Startup Grind Global Conference 2016
Post by Samina Baig ’16
Participating in Babson’s Undergraduate San Francisco Program has opened up a new array of opportunities for me. The Silicon Valley culture promotes “out-of-the-box thinking.” People are encouraged to take unique and seemingly impossible approaches to tackling pain points in our everyday lives. Startup Grind’s Global Conference brings a lot of the entrepreneurial leaders who are trying to solve such issues together to have conversations and network with one another. The conference is just one of the opportunities in the Bay Area that promotes intensive learning about startup culture and making friends with people as opposed to just connections.
The Startup Grind Global Conference facilitated for me a powerful connection with someone with which I would not typically cross paths. My favorite moment was simply at a random booth where a woman named Jackie approached me. She was promoting Lever – the Applicant Tracking System startup at which she worked. Before she spoke to me at all about what she does at Lever or even what the company does in detail, we had a rich conversation about her career experiences as a working professional and my career aspirations as a student at a highly entrepreneurial college. Her familiarity with Babson made it easy for us to make an immediate connection and we have since been communicating to potentially find an opportunity for me at Lever. While professional opportunities are great, I really feel that Jackie has become a mentor to me. Combined with all of the other people I had the chance to meet at the Startup Grind Global Conference, the networking opportunity has proven to be truly invaluable. Thanks to the Undergraduate Professional Accelerator Fund for this great opportunity!