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Alumni in Action

WSB Alum Katie Lorenz Shares Five Lessons in Entrepreneurship

By Chris Malina

January 21, 2025

Lessons Learned with WSB alumni.

Katie Lorenz (BBA ’12) was never a sweater person—that is, until she experienced the magic of alpaca fleece. Now, she’s on a mission to dress her customers in the comfiest garments they can imagine, while creating positive change in the process.

Lorenz is the founder of Campo Alpaca, a fair-trade apparel company featuring alpaca-inspired products crafted by Peruvian artisans. With a background in retail strategy and consulting, Lorenz launched the business in 2017 as a side hustle before shifting to full-time entrepreneur status in 2025. The company works with artisan groups and small family businesses across Peru to craft Wisconsin-inspired sweaters and more, while ensuring that creators receive fair wages and have access to safe work environments.

As Lorenz continues to scale Campo, she reflects on the lessons she’s learned throughout her entrepreneurial journey and offers advice to anyone thinking about starting their own business.

Katie Lorenz standing in front of the letters BLC
Katie Lorenz (BBA ’12) shows off one of her company’s signature sweaters at Grainger Hall.

Take that first step

Campo Alpaca officially launched in 2017, but the idea for the company’s signature Wisconsin sweater came years earlier in 2014 when Lorenz drew its preliminary design in her travel journal after a trip to Peru.

Once the idea for a business started to materialize in her mind, Lorenz found herself wanting to tweak or perfect every little detail before going public with the idea. Even after preparing a Kickstarter campaign to get the business off the ground, Lorenz found herself waiting for the perfect moment to actually launch it.

While planning and preparation have their place, Lorenz says that sometimes the most important thing an entrepreneur can do is get out of their own way.

“Just put something out there because, at some point, you’ve got to take that first step,” says Lorenz. “Write it down, whiteboard it out, do whatever method necessary to get things out of your head and onto paper. Otherwise, you’re never going to get going.”

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Even with over a decade of industry experience at Accenture, Lorenz says she quickly identified gaps in her own business knowledge when launching Campo Alpaca.

“It’s a very different ball game building something from the ground up versus working for a large company with tons of resources,” she says.

To fill in those gaps, Lorenz began tapping into her personal and professional networks for advice and guidance, and quickly found that the people around her were eager to lend a hand.

“I like to say that everyone that I know has helped out with the business in some way,” she says. “I even reached out to a bunch of different professors around WSB and UW–Madison’s School of Human Ecology with questions. Even if I had never taken their classes, they were happy to chat with me.”

Additionally, Lorenz points to the ample and often free resources that are available to emerging entrepreneurs through the university. For instance, when she needed a hand navigating the licensing process, she was pointed in the direction of the UW–Madison Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic, which provides free legal services to early-stage companies.

Define your idea, identify your customer

While Campo Alpaca describes itself as a company for social good, and embraces ethical business practices, sustainability, and fair trade, the company does have another goal: to be profitable.

It’s something that aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those looking to make positive change in the world, need to consider when turning a passion project into a business plan.

“Having that through line of why you’re doing what you’re doing—whether it’s saving the world or making money or solving a problem—is extremely helpful.”

—Katie Lorenz (BBA ’12)

“Not all ideas are actually revenue generating,” says Lorenz. “I’m all about following your passions, but if you’re looking to create a successful business, there needs to be a problem you’re trying to solve, a uniqueness to your product, or a better business model than the next guy.”

In crafting a business plan, Lorenz also says it’s important to clearly identify who your customer will be. And while it might be tempting to cast the widest net possible when considering the market for your product, Lorenz urges caution.

“Your business won’t be for everyone,” she says. “So, knowing who your customers are and keeping that in mind is important.”

Build a foundation of trust

Trust is the foundation of just about every small business, and that’s no different for Campo Alpaca. For Lorenz, working with artisans thousands of miles away requires significant relationship building—but no matter who is producing the product or where it’s made, she says trust must go both ways.

“Do what you say you’re going do, follow through, but then also be very clear with what you’re expecting,” Lorenz says. That’s especially important for Campo, which works a bit differently from the standard model in the clothing industry. Typically, Lorenz says, the manufacturer fronts most of the money for the product’s creation, while the distributor or retailer selling it pays the manufacturer only after receiving the product.

“The artisan groups we work with are small and can’t float all of that money to buy materials and pay the team,” says Lorenz. “So, we actually end up paying at least a 50% advance, before getting the product, which required quite a bit of trust building on our end. Additionally, during the pandemic, we paid everything up front and took on all of the risk ourselves to put people before profit.”

The result was a win-win for both parties—and a solid foundation for growing the business even further.

Remember the ‘why’

While entrepreneurs might dream about their company becoming an overnight success, the reality is that the road to business success is long and challenging—and even the buzziest startups still have to go through rounds of investor pitching and fundraising.

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” she says. “On top of that, managing your motivation and your passion through it all is a constant exercise. It’s not easy, and it doesn’t happen overnight.”

Lorenz admits that there have been times when it felt like her endurance was being tested. In these tough moments along the entrepreneurship journey, she says it’s helpful to refocus by remembering the primary aspiration for starting the business in the first place.

“Understanding your why is really important to keep you going when stuff is inevitably hard and everything feels like it’s going very wrong,” says Lorenz. “Having that through line of why you’re doing what you’re doing—whether it’s saving the world or making money or solving a problem—is extremely helpful.”


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