Like many college students, Shuting Zheng MBA’25 wasn’t certain about her future career path as an undergraduate at the UW. A natural curiosity about people, as well as a love for the hustle, led her to pair a sociology degree with certificates in entrepreneurship and European studies.
“Sociology is a great way to understand the behavior of people,” Zheng says. “I liked the breadth that it offered and the ability to hopefully make a social-impact difference.” Entrepreneurship also offered a way to make her mark — both for Zheng personally if she ever wanted to run her own business, and for others. “I was really interested in social entrepreneurship as well,” she says, adding that she liked the idea of helping others grow their own businesses.
Ultimately, Zheng’s career path didn’t need to be predetermined — her focus on passion and interests in college have naturally led her to successful and fulfilling roles in a variety of industries, including fashion, art, and marketing over the past decade. Such experiences inspired Zheng to return to the UW to earn an MBA in 2025, which has now set her up for her next role as a brand manager for General Mills.
Ever the hustler, Zheng also found time to become a small-business owner. In 2018, she and her now-husband Cory Peterson cofounded Dooty Free Bags, a pet supplies company specializing in quirky dog-waste bags and bag dispensers.
The side business is a perfect venture for Zheng, allowing her a creative outlet to make people — possibly even dogs — smile, as well as giving her an opportunity to exercise practical business skills like managing operations, marketing, and analytics. Dooty Free Bags also served as a valuable learning tool during her MBA program, functioning as a real-life case study for her Weinert Applied Ventures in Entrepreneurship (WAVE) course, a practicum that prepares students to start and grow their own business.
Part of the Weinert Center’s Wisconsin Fellowship in Enterprise Development, Zheng was eager to take advantage of the Wisconsin School of Business’s start-up resources. “I really wanted to get some actual feedback from not only professors but also our board members that are serial entrepreneurs [who could provide] guidance,” she says. “I wanted to see if I can make this take off to the next level.”
With the right passion, the know-how, and a — ahem — duty-bound work ethic, Zheng aims to keep hustling. “Entrepreneurship is one of those things you have to be really dedicated to and put a lot of energy in,” she explains, “but it’s also super fun and exciting. You get to shape it.”
