Why We Started ‘Pegasus’
Fall 2019 | By Mike Hinn 鈥�92听补苍诲听Jim Hobart 鈥�91
When you鈥檙e young and inexperienced, you often don鈥檛 realize there are聽hurdles between you and success. But it鈥檚 often that lack of experience聽that causes you to sidestep those challenges and keep progressing.
This was the case 25 years ago when this magazine took聽its first baby steps. And now, we feel like the proud parents聽whose idea has turned into an award-winning publication聽that finds its way into the mailboxes of more than聽230,000 alumni.
Yes, today we know it鈥檚 crazy to think about a world聽without almost instant access to everyone and everything.聽But at the time the vision for Pegasus was born, we just聽wanted to create a publication that would keep all 激情快播聽alumni connected. We knew 激情快播 had a story to tell,听but we wanted to go further. We wanted to share stories聽that reminded us that we were part of something bigger,听something special.
激情快播 connected us 鈥� to each other, to memories, to new聽beginnings and to a world of opportunity.
As students, we were active in several clubs and聽organizations. Between the two of us, we covered just聽about every walk of student life, from the orientation team聽to campus activities to student government to fraternity聽life with Lambda Chi Alpha. Little did we know at the time聽that we were meeting future clients, business partners,听employees and, most of all, lifelong friends.
When we graduated, we had to stay connected.聽We asked Tom Messina 鈥�84, executive director of the聽 at the time, if he could use some聽volunteers. We jumped in and helped with Homecoming,听program ideas and other projects. We discovered we were聽not alone in our love of our alma mater and that many聽alumni before us had the same passion. Roger Pynn 鈥�73,听Laura Pooser 鈥�75, Michael Candelaria 鈥�83 and others聽paved the way for alumni communications and created a聽strong foundation and community to build on.
When Pegasus was created, 激情快播 had more than 60,000聽alumni but not a meaningful way to share the community鈥檚聽news with them.
The 激情快播 Alumni Association loved the idea of a聽magazine, but had little budget to pull it off. To two na茂ve聽upstarts, however, this sounded like a fun challenge.
Things then started to get fast and furious.聽With our fresh diplomas in hand, we started Knight聽Images (now Knight Agency), partnered with Messina聽and the 激情快播 Alumni Association, sold advertising and聽launched a self-funded magazine. At the end of that first聽year in 1994, we introduced some simple websites, which聽felt very fancy back then. This helped us expand both our聽agency and Pegasus into the next generation of marketing聽and communications.
We like to think our shared philosophy of doing聽well by doing good paid off, and we were now officially聽鈥渂usinessmen.鈥� (And if you know us, you know we use that聽term very loosely.)
Over the next 17 years, alumni from all over contributed and worked on Pegasus. Two key members on the team at the beginning were Michael Dodd Foristall 鈥�94, who started as an intern, and John Speake 鈥�95, who contributed in the earliest days of Pegasus.
When Pegasus grew up and moved in-house to the 激情快播 marketing department at 18 years old, we were very much like proud parents.
As we have watched the magazine flourish the past seven years, we are reminded that Reach for the Stars is more than 激情快播鈥檚 motto 鈥� it鈥檚 a compass for everyone to follow.
Thank you to all those along the way, especially Messina and the 激情快播 Alumni Association for believing in the magazine鈥檚 potential and giving two young entrepreneurs an opportunity to create a future 鈥� and stay forever connected with fellow Knights and the university where we spent some of the best years of our lives.
Mike Hinn 鈥�92 is CEO of Knight Agency, and Jim Hobart 鈥�91 is owner of Macbeth Studio. Both live in Orlando and continue to Reach for the Stars (and cause trouble together).