Jamie Lujan (Acct’05; MEdu’10)
Founder, Saluzo Business Solutions
One of the first questions a successful entrepreneur asks about her business idea is the “why.” Jamie Lujan found her why as a young girl, spending her Saturdays coloring in the back of her mother’s barbershop.
“My mother couldn’t take me to a traditional workplace, but I could go to the barbershop,” Lujan said. “My husband also grew up in his family’s small businesses. Those are the businesses we want to work with, so that when we’re talking to a university or sports arena, we’re able to find opportunities to help big organizations diversify their supply chains by engaging with companies owned by women and people of color.”
Her latest venture, Saluzo, offers consulting and professional services to startups and entrepreneurs, especially those owned by women or people of color. It’s the latest stop on a career that’s encompassed entrepreneurship, accounting, grants, marketing and higher education, including work at CU Boulder and Leeds.
Lujan chose CU after attending a pre-college program. Today, those programs are robust—she teaches the Introduction to Business course that pre-college students take in the summer—but at the time, they were limited, and departments like Leeds’ Office of Diversity Affairs, which eventually hired Lujan as its associate director, didn’t exist. “But I landed in the right place. I tell people all the time that Leeds is one of the best business schools in the country.”
Lujan’s well-traveled résumé is a kind of roadmap for today’s students, who are expected to have “career portfolios” of several distinct careers in their professional life. She attributes her success to the network she cultivated throughout her career.
“I love to meet other people chasing their passions and seeing what magic happens when we work together.”
Jamie Lujan (Acct’05; MEdu’10)
“For students, it’s so important to remember that your reputation will precede you in business,” she said. “In my work, I call on people in universities, policy, VC, banking, technology, youth athletics and nonprofits—and I can continue working with them because I’ve maintained a level of transparency, honesty and excellence in my work.”
Her network and reputation helped her secure her newest project, where she’s leading the Latino strategy for the Network of Untapped Entrepreneurs, an investment firm focused on closing the wealth gap by supporting entrepreneurs of color and their communities.
For Lujan, the best part of her work is getting to meet other founders: "I’m a people person, I love to meet other people chasing their passions and seeing what magic happens when we work together.”