam J. Serio ’16 hatched an idea to inspire students to explore entrepreneurship while building relationships between Loyola students and alumni. His vision was to bring students and alumni together in a dynamic career program that encouraged Ramblers to embrace innovation and think differently about their future career paths.

“You can see by the rise of entrepreneurship that the business world is more creative and innovative than ever before,” says Serio. “Whether we are innovating within an company as ‘intrapreneurs’ or in business for ourselves as entrepreneurs, it’s really important that we approach our careers with the basic entrepreneurial philosophy of innovating and pushing limits and disrupting industries that have had the same basic business model for hundreds of years.”

It all began when Serio was touring Northeastern University’s Boston campus in Summer 2015. When he learned about the University’s student-led Venture Accelerator, which gives college students the support they need to develop a business from core concept to launch, a light bulb went on in his head. He wondered if the same concept at Loyola could give Ramblers real-world, practical knowledge about careers in the 21st century.

“The vision was to introduce students to life beyond Loyola and to the job market,” states Serio. “And, hopefully, to get them thinking about putting their education in a broader context than high school students normally do.

“I love the notion of magis—striving to do more. The Ignatian values I learned at Loyola Academy helped me realize that whatever I do, my goal is to align the call to magis with the opportunity to help others. We are all part of something bigger than ourselves.”

Serio broached the idea with Assistant Principal for Students Services Charles W. Heintz, who liked what he heard and floated the idea to Principal Kathryn M. Baal, who green-lighted the project. A student career board was formed and LA TANK—a series of interactive student workshops led by alumni entrepreneurs—was launched.

“It’s a program modeled on Jesuit ingenuity,” says Assistant Principal Heintz. “While exposing our students to real-world business concepts, we’re also encouraging them to use the gifts and talents that God gave them to create new business models, solve problems and improve lives.”

Students were grouped into seven teams, assigning roles of project manager, product development, finance and marketing. The teams were tasked with identifying an existing problem to solve with a new product or idea. Team Rides for Others, for example, conceptualized a convenient carpooling app to help Ramblers get to school. Team Medi-Gels proposed vegan alternatives to gelatin coatings traditionally found on vitamins and prescription medications.

At regular check points throughout the product development phases, the alumni speakers delivered workshop-style presentations to the teams of students. In January, Michael Salvatore '99, owner and CEO of Heritage Bicycles General Store, a growing company in Lakeview that sells bikes and coffee, discussed entrepreneurship and its risks. Peter C. Lee '97, a Loyola trustee and founding partner at Summit Trail Advisors, an independent, employee-owned investment advisory firm based in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, followed in February with a discussion about the importance of securing investors and working with budgets. A third presentation occurred in March when Kevin Willer ’92, a Loyola trustee and partner at Chicago Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund, discussed how to deliver the perfect product pitch.

“It was great to see students learning about careers, talking to alumni mentors and listening to influential entrepreneurs,” says Heintz. “It was powerful to hear students talk about the connections between what they are learning in the classroom and their future careers.”

A finale event occurred in April at 1871, Chicago's entrepreneurial hub for digital startups, with special thanks to Kevin Willer ’92 and Jim O’Connor ’85, managing director at William Blair & Company.

Teams presented their business proposals in a format inspired by the reality show Shark Tank, which gives contestants an opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of business leaders. The panel of judges included Loyola Academy Principal Kathryn Baal, PhD; Michelle Andrew, attorney and founder of Andrew Law Group, LLC; Jack Philbin, co-founder, president and CEO of Vibes Mobile Marketing Solutions; Michael Salvatore ’99, owner and CEO of Heritage Bicycles General Store; and Erin Casey Wolf ’98, co-franchisor and co-owner of Bella Bridesmaids.

Team LA Sits, a babysitting concept app, took first place.

“There was a great sense of healthy competition between the teams,” says Serio adding, “One of the best parts of this experience for me was seeing what ideas my classmates had, how they implemented them, how they presented them and how they impressed many of the seasoned professionals and adults in attendance.”

Serio is grateful for the support he received from Loyola’s administration.“Loyola really let me dream big and do big. Not many other schools would say, ‘I like it; let’s get to work,’ like Loyola did.”

Serio is now a freshman at Northeastern University in Boston, where he continues his knack for bringing people together. His latest venture? Livelegato.com—a music blog launched with fellow alumnus Kyle Alvares ’16. Recently, the blog featured Chance Encounter, an alternative rock band made up of current students Joseph Baier ’18 and Cameron Buhrmaster ’18 and Loyola grads Will Collins ’16 and Tara Hagerty ’16.

“For the past few years, I have been extremely interested in entrepreneurship...Creating and running a big project like LA TANK gave me the confidence and skills to continue with more projects like Live Legato,” Serio says.

He also credits the AP English class of Judy Nugent for his critical thinking and penchant for asking hard questions. “While I learned a lot about academic arguments in that class, the most important thing I learned was what questions to ask,” says Serio. “The most successful people are not afraid to ask questions, even those that have a high chance of receiving a ‘no’ response. Odds are, these uncomfortable conversations sit between you and your success.”

As he delves into courses for his computer science and entrepreneurship double major this fall, Serio leaves behind a legacy at Loyola. What started as a simple idea to give students a jumpstart on their career paths has evolved into a type of thought-laboratory where students can navigate complex life and work environments under the guidance of alumni experts in their fields.

While Serio isn’t certain where he’ll be in five or ten years, he does know one thing for sure: “I want to be part of something big and doing something powerful to help others.”

Back