Student Profile: Emma Sotomayor

This is the second installment in a series highlighting the Class of 2018 recipients of the 1898 Scholarship—exceptional MBA candidates who exemplify our unique community. Through the continued generous support of alumni and friends of Booth, we are able to help our students unlock their true potential, thereby propelling future leaders to confidently navigate the uncertainties of a rapidly changing world.

When you’re a driven entrepreneur with big ideas, sometimes you have to fail to eventually succeed. That’s certainly true for current student Emma Sotomayor.

Prior to coming to Booth, Sotomayor launched an e-commerce fashion store called Pulso Chic, which targeted the plus-size women’s market in Mexico. And although Sotomayor found that running her own company excited her, the business didn’t reach profitability. As a result, she left Pulso Chic and transferred the project to one of her vendors. “It was a very painful process, and I started to think about how I could get better” at operating a business, she says.

Sotomayor’s past experience with Pulso Chic, coupled with later work as an M&A strategy consultant, led her to Booth, where she is particularly interested in venture capital. “I want to make an impact and be able to work with interesting companies to help them grow,” she says. “Eventually, I would love to set up my own VC firm back in Mexico.”

Booth’s 1898 Scholarship isn’t just an opportunity to prepare her for a future in VC—it’s also a chance for her to bring a world-class education back home to Mexico, a country that she believes is likely to see a lot of entrepreneurship in the coming years.

“Booth has changed the way I view life,” she says. When alumni and friends of Booth give to the 1898 Scholarship, “it is a great opportunity to make an impact on society, not only here in Chicago but worldwide.”