Sigma Upsilon Mu Est. 2014 Cal State Fullerton

Facta non verba.

Deeds, not words: the motto we have kept since 2014. SUM is the co-ed entrepreneurship fraternity at Cal State Fullerton. The pledges that make it leave knowing how to take a business from nothing to working within a week.

Apply for Fall 2026 What SUM actually does

A member in a suit pointing out over the hazy Orange County skyline at dusk

We meet to build.

SUM was founded at Cal State Fullerton in March 2014 by students who wanted a room where the question is what you shipped, not what you plan to ship. Twelve years later the semester still runs on deliverables.

The symbol is a phoenix for a reason. Nobody builds anything worth having on the first attempt, and the members who last here are the ones who take the failure, learn the lesson, and go again.

Four members working over laptops around a table during an evening session — Workshops run weekly through the semester

What the workshops cover

Marketing & sales

Finding customers and closing them, practiced on real offers.
Pitching & networking

Your idea and yourself, pitched to rooms that answer back.
Management

Running a team that other people depend on.
Operations

The systems that keep a venture moving when motivation dips.
Finance & law

Pricing, cash in and out, and the paperwork that keeps it clean.
Research & development

Testing an idea against reality before you bet a semester on it.
Human resources

Recruiting help and keeping people accountable.
Artificial intelligence

Modern tools put to work where they actually save time.

What you leave with

At SUM we build companies and projects with actual users, not classroom hypotheticals. The pledges that make it leave the program knowing how to start a working business within a week, learned by doing it, not by hearing about it. The method itself is taught in the workshops. Leadership is earned here by carrying responsibility other people depend on, and the execution habits follow you into every job and venture after.

The four A.B.L.E. pillars, and how a SUM semester runs

Five questions decide whether this is your room.

SUM operates on four pillars: Achievement, Brotherhood, Leadership and Entrepreneurship. Every member is expected to embody all four. Two minutes, no wrong answers: the quiz tells you which pillar you would lead with and puts you on the Fall 2026 rush list.

Not into quizzes? Use the direct form below. It reaches the same people.