No One Asked For This

Today I wake up at 5 am with an itch to write. My journey as an entrepreneur has been riddled with failures. Starting in 2011, I decided against my parent's wishes to drop out of Ithaca College (IC). I became obsessed with working with Julian Baldwin and writing about other entrepreneurs. I was completely fascinated by how regular people could just start something from zero and reach such great heights. At the time, I was super into stock trading which was an obsession since before I was nine.

At UNYstartups, I began to learn what it meant to be an entrepreneur. Not just writing about them but also being a cofounder of sorts of my own startup as well. Looking back, I think it was a once in a lifetime experience. I was given access to many people I would have never met through education. Everyone at Ithaca's Business School seemed more interested in finance than anything else. For example, I remember vividly a conversation I had with the former Dean Zuckerman. I was trying to host Rochester's first Startup Weekend at IC. They refused to host it. This was way before IC ever had a business competition or anything like a startup program. After this experience, I gave up on IC entirely. I ended up finding another host and a wonderful sponsor. Thank you Rami!

Fast forward 10 years, and I'm still working in startups. This is not always due to personal choice! After almost failing to start my own studio, I spent 3-4 months job searching until by sheer luck got introduced to Punch Games. It seems I'm never a good fit for corporate but I have a feeling in the end that won't matter. We, entrepreneurs, are rebels and hold strong our values and beliefs even if most people think we're crazy. I have high hopes for the future and you should too! Don't let the struggle of job hunting or the craziness of your personal life hold you back. Maybe just maybe you'll be my next employer and/or partner. At the end of the day, you decide. Do you have what it takes to stick through the ups and downs?