Haley Jústiz considers her first entrepreneurial venture to be a “Hunger Games” fan page she launched on Instagram as a middle schooler, which amassed over 300,000 followers.

Now a Plan II and business honors senior, Jústiz said her love of storytelling still drives her entrepreneurial success at local startups.

“I don’t believe that you can have a compelling startup or sell investors on investing in your startup if you can’t tell a good story,” Jústiz said. “When an entrepreneur pitches (to) an audience, … you should feel like they’re telling you about a very human experience.”

Jústiz currently works as a partner at FreeWater, the world’s first free beverage company, after joining the team in the fall. She said she became interested in FreeWater, which supports itself through advertisements on their packaging, because of their mission to impact the world around them through innovation.

“I’m not just in business to make money, or especially make money at the expense of others,” Jústiz said.

Jústiz said she took on many duties at FreeWater, including working with their supply chain and distribution, creating strategies for product line expansion, managing interns and running the company’s YouTube channel.

“My official title in my contract was ‘Wears All Hats,’” Jústiz said. “So much of a startup is being involved in everything because there’s so much happening and the team is very small.”

Jústiz said she plans to leave FreeWater soon to start working with Gazelle Ecosolutions, a company developed by UT undergraduates to help ranchers in sub-Saharan Africa sustainably manage their land.

“Haley is somebody who is willing to try new things, take risks and learn,” said Jacob Cordova, executive director of Genesis, UT’s startup fund. “That’s exactly what you need to be successful with a startup.”

Working at these startups while a full-time student can be difficult, Jústiz said, leaving her torn between devoting time to her grades or her business.

“For student entrepreneurs, once you get latched on to the idea you can’t not work on it,” said Nick Spiller, Jústiz’s mentor through the Longhorn Startup Lab. “Instead of an external reward, like a grade in a class or a prize that an organization gives to you, it’s an internal motivation.”

Entrepreneurship requires nonstop commitment, Jústiz said, which helped her stay motivated throughout college.

“It is a hard balance, but if you love what you do, you’ll make the time to do it and you won’t see it as a sacrifice,” Jústiz said. 

Jústiz said she will continue working with Gazelle Ecosolutions and will start a full-time consulting job in the fall, but plans to go to business school in a few years in the hopes of founding her own social impact company.

Jústiz said she credits her drive to improve the world through the young adult books she grew up on, inspired by heroines like Katniss Everdeen who devote their lives to trying to make the world a little bit better.

“When you grow up on stories like that, you see that as a potential for yourself,” Jústiz said. “Maybe I am just one person, but I can do something to make the world a better place.”