Ryan Comfort found the inspiration for his business halfway around the world.
Comfort, who graduated in 2005 from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, was touring Asia before his senior year began when an oil painting in a Thai market caught his eye.
Comfort learned that the artist painted oil copies of photographs, and he was so impressed with the quality that he decided to start a business selling paintings by Asian artists to U.S. customers via the Internet.
He arranged his schedule to graduate a semester early and took a part-time job while he developed his Web site and set up a distribution network and a marketing plan. He invested $15,000 of his own savings and borrowed $3,000 from his parents, which he has since repaid with interest.
After graduation, he moved to New York City to work full-time on Comfort2020.com. At first he scraped by on $1,200 a month (including rent) by mining Craigslist.org for an apartment, furniture and odd jobs. “The business was my life,” says Comfort.
He eventually restored some balance to his life — and some income — by taking on a regular part-time job while he continued to build his company. Business has been growing steadily, and Comfort has added real-world skills to his Wharton education.
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