Hatchet reporter Josh Solomon sat down with Kris Hart, a GW alumnus and owner of FoBoGro and Relaxed Tanning & Spa.
After graduating, why did you decide to pursue a business directly within the GW community?
I love GW and I love Foggy Bottom. I actually didn’t graduate in 2005. I stopped taking classes and started working full-time on a business proposal, ultimately opening up my own business. It made sense to be in the Foggy Bottom area because I understood the neighborhood, I loved the community, I loved GW.
Your first business was Relaxed Tanning & Spa. What inspired you to go down that path?
Never in my life did I expect to open up a tanning salon, nor was it ever a goal of mine . I just wanted to open up a business. As I was working on these business plans for big multi-million dollar companies or for something that was a big consultant firm, one of my buddies said to me, ‘Kris you don’t have any money. You don’t even have a college degree. How are you going to do these big, huge companies.’ She goes, ‘You should open up a tanning salon on campus because girls and guys always talk about how they hated not being able to have one, wanted one, and had to go far for one.’ I thought it was ridiculous. But the more I was working on business plans the more I realized you have to start somewhere, you have to start a little modest
Does running FoBoGro result in odd stories?
Almost every night. We get students coming in trying to buy beer after midnight or try to buy stuff after midnight which we can’t do, and they make life pretty hard. But obviously our staff is pretty good about saying no. We’re pretty strict. I think we’re pretty well known for being pretty strict on campus.
Who are your business idols?
Well my dad has worked for FedEx as a carrier for 37 years and I’ve always admired Fred [Smith], the CEO of FedEx. I think he is brilliant.
What advice would you give business students or any entrepreneur at GW?
For business students, they have to learn outside of the textbooks and really get their hands dirty and go out and get real world knowledge, it helps out a lot. The networking is everything. All of my investors are GW alumni. The network is huge.
