Sam Eshaghoff began selling high SAT scores to high school students on Long Island. That enterprise unraveled in a high-profile scandal when his arrest made national headlines and he withdrew from Emory University. He later graduated from Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business in 2014. Difficulty finding finance jobs followed because of the scandal. A Manhattan private equity firm hired him to help launch a real estate division. He founded West Egg Development and is completing a 38-unit, five-story apartment building with 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail in Bayside, Queens. Colleague Arthur Bocchi described his intelligence and misapplied ingenuity.
Like many entrepreneurs, Sam Eshaghoff got his start in business early. Instead of hawking candy on the playground, he sold good SAT scores to striving high school students on Long Island. That didn't go well. At 19, his test-taking business unraveled in a high-profile scandal during which his arrest made national headlines and Eshaghoff was forced to withdraw from Emory University.
Today, he gets his grades (oops, I mean paycheck) from square footage, lease deals and bank loans instead of multiple-choice questions. His development firm, West Egg Development, is completing its largest project, a 38-unit apartment building with 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space in Queens. The sleek grey, five-story building has floor-to-ceiling windows and occupies a corner lot in Bayside.
The road to this point wasn't easy. After graduating from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College in 2014, Eshaghoff couldn't land his dream job as an investment banker. "I had a lot of trouble getting my first job because of the SAT situation," he said. "Nobody wants to hire somebody who's been in the news for that sort of stuff." His first break came from a Manhattan private equity firm that was starting a real estate division.
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