Through entrepreneurship and mentorship, community manager and  one of the founders of Hub101 Greg Monterrosa has helped to provide a place for entrepreneurs to grow.

“I love helping entrepreneurs and our students bring ideas to life and grow businesses,” Monterrosa said. “Having been in the business world for awhile I have a pretty stacked network of people that we connect, and we’re a mentor driven space.”

Monterrosa was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles and has lived in the Conejo Valley for more than 15 years. He has been working for California Lutheran University at Hub101 for just over three and a half years. According to its Facebook page, Hub101 is “dedicated to serving entrepreneurs” and offers “coworking, an incubator program and community.”

“I got involved with mentoring entrepreneurs and startups in our region and then globally. So, being from the Conejo Valley, it was only a matter of when I was going to bring value to my community like we have with Hub101,”  Monterrosa said. 

Monterrosa got his start co-founding a startup called MyLLC.com 12 years ago. As the business grew Monterrosa said he brought in individuals he deemed capable of taking over to ensure his business expanded successfully. 

“So like six years in it got the point where it was going from a medium sized business to a larger business, so I needed to bring somebody smarter than me on board to lead it. So, the business just continued to grow,” Monterrosa said.

Monterrosa said it is essential to surround yourself with people who are “smarter than you.” Monterrosa said that he believes mentorship and support are vital to the success and expansion of any business. 

“As someone that is trying to bring an idea to life or grow a business, you need the mentorship of people that have done what you want to do and that can help take you there which is really important in my opinion,” Monterrosa said. 

Johann Dias, a student at Cal Lutheran, has been mentored by Monterrosa since his first  year and began working for Hub101 during his junior year. Dias said Monterrosa has consistently been a source of support and encouragement toward him. 

“Working with him, he’s taught me a lot about team building and a lot about leadership. He’s demonstrated it to me just through just living. He walks the talk so to speak you know,” Dias said. “Everything that he preaches is something that he does and utilizes in his own life which is something I’m not going to say is hard to find but is a very remarkable quality of his. If he says something, he means it.”

 Dias credits Monterrosa with constantly encouraging him and the people around him to find what they are good at. He has emphasized that at Hub101, Monterrosa encourages the “do-ers” or staff to experiment and find what they are passionate about and build upon what they discover about themselves.

“One thing that’s really cool about him too, as being like a mentor and being a boss at the Hub, is that he lets you roam free and find your place there. He lets you do virtually whatever role you want to do and are good at doing,” Dias said.

Michael Panesis, the executive director of The Center for Entrepreneurship and Monterrosa’s boss, said Monterrosa is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable worker. Panesis and Monterrosa have worked together for almost four years. 

“Greg knows what he’s doing. He does it very well. I don’t feel like I have to be there all the time whenever I know that Greg’s taking care of things,” Panesis said. 

Panesis said Monterrosa is someone who takes his position as a mentor seriously by giving advice beyond the topic of business. Panesis said that Monterrosa is known for his “walk and talks” at HUB101.

“You can ask Greg anything and get advice for it. So, we’ve had many a student who comes back from a ‘walk and talk’ feeling reenergized and good about themselves when maybe when they started they weren’t,” Panesis said. 

Panesis said he feels as though Monterrosa is like family to him and that Monterrosa makes everyone around him feel valued. 

“His best quality is that it’s difficult to not like Greg. He is respectful of people. He treats everyone as an individual. He makes you feel like you’re family,” Panesis said.  

Monterrosa said he hopes others can find a home at Hub101 so they can make their ideas become reality. 

“Hub101 is a place that many of us refer to as home. It’s a place where no idea is a silly idea and we’re there to help inspire and bring value to our student community,” Monterrosa said.