Entrepreneur Makes the Most Out of UTD Business Experience

Many entrepreneurs dream of starting a business that takes off quickly, and most work years building one only to have the effort fail.

For John Wetter BS’23, MS’24, it didn’t take long to find success. Less than a year after starting a business news blog, he sold it to a larger company, all while he was 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 follower of financial business news, Wetter launched the Black Swan Street blog in 2023 during his first year as a finance graduate student in the Naveen Jindal School of Management (JSOM). The blog’s name refers to an unexpected, high-impact Wall Street event that usually results 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.

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

John Wetter BS’23, MS’24

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, 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.”

As word about his newsletter spread, it drew the attention of a company that was expanding its offerings by buying up existing financial news sites. The company, with more than 1 million social media followers, approached Wetter and Sam Feldman BS’23, chief operating officer of Black Swan Street and a fellow Jindal School graduate student, about purchasing their startup. At first Wetter was reluctant, but after a month of negotiations, they agreed to a deal.

“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 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 Dr. Christian von Drathen, visiting assistant professor of finance and managerial economics, who Wetter said taught the most difficult class he’d ever taken, Financial Modeling for Valuation. Wetter also credits Dr. Han Xia, associate professor of finance and managerial economics, with springboarding his love of studying finance.

Wetter said his experience at the Jindal School provided him 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.

Black Swan Street wasn’t Wetter’s first business venture. During his freshman year as a business administration student, he started a moving company, and at one point he employed 10 fellow UTD students.

“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. I wanted to do something bigger.”

When asked why he chose to go to 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 named Jeff Wetter BS’19, MBA’21, are alumni, while his younger sister, Jill, is an international political economy junior in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. Although Wetter applied to other schools and was accepted, 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 year in the Jindal School’s Master of Business Administration program, and he is looking for a job now that his startup has been sold. Wetter hopes to land a role in investment banking or business consulting, and though he is young, he said he has already learned so much about what makes a business successful.

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