Carleton engineering student Alessandro Argentina doesn’t have a minor in business, but he doubles as an entrepreneur.
Last May, Argentina opened the Loft Lounge, a board game cafe in downtown Ottawa.
Patrons go to play board games and have coffee, beer, and pub food.
Argentina said he credits Carleton for giving him the confidence to pursue his dream of opening a board game cafe with his business partner, University of Ottawa student Mike Hopkins.
The Loft Lounge, located on Waller Street, both caters to students and employs them. Approximately 70 per cent of the Loft Lounge staff are students, Argentina said, and they’re trained to help hopeful board game players learn the rules to any of the 800 games that the Loft Lounge offers.
Argentina is in his last year of a graduate degree in civil engineering. He received his undergrad in the same subject from Carleton in 2012. While civil engineering and board game cafes are not directly related, Argentina said that his engineering education was useful in developing a business plan.
In business, he said, “there’s a lot of unknowns. You don’t know how much people are going to spend, your rent, your food costs . . . you need to make a lot of assumptions.”
In engineering, “they teach you how to mitigate risk,” Argentina explained.
“All my problem-solving skills are from engineering,” he said.
Argentina said Dave Bell, an adjunct professor in Carleton’s civil engineering department, and professor Ata Khan were Carleton faculty who gave him the confidence to pursue his dream.
“When we discussed career paths, they said, ‘you can do whatever you want,’” Argentina said.
“Both these professors spent time with me to go over my work and discuss my strengths and weaknesses in the academic setting, which I believe translated well into the entrepreneurial setting,” Argentina said.
“People explore their opportunities and their dreams of what they want to do. When I was in undergrad, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be able to open and run my own restaurant. A few years later, learning the skills at school, getting the confidence from professors, I’m glad that I did it.”
In the future, Argentina said that he hopes to expand the Loft Lounge to other neighbourhoods, and implement another location closer to Carleton.
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