While traveling overseas in 2019, Natasha Brao ’22 (VPA), ’23 M.S., ’24 MBA, first tasted shakshuka, a classic dish of poached eggs, peppers and tomato sauce found in different variations throughout the Middle East, Northern Africa and the Mediterranean — and it sparked an idea. Five years later, that idea is Brao’s own spin on a delicious, shakshuka-inspired, spiced-tomato based sauce called Shooka, which recently became available for purchase thanks to her hard work, creativity and the entrepreneurial mindset and resources she found at the Whitman School.

The idea began while she was studying design as an undergraduate at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. “I have always been an idea machine and very passionate about food and culinary businesses,” she says. “But it took some time, networking and mentorship to get the product off the ground.”

She credits the Blackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse University Libraries for helping her find her early inroads into entrepreneurship and “guide me when I didn’t know how to turn my idea into something tangible,” she says, noting that Indaria Jones, currently the program manager of Whitman’s Couri Hatchery Student Incubator, and LaunchPad founder and Whitman faculty member Linda Dickerson Hartsock were both of particular help to her.

It was Whitman’s Professor of Entrepreneurial Practice John Torrens, however, who convinced Brao that earning a master’s degree in entrepreneurship would be an important step in furthering her goals.

Once at Whitman, she spent a lot of time at the Hatchery and also had access to faculty mentors from the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE), alumni and other business leaders to guide her.

“This made all the difference in planning the future of my business, considering strategic partnerships and creating a road map to stay on track as a busy student and entrepreneur,” she says.