Wharton students taking Management 230 traditionally design a plan for an imaginary business, though few bring their classroom assignment to market.
But two Wharton students and a recent Wharton graduate have done just that, using the business plan they developed in last spring's management course as a model to open a mostly student-run bubble teahouse on campus.
Wharton junior Kun Hsu, Wharton senior Jeremiah Boorsma and 2001 Wharton graduate Elizabeth To opened the Bubble House last Monday at 3404 Sansom St. The restaurant is named for its main product, bubble tea, an Asian drink that comes with a trademark big straw and tapioca balls.
The three entrepreneurs hope to capitalize on the popularity of similar teahouses on the West Coast and in New York City.
Hsu came up with the idea for a bubble teahouse last December after realizing there were no teahouses on campus.
"I'm from Toronto, and there's like one in every five block radius," Hsu said. "Something [at Penn] seemed lacking. But ideas are a dime a dozen and execution is really everything. I kind of dared myself to do it."
Hsu brought the idea to the other members of his Management group, To and Boorsma, who loved the plan.
"We all thought it was a great idea because it's a really big thing on the West Coast and there's nothing like that around here," To said. "If we didn't go through that class, we wouldn't have written a business plan. It got us together and into thinking about opening the place."
The group's next step was to find a location, which brought them to John Wicks, the current co-owner and landlord of Bubble House.
"They approached me with the business plan and the idea to do the teahouse and I liked it very much," Wicks said. "I felt they could use some expertise with certain aspects like construction, so I decided to invest and I became an owner as well."
A lot of time and work went into creating the Bubble House, according to Hsu.
"There was no one mentor-advisor-type person," Hsu said. "For each task that we had to do, we just sought advice from different people. Everything else we figured out on our own."
Hsu explained how he thought a teahouse would fill a void in the Penn community.
"I've seen [teahouses] become popular not only with the so-called east-Asian market, it's cross cultural," Hsu said. "With the cultural diversity here, it was a good idea to [open one] on Penn's campus."
Hsu also hopes to bring in customers to surrounding universities and other parts of the city.
"We're one of the only bubble teahouses around," Hsu said.
Business so far has been excellent, according to the Bubble House owners.
"We opened really before we wanted to," Wicks said. "There were just so many people who wanted the tea."
"Opening week, we were packed, we didn't expect that many people," To said. "It was like a party in here."
Hsu attributes the teahouse's success to the "incredible" word-of-mouth.
"I've done some research of tea as being the next big thing. I think a lot of people are tired of coffee," Wicks said. "The market is definitely here."
Patrons at the teahouse last night were enthusiastic about its fare and atmosphere.
"It seems like it will be a good place to hang out with friends or to study," Engineering junior Arika Goel said. "It's really cute."
"I think it's cool that students started it so it's something you want to help do well," Goel continued. "It's more personal than a chain. I know that my money is going to a student rather than a corporation."
And College junior Rebecca Lu, a native of Taiwan, said simply, "It reminds me of home."
Bubble House owners boast a selection of over 30 flavors of bubble teas and a menu that includes "teatime snacks" like dumplings and spring rolls as well as small desserts.
Daily Pennsylvanian staff writers Dina Ackermann and Caroline Dube contributed to this report.
