Boardroom to Berkshire

Welcome to Not Your Mama's 9 to 5 Newsletter, where we talk about the future of employment, workplaces, and org structure. It's become normal for a career to be nonlinear and for employment to be dynamic. Trends like remote work, AI assistance, employees having multiple jobs, or even creating their own consulting practice will only continue.

We at Uptown embrace these trends to create better environments for companies and those who work at them.

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From the back row of a board meeting I snuck into...

I listened as professors and advisors echoed the challenge of teaching entrepreneurship. That was six years ago at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business. I felt fortunate to be a graduate student at a time the University was committed to becoming a nationally renowned hub for entrepreneurial studies.

My accomplice was an eccentric professor named Joseph Sulentic. We had organized a nonprofit together as part of my independent study - which was a nice respite from accounting exams. Our purpose that day was to ask the college to fund a creative solution for teaching entrepreneurship: letting students run a brick & mortar business.?

We found a window, made our pitch, and failed - entrepreneurship 101.

Entrepreneurship 102 - we did it anyway.?

Through our nonprofit, we leased a space near campus and challenged students to come up with ways to pay rent. They rose to the occasion by soliciting donations and organizing events to generate funds, capping off the semester with a sponsored Lululemon fashion show. Managing the inner workings of their own business gave students a unique insight that could never be obtained from books or lectures.

Graduating a month later, I strongly considered staying and continuing to breathe life into the company as an entrepreneur. But professor Sulentic gave me this selfless advice: take a corporate job for a couple years first to see how a well oiled machine works. I reluctantly polished my resume, equipped with unique experience landing me a job on Deloitte’s audit team.?

Berkshire & Busy Seasons

Luck staffed me on several small company audits, allowing me to see the accounting cover to cover. On the flip side, I was also fortunate to play a minor role in a few larger audits, granting peeks into massive enterprises like Berkshire Hathaway, Mutual of Omaha, and Principal. Above accounting, what interested me most was their operations, org structures, and ways of doing things. All the while my mind was still on building something new and I kept in touch with a couple Iowa guys who were doing just that.

Two busy seasons and a CPA license later, I teamed up with Chris and Conor to help build Uptown Creation .

Upcoming at Uptown:

The same lens that told us we were being taught wrong can examine traditional employment. At Uptown, we’re recreating the way work happens.

Next week, I’ll start to tell you how.?