Alumnus Meets with Quick Business Success

Many entrepreneurs dream of starting a business that takes off. Most work for years building a business only to see the effort fail with the poor success rate of startups. But for John Wetter BS’23, MS’24 business success came quickly, and just as quickly it paid off when Wetter’s startup was bought by a larger company. And this feat happened while he was still a University of Texas at Dallas graduate student.

“I have always loved everything about entrepreneurship and business,” Wetter said. “I always knew I wanted to be involved with business, but specifically in an area where I could have an impact.”

A huge follower of financial business news, Wetter started a business news blog called Black Swan Street during his first year as a master’s student studying finance at the Naveen Jindal School of Management (JSOM). The name refers to an event on Wall Street when something totally unexpected happens to a business or industry, usually resulting in a negative turn for stocks. Wetter named his blog with the hope that users could avoid a Black Swan event by following his news updates.

But Black Swan Street wasn’t Wetter’s first business enterprise. During his freshman year at UTD, he started a moving company using friends as labor. At one point he employed 10 fellow UTD students and fraternity brothers.

“I thought a moving company was something I could succeed in because it involves a simplistic business model,” Wetter said. “I did that for a year, and it was pretty successful but then I shut it down because I didn’t see much longevity in the company, and I wanted to do something bigger.”

Soon after launching Black Swan Street, Wetter turned the blog into an online newsletter. His subscriber base — and advertising revenue — grew steadily. Within nine months of launch, he had 5,500 subscribers.

“Over years of watching financial market news, I noticed that the media was often biased toward the negative,” Wetter said. “Negative content meant more clicks and more revenue, but I wanted Black Swan Street to be totally unbiased and straight-to-the-point in its presentation of the news. That’s where the growth in my subscribers came from.”

Word about his newsletter spread, and it also drew the attention of a business media company that was expanding its offerings by buying up existing financial news sites. The company approached Wetter and Sam Feldman BS’23, the company’s chief operating officer and a fellow Jindal School graduate student, about purchasing Black Swan Street. At first Wetter was reluctant, but after a month of negotiations, Wetter and Feldman agreed to an offer.

“It was an awesome feeling to have a company interested in buying [our business],” Wetter said. “It was great to see that what I was doing worked and that people were noticing.”

Wetter credits much of his success with his startup to his time as a Jindal School graduate student. He said the biggest impact came from the professors.

“The JSOM graduate school professors are brilliant people, and it’s inspiring to be in their classes,” he said.

One of his most influential professors was Christian von Drathen, assistant professor of finance, who Wetter said taught the most difficult class he’d ever taken, Financial Modeling for Valuation. Wetter also credits Han Xia, associate professor of finance and managerial economics and Sydney Smith Hicks Faculty Fellow, with springboarding his love of studying finance.

Wetter said that his experience at the Jindal School was also important because he had the opportunity to meet several industry people who visited campus, including Dallas investment banker Robert Rough. Wetter was so impressed by Rough that he approached him after class, and they ended up having lunch.

“It was a great opportunity to talk to someone who has so much experience that he was willing to share with me,” Wetter said.

When asked why he chose to go to school at UT Dallas, it turns out the answer was easy — it’s a family tradition. Both Wetter’s father, Jeff Wetter MS’94, MBA’97, and his older brother, also Jeff Wetter BS’19, MBA’21, are UT Dallas graduates, while his younger sister, Jill, is a sophomore in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. Although Wetter did apply and was accepted to other undergraduate schools, his family’s professional success was reason enough for him to follow in their footsteps.

“My dad looked for somewhere to go for his graduate education where his degrees would appreciate over time and that pushed him to UTD,” Wetter said. “My brother had great experiences at UTD, too, and I was looking for the same thing. I was pretty set from the beginning to go to UTD.”

Wetter is now in his first semester in the Jindal School’s Master of Business Administration program. He’s also in the market for a job now that his startup has been sold. He hopes to land a role in investment banking or business consulting, and though he is young, Wetter says he has already learned so much about what makes a business successful, or not.

“I have a much better understanding now for what a sustainable business looks like and what has longevity and what doesn’t,” Wetter said.

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