Master's student finds her niche in small business ownership

ASU master’s student Tanya Moushi was recently spotlighted by The Republic’s Arizona Storytellers Project for her entrepreneurial efforts in an article on AZ Central.

Moushi, 24, has lived in Arizona with her moderately traditional Assyrian family since she was 11. She had always wanted to own her own business and at the age of 18, she incorporated her first business, one focused on marketing for real estate agents, loan officers and mortgage brokers.

“From ages 14 to about 20, I fell in love with business ideas, about 30 of them, some theoretical, some actual,” said Moushi, who is currently enrolled as a gradate student in interdisciplinary studies in ASU's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. “I was really drawn to business from the ethics side, that good businesses existed and social responsibility is a real thing.”

But Moushi wasn’t yet confident enough to promote herself so she focused on school, her boyfriend and pursuing a job in finance. But after obtaining her bachelor's degree, she found herself feeling frustrated with the corporate job she’d worked so hard to succeed in.

Then she heard about a cooperative work space that needed a coffee shop where hard-working, civic-minded people could caffeinate and collaborate to make a difference in the community.

Moushi and her business partner, Nicole Burns, run Greater Than Coffee, a coffee shop and meeting place inside the hip CO+HOOTS co-working space in Phoenix. She’s one of eight entrepreneurs who shared their stories Thursday during an evening of live storytelling hosted by The Republic. Entrepreneurs told 5- to 8-minute stories with the theme “Big Ideas, Big Lessons: Stories of entrepreneurship, and the sacrifices, failures and tough moments that visionaries overcome on their way to success.”