How I Got Here

Jared Scharen, VP of Growth, Foodsmart. Jared’s path has been a winding one, from cold-calling his way into a job at McKinsey after college, to leaving consulting to do non-profit work in a small village in Peru where no one spoke english, to founding e-retirements, a resource created to help future retirees identify their ideal retirement location customized for their individual needs, as a business school student. In this conversation we discuss self-awareness, imposter syndrome, why being a founder isn’t for everyone, and the importance of finding what motivates you. I hope you enjoy, this conversation with Jared Scharen. This conversation is brought to you by The Garage at Northwestern.

David Olodort, Data Analytics Manager at Flexport. Early in his college career, David got involved with a student-run business and quickly realized the benefits of having hands-on experience running a company. His work running a student storage company gained him an unsolicited offer to intern at a startup over the summer, which translated into a full time job after school. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of diverse experiences, how to approach your job search, and how to think creatively about opportunities. This conversation is brought to you by The Garage at Northwestern. 

Aditya Nidmarti, Investor, Bessemer Venture Partners. Aditya was an international student from India who was looking for any internship that would allow him to stay in the U.S. after his freshman year. After landing an internship at a local startup, SpotHero, while the company was raising a financing round of venture capital, Aditya became intrigued by the industry, and started a venture capital club at his university. Founding the venture capital club allowed Aditya to reach out and build relationships with investors in the industry, which ultimately helped him land an investor role at Bessemer Venture Partners after graduation. Aditya discusses the difference between private equity and venture capital, why he believes in cold emailing people, and advice for pitching investors. This conversation is brought to you by The Garage at Northwestern.   

Blair Pircon, founder & CEO of The Graide Network. As a first year business school student, Blair had an idea to help teachers give more thorough feedback on student writing assignments by creating a service that utilized 3rd party graders. To test the feasibility and viability of this proposition, she started with an MVP consisting of Google Drive and Venmo, and found that The Graide Network created value for all stakeholders. Over the next five years, Blair grew the company and team to service more than 70,000 students nationwide, eventually leading to an acquisition of the company in 2021. Blair’s advice to entrepreneurs just starting out is to make sure that you’re picking the right market, team, and product to have the tailwinds at your back. This conversation is brought to you by The Garage at Northwestern.   

Audrey Valbuena, News Designer, The Washington Post. Although Audrey applied to ten colleges, she only applied to one journalism program, which she ended up getting into and attending. Originally, Audrey thought she would be a feature journalist after school, but after a few “happy accidents,” exposure to design-thinking, and experiences outside of the classroom, she decided to follow her curiosity of how news is presented and distributed. Audrey discusses the benefits of forging your own path, the value of extracurricular activities, and why it’s important to surround yourself with interesting people. This conversation is brought to you by The Garage at Northwestern.   

Akshat Thirani, founder & CEO of Amper Technologies. Since he was in high school, Akshat was always looking for problems that he could solve and potentially commercialize. When something didn’t work, he moved on to the next problem he could find. During his junior year of college, Akshat moved into an apartment where he began paying an electric bill for the first time, and began wondering which appliances were consuming the most energy. So, he began teaching himself how to engineer and build a product that could provide this information - an idea that quickly caught the attention of investors, won competitions such as the MIT Clean Energy Challenge, and helped him land a spot in the Hax accelerator program in Shenzhen, China. Despite all of this validation, Akshat began discovering that the product was not feasible for a variety of reasons, and on a serendipitous trip home to India, decided to pivot the product to serve factories and manufacturers. Since the pivot, Akshat has raised millions of dollars in venture capital, built out a robust customer base, and grown the team to 15 employees. Akshat discusses the lessons he learned along the way from avoiding solution-attachment, talking to customers early on, and raising venture capital. This conversation is brought to you by The Garage at Northwestern. 

Rachel Cantor, Brew Recommendations Writer at Morning Brew. When Rachel was a high school student, she started an online publication with a friend covering the news for teens, by teens and recruited writers from 12 different countries to contribute. Entering college, Rachel thought she wanted to work in marketing at an agency after school, but after accumulating diverse experiences from internships at an agency and Refinery 29 to running her university's largest student organization and spending a summer working on a startup, she decided she wanted to do something more entrepreneurial. On a whim during her senior year, Rachel started a personal recommendations newsletter to share with her friends for fun, which quickly took off. As the newsletter grew, she started sharing it on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, which unexpectedly led to opportunities to become a freelance writer and ultimately landed her her job at Morning Brew writing Sidekick, a daily recommendation newsletter. Rachel discusses why entrepreneurship is an activity, not an identity, how her curiosity is an asset, and why you should share your work with the world. This conversation is brought to you by The Garage at Northwestern.   You can sign up for Sidekick here: https://www.morningbrew.com/sidekick/subscribe

Episode #6: Sarah Ahmad, co-founder & CEO of Stable. Entrepreneurship has always been an interest of Sarah Ahmad’s, and when The Garage at Northwestern opened her sophomore year, she knew it was a space she wanted to be in. In her junior year, she launched HotPlate, an app designed to help people find the best-rated dishes at restaurants. But during the summer before her senior year, she had a difficult decision to make: take the prestigious internship she was offered that would pay well and look good on her resume, or spend the summer working on HotPlate? Looking back, Sarah’s glad she chose to work on her startup. Since graduating and moving to the Bay Area, Sarah co-founded another company called Stable with her Northwestern classmate Collin Pham, which has since raised venture capital and participated in Y-Combinator. Sarah attributes much of her success to trusting her gut and pursuing what she is most interested in instead of focusing on exterior pressures. This conversation is brought to you by The Garage at Northwestern University. Show Notes

Episode #5: Zach Scott, Product Design Engineer at Apple. Since he was in college, Zach Scott always dreamed of working for Apple - but it took a winding path over many years to finally end up there. As a mechanical engineer, Zach interned for SpaceX as a student, before joining a small startup after school, where he experienced the rapid, “wear-many-hats” environment of an early stage company. He used that experience to springboard into a role at Formlabs designing 3D printers, which ultimately led to his current job designing iPhones at Apple, after having been rejected from the company twice previously. Zach’s healthy attitude towards putting himself out there and quickly moving on from rejection has been a strength for his ability to learn, grow, and find new opportunities. This conversation is brought to you by The Garage at Northwestern University. Show Notes  

Episode #4: Ali Qureshi, Equities Trader at Goldman Sachs. Before moving to the United States from Pakistan for college, Ali Qureshi watched the TV show Silicon Valley and immediately knew he wanted to be involved with startup culture in the states. During his time as a student, he co-founded Party in a Box, an on-demand party supply company. While the company didn’t ultimately succeed, Party in a Box was the most discussed bullet on his resume during internship and job interviews, ultimately landing him a role at Goldman Sachs. Ali’s experience highlights how an entrepreneurial venture can be a differentiating factor when applying for competitive opportunities. This conversation is brought to you by The Garage at Northwestern University. Show Notes