Hector Gutierrez became an overnight campus celebrity at the University of Alabama earlier this year after an embarrassing email faux pas put him in the spotlight.
While applying for the school’s honor society, he mistakenly sent his business school professor’s recommendation letter to a college listserv with thousands of recipients.
“I started getting phone calls and messages saying, ‘Why did you email me? Why did you email me?’” Gutierrez told Fortune. “My Outlook started blowing up.”
While he initially found himself cringing at the mistake, the exposure turned out to be a boon for his small business. It made him a social media star, earning him a meeting with the university’s president, and landed him a feature in the school newspaper—all of which shone a spotlight on his small business.
Gutierrez, 18, started Hec’s Pet Sitting nearly three years ago. Instead of taking a traditional teen job at his local Publix supermarket, he wanted to start something of his own. The business he started as a high school student in South Florida, has grown into a registered LLC, with 10 part-time employees, and bringing in over $10,000 a year.
