USC students are known to be involved. Briefly describe a non-academic pursuit (such as service to community or family, a club or sport, or work, etc.,) that best illustrates who you are, and why it is important to you. (250 word limit)
Last year, I founded startup garage, an incubator for high school students, to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem in my school district that catalyzes intellectual curiosity and innovation. As the founder and originator of this incubator, I am currently guiding the development of 8 distinct socially impactful ventures driven by the visions of high school students like myself.
Entrepreneurial development: The incubator is structured to guide students from the ideation phase to a final pitch with venture capitalists. I organized weekly meetings to track each company’s progress and to provide feedback on various strategies such as bootstrapping techniques and customer acquisition strategies. The goal of this approach is to help students develop an understanding of the mechanics behind startup operations.
Technical Support: I secured a partnership with Altacode, a coding academy, to help students understand the core mechanics behind iOS and Android application development. Students went through a boot camp and were paired with mentors, who guide algorithm development and help debug errors. This support helps students optimize product development skills and hones technical talent.
Expert Advice: Every month, I bring in guest speakers and recently I secured collaborations with Pejman Mar Ventures and Cardinal Ventures to help students refine the mechanics behind their startups. I also organized trips to networking events like Startup Grind to hone communication skills and to help students develop a personal network for mentorship and technology guidance.
My goal is empower the youth through entrepreneurship to enable them to make an impact on the world. By launching two distinct services, I learned the importance of collaborating with other individuals around you and working as a team to develop a successful startup.
In 2014, my startup, admitcollege.org, failed due to a lack of collaboration. It was an education network that connected students globally with each other to develop novel cultural insights and I was afraid to share it with others; I thought someone would steal my idea. I decided for my next startup, Duet (a habit-forming application), that I would try something new by forming a team and developing a personal network for support. Our network of advisors helped us identify a revenue model and connected us with organizations like Mommies Network to expand Duet's customer outreach.
My partner, Arman, suggested the concept of running a beta test to help develop a customer oriented approach. For beta testing, we cast a wide net from teenagers to stay-at-home moms and invited them to play around with our application in exchange for feedback. This data identified that stay-at-home moms, our eventual target market, found that having an accountability partner was useful, and one even stated that “just the thought of Sarah being disappointed in me stopped me from eating [the Doritos].” Our advisor from Mckinsey suggested that we also target doctors, who suffer from anxiety and stress due to intensive workdays. Through my experience with Duet, I learned the significance of developing a collaborative approach, something that I failed to create for admitcollege.org.