Fernando Munoz

My Story

When I first came to Snow College, entrepreneurship wasn’t something I ever pictured myself doing. I actually thought it wasn’t for me at all. I never saw myself as capable enough to do something like that. But that changed after I took my first entrepreneurship class. That class opened my eyes to the fascinating aspects and long-term rewards of building something from the
ground up.

At the beginning, I didn’t know what kind of business to start. So, I started researching problems.  My very first idea was to create software to help shelters manage resources for the homeless.  Like many engineers, I made the mistake of focusing on the solution before fully understanding the problem. That’s when I first met with Russ Tanner, who became my mentor. He helped me 
realize the blind spots I wasn’t seeing and pushed me to think differently. That was the moment I understood why I wanted to be an entrepreneur: to solve real problems.

From there, I started talking to people, doing research, looking for problems and began experimenting with ideas closer to my own life as a student. I worked on several projects, including a design-based guide for freshmen, a student marketplace, and even a career coach platform. Because I am a student myself, I could connect directly with these problems and create solutions that mattered.

I also began competing. In Fall 2024, I entered the $7,000 Snowdown competition with a friend.  We pitched our student marketplace idea (SnowSwap) and made it to the finals. But on the big day, something went wrong, we ran out of time in the middle of our presentation. Standing in front of students, faculty, and community leaders, I felt like everything I had worked for had collapsed. We didn’t win, but that failure was one of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned: always practice, always manage your time, and always adapt your perspective on how to present.  Since then, I’ve participated in multiple competitions, including “Bootstrap Your Business” and Snowdown, being able to achieve business milestone and win real money.

My current ventures—MyShelter, JobPilot, and SnowSwap—represent my wins and failures as an entrepreneur. I’m persevering with two of them and pausing one, because I’ve learned that it’s better to focus and build deeply on one idea at a time rather than spreading myself too thin.  But this couldn’t have been possible without the help of The GRIT Center, they have been at the 
heart of my journey. The mentors there not only give advice; they invest in you personally, they connect with you, they become your friends, and they want you to grow. They make the relationship feel real, supportive, and full of learning. 

Looking forward, I plan to continue persevering. My journey has been full of mistakes, pivots, and small wins, but I’ve learned that’s exactly what entrepreneurship is supposed to be. My advice to anyone starting out is simple: take risks even when it seems impossible, fail as many times as you need to, but never repeat the same mistake twice. Keep growing, keep learning, and 
remember that Anyone can be an entrepreneur. All it takes is courage, curiosity, and the willingness to fail.