Hayden Fulstone met Brandin Cohen and Cameron Killeen, all from the Class of 2010, in the dorms during their first-year and quickly became best friends. Later, the three noticed a trend in adults drinking Pedialyte – a beverage marketed for children – to recover from hangovers and fight dehydration. That spurred an idea that landed them in the inaugural class of startups in the Business Incubator, created by David Choi, Ph.D., professor of entrepreneurship and director of the Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship in the LMU College of Business Administration (CBA). After years of hard work scaling the business, their company, Liquid I.V., was acquired by Unilever in October 2020.
Now that Fulstone has reached a level of financial success that many dream of, he’s giving back to his alma mater with the Hayden Fulstone Entrepreneurship Scholarship, which will provide a full-tuition scholarship to an incoming LMU entrepreneurship student.
“The Business Incubator was an integral part of our initial growth,” said Fulstone. “I wanted to give back to LMU because that’s where it all started. If not for LMU and Professor Choi, Liquid I.V. wouldn’t exist. I want to help others get through school and give them a similar experience that I had.”
“They had smarts and talent to develop into great entrepreneurs and business leaders,” said Choi. “But even more important, they had passion and a willingness to work very hard even through the hard times. Sacrifice and resilience are usually the secret sauce behind every success story. They did not see much success in the first five years, but they stuck with it, and eventually saw the fruits of their labor.”
The scholarship allows the CBA to immediately attract the next generation of entrepreneurial hopefuls to the program.
“This scholarship says so much about Hayden, the person,” said Choi. “He is humbly acknowledging that he is not a one-man success story, but that he appreciates the help he received. He also is saying that he wants someone to have an easier time financing college than he did. I am extremely proud of Hayden’s success and the man he has become.”
For more information about establishing a scholarship in the LMU College of Business Administration, contact Roberta Kuhlman, senior director of development, 310.258.5483 or roberta.kuhlman@lmu.edu. To support CBA scholarships, visit here.
