Tori Brodsky ‘23 – Reflection Document, Venture Accelerator at UCLA Anderson

“A year ago, I celebrated my 27th birthday alone in my apartment. I had started the year excited to begin my new journey as a female founder for my beverage startup, DrinkLyte Co. Having just launched the company earlier that year, I had manufactured 6,000 units of inventory that would expire by the end of the year. However, in March 2020, I was loading up my car for Vegas to pitch my product to distributors when the COVID-19 stay-at-home order was put in place. It seemed that my brand-new venture (which relied heavily on the events/hospitality industry) was taken away in an instant. Like many successful startups, I had to pivot and fast.

Today, I am finishing my first year as an Anderson Fully Employed MBA (FEMBA) and participating in the exclusive Winter/Spring “Accelerate” cohort at the Anderson Venture Accelerator. As I reflect on how much has changed in the last year, I am finding immense gratitude for the Accelerator community and the opportunity, resources, and support they have provided to help me rebuild my business. The Venture Accelerator launched its formal program in 2018 as part of the Price Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and is hitting new strides every day. The extensive resources offered by leveraging the Los Angeles startup and business ecosystem are irreplaceable and perfectly augment the classroom theory with real world practicum to continue to scale my company, even during a global pandemic.

Since we began the program in February, I have gained a number of pro-bono expert advisors, and received important legal and financial advice from esteemed entrepreneurs, lawyers, and investors. These resources have provided access to the knowledge and how-to skills that I need to make sure my company both pivots and scales profitably. The Venture Accelerator team not only put together these resources, but also runs the program. I view them as an essential part of the Anderson experience as they teach me by leveraging their professional backgrounds, provide technical skills, and year-round programming for the founders that keeps us accountable and productive. Beyond the resources offered, the Accelerator management, or advisory team, have deep private sector experience and networks to continue to push DrinkLyte forward.  Most importantly, I have gained a small, yet mighty group of advocates in this team who believe in me, fight for me, and have been there to give me whatever I need to reach my goals. This advisory team creates an immeasurable amount of impact on every founder to successfully launch us into the LA startup ecosystem. To date, they are running at an 85% success rate post-graduation, an unusually high success rate for an early-stage program. I have no doubt it is due to the hands on, 24/7 program support offered by the management team.

UCLA is operating digitally due to the continued COVID-19 guidance, and even though I have never met the team in-person, I feel like I know them personally through our numerous Zoom calls throughout the program. This team has created a ‘best in class’ program that is competitive with any other University or for-profit accelerator in Los Angeles. Their dedication to me has impacted me, my team, and my business in the best way possible. I have encouraged other students to apply, knowing they will be wholeheartedly supported by these incredible people. It is clear that the Venture Accelerator is a tool that can help elevate the UCLA Anderson brand to prospective and current students, and be even more competitive with other top MBA programs. 

This year was a challenge for everyone, and I am confident that those challenges will be used as valuable lessons for future cohort members to make the program even stronger. Last year, I started my DrinkLyte endeavor alone without knowing how things would turn out. Although I still do not know what the future holds, I do know that I am no longer on this arduous journey alone and that the support of the Venture Accelerator team will continue beyond the program. Thank you, UCLA Anderson, for equipping me with the tools to succeed and the opportunity to better myself. I have no doubt that attending UCLA Anderson is one of the best investments I have made. – Tori Brodsky ’23, June 2021

To hear more about Tori’s experience, enjoy this “Voice of FEMBA” perspective from her directly.

What can a US Marine teach me about dealing with COVID-19?

Joel Searls, UCLA Anderson 2017, was an officer in the United States Marine Corps before he got his MBA. What can Joel teach us about dealing with COVID-19?

In this first-ever “home edition” Drive Time interview, Joel and I talk about the life-and-death training he received in the United States Marine Corps and what that might teach us all about how to deal with living through this unique chapter.

Joel generously explores how he has been able to re-create his career four times so far, from being a theater major producing a full play, to being a military officer, to associate producing a full-length Hollywood movie, to now becoming an investment banker. He tells about his perspective on networking and we reminisce about the time he brought the Back to the Future DeLorean to FEMBApalooza!

Enjoy!

Joel Searls ’17 was kind enough to bring the Back to the Future DeLorean to FEMBApalooza.

Here’s hoping we are “live” again for Palooza 9, this summer of 2020.

$100M FEMBA, Brian Thomas 14 and Clutter

Happy Friday FEMBA,

Summer is over, classes have begun, and what a big September we just had! Below are a few highlights of the month, beginning with my commute to UCLA today…

CLUTTER

Coming up Overland, in the middle, can you see the teal truck?  Barely?

…Neither could I, so I weaved through traffic and caught up on Pico.

Every time I see one of Brian Thomas’ Clutter vans I get chills. Three years after graduation, and over $100M in venture financing and he is opening new cities and hiring UCLA Anderson MBAs with his company, Clutter, every time he opens a new city. Wow!

Read the recent Forbes article here.

I followed the van on Beverly Glen until it took a right on Olympic. What a way to start Friday, seeing a UCLA Anderson success story!

So…

What else has been inspiring lately from UCLA Anderson?

THREE GLOBAL IMMERSIONS

How about out three Global Immersions, to Peru, Sweden & Finland, and South Korea.

Have you seen these two amazing photos of F-E-M-B-A spelled out by our students? Thank you Lucy Allard for having my great team leader Chris Thompson attend “Economic Environment and Business Opportunities in Peru” with Professor Terech.

F-E-M-B-A at Machu Picchu

F = Taylor Friend FEMBA ’19, John Dahlem FEMBA ’19

E = Kathryn Li FEMBA ‘19, Molly Johnson FEMBA ’19

M = Fiorelli Salvo FEMBA ‘19, Rachel Luskin FEMBA ’18

B = Vince Vo FEMBA ‘19, Aad Chavda FEMBA ’18

A = Alex Kim FEMBA ‘19, Tannis Mann FEMBA ‘19

Or how about this Global Immersion, “Entrepreneurship and Corporate Renewal in Scandinavia” (Sweden & Finland) with Professor George Abe ?

F-E-M-B-A in front of the Helsinki Cathedral

Shown here: Matthew Cham (’18), Carole Luong (’18), Anu Chikersal (’18), Kathy Pham (’18), Mackenzie Sherwood (’18), Lindsay Grob (’18), Janice Lee (’18), Leanne McGowan (’18), Mimi Yang (’18), Patrick Kiernan (’18).  Thanks Leanne, for the photo.

F-E-M-B-A in South Korea

F: Ian McRae ’18, Victoria Lew ’19

E: Jessica Barnette ’19, Shelby Chambers ’19

M: Naomi  Kalyani ’19, Van Nguyen ’19

B: Seth Houston ’19, Eleanor Fang ’19

A: Tony Wu ’19, Roshni Parikh ’19

2017 INCOMING STUDENT KICKOFF

Also inspiring, we ran a new event for the entering FEMBA Class of 2020, the 2017 Incoming Student Kickoff.  It was super popular, and I’ve got big ideas to expand this idea to include upper class and alumni participation next year.

The Incoming Student Kickoff event sold out one week after launching; student response exceeded expectations.

466 tickets were sold to 287 unique purchasers, plus 179 guests (many of whom are also Anderson students). The 287 unique purchasers included:

• 43% of the entering Full-Time MBA class
• 20% of the entering Executive MBA class
• 26% of the entering Fully Employed MBA class
• Alumni Executive Board President Dwight Holcomb, and FEMBA Council Leader Michael Khoda 19
• 7 Faculty and 9 staff

At the Rose Bowl (Entering EMBA student Stephen Austad, 3^rd from left, was part of the Flyover team):

UCLA’s epic comeback-for-the-ages: 34 unanswered points. Thank you Texas A&M (my alma mater…):

Networking on the bus ride to Pasadena…

Networking at the Game:

EMBA Pilot Stephen Austad (left) was a true Bruin underneath his Navy flight suit:

Stephen had a Bruin in the cockpit…

Everyone had a great time. Shown here, Assistant Dean Bonny Kim with new FEMBA Jermeen Sherman 20.

Me myself, unfortunately, could not attend in person. As much fun as I had organizing the event, I was already scheduled to be in Puerto Vallarta to see my son who was doing an exchange student experience in Mexico.  I watched the epic game from a hotel bar.; thank goodness for satellite broadcasting!

UCLA TOP PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN THE NATION IN THREE SEPARATE RANKINGS

For the third time this month, UCLA was rated the top public university in the nation, this time by the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education ranking.

STAND AND DELIVER: SPEAKING POWERFULLY AND PROFESSIONALLY

For the second year, I had the honor of teaching my Stand and Deliver: Speaking Powerfully & Professionally, and Asking for What You Want workshop in Leadership Foundations. It was an honor to get to be in front of the Class of 2020!

These brave FEMBAs are not afraid of getting cold-called, and making a speech in front of 80+ new MBA peers.

DAY ONE LEADERSHIP FOUNDATIONS, WELCOME REMARKS

My favorite day of the year, greeting the new entering FEMBA Class. Here, the Class of 2020.

DOUBLE-RAINBOW OVER BRISKIN PLAZA

After Diversity Theater on Thursday of Leadership Foundations, Westwood had a brief but intense rain shower which led to a double rainbow.

It was dramatic in black and white too.

Happy weekend everyone, and here’s to a great October!

 

Be Authentic, Be Yourself – Meet Grace Chang ’13

From FEMBA Council President to Anderson Alumni Board to Winning at TechCrunch Disrupt, we catch up with Grace Chang, FEMBA 2013 to hear about her very busy career trajectory post-graduation.

Grace launched Events Sorbet during FEMBA with two fellow FEMBA Council leaders, quickly growing from 3 to 26 people with operations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York before they brokered off the business. Grace then went to a mobile chat company, getting her feet wet in a more seasoned start-up and successfully riding through an acquisition, ending up with 6 different offers.

UnifyID was the most intriguing of the 6 offers Grace was considering and she signed with UnifyID as both their first-ever product manager and their first non-technical hire. Launched at TechCrunch Disrupt, UnifyID won battlefield runner-up winner (#2 out of 1,000 start-ups competing).

Coincidentally, Phillip Chang 17, Head of Information Security at Boingo Wireless, and Drive Time podcast editor, was attending the RSA Conference last month where UnifyID was again one of ten finalists in an innovation competition and won the “RSAC Most Innovative Startup 2017”!). Today, 3/10/17, as we post, Grace’s whole team is headed to SXSW!

Back during FEMBA, as FEMBA Council President, Grace was the organizer of the first ever “Opportunity/Enterpreneurship/Club Zone” at the very ever first FEMBApalooza in the summer of 2012. She reflects on taking on leadership roles during FEMBAs that were not offered at work, and how she grew from the opportunity.

Learn about all of this and more from Grace Chang ’13 in this episode of our Drive Time podcast.

Real-Time Real Results: Meet Sharon Lee ’15 and David Duong ’15

Will the MBA work for an English major? Will the MBA help me open my own business? How successful is the MBA for helping to change companies, and could I change companies during FEMBA? Will an MBA make me more confident? Yes, Yes, Very Successful, Yes and YES.

This week’s podcast features two recent graduates, Sharon Lee ’15 and also David Duong ’15. Both were very active student leaders while they were here, and each has a very strong return-on-investment story to tell from their FEMBA experience.

Also, new for 2017, at the end of this podcast, listen for some bonus tips on professional productivity, some best practices from Sharon and David.

And, as a special bonus, after the podcast, please also enjoy this unique video that David wrote, directed, choreographed and danced in…

So you think you can dance? Wait until you see David Duong 15, and his posse in this magic moment, filmed all around UCLA Anderson.

Inside FEMBA Flex: Meet Dr. George Ingersoll, Associate Dean of Hybrid Learning

What does it take to launch a new teaching pedagogy at an institution with a reputation as respected as UCLA Anderson?

Today’s podcast offers an inside view from Dr. George Ingersoll, PhD ’15 and MBA ’09. George was there when Senior Associate Dean Carla Hayn proposed of “FEMBA Flex” for a UCLA Anderson Faculty vote back in 2012. Today he is UCLA Anderson’s Associate Dean for Hybrid Learning.

Since 2012, Flex has become a popular schedule option for both Core and elective courses, and has contributed significantly to the growth of FEMBA’s student body in enrollments of women, military, MD, PhD and of course, out-of-area students. Flex has definitely brought talented students to UCLA Anderson who would not be here otherwise.

FEMBA Flex is proof-positive of UCLA Anderson’s commitment to Think in the Next. We hope you enjoy George’s interview.

 

Group Podcast: Making the World a Better Place – Care | Mind

Making the World a Better Place: Care | Mind

This week’s Drive Time Podcast is the first of its kind, starring a trio of three alumni stories from Oscar Rodriguez (FEMBA ’14), Hanson Chang (FEMBA ’14) and Sarah McMains (Full Time MBA ’12). You will hear how Oscar and Hanson met in their first year of the FEMBA program and continued working together, along with Sarah, through the creation of their start-up healthcare business, “Care | Mind” (an iOS application). The group discusses several themes that have stuck with them throughout their time at UCLA Anderson and beyond, including:

• Building a partnership through their time in the FEMBA program
• Discovering opportunities, broadening their perspectives, and finding their higher purpose
• Bringing medicine back in the hands of individuals and empowering people with information
• Increasing the utilization of wearable technology with the senior population
• Leveraging the UCLA Anderson Alumni Network to find a perfect match for their marketing needs
• Practical tips for getting the most out of the UCLA Anderson experience

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Accelerate Your Billion Dollar Network: Faculty Spotlight Jeff Scheinrock

Faculty Spotlight: The value of your UCLA Anderson education starts with our faculty. You learn from top research professors, whose ideas drive change globally, AND you learn from faculty who have “been there and done that in industry” and share their success with you.

Jeff Scheinrock, Continuing Lecturer, Faculty Director AMR/BCO, President & CFO at Originate (a pioneer in Venture Resources) brings a lifetime of corporate experience into his teaching. He has extensive experience in international financial markets, corporate finance and capital structure, acquisitions and strategic investment, and is a CPA.

Podcast highlights include:

• Three tips all new students can use
• Launching the UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator
  Seeing Senior Associate Dean Al Osborne and Executive Director Elaine Hagan of the Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation bring the Venture Accelerator to life
• Hiring 11 UCLA Anderson graduates to Originate!
• Teaching as a GAP Faculty Advisor
• Writing a book (The Agile Startup) with a FEMBA alumnus,
  Matt Sand, FEMBA ’10, President 3DEO
• Seeing the power of luck and timing — and a sense of humor!

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Cornerstone OnDemand and FEMBA

Thanks to our current FEMBAs who hosted us at Cornerstone OnDemand last week.
Left-to-Right:
Pratik Savai 16, VP of Application Development
Margaret Chang 18, Operations Support Analyst
Aditya Shah 19, CPA, Senior Manager of Internal Controls and Compliance
Jordan Sugar 17, Talent Acquisition Project Manager
Isadora Dantas 16, Mobile Product Manager
Rich Headley 16, Software Product Manager

What an inspiring UCLA Anderson example of Sharing Success! Cornerstone was founded by Adam Miller, UCLA Anderson JD/MBA, and now Cornerstone is hiring lots of new Anderson MBAs. Great recruiting visit; thanks Cornerstone, for hosting us! Thanks Chris Thompson on our team, for creating the event!

“I got everything I wanted from my MBA” meet Isadora Dantas ’16

“I got everything I wanted from my MBA”  Meet Isadora Dantas, UCLA Anderson FEMBA Class of 2016. Hers is a fantastic global journey from Brazil to New York City to Los Angeles, a powerful personal transformation, and incredible career results. Isadora shares generously about the impact of FEMBA:

• Discovering a passion for public speaking during Professor Firstenberg’s course
• Becoming a TEDx campfire speaker at UCLA
• Aligning her prior Master’s degree research on happiness
• Co-founding a start-up, Petsnap, with FEMBA classmates
• Switching careers, from graphic design to product management, leveraging the coaching of Susan Cowell and our FEMBA Career Services team
• Switching companies, from Disney to Sony to finally landing at UCLA-founded, Cornerstone OnDemand, all utilizing her UCLA network
• Taking a Global Immersion to Israel with Professor Gabriel to see the vibrant tech scene
• Meeting her “FEMBesties” during school
• (Short on time?? Start at 38:00 to hear Isadora’s summary of her FEMBA journey, and what’s next.)

Enjoy!

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