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How a Rady MBA Helped Sarah Feldman Land Roles at Tesla, Lyft and More
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How a Rady MBA Helped Sarah Feldman Land Roles at Tesla, Lyft and More

written by Camille Cannon

Sarah Feldman (MBA ’15) has led technical analytics programs at several pre- and post-IPO companies including Tesla, Lyft, and venture capital firm Institutional Venture Partners. While at Rady, Feldman founded the RadyX Technology Conference, landed a summer internship developing VR technology at Sony Playstation, and says she gained the leadership and finance skills necessary to advance beyond her B.S. in Computer Science to managing multi-billion-dollar analytics programs upon earning her MBA. Here, Feldman shares how the Rady School coursework, alumni network and staff propelled her success.

How did you land your MBA internship at Sony PlayStation?

I utilized Rady’s career services to the fullest. I signed up for all Rady interview practice sessions while in school. In the Career Connections office, there were shelves of interview preparation literature such as “Cracking the PM Interview,” which I made sure to read. … I made a list of companies and types of roles where I would add the most value as an MBA intern. I narrowed down the list by attending the Rady Executive Speaker Series, San Diego Tech Meetup groups, and discussions with the brutally honest FT2015 and FT2014 cohorts. After further researching companies by reading articles on Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, and TechCrunch, I would email Rady alumni with well-thought-out questions about culture fit and their company’s products.

During the Bay Area Trek, I was able to meet with Rady alumni at Tesla, Cisco, and Google, and attend company presentations. I asked pertinent gaming industry questions at the Sony PlayStation presentation, which caught the attention of the Sony internship recruiter, who asked me to interview for three different internships where she thought I would be a good fit. 

Sarah visits Google during the Bay Area Trek.
Sarah with Rady FT2015 and FW2014 students at Tesla in Palo Alto.

During the interview process, I utilized my knowledge of Computer Science courses on Matlab, OpenGL, Computer Vision, and video game creation to address the technical interview questions. With the new lessons from Rady’s leadership and finance courses, I was able to demonstrate financial knowledge of discounted cash flow statements, leadership best practices, and product management.

I landed competing internship offers at Cisco and PlayStation. I could add the most value assessing and planning product launches for the gaming industry, so I accepted the PlayStation offer.

I led development for PlayStation VR (a then-secret and stealth project to launch Virtual Reality products). I was fortunate to work cross-functionally at Sony and present to the CEO at the end of the summer.

Sarah tries a light-based VR game at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Meetup.

How did you land your first tech role after receiving your Rady MBA?

During my first Rady Bay Area Trek, I met an alumnus who was working at Tesla Motors. We were both passionate about innovation in tech and we stayed in touch after my MBA internship at Sony PlayStation. When the Rady alumnus decided to change roles at Tesla, he offered to help me take over his original responsibilities. He connected with the Tesla hiring manager about the quality of Rady MBAs. After a few rounds of interviews, I was offered the role.

Elon Musk and the “ICBM Map” that Sarah managed.

At Tesla, I created global supply chain analytics platforms and data. I utilized the R and statistics skills I learned through Professor On Amir and Vincent Nijs’ classes to build global analytics models. I leveraged similar linear regression principles when creating supply chain analytics in my role at Tesla. These were later featured in Elon’s Model 3 launch event, which was pretty cool to discover in a few online articles. During his presentation, Musk coined the dashboard an “ICBM Map.”

I enjoyed my time working at Tesla, but realized I needed to have better work life balance for my life goals. Having a personal life was key for me. This led me to start a charity organization focused on athletics in my free time, and eventually leave Tesla for a different industry altogether.

How did you transition from Tesla to venture capital firm Institutional Venture Partners?

During my finance classes at Rady, I enjoyed the precision of creating financial statements, algorithms, and elaborate excel macro sheets with the purposes of evaluating the financial health of companies. Naturally, I featured this certification on my LinkedIn (as Rady Career Connections recommended for a career change). After I spent some time job hunting, an executive recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn, inquiring about a role in an established venture capital firm. The firm had investments in Uber, Twitter, Dropbox, and Snapchat. They later offered me the role of Senior Manager of Analytics. I was in awe, as venture capital was a seemingly impossible industry to enter.

At IVP, I worked closely on analytics and excel valuation tools, weighing-in on pitch meetings for autonomous vehicles, and attending executive VC events with the likes of Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington and NBA player Kevin Durant. I even worked with the financials of the corporate board of directors’ books. It was everything I had imagined and more. I was able to leverage my VC Finance Class, DCF Certification, and startup valuation knowledge from the MBA program.

Why did you leave venture capital to work on autonomous vehicles?

I felt [something missing] in my daily work without the hands-on aspect of creating, strategizing, launching, and scaling tech products. Helping to advise on funding was fascinating, but I realized I enjoyed being part of a team that is ‘making a product’ more than anything. 

I had a few experiences working and advising in the self-driving car sector while at Tesla and IVP, and I co-founded the Self-Driving Car sector of Women Who Code. At Tesla, I worked on ad-hoc behavior analytics reports for the Autopilot team in addition to supply chain analytics. During my time at Tesla, I also purchased a Model S with Autopilot. 

The ease and pleasant nature of driving in Autopilot, a Level 2 autonomous vehicle, convinced me that this is the future of transportation. While Tesla is leading the consumer market for Level 2 autonomous vehicles, they are not alone in the quest to create an autonomous future. A colleague of mine from Tesla, and now Lyft, recommended Lyft’s Level 5 division. I saw a great fit for my skill set and made the jump to join the future of autonomous transportation.

What work did you do at Lyft?

I led data infrastructure, simulation software, and testing hardware in the loop, V&V and strategy for Lyft’s autonomous vehicle. An incredible aspect of autonomous vehicles is how many different technologies are combined to create self-driving vehicles. At a high level, a car must know where it is in the world in relation to everything else, and plan what it will do next. The underlying technology, including machine learning algorithms, compute, and simulation software, has been fascinating to work on and build. In many cases, the well-organized quantitative analysis course at Rady helped me understand some of the underlying computer vision and machine learning involved in creating a self-driving car.

How did your Rady MBA prepare you for Lyft’s IPO, and what was the day of the IPO like?

The MBA program prepared me not just to understand Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to build and read balance sheets and cash flow statements, but also to understand the landscape of the financial markets. Until recently, the IPO landscape was desolate, as a result of the 2007/2008 market collapse and the following financial levers and regulation. 

In an advanced behavioral finance course at Rady, my team worked with stock market data to predict market performance for a given month. This was an extension of the common statement, which we proved accurate, that “Monday’s market will predict the market performance for the rest of the week”. Despite these stellar lessons in financial market behavior, I did not expect to be part of a company listing itself on the market in an IPO. However, my lessons at Rady prepared me well for this experience.

Sarah at an event for San Francisco’s The Commonwealth Club to discuss IPOs.


Lyft’s Level 5 division on IPO day.

On the day of the Lyft IPO, as a Program Manager in Lyft’s Level 5 Autonomous Vehicle Division, I awoke at 4 a.m. When I drove to the office at 5 a.m., the freeways were ghostly empty. I arrived at the Palo Alto office early for the 6 a.m. NASDAQ bell tolling for Lyft’s televised IPO. The room was filled with my enthusiastic coworkers, celebrating the ringing of the bell. For those who followed the series of large tech unicorn IPO’s, the rest is history.

How do you suggest others learn more about autonomous vehicles, since many companies are in stealth mode?

Take strides to learn about open source libraries for machine learning like TensorFlow. Look into Udacity’s Degree in Self Driving Cars. And of course, stay up to date on regulation.

What’s next for you?

I recently left Lyft’s self-driving division, and have just accepted a new role at a search company. The charity organization that I founded (Silicon Valley Ice Skating Association) will be hosting its first Tech and Ice crossover event on January 11th, 2020, “Robots on Ice.”

In the meantime, if you have any questions about Rady, please be sure to reach out to the wonderful Rady admissions team! I feel very lucky to have chosen such a great school to attend for business school, and keep in touch with classmates. The alumni network, Rady Career Connections, fellow students, and professors have been a delight to work with and guide me throughout my career.

Volunteer work brings Sarah to Washington D.C.
October 4, 2019 0 comment
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The Rady School of Managment Celebrates Graduation 2019
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The Rady School of Managment Celebrates Graduation 2019

written by Melinda Battenberg

On June 16, 2019, the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego held commencement ceremonies for 344 students. The commencement ceremonies celebrated the graduation of the school’s Full-Time, FlexEvening and FlexWeekend MBA classes, Ph.D. students, and students from the Master of Finance and Master of Science in Business Analytics classes.

Family, friends and Rady School supporters joined the graduates for the ceremonies. The commencement keynote speakers were Julia Brown, a life science industry executive and Charles Brandes, an investment firm founder and visionary.

“Don’t be afraid to take a risk and try something new,” said Brown. “Decide what path you will take then go for it and don’t look back. Achieving a peak gives absolutely no assurance of staying there. We must earn it every day. What it took to be successful yesterday may be different than what will be required tomorrow. So we need you. We need your brain power, your talent, your energy and your leadership as you embark on your career. We wish you all the best. Whatever you decide to do, we wish you great success, great happiness and a long and gratifying career. So now let’s get out there and make things happen.”

Rady School Dean Robert S. Sullivan presided over the ceremony and emphasized the importance of remaining connected to the Rady School and its alumni after graduation.

“So to our graduates on behalf of this your Rady School community, we look forward to your successes and to your impact,” Sullivan said. “We look forward to confidently building our bridges and our support network. So please know that we will be here for you, our alumni, throughout your professional careers, not just now. If you had an issue five years or 10 years from now, this is the place to come back to keep the connections. And the network that you build as friends, they’ll go on forever.”

Students and alumni also took part in the ceremony, with Lauren Murphy (MBA ’19) and Robert Louis Beyer (MSBA ’19) delivering the student commencement addresses. Rady School Alumni Association President Bosco Lujan (MBA ’12) and Andrea Yoder-Clark (MSBA ’17) delivered the alumni addresses.

Retiring Rady School Adjunct Professor Dr. Harry Markowitz was honored with the Rady School of Management Founders Medal at the ceremony for his outstanding contributions to the school.

Markowitz is an esteemed economist, beloved professor and thoughtful philanthropist, His seminal work, “Portfolio Selection,” launched a distinguished career lauded with economics’ most prestigious accolades, including the Nobel Prize in Economics, the John von Neumann Theory Prize, and the Wharton-Jacobs Levy Prize. His lifetime of teaching ultimately brought him to the Rady School where he joined the founding faculty as an adjunct professor of finance and accounting in 2006 and continued to teach his groundbreaking theory to Rady students until his retirement this year.

In addition to his critical contributions to the establishment and quality of the Rady School, Markowitz has also dedicated himself to securing the future of the Rady School and its students through his timeless generosity. In 2017, Markowitz pledged a $4 million gift to the Rady School of Management to create fellowships for students. He placed his Nobel Medal at the UC San Diego Library in 2018.

June 18, 2019 0 comment
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“I’ve Got a Golden Ticket…” in Biotech!
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“I’ve Got a Golden Ticket…” in Biotech!

written by Rady School

“Boehringer Ingelheim knows what it takes to be innovative and entrepreneurial. From the small factory in 1885 to today’s multi-billion-dollar global pharmaceutical organization, we know how important it is to nurture and develop young science and technology businesses. Our track record of bringing breakthrough medicines to patients starts with new ideas and new science. Collaborations with external partners play an essential role in helping us deliver an innovation-led portfolio…” From “Partnering Day with Boehringer Ingelheim,” Biocom, September 21, 2017.

Three young entrepreneurs from the University of California San Diego, knew the value of the Boehringer Ingelheim prize when they pitched their business ideas to investors, faculty and students. The prize includes a “golden ticket,” or one years ‘worth of workspace at bio-labs, an infrastructure office space for startups, located on the UC San Diego campus. It also includes mentorship and exposure to investors to help the companies get a kick-start to successful innovation and connections.

The Rady School is honored to have alumni who were the last three prize-winners of the three previous years. We wanted to find out how the prize affected them, and where they are today:

Cory Bentley

The 2017 winner of the first-ever Boehringer Ingelheim Innovation prize was RIFT Biotherapeutics, a biotech company founded by Rady alum, Cory Bentley (MBA ’10).

Tell me about your company?

I founded RIFT because I saw there was a critical area of cancer biology that hadn’t been addressed: Inflammation. I believe if the inflammation in cancer is targeted, cancer treatments can be improved.

Why did you start RIFT?

I didn’t see anyone addressing cancer in this way at the time. The immune system often sees cancer as a wound that should be healed, rather than something it should get rid of. The immune system will actually make cancer stronger by supporting it with blood supply and growth factors, components of inflammation. People become resistant to anti-cancer treatments because their immune system is protecting the tumor from therapy with this inflammatory environment. It is an essential mechanism of resistance to cancer treatment. RIFT discovered an antibody-based drug that may help the immune system switch from being pro-tumoral to anti-tumoral.

How has the Rady School of Management helped you achieve your goals?

Rady gave me the confidence to know some of the significant components of starting a business and moving a large project forward. Some of these components included financing, intellectual property, accounting and people management. I wouldn’t have known how to start or run a business if I hadn’t gone to the Rady School.

Eric Venn-Watson

The 2018 winner of the Boehringer Ingelheim Innovation prize was Epitracker, a biotech company founded by Rady alum, Eric Watson (MBA ’10).

Tell me about your company?

Epitracker is a San Diego-based life sciences company that discovers and optimizes small molecules to treat some of the world’s most devastating diseases. To date, Epitracker has analyzed millions of metabolomic, genomic and clinical data points from archived, longitudinal, serum samples collected over 50 years. Through this process, we have discovered novel small molecules that target longevity, neurodegenerative diseases, fibrotic diseases and pulmonary diseases.

Why did you start Epitracker?

Part of my background includes being a physician in the Navy. I have a passion for science, as well as the entrepreneurial and business side of the equation. I wanted to start a company and it has included both of those passions.

How has the Rady School of Management helped you achieve your goals?

Every business school has its area of expertise. The Rady School’s, is innovation, especially in the tech and biotech fields. I learned everything from the operational aspects of being an entrepreneur to handling finances as a business owner, and I was even able to grow my network within the San Diego area substantially. San Diego is an incredible city that has many key opinion leaders who are willing to help you and mentor you. The Rady School has amazing professors that will provide real-time feedback and help you develop your ideas. Knowing what you need to get started, and how to successfully develop and grow your technology, is essential.

The Boehringer Innovation prize provided lab space for a year. It helped us focus on growing the company more than anything. It also gave us credibility in terms of pitching our business to investors and experts in the field, as well as submitting for grant funding. Today, we have many compounds going through the FDA process, over 30 patents, and have raised just under three million dollars in private capital and an equal amount in grant funding. The Boehringer prize has helped us expand more rapidly by having access to a state of the art lab and a broad support network. It is an environment that is very conducive to advancing our research and our company.  The combination of a Rady MBA and Boehringer Innovation prize has enabled us to accomplish much in a relatively short period. Thank you, Rady and BI!

If you’d like to read more about Epitracker, click here: http://www.epitracker.com/

Simon Bailey

The 2019 winner of the Boehringer Ingelheim Innovation prize was Darkwood Pharma, a biotech company founded by Rady alum, Simon Bailey (MBA ’11).

Tell me about your company?

Darkwood Pharma is a drug discovery company, focusing on developing novel therapies for fibrosis, with a particular emphasis on liver fibrosis due to advanced non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NASH is a progressive liver disease that affects millions of Americans, causing fibrosis and cirrhosis, and it will be the leading cause of liver transplantation by 2020. Darkwood Pharma’s mission is to discover and develop liver-targeted compounds which will halt and reverse fibrosis and prevent cirrhosis in this disease, for which there is currently no approved treatment, despite intense interest from the pharma/biotech world. By developing compounds that selectively act in the liver, our approach will both increase the effectiveness of the drug as well as minimize side effects which will benefit these severely ill patients.

We are hoping to have our first drug candidate molecule identified in 2020.

Why did you start Darkwood Pharma?

I’ve spent my entire career working in drug discovery, leading diabetes and oncology medicinal chemistry departments at a large pharmaceutical company then as head of research for a mid-sized biotech. I’ve been very fortunate to have led teams that have discovered many drug candidates, including two that been approved for use in lung cancer. So, if I ever started a company, it was going to be a drug discovery company.

The specific reason for founding Darkwood Pharma is that in NASH there is a compelling combination of unmet medical need and scientific opportunity that attracted me. I recognized that a small company that can be singularly focused on developing liver-targeted drugs, that can be flexible and nimble in a way that larger companies can’t, would be differentiated from the competition. Plus, I thought it would be fun.

How has the Rady School of Management helped you achieve your goals?

In a way, the Rady School led to me applying for the Boehringer-Ingelheim Innovation Prize. I went to the BI prize event in 2018 to support another Rady School company, long before I had founded Darkwood Pharma, and so it was on my radar to apply for it this year. The judging process involves a pretty rigorous evaluation by BI scientists as well as their “Research Beyond Borders” external innovation group, so it was pleasing to hear the positive feedback and validation of the science and the company concept after such a thorough process. We are continuing to explore a possible collaboration with BI since NASH is a focus area for them.

More generally, going to the Rady School allowed me to connect with and learn much more about the local San Diego biotech/entrepreneur ecosystem, than I ever had the opportunity to do during the 20 years I spent working for a large pharma company. This included venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and small biotech companies. I gained an appreciation of how that world works. Also, San Diego is an active environment for innovation, and we need people creating companies here, not in Boston or the Bay Area. The Rady School is a great way to make connections and get involved to continue to build the San Diego innovation community.

Find out more about Darkwood Pharma here: www.Darkwoodpharma.com

May 20, 2019 0 comment
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Rady’s First Ever StartUp Career Day
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Rady’s First Ever StartUp Career Day

written by Rady School

Career Fair Day – A day full of new opportunities, insightful conversations, and potential job offers on the horizon. Here at the Rady School of Management, there have been dozens of doors open for students at career fairs; from internships, to long-term jobs for the graduate students who have participated in Rady’s career fairs.

Each career fair typically consists of employers from corporate companies that have 250 employees or more. This one, however, consisted of not only large corporate companies but also smaller startups. This was an exciting, unique event for Rady because it is the first career day to ever have startups verses only corporations.

The Rady School of Management not only champions, but raises up entrepreneurs, so having startups present was an encouraging factor for the students who attended the career fair. Some of the startups that came to the career fair included founders from Rady School of Management such as LabFellows.

Some of the startup companies who attended were:

  • Leadcrunch – B2B Sales and Marketing
  • Sendlane – An intelligence-driven email automation service
  • LabFellows – An integrated lab management platform
  • Offer1
  • GoSite – A web platform for businesses
  • Launch Factory – A creative co working space

The list of new companies who attended were:

  • Booz Allen Hamilton – Strategy, technology, and engineering
  • AT&T – Communications, media, entertainment, and technology
  • Tealium —  A universal data hub

Some of the other companies that were present included, Trust&will, Artevist and Prudential.

Here at Rady, we are happy to host career fairs and have found them to be very successful for students looking for job leads and internships.

April 12, 2019 0 comment
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StartR Demo-Day on a Whole New Level
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StartR Demo-Day on a Whole New Level

written by Rady School

StartR, founded by a group of Rady students in 2013, is a non-profit six-month accelerator program homed on the Rady campus. The program includes a workshop, mentoring, advice and access to other resources for early-stage companies. StartR has been highly successful and currently has one hundred and thirty-seven teams who have gone through the program. Eight of these teams have also been accepted into EvoNexus. There are fifty-five unduplicated companies that are active, and $63.8 million has been raised so far.

Along with the 6-month accelerator program, StartR also encourages students to partake in the StartR demo day, where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to students, faculty, investors, and professors. Nine companies chose to participate this year in the StartR DemoDay. In the past, the only StartR group to partake in the demo day are Rady MBA students and alumni, but this year was a little different. This is the first Demo Day event where teams from multiple StartRPrograms were invited, rather than only MBA students. All of the teams under StartR Accelerator include Rady, Inclusion, Impact, Veteran, and Teen. This was a monumental step, and highlights Rady’s commitment to champion and spotlight entrepreneurs of all styles!

At  Demo Day, the teams dressed in slacks, polished shoes, and newly pressed blazers, lined up one by one, while they anticipated putting their best foot forward in hopes to win a prize, or attract the attention of a potential investor or partner. As they shared their pitch, they stood in front of the audience with refined power points, apps, and even a real, live business prop itself, including a sleeping pod! The audience listened to each hopeful entrepreneur, all while cheering on their family and friends.

The StartR programs spotlighted this year, and the ones highlighted below with their company pitches, include: StartR Rady, Inclusion, and Impact.

StartR Rady – The premier StartR accelerator, the Rady track is exclusively for our MBA students and alums.  The teams who presented are as follows:

AngioX: – AngioX Therapeutics is an early stage biopharmaceutical company that develops novel therapies for patients with rare Cerebral Cavernous Malformations (CCMs). 

Freightracker: – This Company is bringing IOT solutions to the transportation industry in order to streamline operations and reduce costs bycreating a device which allows users to track their freight anywhere in the world.

SurfUp – An automated surfboard rental station that is paired with a smartphone application to make the surfboard rental process convenient for beginner surfers and tourists on the beach, in-front of stores, resorts, restaurants, and much more.

bou: Bou is a small device that can save, transfer, and emit smells instantly in various circumstances to enhance consumers’ daily experiences in different settings including while watching movies, playing video games, shopping, online shopping, relaxing, etc. 

Virtual Sleep Environment: A virtual sleeping pod which increases human performance, entraining a natural sleep-wake circadian rhythm. This makes it easy to sleep anywhere, at any time!

Visionful: An app that provides fully automated parking guidance and enforcement, making parking simpler than ever before.V

Inclusion: Open to students across UC San Diego and designed to highlight diversity, teams    must have at least one leader from a traditionally underrepresented population.

Felicity CBT – Aims to better the mental well-being of users by providing cognitive behavioral therapy at the convenience of a mobile application.

Impact: The StartR Impact accelerator is open to startups and ideas from across campus aiming to make a societal impact. The teams from Impact, that performed at demo day included:

Athlete Initiative: A sexual violence prevention program and app for college student-athletes, helping to prevent sexual violence on campuses, where one in five students are currently affected.

Family Proud – Connecting patients and families to the technological resources necessary to effectively maximize their quality of care.

It was a competitive battle at Demo Day, and each entrepreneur deserved a prize, but, there are only two awards—a judges choice, and an audience choice.

The team who presented the most polished, well thought out idea according to the judges this year, was Thomas Fontes from Freightracker. Thomas walked up to the stage with excitement, as he won a $1,000 prize towards his business. Thomas is working on creating a custom device with AT&T, in hopes to have a freight tracker on the market by 2020! Rady School is excited to see where Thomas’s business will take him in the future! You can contact Thomas at Thomas.fontes@rady.ucsd.edu.

The team who won the audience choice award was Robert Sweetman with Virtual Sleep Environment. Robert brought a real, live sleeping pod to his presentation that tracked the brain waves of the sleeper, revealing to the sleeper if their brain was active, calm, or busy. This would allow the sleeper to find peace and calmness and fall asleep at any time! Robert is working on getting the sleeping pod in airports, and creating stations for consumers to sleep anywhere, anytime, and especially before or after a long flight! You can contact Robert at Rob@existech.us for questions or thoughts.

Rady School of Management is proud to house and educate students and alumni, who are passionate about entrepreneurship.  Building on the success of their startups, all of the teams who presented will be continuing to pursue their business ideas in hopes to continue to succeed in pioneering a new, innovative way to solve and better our world!

April 10, 2019 0 comment
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Building Communities through Entrepreneurship

written by Hallie Jacobs

University Avenue serves as an artery for San Diego proper, connecting more than 11 miles of hyper-local and proud neighborhoods. From the affluent urban district of Mission Hills to the sleepy family-friendly suburban La Mesa, the neighborhoods scattered along University Avenue serve a diverse array of San Diego residents. Smack dab in the middle of the thoroughfare sits City Heights, a longtime haven for refugees from all across the globe.

The community of City Heights is as bustling as it is diverse – a large number of local businesses launched and supported by refugees from Middle Eastern, Northeast African, Southeast Asian and Latin American origin. The community is proud of its global roots, celebrating the varying backgrounds and cultures.

The vitality and pride of the City Heights neighborhood inspired resident and Rady School of Management graduate David Tran (MBA ’15) to create a hub for the community to gather, while catering to the local interests and tastes. Along with his wife Sterling Tran and colleague Lonny Cheuk, City Heights Coffee House was born – a multi-cultural space for residents to gather over a cup of coffee or tea sourced from the countries that make up the neighborhood.

City Heights Coffee House  sits right in the center of University Avenue surrounded by local businesses and nonprofit organizations – from Vietnamese, Somali, and Ethiopian restaurants to Lao, Mexican, and Ugandan community centers – all interspersed – and just a stone’s throw away from organizations that assist refugee resettlement and integration.

The complex ecosystem comprised of low-income households, challenges with affordable housing, gentrification, and a diverse population inspired Tran and his partners to create a social enterprise that focuses on workforce development. City Heights Coffee House offers jobs to opportunity youth in San Diego, including refugee and justice-involved youth. Opportunity youth are classified as youth between ages 16-24 who don’t have a job and aren’t in school. A crucial element of the Life Development Program is to provide on-the-job retail training, basic skills such as budgeting and managing a schedule, conflict-resolution tools, and career development courses such as resume and job-search prep.  

“During my time at Rady, I took Professor Ayelet Gneezy’s class that focused on social entrepreneurship,” he said. “This class was pivotal for me because it exposed me to a different entrepreneurial path – one that isn’t traditional and focused solely on profit. One specific concept that she was teaching in the class was around root cause analysis. When we see a problem in any community – globally, nationally, or locally or regionally, anywhere or in the workplace -you have to ask yourself, ‘What’s the problem, and what’s causing that problem? And what’s the problem beneath that problem?’”

Over 41,000 youth in San Diego face barriers to employment opportunities (or lack thereof) and lack support structures to identify and perform successfully in education. The mission of City Heights Coffee House isn’t solely to provide a quality cup of coffee – it extends a hand to the community, offering jobs to underserved youth. Through job training and providing career and personal development opportunities, Tran and his team are dedicated to paving the way for their youth to succeed.

A space to serve

A longtime resident of City Heights, Tran was inspired to create a space after noticing a need in the community.

“The inspiration for City Heights Coffee House came from my experience a few years ago volunteering for a nonprofit organization called Bridge of Hope here in City Heights,” he said. “We were delivering clothes, donations, furniture and food to refugee families and I remember meeting this Afghani family that had just moved here to San Diego. When I met them, I realized that they were given all this food, but didn’t even have a fridge or a kitchen table. Moreover, they didn’t have jobs and were expected to assimilate into American society with limited help and support.”

With an idea in place, Tran decided to attend the Rady School to gain the business acumen to create and launch his dream – a community hub that helped local refugees and at-risk residents obtain marketable skills and knowledge to succeed in the workplace and community.

“My time at Rady was invaluable to the development and execution of the City Heights Coffee House,” Tran said. “The Lab to Market class in the second year of my MBA program taught me to take a concept and transform it into an actual business plan. I conducted market research and it taught me how to think — how to take a social enterprise concept that was going to solve problems for our community and transform it into an actual plan that we could work with and had action steps to it.”

Taking an idea and transforming it into a functioning business is no easy undertaking, but with the skills and tools Tran developed during his MBA, he was able to create a functioning business prototype before crossing the Commencement stage.

“Through countless hours of brainstorming, primary and secondary research and feedback from classmates and alumni, City Heights Coffee House was able to incorporate in April 2015,” he said. “Shortly after in August 2015 with a stroke of divine favor, we received our 501(c)3 status.”

A growing venture

Since 2015, City Heights Coffee House has continued to grow, moving from a Farmers Market stand to a small cart behind a thrift store to now a storefront on one on San Diego’s most popular streets. The new space has been conducive to providing a hub for the community to gather, hosting mental health discussions, cultural celebrations, art shows, open mics, and local council meetings.

“It’s so exciting to see how far we’ve come – our social venture has grown so much and we’re continuing to grow,” Tran said. “We want to continue to expand so we can provide more career opportunities for youth who want a hand-up, not a handout. We’re in the mission of second chances.”

Sitting in the shop with a cup of coffee (sourced from Ethiopia – a large population of Ethiopian residents reside in City Heights), the energy is palpable. Local residents filter in and out throughout our conversation, admiring the local art on the wall while waiting for coffee prepared by college students who live in the area. One barista, Betel Mulugheta from Eritrea, is eager to share how City Heights Coffee House has helped her in her career.

“My time at City Heights Coffee House has been extremely helpful for my career,” she said. “I work as a manager and barista, so I have experience with both making drinks and running operations behind the scenes. It’s given me the opportunity to learn more about business and I feel confident in my abilities.”

Mulugheta’s testimony brings a smile to Tran’s face – seeing his team’s goals for the business and community materialize in real time only reinforces why City Heights Coffee House was created in the first place.

“I’m so thankful for my time at Rady, because without Rady this wouldn’t have been possible,” he said. “I hope other MBA students realize that social ventures and enterprises can be profitable while changing the world for the better.”


March 7, 2019 0 comment
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AlumniStartupsStudents

#RadyMade Startup Wins Pitch Competition

written by Matthew Wu

A healthy beverage startup company found at the Rady School of Management placed first in the Ignite UC San Diego startup pitch battle, earning a cash prize of $5,000 and being named best product.

The company, headed by CEO Kabir Gambhir (MBA ’10), produces the drink Cascaraa, made from the sun dried coffee fruit of the same name, which hopes to provide a healthy alternative to naturally caffeinated beverages for younger audiences. Gambhir said he was inspired to create the drink after facing health problems with traditional caffeine, and applied his past experience within the medical field in creating the drink.

“Discovery was a big part of maintaining health and wellness,” Gambhir said. “ It’s something that I’ve really been inspired to share with as many people as possible.”

 The restructured Ignite Startup battle format now features a rap battle as a part of its competition, incentivizing companies to find a creative alternative in pitching their ideas.

Gambhir, alongside fellow team member Renan Iwayama (MBA ’19) and a few members of the company, did just that, showcasing their rapping skills with their original song, “Drink Cascaraa,” a parody of Snoop Dog’s iconic, “Drop it Like it’s Hot.”

“It was a fun and amazing way to challenge ourselves in writing the lyrics for the song from a pitch standpoint,” Iwayama said, “I’d definitely approve of them doing something like this again next year.”

Gambhir says he plans to use the prize money in reinforcing the company’s marketing strategies by partnering with Hello Advisor, a promotions and marketing firm, in order to continue expanding their product across San Diego, with the eventual goal of reaching all of California.

“We’re thrilled to be working with them, and in using their guidance in looking for new strategies and expand,” Gambhir said.

March 6, 2019 0 comment
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AlumniCareersMBAStartups

Expert Mentors Guide Rady Students to Entrepreneurial Success

written by Hallie Jacobs

The adage “Rome wasn’t built in a day” rings true in the startup ecosystem. Ask any entrepreneur about their journey from idea to flourishing company, and they’re sure to offer up a list of individuals who helped them along the way.

The Rady School of Management startup community has been developing a network of successful entrepreneurs for more than 15 years, launching more than 180 student and alumni-led companies in its short lifespan. Although the network has always been happy to help those looking to get their companies up and running, the School recently created a new mentorship program designed to connect budding entrepreneurs with seasoned industry experts to foster creativity and provide the students with a strong support system throughout the early stages of their startups.

Developing Rady Innovators and Entrepreneurs (DRIvE) is a donor driven initiative born out of a gift from UC San Diego alumnus Mark Waxman (B.A. Economics ’70). The program began last year by collecting a community of both Rady and out-of-network professionals looking to share their skills and knowledge of various industries. Then, students participating in the StartR Rady accelerator were hand selected to join the mentorship program. Once the student participants and mentors were chosen, pairs were formed based on mutual interests and needs identified by the students.

“The mentors were extremely involved from the very beginning – they wanted to get as much information they could about the students and their companies to see how they could help,” said Karen Jensen, Entrepreneur Advocate at the Rady School. “Their investment in our students has been crucial to the continued development of several startups launched here at Rady.”

Once the matches are made, mentors and mentees stay in touch by connecting in person or on the phone to stay involved with the entrepreneurs throughout their journey. The DRIvE program also hosts quarterly Monday morning events that facilitate in-person interactions between mentors and mentees through workshops, pitch presentations and networking.

“We start by working with students to identify their needs and interests, then we match them with mentors who have experience in those fields,” Jensen said.  “Each student can have up to three mentors with expertise in fields, such as finance, marketing and product development so the students have a strong network.”

The benefits of mentorship

The expectation for the program is for mentors to stay engaged for at least six months, but several mentor/mentee pairs have continued to stay involved after the official program is complete.

Mridu Sinha, co-founder of MelioLabs, participated in the initial cohort of the DRIvE program to take her microbial identification startup to the next level. MelioLabs created a microbial identification system that screens for newborns at risk for infection, making it easier to identify newborns who are at risk of sepsis – a condition that can be fatal for infants.

Sinha connected with June Chocheles, President of the Chocheles Consulting Group and Athena Foundation Board Member, who helped her learn the ropes of fundraising, marketing, branding and business scaling.

Due to the value of the program, she remains in contact with her mentor to this day. She credits the rapid success of her company to her mentor who has continued to support her throughout the development of her company.

“June has a lot of experience starting and running companies, so it has been a wonderful experience working with her,” she said. “

While the StartR Inclusion accelerator – formerly known as mystartupXX –helped initially launch MelioLabs, the DRIvE mentorship program has helped sustain and grow the startup.

“If you’re looking to take your company to the next level, the DRIvE program is a great way to help,” she said. “The mentors are extremely helpful and supportive and have the tools and experience you may not have yet. The strong Rady network connects you to a number of professionals who are willing and excited to help you.”

The next generation of innovators

The success of DRIvE has created a vast network of interested mentors eager to share their knowledge and skills with budding Rady entrepreneurs. The mentor network continues to grow to include more Rady alumni who know the potential Rady startup leaders have to offer.

“Entrepreneurship and innovation are essential aspects of the Rady School experience, and we’re doing whatever we can to expose our students to as many opportunities as possible,” Jensen said. “We’re so thrilled that students and mentors have been so actively engaged in the first DRIvE cohort, so we’re excited to continue to grow the program.”

February 27, 2019 0 comment
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Alumni

Never Stop Advancing: Melissa Fellner

written by Hallie Jacobs

What was it exactly that brought Melissa Fellner (MBA ’09) to the Rady School of Management in pursuit of an MBA? Was it because of her desire to continue her career in San Diego’s flourishing biotechnology industry? Maybe her devotion to UC San Diego – she holds both an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and a master’s degree in biology from the distinguished southern California UC. Perhaps it was the coveted Lab to Market accelerator that introduces entrepreneurial hopefuls to the ins and outs of launching a business? For Fellner, the choice of where to pursue her MBA was an easy one to make.

After a successful career in clinical research, Fellner found herself looking for the next step in her career. While she was an expert in trial and development, her skillset lacked the business acumen necessary to push innovative products and procedures to the market.

“I had a lot of experience in research, but I wanted to learn more about the business side of things,” she said. “I was really interested in the biotech boom and was fascinated with all the early-stage biotech companies launching right across the road from the Rady School. Being a part of that movement became my next goal, and I knew that in order to pursue it, I needed an MBA.”

Fellner joined the FlexWeekend MBA cohort while working full-time for Vical, a biopharmaceutical drug development company. Between finding time for her work and balancing a challenging courseload, Fellner’s time management skills were put to the test. But succeeding in both her classes and in her job was the confidence boost she needed to take her career to the next level. 

“Despite the craziness, it was empowering to be able to juggle both work and school – it really proved to me how capable I was,” she said. “It wasn’t easy, but it showed that I could get things done – and I did.”

After graduating from the Rady School, Fellner accepted a job offer from fellow Rady alum at The Aequitas Group, a healthcare advisory firm. After spending a few years in the consulting industry, she made the move to pursue her passion in the biotech sphere, accepting a Manager Access Services Operations position at biopharmaceutical leader AstraZeneca in 2012.

In her initial position, Fellner was responsible for building out a new program designed for patients requiring specialty drugs for oncology and respiratory diseases. This task was outside of her comfort zone – a complete pivot from her clinical research experience. However, using the skills and tools she gained from her Rady MBA, Fellner was able to build a program called “Access 360” that is now a recognized leader in patient access support and being rolled out globally at AstraZeneca

“My time at Rady was exactly what I needed to be successful,” she said. “Not only did I learn valuable business lessons in how to implement processes, secure funding for projects and how to work with different teams to accomplish a common goal, it gave me the confidence to look at a problem and say, ‘I can figure this out.’”

Her success with the creation and implementation of the successful platform catapulted her career forward, moving up the AstraZeneca ranks. She recently accepted a new position at the company, where she is in charge of leading global consumer marketing strategies for respiratory biologics. Her current project is to build new capabilities and market a breakthrough treatment for severe asthma.

As she continues to thrive in the biotech space, Fellner credits the Rady School for helping her find her dream career trajectory.

“I’m able to think innovatively, and because of that, I’ve been able to set up new systems that support our patients,” she said. “I wanted a career that would give me the ability to help patients, and thanks to my time at Rady, I’ve found the perfect area that allows me to do just that every day.”  

January 30, 2019 0 comment
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AlumniMBA

The Trip of a Lifetime: Israel Immersion 2018

written by Vanessa Cabiling

“Is it possible to fall in love with a country you have not been to?”

This was the question I asked a friend who was part of the inaugural Israel Immersion Program in December 2012. My Flex Evening 2014 (FE14) cohort was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to not only be part of the first-ever US-Israel Center (USIC) Immersion Program, but to be given that same opportunity again the following year right before we graduated.

The Application

I’ve always admired classmates who find the balance between the rigorous demands of school while maintaining a full-time job, all the while never neglecting to squeeze in some fun and participating in various Rady activities in the process. I’ve never been one of those people, save for the occasional Home Plate shenanigans before, during, and after class. Somehow, however, I’ve always known that applying in the Israel Immersion Program was something I was going to try at some point in my life. And five years after taking my last final exam at Rady, here I am telling you all about the experience.

The Preparation

Learning that I was accepted in the USIC Immersion Program gave me the same ecstatic feeling I had when I found out I was going to be part of Rady’s FE14 cohort – so much so that after being assigned Startup Nation as a required reading for the trip, I’ve pre-immersed myself in various other books about Israel: Our Man in Damascus, Rise and Kill First, Son of Hamas, Israel: An Introduction, and Mossad. After the first briefing, I began hiking again to prepare for Masada. I may have gone overboard when I also started binge-watching Fauda, Mossad 101, and Hostages on Netflix. In doing so, I even managed to pick up a few Hebrew words. Finally, to obtain a more balanced perspective on the Israel-Palestine conflict, I borrowed the documentary 5 Broken Cameras from the library, which I made an effort to watch the evening before my flight.

The Obsession

My fascination with the country has a lot to do with being raised Catholic. It’s always been a dream of mine to do a pilgrimage in Israel and visit all the Christian sites in order to walk the same path as Jesus did. As I grew older, however, my curiosity turned into the country’s sophisticated national security and full-on espionage stratagem. Now that I am pursuing a career in Health Information Technology, my interest in Israel has evolved into knowing more about its high-tech industry and how it can be leveraged for the greater good. Simply put, Israel contains the trifecta of my favorite things: Tech + Jesus and a splash of the Mossad.

The People

Call me biased, but even our TAs said that FE14 was one of the best and most fun-loving cohorts Rady has ever had, so I was a bit skeptical when I found out none of my contemporaries would be part of the trip. After the first mandatory class, I knew that it might be asking a lot to find more Amy Gundersons or Matt Archers to spice up the immersion experience, especially since five years after graduation, this bunch is definitely going to be a lot younger than I am. Besides, the trip was only a week long, so I had no high hopes of meeting a new set of Gossip Girls to spend future milestones with.

But as with any startup success story, my trip began serendipitously. My proclivity for isolation has brought me to sit with Dipixa at lunch for the first meet and greet, and Ben during the Israel welcome dinner. It’s amazing how both of these unconscious decisions, driven mostly by my preference for more intimate social interactions, determined how fulfilling this trip would be. I don’t think I would have enjoyed the program as much had I not spent time gallivanting with these like-minded souls.

Dipixa said it best when she wrote that the most memorable part of the trip were the people. From sharing deep, dark secrets with the Assistant Dean, Christie, and Robert; bumming a drag from Diego and Erez; recognizing Leandro (the map) from Mauro (and failing to be his wingwoman); pulling a prank on Chris; embarrassing El Bryan, the El Presidente on Venmo with his BTP moment; rooming with Olesia and admiring her courageous travels; sitting on benches with Daniel; exchanging photos with Felix; singing Coldplay with Sahil; giving Jaden his third official call sign; harassing Sean in his bathrobe; working out with Katy; figuring out that Valerie IS Janzino; woman-crushing on Mimi; speaking Italian to Mauricio; singing happy birthday to Lijun; taking photos of Ming, the self-designated photographer; praying at Holy Sepulchre with Shashita; doing what I do best and making Jasleen, Juliana, and Rumpa a wee bit uncomfortable; spending long walks and heart-to-heart talks with Ben and Dipixa; and adoring Ayelet even more than I already did.

The Company Visits

When I was still in business school, corporate social responsibility was a “nice-to-have” when we evaluated companies. With the Israeli startups we visited, I was very pleased to learn that the social aspect was actually what a lot of the business models were based upon. Furthermore, this new set of Rady MBA candidates I went on the trip with always challenged the speakers with how the startups plan on giving back to society.

The two companies that are near and dear to my heart are BKind and Brainsway. As a Diversity and Inclusion Champion at work, I find BKind’s pay-it-forward gesture of spreading kindness as a way to be inclusive. Often times, people know to focus on diversity, but they overlook inclusion. BKind, in its own way of spreading kindness around the world in a tactile manner, eradicates our propensity to hide behind our screens. And with Brainsway, helping people achieve mental health is a fundamental initiative I will always want to be a part of any day.

The Culture

The pride that each speaker exuded as they explained how Israel is a startup nation was infective. Each provided different flavors of what it meant to them and their companies to be a startup nation. As for the overall Israel vibe, the cities were alive, no matter what time of day or night. Despite the negative news coverage we get stateside, I found comfort and security in walking the well-lit streets of Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, and Tel Aviv, even in solitude, as the cities were constantly bustling with seemingly happy people. I also felt very welcome in the Israeli-Arab community of the Bedouins with their tremendous hospitality. Most importantly, as an introverted (sometimes shy) individual, what I admired most about the culture was the Israeli chutzpah and is truly something I desperately want to emulate. Being direct without being rude, and accepting failure as a mere opportunity to try again, were great ingredients to creating successful startups – IMHO, these were the trip’s prized exposure that were extremely relevant for people seriously considering taking their Lab 2 Market ideas to the next level.

The Historical Sites

The Old City of Jerusalem was exactly how I imagined it to be and so much more. But there were a lot of unexpected and pleasant surprises I found along the way, such as the hotel’s proximity to the Dead Sea; the late night solo walks (I’m scared of everything, especially people); the visit to Nahalal and the Necropolis of Bet She’arim; and crawling inside what was purported to be Jesus’ tomb.

The Food

I’ve always found Mediterranean food to be too healthy. Yet, in Israel, I’ve never had such decadent and generous spread of courses, only to find that the amount of good food I ate were only appetizers. Both the welcome and farewell dinners were something I want to be able to find in San Diego. I’d even drive to LA or fly to San Francisco if I could find something up to par with the authentic Israeli dishes we had. There was never a shortage of food, even for vegetarians like Dipixa or people with food allergies, there was always a succulent dish to be had.

The Gneezys

The Gneezys always know how to do things right. Negotiations weekend was perhaps the most memorable part of my Rady experience, but Israel Immersion now takes the cake. Whether the class is with Ayelet or Uri, I somehow always come out far richer and more knowledgeable than I actually think I am. What they teach is beyond the concepts of the class – it is the overall experience that makes one feel whole. It’s as if prior to participating in their classes, you don’t even realize that something is missing from your life until you leave the class extremely fulfilled. I, for one, have learned invaluable social, professional, and life skills from both of them, which I carry with me wherever I go.

The Trip of a Lifetime

I do believe that students are terribly missing out if they leave Rady without participating in the USIC Israel Immersion Program. In hindsight, I probably would have enjoyed this trip a lot more had I shared this experience with Pete or Abby. As an alum, though, I’m fortunate to be given another chance. I am definitely grateful for the opportunity to relive the Rady experience and expand my network outside of my tight-knit FE14. The best part? I got to be nostalgic without having to worry about grades.

So is it possible to fall in love with a country you have not been to? As Ayelet said prior to the trip, I will be even more in love with Israel after I visit. She was not wrong. I’m already trying to find a way to convince my boss if I can work remotely for 3-6 months from Israel. Our VPN firewall rules do not allow network access outside of the U.S., so this will be challenging, but as I’ve learned from Uri, it does not hurt to negotiate and ask for anything. After all, I’m still קינדסומ תשפחמ.

As for my concerns that this group may not be as fun, I think Rady has a knack for putting together an eclectic mix of people. One is bound to find lifelong friends even in a short, week-long intensive period of time. Dipixa, Ben, and I have already maintained a group chat and are planning to hike and brunch regularly like basic sabiches. I can’t wait to be part of their future milestones just as I have with my Gossip Girls.

January 2, 2019 0 comment
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