Sandbox is a collegiate entrepreneurship program that started at BYU in 2020 and, as of the Fall 2024 semester, has expanded to a handful of other colleges, including UVU. Sandbox is a two semester, 18-credit cohort program designed to teach the skills and provide the tools necessary for motivated students to succeed in starting a business. Sandbox also serves to connect such like-minded students with one another and facilitate formation of business teams.
The program involves some class time, but most of the time students do self-directed work on their respective businesses (the program recommends 25 hours a week). Applications to the program open every Spring and involve a dynamic Hack-a-thon that changes from year to year. Last year, the Hack-a-thon was a 24-hour game jam: applicants met with each other online or in person and formed teams to build a video game in just 24 hours.
A Student’s Perspective
Samuel Whitlock, a Data Science major currently in his final semester at UVU, is part of the first Sandbox cohort at UVU. Whitlock first heard of Sandbox when he was in high school, before Sandbox was at UVU. As soon as he saw fliers indicating the program’s arrival at UVU, he was eager to join.
A major aspect of the program that stands out to Whitlock is how effective it is in comparison to traditional classes: “In the first semester of Sandbox, I learned more than I did in three years of college, which is kind of a crazy thing…people spend their time in classes learning things from a textbook and slideshows. It’s a much lower-quality form of education than actually getting your hands dirty and building things. Of course, actually doing things you’re going to learn a lot more than just sitting down and listening to people talk about them.”
He continued, “It’s more in terms of depth and it’s also more in terms of breadth…[in traditional classes] you have some projects, but the projects that are in a computer science classroom, at least at UVU, are not usually shippable projects. It’s not like it contains everything that you need to have a functioning product. The difference between making a school project and making something real is astronomical.” Whitlock has long dreamed of starting a business, because he believes the most effective way to change the world for the better is through business. He finds Sandbox to be a highly effective way to get started.
Collaboration is Key
Another thing Whitlock likes about Sandbox is the program’s inherently collaborative nature. “You get to work with a bunch of other people who also want to make successful businesses. And so, unlike other classes where…you just sit next to the other students and you don’t really talk to them much or get to know them, in Sandbox you have the opportunity to make really good friends that you spend a lot of time with.” He described how, from forming a team for the game jam during the application process to spending hours every week in the Keller Building’s Entrepreneurship Institute, his experience in Sandbox has been filled with a sense of community and comradery.
Describing the structure of Sandbox’s classes, Whitlock said, “Class time looks like this: you meet two times a week for about 60 minutes. The first part of class is just learning from somebody who’s a professional…we had a graphics designer come in and they told us everything about web design…someone else came in to talk about branding, we’ve had mentors on go-to-market, pricing strategy, negotiation…and it’s just a 30 minute segment chocked full of valuable information for building a business. Then after that, the last 30 minutes is talking to the people around you about their businesses. Seeing how you can help them, how they can help you…so the last part you really get to know the people around you better.”
He continued, “But we also…work on our projects together outside of class. So before class, I’ll come in here [the Entrepreneurship Institute] and there will be other people doing Sandbox in this room…and we’ll just talk about what we want out of Sandbox and how we can help each other.”
Early Success?
Some of this year’s Sandbox students are already seeing significant revenue in their businesses. “There’s been a decent amount of success already in our Sandbox cohort. One of my friends is making over 200k [in revenue] already. If he continues to grow at the same rate, he’ll be at a million dollars AAR by the end of the year…there are lots of other companies that are doing really well and already have lots of paying customers.”
Whitlock mentioned, however, that not all of Sandbox’s students’ businesses have seen revenue yet, and most that have are still just getting the ball rolling. The business that he and his team have been working on is Octosh, an AI-powered email writer designed for customer success agents and similar professionals whose jobs often involve writing many similar emails every day.
While UVU’s Entrepreneurship Institute has other similar programs, Sandbox stands out in many ways. “Sandbox is unique in that it’s a multi-school collaborative event, so you have a bunch of different schools and the network is much larger than it would be if it was just UVU or just BYU…so if you attend Sandbox, become a Sandboxer, you can talk with a ton of really cool people.” Whitlock continued, “it’s specifically tech-oriented. And tech businesses have an advantage over a lot of other businesses in that they can grow ridiculously large without…much infrastructure…tech also has a track record of outperforming every other field.” Sandbox is the only entrepreneurship program at UVU that is focused specifically on software businesses.
Whitlock did note that for students interested in different kinds of entrepreneurial pursuits may find UVU’s other programs as a better fit: “you’re able to find something that you can do really well, then you’ll probably succeed. But I wouldn’t say that Sandbox is for everyone. If you’re somebody who likes to make music or YouTube videos, you should probably join one of the other entrepreneurship programs instead of Sandbox…UVU has entrepreneurship programs for everything from fashion to food, and they can be taken by any major.”
A Place For You
Focused on helping students find software companies, Sandbox mainly draws in Business, Computer Science and Graphic Design majors. Whitlock noted, however, that membership in the program is currently imbalanced: “[Sandbox] takes in mostly business students and programming students, but…there’s very much a need for graphic designers in the program.” He also noted that students of any major have skills and knowledge to succeed in Sandbox: “Anybody who is determined and scrappy is a great fit for Sandbox…If I hadn’t been a Data Science major, let’s say I was an art major and I was like, I want to take Sandbox; I would have had a similar amount of learning to do. And I’m sure I would have still used things that were in my major. And I would say the same for pretty much any major.”
Noting what wide variety of students can find success in the program, he said, “One of the most important things for creating a business is having insights that no one else has, and one of the best ways that you can get that is by taking an unconventional path. So if you’re someone who’s not a business major and not a computer science major, you’ve still got a really good shot at Sandbox.”
Whitlock believes that there is a place in Sandbox for any highly motivated and entrepreneurially minded student. “Sandbox is phenomenal, and I think it would be a good fit for a lot of students, especially students who want to make a lot of money but aren’t necessarily…’fit-the-box’ students. And I think a lot of those are not computer science or business people. I think we need more of other majors in Sandbox…if you’re somebody who’s willing to do a lot of work, then you can find a place…in Sandbox,” he said, continuing, “One of the most fundamental skills that you can have in any endeavor is being able to think…which is, you know, English majors, Philosophy, like a lot of majors that aren’t necessarily computer-related. If you like AI things and you want to build with AI things, then Sandbox is the best program for that at UVU.”
Whitlock emphasized that the program helps students with all levels of entrepreneurship, saying, “One of the great things about Sandbox is you don’t have to know about business. You don’t have to come in with a business idea…The creation of the business idea and everything else is done in the program.” Whitlock also said that he believes the greatest determining factor for who makes it into the program isn’t necessarily technical skill: “If you really want to get in, you’ll get in. The entrance tests are mostly just tests of strength of will. Kind of like the 24-hour game jam…I got in, and my game was barely functional. Like, it barely worked. But the reason why I got in was because I stayed up for the entire 24-hour game jam.”
BYU’s Sandbox students and graduates from years past have gone on to find much success; businesses launched through the program are collectively valued at 126 million dollars, per Sandbox’s website, and they say that even students who don’t continue working on their startups enjoy greater success in their careers thanks to being in the program. In an era when many are questioning the efficacy of a traditional college experience and degree, are programs like Sandbox the solution to finding more meaningful tertiary education?
For more information, visit Sandbox and UVU’s other entrepreneurial programs
