Photograph by George Sakkestad
Tanya Sisson sells gargoyles, crystals and jewelry at her Frogstone shop.
By Sue Fagalde Lick
If you ever wondered what happened to Los Gatos High School's 1980s graduates, check out N. Santa Cruz Avenue. Yesterday's students are today's entrepreneurs.
An informal survey of local businesses turned up 17 business owners age 30 or younger, and it's likely we missed a few. The children of the baby boomers, they belong to the generation that has been dubbed Generation X.
The term Generation X stems from a 1980s cartoon by Douglas Coupland for a Canadian newspaper. He followed the cartoon with a 1991 novel about a group of jaded 20-somethings who dropped out of the rat race because the boomers had usurped all the good jobs and the world's resources. The term caught on in the advertising industry and among journalists and became the unofficial moniker for the post-Baby Boom generation.
Generation X has been termed a Lost Generation, arrogant, materialistic and lazy, with attention spans the length of an MTV video. Slackers, some call them.
Los Gatos' Xers, however, reject the Generation X label and are proving daily that they are anything but slackers.
Instead, they are driven to make their mark in the world early and are willing to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, if that's what it takes to establish a business that will allow them to be self-sufficient for the rest of their lives.
The town's Generation X business owners include several Los Gatos High School graduates. Ginger Reynolds Rowe, 29, owner of Time Out activewear shop, went to school with Heidi Rehbock, 30, of Soles shoe store; Susan Sedgeley, 30, of Romantiques lingerie store; Greg Agnelli, 28, of Sprockets sports-clothing store; Jennifer Croll, 27, of Jennifer Croll boutique; John Mesa Jr., 26, of Johnny's Northside Grill; and Shannon Weich, 26, co-owner with Stephanie Fazeli, 25, of Nectar's juice bar. Not far behind was Neda Mansoorian, 24, of i gatti Italian Bistro.
Other under-30s in business include Kerrie Brandau, 29, who co-owns the Brandau Brandau hair salon with husband George, 32; Tanya Sisson, 26, owner of Frogstone jewelry and crystals store; Anna Mariano, 28, owner of Anna Mariano shoes; Tal Mashhadian, 24, of Lite Line lighting shop; and Mike Orlando, 26, of Dolce Spazio gelato shop. Charles Conway of Los Gatos Golf company and Mark Fredericks of Move It aerobics salon are also among the under-30s in business here.
They had a plan
Some of these young entrepreneurs had been planning to buy a business since high school. Others fell into it through a series of fortuitous circumstances. All credit older adults who served as mentors and sometimes helped finance their ventures. Many of their parents also owned businesses.
Anna Mariano started her business when she was 19 and a student at San Jose State University. She had grown up around shoes. Her hometown of Marikin, a suburb of Manila, is the primary shoe-making area in the Philippines.
In college, Mariano chose classes that would help with her business, majoring in art and minoring in marketing.
"I had a vision, and I knew what it was that I wanted to do," she says.
Working out of a tiny showroom in the Eureka building, she designs women's shoes which are then custom-made in the Philippines.
Susan Sedgley always wanted to have a store. Like several of her peers, she worked at Adrienne's while she was in school, getting a basic education in the retail clothing business. She graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in advertising and worked four years for the DDB Needham agency but decided that wasn't what she wanted to do.
When Crislow's closed, her mother suggested that downtown Los Gatos needed a place where one could buy bras and other lingerie. Sedgley studied the lingerie business with a buyer from I. Magnin and saved her money. Her parents helped a little, but most of the funding for her store at 51 University Ave. was her own.
Jennifer Croll always dreamed of having a boutique. She majored in international relations at the University of Southern California and worked in Dallas for a while. Home for a visit, she met Christian Croll, another Los Gatos High grad, and decided to stick around. They were married almost two years ago.
About the same time, with her own money and lots of advice from her mother, who owned The Maid's Quarters next door, Croll started her boutique in a space previously occupied by part of Los Gatos Porch. "Basically, I just did it," Croll says.
As is common with young Los Gatos business owners, Croll's husband, who is 31, also has a business. His company exports computers to South America.
Dolce Spazio owner Mike Orlando had his eye on the shop when he was still going to Gunderson High School in San Jose. By the time he was 21, owners Joe and Carol Hargett were ready to cut back on their time in the shop and made an arrangement with Orlando. Carol Hargett now owns and operates the morning hours, and Orlando owns and operates the afternoon hours. Orlando's parents took out a second mortgage on their home to finance the venture. The investment has paid off. At 23, Orlando bought his own home, and the store continues to thrive. Now he's thinking about opening another Dolce Spazio in Willow Glen.
Greg Agnelli of Sprockets started out as a business major at San Diego State but switched to psychology because he found his business classes were too general, and psychology would help provide the people skills he would need in business.
While in San Diego, Agnelli worked in management for Pacific Sunwear, then went on to run a sports clothing business identical to the one he has now. After six years, he came home to Los Gatos to start his own shop, using his savings and skills he had learned on the job.
Brandau went to cosmetology school in Seattle and finished at Santa Clara Beauty College. She and her husband saved their money and got a loan to buy the former John Leon salon.
Rowe and Rehbock both worked for Adrienne Kerwin at Adrienne's and credit her with help and moral support in starting their own businesses.
When Rowe decided to open a store, Adrienne helped her get credit and plan the store. Rowe and Rehbock both had some assistance from their parents, but used mostly their own money to get started.
Some of the young business owners had other plans, but found themselves going into business. Shannon Weich of Nectar's graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in speech communication and psychology. She planned to go on to law school. Home for the summer, she and Fazeli noticed that Los Gatos didn't have a juice bar like the one Weich had seen in San Luis Obispo. They decided to pool their money and start one.
Law school may come later, but after 2 1/2 years, Nectar's is thriving, and the young women are too busy and having too much fun to think about doing anything else.
John Mesa Jr. grew up in the restaurant business. His dad owned the old Grog & Sirloin in town. After high school, he spent 2 1/2 years at Cabrillo College, then quit school. "I was just done with college," he says tersely. Opening a restaurant was a natural for him.
His dad helped with the money, but John Jr. has done most of the work. He put in 16-18 hour days when he opened 3 1/2 years ago. It's a little better now, but he's on duty most days. "If you're not there, things don't go right," he says.
Neda Mansoorian of i gatti also grew up in the restaurant business. Her uncle owns four Italian bistros in New York. Mansoorian went to UC-Berkeley and had already been accepted at Santa Clara University Law School when her family became interested in starting a restaurant here and nominated her to run it. i gatti has been open almost two years, and Mansoorian's law school career is still on hold until the restaurant is well-established.
Like most of those interviewed, Mansoorian believes that a college education is good, but doesn't necessarily prepare one for running a business. "Two years of this restaurant is probably equal to five years of business school," she says.
Asked if college would have helped him, Mesa replies, "Not for this; maybe for growing up."
"The experience I've gotten in six years working here, I wouldn't have gotten out of college," Orlando says. He is working very slowly toward a degree in marketing, taking only two classes a year. "This [the business] is my priority. But I hope to graduate before my kids do."
Sisson of Frogstone went to college for only a year before deciding to move to California. Her mother, who had been in the interior-design business for 25 years in Montana, helped her set up her shop.
You're just a kid
When you're in your 20s and own a business, you can expect people to question who's the boss. Agnelli says people come in asking for the owner and refuse to believe him when he says he's it. He has sometimes resorted to taking their number and pretending to call them back from a corporate office.
Image counts. Rehbock, who dresses somewhat formally at work, says she projects an aura of confidence that people accept.
With their youthful looks, clad in baseball caps, T-shirt and jeans, it's hard to tell Weich and Fazeli from their customers. "A lot of people are very shocked" when they find out they're the owners, Weich says.
"People don't take you seriously when you're 22 years old," says Mesa, who admits his age was an obstacle when he started his restaurant.
Sedgeley has faced the same kind of problems, but once people find out she knows what she's doing, age doesn't matter. "So what if I'm young?" she asks.
The main difference between them and their parents' generation is a no-fear attitude, most of the Generation X business owners said.
"I was willing to take more risks," Mansoorian says. Her father is worried about his investment. What if it fails, he asks. "You just can't think that way," she says.
Weich says her father and others of his generation seem more "bottom-line oriented." The Nectar's owners are more concerned about doing a good job, she says. "We make a product that we're very proud of."
Another difference is their willingness to put off everything else to devote themselves to their businesses. They have seen their parents struggle to juggle work and family at the same time and have decided not to try to do everything at once. Several own their own homes, and about half are married, but children are somewhere off in the future.
"We still have a lot we want to do," Rowe says. She has been married almost four years. Her husband is also in business as a partner in Britt-Rowe Design. "I want to be a parent first and be able to step back from my business. I'm not ready to do that."
Agnelli is not married. He worries about being able to devote himself fully to business and have time for a relationship, too. The only way it would work is if his partner shared his dream, he says.
Kerrie Brandau says she and her husband/partner have only a cat, no children. "Right now, the salon is our baby." Her parents had kids early, and it was harder for them, she says. "I think they didn't get to live out their dreams."
Trust only in yourself
Bruce Tulgan, author of Managing Generation X, says the children of the Baby Boomers grew up quickly, having to be self-sufficient while both parents went to work. These were the latchkey kids coming home from school alone, making their own snacks, taking care of themselves.
These were also youth who watched their parents' generation put their faith in big companies, only to be laid off, demoted or transferred around the country against their will. They grew up determined to be independent and to make sure they were able to take care of themselves.
Forbes magazine said Generation Xers have "a passion to control their own destinies." The Los Gatos entrepreneurs nod enthusiastically at this assessment. They absolutely want to control their own lives, even if they have little time for relaxation or vacations.
Agnelli says he has never wanted to meet somebody else's schedule or get involved in office politics. He can do more for himself without being limited by others. "I trust myself a lot more than I trust you with my money," he says.
Brandau hears her clients talking about being laid off and says she feels more secure working for herself, even if that means long hours and having to provide her own health insurance, retirement and other benefits. "I feel like I can only trust myself as my own commodity."
"I don't ever see myself working for a large company, even if I have to work long hours and sacrifice to do it," Rowe says. "No matter what, it's mine."
For Mesa, being independent is of supreme importance. "I don't mind working hard for it."
"I am much happier working for myself, although I'm working much harder than I ever thought possible," Croll says.
But lest one decide today's entrepreneurs are heartless and think only of money and wealth, consider that they are nearly unanimous when asked what is most important to them.
"My family" is the most common response. "Business is definitely second," Rehbock says.
Rowe cites family and health as most important. She is also concerned about pollution, politics, war and other global problems. "I get very distressed about what goes on."
A definite transition can be seen for those who have lived through the first years of struggle and have seen their businesses thrive. While most want to expand into new shops and continue to make their businesses grow, they begin to be able to see other things to strive for.
Agnelli values the quality of life more and more, he says. He wants to spend less time feeling rushed. He would like to expand his business but worries about taking on more than he can handle. It's important to stop and smell the roses, he says.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, July 10, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved