How did you first get into entrepreneurship?
When I got to college I was not exactly sure what I wanted to do. The way I first got into entrepreneurship was through a friend I met on a Wharton Leadership Venture trip who was excited about tech. At the time, tech and entrepreneurship were less common paths than they are today for Penn students. My eventual co-founder and I knew we were interested in starting something so we set out looking for problems we could solve. We talked to a variety of alumni from different careers and asked them about their issues in the workplace. We eventually narrowed in on our first idea, which was to provide physical retail stores customer behavior analytics. In lieu of summer internships between our junior and senior year, we worked on the startup. This summer served as a pulse check where we could ask ourselves the important questions to determine whether we should continue down that path. We realized we had traction, fun, and were diligent about our work so we decided to go all in senior year and post-grad. We made good progress and raised a seed round from Y Combinator and Wharton professors. While this first business eventually shut down a few months after we graduated, the experience set me on a track to continue to pursue entrepreneurship.
What was your pathway after this first company shut down?
After we shut down our first startup, my co-founder shifted gears into the non-profit sphere and I continued pursuing entrepreneurship. I started another company that was data science consulting and then in 2016, I moved to India to start a third company that served as a portfolio tracker for investments in the Indian stock market. This company, SimpleMoney, was more successful and taught me a lot about management as it continued to grow. I realized at this point there were skills I wanted to learn to become a stronger entrepreneur so I moved back to the US in San Francisco to work as a Product Manager.
In what ways did college best prepare you for post-grad life?
What has really stood out to me through the years is how special the people I was able to meet in college are. I met close friends who have been a part of my professional and personal life since graduating. Beyond friendships, I have found so many mentors through Penn. When I worked on my first company in college, we ended up getting funding from several professors who served as advisors throughout the experience. Building relationships with professors outside of the classroom and truly connecting with them has been very fruitful and meaningful.
To what extent do you feel that your concentration influenced your career choice?
I concentrated in Statistics because I was interested in data and so by taking those courses, I had the opportunity to do more data science work. My startups were all heavy in data science so the tangible skills, especially coding, I learned through my concentration courses were helpful. Having a more technical business background also has positioned me well to be able to hold my own and navigate within technical environments post-grad.
Beyond my concentration classes, I have found that I have gotten something out of all the courses I have taken. Thinking back even to my first experience with MGMT 100, they introduced frameworks about mission, vision, and values that I have used to make decisions ever since. STAT 476 really influenced how I have approached customers.
How has your perspective on careers changed since graduating?
I think much of my perspective on careers has remained consistent. One belief I continue to have is that taking risks early is smart and oftentimes what we think is risky really is not. As long as you are learning every day, you are building intellectual capital. Taking these paths less traveled that may seem riskier has the benefit of making your stories more interesting. Our safety nets are much higher than we think, especially coming from a school like Penn. There might be uncertainty, but not as much risk itself.
With that said, entrepreneurship is not the right career choice for everyone right after college. The chances of success are low and college students do not yet have the real-world business skills necessary to manage people. I am glad I took the path I did, but for many others who have the entrepreneurial spirit but do not yet want to found a company themselves, working at a startup could be the right move. No matter the first job, it is crucial to set yourself up to continue to learn.
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