Virtual Event: Incredible Launch!

I am really excited to share that Virtual Event had an incredibly successful launch. In just a week, more than 2,000 students from 52 countries used this platform to form new professional and personal relationships, virtually.

What is Virtual Event?

If you did not see my earlier post, I created Virtual Event, an online platform, with a team of 8 other students from the University of Pennsylvania. This platform can be used by any educational institution from kindergarten to university. Schools can use this platform for new student orientation, activities fair, career fair, club events, Greek Life (rush) events, and many other purposes. This platform provides a centralized location for all school events. Students can easily browse through all the events and meet organization representatives of their choosing. The cornerstone of this platform is the aspect of 1:1 or small group communication. It effectively facilitates forming new professional and personal relationships virtually while maintaining a sense of in-person communication. You can check out the platform here: https://virtualevent.ml.

Some Reflections about the Journey

This is the closest I have gotten to having a startup. I think I did some things pretty well and learned a great lesson for the rest.

Things That Went Well

1. Team: I could not have had a better developer team. They were obsessed with doing the right thing even if that meant being on call for hours or working until 3 am. They pushed for inclusivity and accessibility even when the ROI of a feature was negative because it was the right thing to do for students. Nothing rewards your product more than having your North Star in your own team.

2. Open Culture: All the firms I have worked at obsess with making data-driven decisions. I think that is the easy part - most times, there is an objective truth that most people agree on. The most challenging decisions are the ones with no data, historical examples, or team consensus -- aka a Tuesday night for 0 to 1 projects. I am so glad to establish a culture with my team where everyone was welcome to bring their insights to make a better product. There is no doubt that my team and advisors have stopped me from making some bad strategic decisions.

Learning Lessons

3. Functional Organization: Unfortunately, I was both the CEO and CTO of this product. In hindsight, that was a bad decision. There were days I was forced to pick between making a better product and improving my balance sheet / bringing more revenue. That is just a brutal choice regardless of the decision. In hindsight, I should have appointed a distinct CTO and CFO. In the future, I will make sure to find 2 other experienced people to take on those roles as I build my team.

4. Listen to Mark Zuckerberg: I have woken up more than once feared that the platform went down. There were weeks I would wake up, work on the platform, go to bed, and repeat. Obviously, this is not healthy for me, my team, or anyone around me. Mark Zuckerberg was one of the first people I talked to about this platform during my internship this summer. It was during one of the Intern Q/A sessions and I still remember his advice word for word. Few things he said:

• Take care of yourself! Mental health should always be a priority.
• Remember you have other things in life as well.
• Don't commit to it 100%. Even if it fails, you will be fine.

Final Words

I am yet to have a more fulfilling experience. It was a privilege to work with such an amazing team. None of this would have been possible without them. Virtual Event is my baby - regardless of what it does in the future, I am always going to be proud of it.