What You’ll Do

• Get to Know Your Mentor: Initial Interview followed by Weekly Meeting

• Work on a project team to pitch an idea to the team

• See the operation: Shadow 2 store hours with different co-owners

• Learn Bike Repairs at our Fix-a-flat-tire and Safety-check workshops 

• Learn how to value a business at the StEP Buying a Business workshop

• Conclude the program with an Interview with the current Ownership Team

About the Path to Ownership

Bears Bikes will bring on one member from the Class of 2027 to our ownership team! Of the more than 7,000 undergraduate students at Wash U, less than 50 are business owners in the Skandalaris Center’s Student Entrepreneurship Program (StEP), and just a handful of new ownership positions open up each year. These owners make up one of the most successful, high performing networks of students at Wash U. Bears Bikes owners get valuable real-world business experience, mentorship, and can make a substantial return on their investment, all before graduating college.

Bears Bikes is the only StEP business with a complete program for future StEP owners. Students in the Path to Ownership are paired with a mentor from the current Bears Bikes ownership team. They keep in regular contact with their mentors through one-on-one meetings. You can and are invited to use this relationship to help navigate your life at Wash U and beyond. We didn’t know anyone when we got here, and life would have been much easier if we had older friends who knew the ropes.

Message from the Current Owners

Dear Future Entrepreneurs of Wash U,

We can’t wait to share the knowledge we’ve collected in our experiences at Bears Bikes with YOU. In the Path to Ownership, you’re not just adding a bullet point to your resume. You’re learning a set of fundamental principles that govern the way you approach work long after college.

At Bears Bikes, we put classroom learning into action. The shop is a personal research lab for building experiments with real customer feedback loops. Through relationships with the Office of Sustainability, Skandalaris Center, and Office of Residential Life, you get a unique perspective at Wash U, straddling the line between students and university administrators.

Owning Bears Bikes is the most important growth and educational experience that each of us have had at Wash U. We have all received job or internship offers as a result of our work here. A few of the companies the current owners have interned for are Guggenheim, Deloitte, and Evervest Financial.

We’re excited to pass on the torch and see what the next generation of student owners can accomplish!

Sincerely, 

Christian Robinson ‘26, Evan Mayse ‘26, Eashan Kothari ‘24, and Tanvi Jammula ‘26

Here are some examples of companies the current owners have worked for: