Bearcats Mean Business podcast

Grant Freking: (00:00)
Lindner's experiential learning toolbox empowers students to tackle real-world problems. Cooperative education, or co-op, is UC's gold standard for experiential learning. Co-op is simply this: paid professional experiences students use to gain the skills, confidence, and connections needed to launch their business careers. Welcome back to Bearcats Mean Business, the official podcast of the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business. My name is Grant Freking, Manager of College Communications and Marketing at Lindner. Today I'm joined by Benjamin Seid, risk and compliance analyst for Triversity Construction. Benjamin is a 2024 Lindner grad who majored in operations management and insurance and risk management among other topics. Benjamin is here to dive deep into his co-op experiences and how they helped prepare him for his professional career. Welcome, Benjamin. Thank you for being here.

Benjamin Seid: (00:52)
Thanks, Grant. Thanks for having me.

Grant Freking: (00:54)
Now, Benjamin, you had three co-op rotations, correct? Yes. Okay. Two rotations with Bosch, USA and one with Toyota North America. Yes.

Benjamin Seid: (01:01)
Yeah.

Grant Freking: (01:01)
What was your process for landing these positions?

Benjamin Seid: (01:04)
Uh, so it started being that weird remote hybrid COVID era. Sure. Um, taking a career success course first it was great. Met the career coach, then Emily, um, who actually patched me to my actual career coaches for my major. So I think it was Keith Sun and Weston at the beginning. Um, you know, they were like, go to the career fair, this is great. Um, went there and that's kind of how that journey started is following the career coaches, taking their advice, um, and just kind of experienced in college from being a transfer student from Blue Ash to main campus. Um, the, the big thing was I've never been to a career fair, so meeting people was really stressful. I went with a game plan of writing down my 10 companies that I wanna work for. Um, talk to my career coaches saying This is who I want to try to interview with, kind of meet with. They gave me their names and I just kind of explored that arena at the, um, well, the basketball court down at uc Sure. Sport facility. That's how it kind of started. Um, through that. There's a lot of little behind the scenes that I worked on, um, with the career coaches, which I can get into more detail, but that's kind of how it started.

Grant Freking: (02:13)
Sure. And what were some of like the tidbits, I guess, when you first, uh, collaborated with your career coaches that kind of maybe got your wheels spinning on maybe who you wanted to talk to at the career fair, maybe who you even wanted to co-op with. What were some of those sort of the questions they asked you or sort of things you guys bounced off of each other?

Benjamin Seid: (02:30)
Yeah. Being a OM major kind of finding my core values is really important. So for me, it's people first. So trying to find companies that fit that kind of mission statement or values is really important. That's kind of how I landed in my full-time career, uh, at Triversity. But, you know, Toyota has that, Bosch has that, um, you know, all those companies that I've interned and kind of networked with has that core value. The Keith Sun did a really good job and he connected me with names that will be at that event. So I went up to that booth, knew the name, introduced myself, said I'm interested in blank blank. Um, you know, people first I like inter um, process planning. And then the recruiter was like, oh, that's great. We have a team for that. Here's our connection. Um, you know, you walk away kinda like, oh, maybe I got that role.

Benjamin Seid: (03:15)
Maybe I didn't. Um, I walked away every time. I did not land that co-op interview connection, whatever you call that, that first impression. Sure. Um, what I did then was I went to Keith and said, I need their name again. 'cause I was really bad at taking notes at the beginning and I messaged 'em on LinkedIn. I said, Hey, it was great meeting you here. Here's my resume. I would like to set up a time to meet you in more depth or meet the team. And that's how I landed Bosch and Toyota. Was that kind of follow up, the initiative with that career coach. The career coach knowing who's attending, they know who signed up for that career fair. It's up to the student and especially me reaching out and getting that kind of push and drive to get that connection going.

Grant Freking: (03:58)
Sure. And then once you got to your co-ops, after you put the hard work in that you just mentioned, once you got to your co-ops, what sort of, I guess, hard skills that maybe related to your major and soft skills that can relate to any major? Did you pick up on?

Benjamin Seid: (04:12)
Um, you know, it was interesting. I little, yes. Both hard skills I will say is I was not good with, um, I'm a visual learner.

Grant Freking: (04:21)
Mm-hmm .

Benjamin Seid: (04:22)
And, and anyway, I'm, I'm, that's the big thing. So technical skills like that, it just wasn't connecting with me. So having a mentor understand that express how you learn, really kind of coach me on this is the Excels that you need. This is the word processing, I think going onto any business, right? There's a big software system for us at Triversity. It's, uh, viewpoint. Maybe at Bosch, it's SAP. Um, those are things that you'll learn with your mentor. And it's kind of now that, now that I understand that system, it's great. soft skills. Um, pushed myself to network 30 minutes with someone new. I made a network sheet, my second co-op at Toyota. I use that now as just a tool to continue meeting people. But the first co-op was just a rocky road. Not that it wasn't great, it just, it was my first experience.

Grant Freking: (05:08)
Yeah.

Benjamin Seid: (05:08)
Understanding professionalism, um, driving my 45 minute commute every morning, um, attending school full time, full time. There's a lot of things I would redo, but I think that put me in a great spot now of the drive, the motivation, the networking, and just kind of knowing what to do in my career laying out from now with the career coaches.

Grant Freking: (05:28)
Sure. Did the networking aspect come naturally to you, or did you have to fine tune that as well? You, you obviously you said when you mentioned, you know, searching for your cops Yeah. And internship internships, you wanted, you know, the people focused thing. So did that come naturally to you or was that something you were just kind of aspiring to in hope to get, to get to.

Benjamin Seid: (05:44)
Yeah, before I did co-ops. I worked at a pet store and I always put the people first, the team first.

Grant Freking: (05:48)
Sure.

Benjamin Seid: (05:48)
Understanding that, and that was kind of core value in that business. I think networking came naturally to me on a low level, but it kind of fine tuned it through the co-ops and through kind of networking, um, at events or just going places and trying new things.

Grant Freking: (06:02)
Sure. How did the co-op process or even the co-op in general, prepare you for your current role and the interview process for that current role? Or just like the job application and interview process for your current role?

Benjamin Seid: (06:14)
Yeah. I think, you know, I think there's two things to that. Um, co-oping is one part of it. Understanding, you know, the professionalism, the skills, the how to work with people, demographics, right? There's different, you know, working with different ages, being the young person at work, working with someone that's more senior in leadership, um, trying new things. That has propelled me to kind of prepare myself for the interviewing full time. The other thing is working with Weston, your career coaches, understanding, connecting with them. Weston pulled me in and had said, Hey, can you want, you wanna be a TA um, for his class, for career success mm-hmm . Um, and I was like, yeah, that's great. I've already taken that class. Now I'm doing it again for another 16 weeks and relearning all the things after doing a co-op. And that kind of pushed me like, oh, okay.

Benjamin Seid: (07:01)
Finding a new job. I actually do have to focus a little bit more on my resume, or this is a good reminder to edit my resume and use bullet points. This is right when AI kind of came out with ChatGPT for school and kids were using it more. And so I, I was like, okay, I gotta fine tune this. I gotta use their new tools and got a refresher over and over on that. Um, and that's kind of helped me get my full-time job is just kind of fine tuning the skills that I had first time taking the career course and the second time, um, and then continuing TAing for that role.

Grant Freking: (07:28)
Sure. And you mentioned Weston and Career Services. Let's circle back to that.

Benjamin Seid: (07:31)
Yeah.

Grant Freking: (07:31)
How often would you say, you know, when you were searching for your co-op, uh, did you kind of meet with them, you know, to kind of maybe get your feet wet? What's, tell, walk me through some of the interactions and maybe what other students can expect if they find themselves in a similar position. Which they will, because everyone has to coop.

Benjamin Seid: (07:46)
And I think it's a great tool, right. Co-oping is awesome. I I do highly, um, love the idea of required co-ops. Um, first time is in person.

Grant Freking: (07:53)
Yeah.

Benjamin Seid: (07:53)
Um, I am terrible at interviewing and meeting people. First time, uh, I get anxious. It's, it's uncomfortable. So I always try to do the first time meet in person. Sure. Uh, over that maybe per semester. So first time at one time a semester, I probably met with Weston and Keith maybe three times a semester in person or virtual. And then probably, maybe a good 50 emails back and forth, um, on, Hey, I'm thinking about this. Do you know anyone there? Do you think this fits me? I'm trying to do this class next semester. Do you think this will help me get this kind of role of this career path? And that was kind of the, the help that they gave is very one-on-one support, understanding who you are and that will also benefit a co-op looking full-time or a future co-op.

Grant Freking: (08:36)
Right. Talk more about like not only the connections they provide you with, but also making you probably aware of, you know, what all is available on Handshake and or Handshake, the job portal I should say. Um, the professional development workshops, other advisors and mentors that that could connect you with.

Benjamin Seid: (08:52)
Yeah. I, I think Handshake is really great. I use that a lot. That's a really good tool to know where companies are at career fairs, right. Uh, networking connection. Um, it's great. I Weston, uh, for example was like, Hey, you should meet this person. Or, you know, the connection between you and me right now was through Weston. And that's great. Right. Um, they just help you fine tune, uh, connect you to the right people that will propel you to where you need to be. And I think that's the really important part about the career services team downstairs, is you have to put in the work of meeting them for them to know you, to them to connect you to the right person. Um, and especially the right business. Because even though you might connect to someone at Fifth Third or another company, they might say, oh, I actually know someone in the right industry for you personally.

Grant Freking: (09:34)
Right. And the more initiative you show them.

Benjamin Seid: (09:36)
Yep.

Grant Freking: (09:36)
And the more work you put in with their relationship with them, the, the better they can do. They can make use of their extensive network of connections, which span the city and the region and nationally

Benjamin Seid: (09:46)
Yep.

Grant Freking: (09:47)
To get you a connection.

Benjamin Seid: (09:48)
There's so much alumni and especially that tool of the alumni page at LinkedIn. You can sit down with them for 20 minutes and they'll pull out 15 people to, for you to meet and they know. Right. You know.

Grant Freking: (09:56)
Right. Exactly. Yeah. So tell me a bit more about yourself and your current role at Triversity.

Benjamin Seid: (10:01)
Yeah. So I started Triversity last year when I graduated. Uh, you know, there's a, there's a slide show in the slide in career career success where you apply for a hundred, you maybe get 70 and you go and it's down to the 10%. Yep. Um, that did not happen to me with the co-ops. I walked in, talked to Bosch, talked to Toyota, and got the co-ops. That's not everyone. And that's just because I worked and met the right people and connected and put a lot of work ahead of time. I wanna say that because some people think, oh, that's everyone. It's not.

Grant Freking: (10:29)
Yep, everyone's gonna have a different experience.

Benjamin Seid: (10:29)
Everyone's gonna have a different experience. And the journey is fun. It might be stressful, it might be anxious, it might be depressing, but it's really important to go through that path.

Grant Freking: (10:37)
Yeah. It could be like you, where you find your, your right fits early, but you, if you persevere, you might find your, your right. Fits a little farther down the line too.

Benjamin Seid: (10:46)
100%. The, the career, the finding a full-time after college was a little harder than I thought. Um, coming into a lot of external things that happening in the world. Right. Weston was the support on that. I took the last semester off and I TA'ed for three career success courses for that whole semester. Three different professors three times a week. Um, same course, right. But it was three different industry professors. It was really great. And I talked to them about that and Weston helped me kind of guide that path. But during one water break down in the career success, 'cause I would sit there and grade homework, right. I would grade resumes. I'm like, oh, maybe I should try that on my resume. Or, you know, that's a, that's a big red flag. Or, you know, what, what all that. Um, Weston came up to me.

Benjamin Seid: (11:32)
He was like, Hey, I, I have someone that you should meet. Have you thought about construction? And I'm like, no, I, I did two HR internships and I did a project planning internship that is, yeah, okay, let's try it. Right. And he's like, it's a great company. It's in Walnut Hills, it's local. It supports kind of the mission that you're doing of people, people, uh, putting people first. Um, the team is small now. You know, we're Triversity right now is a hundred and 130 ish employees and we service from nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies. Right. So, and, and UC and a little bit of other things. Um, I was like, yeah, let's try it. You know, let, let's go for it. I think this is a great fit. Um, and I met the recruiter, uh, our team at Triversity, our HR team is just fantastic.

Benjamin Seid: (12:18)
They do a lot of cool things locally and kind of help our co-ops kind of gain skills. Go on the, my manager now, you know, you go in, it's like, oh, here's a 30 minute, uh, phone screening with the manager. Ended up being an hour, you know, and I was like, oh, that's a good, I felt that was a good step forward. Um, did a second interview with my manager and one of our project plan project engineer managers. Now I think he was an engineer then, but maybe a manager now.

Grant Freking: (12:46)
Mm-hmm .

Benjamin Seid: (12:47)
Um, he's running the Duke Energy Project. It's a convention center right now. So if you see that on the road, that's kind of one of his projects that he's helping with Messer and Alliance Project. But it's fantastic work. Then I met the COO now with the manager, so Robin and Ryan. Um, that was a great interview and we kind of just talked about what I like to do, what I'm interested in, process planning people first. Um, and that's, I mean, that all started with, uh, Weston saying, Hey, I have a recruiter that might, is interested in something for a risk analyst. Um, didn't think I would go into risk analysts or insurance kind of side thought I would be more operations. But I think this is the perfect fit for me for just building what I've done there from a co-op program to kind of pre-qual compliance work too.

Grant Freking: (13:30)
Just goes to show always take the call.

Benjamin Seid: (13:31)
Yep.

Grant Freking: (13:31)
Always take the lunch.

Benjamin Seid: (13:32)
Yep.

Grant Freking: (13:32)
Always take, you know, the LinkedIn connection. 'cause you just never

Benjamin Seid: (13:36)
Know. You never know. Yep. Yeah.

Grant Freking: (13:38)
So you started out, um, at UC blue Ash. Um, talk to me about Yeah. And the audience about like your path to getting here to the transition student. 'cause there are, we do have a number of students who, who take that path and how it ended up working out for you.

Benjamin Seid: (13:49)
Yeah, I think, I think Blue Ash, um, you know, I will say this. My sister went through Blue Ash in the main campus. Um, I, I did the same thing. I was hesitant about doing college in the beginning. And I, I will say that, but I thought, you know what, this is a great step of, I'll meet new people. I'll try new skills, do a co-op. Um, I started at Blue Ash 'cause I was like, okay, I'll get my associates there. Which I did. Meet new friends. I met a lot of friends that were at Lindner that commuted up there for like accounting. And that's kind of how I connected there, especially at career fairs.

Grant Freking: (14:19)
Okay.

Benjamin Seid: (14:19)
Um, love that. Great thing. Did two years there, transferred town to main campus. Completely different, completely new. Um, it took me about one semester to figure out, there's like a hill that you have to climb up to, uh, TUC.

Benjamin Seid: (14:34)
Uh, so I did that the first semester also. Yeah. TC Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, uh, and it was great. I mean, coming that transfer was great 'cause it was kind of a community college feel, high school feel, but also very, the professors gave you a lot of skills in one-on-one work. Um, I think the big thing was coming to learn. You still had that, you still had the professor come to you, you have office hours. The classes are not like 85 people when I was in college. And so I could still connect to the professor and get help and learn skills and try new things at Blue Ash and then also at Lindner. So that was a perfect mix back then.

Grant Freking: (15:11)
Sure. And yeah, like you mentioned, you sort of determined your own level of how, how much you wanna take advantage of the ample resources that are available to you. Right. Yeah. Let's close with this. What are some tips you have for other Lindner students? Maybe you general uc students about finding their way at Lindner and college? What sort of, kind of overarching things can you think of there for not necessarily maybe surviving, but sort of like finding some success along the way and, and pushing forward?

Benjamin Seid: (15:37)
Yeah, I think, I think understanding who you are is very important. Um, I, I took a gap year, then I went to Blue Ash and I went here and I always kept the same thing of people, people first. I always say that I, I think that is kind of where I stuck to it and kept it to understanding where I need to go and who will support that. Every mentor that I've had, I've always like, this is the goal of me. They've always like, okay, great. I have someone to meet. You have someone, here's someone to meet. Here's a job. Maybe you wanna try, uh, here's a project, here's a project manager that's doing that. Um, but I also think like stepping out of your comfort zone was a big thing in college that I didn't understand from my parents. You know, they're like, oh, it's, it's just, you know, you learn skills, but you also step outta your boundaries and, and try new things.

Benjamin Seid: (16:21)
And I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. Okay, great. No, it's super true. It's very true. Um, and, but if you get nervous or you get a little scared or whatever, the, the team here and your friends that you'll meet on campus are 100% here to support you throughout that whole process. Um, and the the biggest thing I think is I like to try new things, but I do need that little push. And so if you need a little push, I think following back to the career success team and your advisors here and just any staff, they can give you that little push, but also be right there behind you, uh, to make sure that you don't fall or fail. Um, but also I think locally, um, everyone in the community in Cincinnati and alumni around UC know that about this program Yeah. And about the school. And they're here to support you.

Grant Freking: (17:12)
Yeah. There's support systems that you can't even fathom that are, that are here as long as you are willing to make the connections and as you mentioned, push yourself a little bit.

Benjamin Seid: (17:18)
Yeah.

Grant Freking: (17:19)
My thanks to Benjamin Seid for dropping by the Lindner Podcast Studio today. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider subscribing or leaving a five star review for Bearcats Mean Business on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. To learn more about co-op visit business.uc.edu. That's business dot uc edu. Thanks for listening. Go Bearcats.

Grant Freking: (00:00)
Hello there. Welcome back to Bearcats Mean Business, the official podcast of the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business. My name is Grant Freking, Manager of College Communications and Marketing at Lindner. I'm excited today to be joined by Rachael Spoon, a 2021 Lindner graduate who has carved out her own path as an entrepreneur. Rachael is here to share how her upbringing and education has shaped her ambitions, how she landed on Lindner and the University of Cincinnati, and how a passion for the wedding industry prompted her to start her own business, Rae and Company Weddings. Welcome Rachael. Thanks for being here.

Rachael Spoon: (00:32)
Thank you for having me.

Grant Freking: (00:33)
Of course. Thanks for making the trip up from Tennessee. I'd like to start at the beginning with guests of the show. What was your upbringing like? Were you from around here? How did you kind of, you know, where are you from

Rachael Spoon: (00:44)
If we're taking it all the way back to the beginning. Okay. I was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Grant Freking: (00:46)
Oh, okay.

Rachael Spoon: (00:48)
Until I was seven when my family moved here to technically Loveland, Ohio.

Grant Freking: (00:52)
Okay.

Rachael Spoon: (00:52)
Where I lived until 2021 and then moved to Clarksville, Tennessee with my now husband. Okay. Um, I have four siblings. I'm the oldest of four. Oh, wow. And the only daughter, so there is Michael. He is actually here at UC studying computer science. Okay. David is in Covington working at Fidelity Investments and Matthew is in high school looking to play soccer in college. So, okay.

Grant Freking: (01:21)
How was it being the only female amongst three younger brothers?

Rachael Spoon: (01:25)
They tease me.

Grant Freking: (01:25)
Yeah.

Rachael Spoon: (01:25)
They say that I'm the spoiled only daughter. Um, I think there's pros and cons to being the eldest. I have a lot of the like oldest daughter tendencies. I'm a perfectionist, I.

Grant Freking: (01:36)
mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (01:37)
Maybe a little bit of a goodie two shoes, but

Grant Freking: (01:39)
Yeah. Little bit of Enneagram type one.

Rachael Spoon: (01:41)
Oh yeah. Sort of, yeah. Mm-hmm .

Grant Freking: (01:43)
Nice. So what was your draw to UC and Lindner? Was it pure location? Was it academics? Do you, what, what was, that wasn't too long ago for you.

Rachael Spoon: (01:51)
No, it wasn't. So when I was in high school applying to colleges, I didn't realize how profoundly one school could shape my life. And so, although I admit that UC wasn't at the top of my list at the time, not because I had anything against it, but because I didn't really understand what I wanted or what I needed in a college experience, looking back, I'm convinced that it was all part of God's plan for me to end up here. And the community, the values, the opportunities, who I became, who I grew into, everything at UC made me who I am today. So if I could go back in time, I'd choose UC 12 times outta 10, even though it wasn't maybe my initial want for my college experience.

Grant Freking: (02:37)
Mm-hmm . Right? Sure. Yeah. I think there's no way of knowing like what's ahead of you when you're like in that really overwhelming, it's like your first big adult decision, right. Is choosing a college for the most part. And so it's like, how can you know what's ahead of you? And we're certainly glad you landed on UC. Take me back to your beginnings here at Lindner and UC. How did you, did you know you wanted to do entrepreneurship right away? I did not. Yeah. Most people don't know what major is that. It's completely normal. So how did you find your way to that?

Rachael Spoon: (03:00)
I knew I wanted business, so I came in as business undecided.

Grant Freking: (03:03)
Sure.

Rachael Spoon: (03:03)
And then I think it was probably my freshman year, I had this sort of questioning of what do I really wanna do with my life and what are my goals and what are my interests? And as I sat down and thought about, you know, I love interior design and I'm really organized and I like the idea of logistics and making things efficient. I landed on operations management and then after taking an operations management class, decided maybe that wasn't the best route for me. And I think it was my sophomore year came up with this idea for a one stop shop venue where there were multiple themed venues all sitting on one piece of land so that I could cater to multiple people's styles. And in the process sort of landed on the wedding industry as the ultimate goal. And then entrepreneurship felt like just a no brainer next step. That was, I mean, that was it. And then I took my first entrepreneurship class and had this, oh my gosh, this is me moment.

Grant Freking: (04:09)
It must have been pretty fulfilling, satisfying, and like a little bit of sigh of relief too. Absolutely. A little bit more than like the OM class, which is great for some people and not great for others. I don't think I'm with you. Om would be like a little too much for me.

Rachael Spoon: (04:21)
I love the efficiency and logistics.

Grant Freking: (04:22)
Yeah.

Rachael Spoon: (04:22)
Of what I do. But as far as operations management is concerned, I just don't think that was, that was not my personality. Mm-hmm .

Grant Freking: (04:31)
Right. What other sort of touch points were there along the way at Lindner that sort of helped you get to where you're doing not only, I guess what you're doing now, but like fulfill, like your entrepreneurship, like complete the, the entrepreneurship circle at Lindner? Was it certain classes, interactions with professors, clubs, organizations? What, what sort of other stuff that's in there?

Rachael Spoon: (04:48)
I have to give almost all of that credit to my academic advisor, Brittany. Mm-hmm . She,

Grant Freking: (04:56)
Brittany Wagner.

Rachael Spoon: (04:57)
Brittany Wagner. Yeah. She, um, when I had the idea for the venue, I started talking about it to all of my professors. I wrote all my papers about it.

Grant Freking: (05:03)
Yeah.

Rachael Spoon: (05:03)
It was, it became everything. I carried around this little book with me all the time everywhere, so that if I ever had an idea, I could just jot it down no matter where I was or what I was doing. And in one of our meetings, I was, I think maybe swapping my major and we started talking about it. And so then every time I was going back to her, we were having more conversations about it. And when I graduated in 2021, she got engaged and she reached out and said, do you wanna plan my wedding? And I looked at her like she was crazy because no pressure. I've never done anything like that before. I knew I wanted to maybe go into that industry, but the idea had evolved then.

Rachael Spoon: (05:41)
And, you know, there were all sorts of other things going on, and I was graduating and didn't exactly have a plan. And I looked at her and I said, I don't, I've never done that. Are you, are you sure you want me to plan your wedding? And she was like, yeah, I think you'd be great at it. And so I did. And it was, the only way that I can even think to describe it is electric. Uh, there was electricity coursing through my veins the entire wedding day. I loved the chaos of the behind the scenes and the organizing all of the details, sort of a project management, if you wanna think about it. Yeah. But organizing all the details to get her to the wedding day. And that just kickstarted Rae & Co. So from there it's been wedding planning. And then to her credit too, I think it's setting me up for success when I do open the venue and I'm gonna have experiences and connections and real data and real clients to draw from when I'm doing that in the future.

Grant Freking: (06:43)
So you're almost like your most impactful experiential learning opportunity came like right after you graduated, but hey, you still got it though?

Rachael Spoon: (06:49)
I, I have to. Yeah. I mean, that was like the biggest one. That was why I started Sure. Rae and Co. So that, I have to give her credit there. But all of my professors were incredible. I think my, when I look back at my time at UC and I talk to people, I talk about my professors and my mentors, not the football games or the, you know, extracurricular or whatever.

Grant Freking: (07:13)
It's the people.

Rachael Spoon: (07:13)
It's, it really is the people. And it was my time here at Lindner that, that shaped my entire college experience. That's what I look back with the most fondness.

Grant Freking: (07:25)
And that's why you went wandering around the building before, before you, before you met me today. So yeah. It's, I'm glad it holds a special place for you. So let's go back, let's go back to some more of your activities within college. You were also in the, um, Ohio Army National Guard, right? Mm-hmm . Yes. So tell me about that experience.

Rachael Spoon: (07:42)
I enlisted straight out of high school with the intent of joining ROTC here at UC.

Grant Freking: (07:47)
Mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (07:48)
Um, and, and then served for six years after that. So just got out in 2023.

Grant Freking: (07:55)
mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (07:56)
That's not just got out in 2023 . Um, I drove trucks. I was an 88 mike, so a motor transportation operator, and that was once a month, weekends and two weeks in the summer. So,

Grant Freking: (08:12)
So what was it the, the impetus behind that? Is that something you always wanted to do? Is something different? Is it familial connection to armed forces as well? Maybe that kind of drew you in.

Rachael Spoon: (08:22)
A little bit. We have a joke in my family that it is the family business. My mom was an engineer officer. Okay. My dad was an armor officer, both grandparents, both grandfathers served.

Grant Freking: (08:34)
mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (08:35)
And my husband is, is in as well. And then my, um, traitorous brother who joined the Navy instead of the Army ,

Grant Freking: (08:43)
She said, with the distain mm-hmm . So let's get back to, to your business. Where is it, where was it at at the beginning and sort of where is it at now? Kind of gimme like the two-sided view there.

Rachael Spoon: (08:53)
So the beginning is is Brittany. Is Brittany. Yeah. And, and then when I realized that it, I had this aha moment during her wedding of, oh my gosh, this is something that I wanna do. And so that was where I started and it was, I think it was probably pretty slow at the beginning. It didn't realize when you're in the entrepreneurship major, they talk about all these startups and this is how you get funding and you talk to angel investors and you do these things. And, but when you're actually starting and you have this, what feels like a very small idea, there's a lot more to it than just like going to find an investor or, you know, pitching your startup and getting crowdfunding. And so I built Rae & Co. All on my own. I did my website, I made my own logo. I, you know, paid for the Google Ads and built those out and researched and did everything. And I could not have done it without the support of my family and mentors that I have, but it was all me. It wasn't this, you know, big team effort where I had lots of, had this established business to build off of mm-hmm . So I don't know if that answered your question.

Grant Freking: (10:06)
It does. Now that leads me to doubt. Tell me about your, I'm sure you had moments of doubt along the way too, where like, is this worth it? Is this worth all my time? I'm sure you're spending on donating lots of weekend time to this around your otherwise busy schedule. Tell me, talk to me about doubt.

Rachael Spoon: (10:22)
I think that's a normal part of any entrepreneur's journey.

Grant Freking: (10:29)
Mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (10:30)
And I do have these moments of am I qualified to be doing this? And am I actually good at doing this? And then the wedding day comes around and I have the aha moment again.

Grant Freking: (10:42)
Yeah. You shed the imposter syndrome. Yeah.

Rachael Spoon: (10:44)
Yes. Absolutely. Um, I think even failure failure's not just a part of success, it's a necessary part of success. And I had stuff that happened at UC that was, it's kind of embarrassing, but I failed algebra mm-hmm . Like twice, and it took a third time to pass that class in order to even be able to graduate. So it's not just, oh yeah. Failure, failure is a part of success. It is a necessary part of success. And every single wedding teaches me something new every single time. And maybe the couple doesn't know about it, but something goes wrong every time. And sure. I have to adapt and improvise and overcome those things. So.

Grant Freking: (11:26)
Right. I'm wondering about how you acquire, acquire your, your clients. Um, not everyone of course, is like a former academic advisor waiting to be married to test you out. So how has it maybe evolved from, you know, is it easier now for you? How, how, how did, like the word get spread? Um, aside from like, you know, did the Google ads work? I'm interested in how you acquired your clients over the years.

Rachael Spoon: (11:46)
At the beginning, a lot of it was word of mouth.

Grant Freking: (11:48)
Mm.

Rachael Spoon: (11:48)
And then when I started the Google ads, that that really helped. They're very complicated. So I am now paying a digital marketing agency to run those for me and working with a consultant behind the scenes to fix my automations and workflow processes and my overall planning process to make me more efficient, which I love. Um, but there's been a definite, like the beginning was slow and I did two weddings my first year and then booked five in my second year. And now I have three in just May of this year.

Grant Freking: (12:25)
Mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (12:25)
So there's, there's definite growth. There's, it's always, there's always things changing and moving and evolving and always small adjustments being made, but mm-hmm .

Grant Freking: (12:38)
Do you run into other entrepreneurs, whether it's in the wedding industry, um, often and or maybe outside of it? And I'm curious if like they, you hear any feedback from them or like, you know, you know, you kind of give, maybe give 'em look like you're kind of going through it right now too. Is anything like that?

Rachael Spoon: (12:52)
I think almost all of the wedding vendors that I interact with are entrepreneurs.

Grant Freking: (12:56)
Yeah.

Rachael Spoon: (12:56)
They're photographers who started small or florists who started in just their house and have grown their businesses. And so there's a lot of that sort of, oh, I really get what you're going through. And there's so many weird, complicated things about running a business that you don't even realize. Like filing for my LLC is a weird thing. I had to call the Department of Revenue to figure out where I needed to get my business license.

Grant Freking: (13:20)
Mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (13:21)
And you need one for the county and the state and the city. Like, there's weird things that you just don't realize. And I have to, I have to give credit here to one of my mentors, Jeff Heineken. Um, I met him through UC actually. And he has helped so much with all of those small little things here and there. And, and then his legal expertise has helped me make sure that my business is protected, both from a planning perspective, but then as, as an LLC.

Grant Freking: (13:51)
You mentioned earlier, um, part of like your grand dream is the venue. Let's, let's hear more about that.

Rachael Spoon: (13:56)
Oh, well, that idea has evolved quite a bit since its original conception.

Grant Freking: (13:59)
Okay.

Rachael Spoon: (13:59)
But, uh, we're actually working right now. I have funding and we probably later this year will purchase land in close to Nashville, Tennessee. Mm-hmm . We're looking for about a hundred acres. And then there's going to be multiple venues that are all themed differently. So they'll be, you know, the, the generic sort of warehouse type barn space, blank space.

Grant Freking: (14:28)
mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (14:29)
Really pretty, but a blank slate.

Grant Freking: (14:31)
Sure.

Rachael Spoon: (14:31)
And then there'll be other themed venues. And I've, I've taken inspiration from like my travels and places I've been and things I've seen. So there'll be, you know, I want Castle Ruins that look like they were pulled straight out of Ireland and an Italian villa that looks like it was pulled out of Tuscany. And so I want to, we're, I think we're gonna start with three venues and then eventually get to more than that.

Rachael Spoon: (14:59)
But there's not, scale doesn't exist in the wedding industry. When you do a wedding, it's a, for me it's a 16 hour day, so I can't do more than one wedding in one day. And a lot of venues operate that same way. So there's one venue and there's one ceremony location, and there's one reception location, and they're stuck. So then they charge couples to turn the string lights on or to use the fancy chairs or to use their linens or whatever it is. And I experienced this with a lot of my couples, is this frustration that the venue was supposed to be X amount and instead it's x plus plus plus plus plus plus, right?

Grant Freking: (15:39)
Yep.

Rachael Spoon: (15:39)
And so the idea of my venue has evolved into this thing where we can achieve scale and we don't have to charge couples x plus plus plus, we can just charge them X.

Rachael Spoon: (15:52)
So because there are three weddings happening in one day in three different locations on the land, we don't have to charge them to turn the string lights on or to use the tables or the fancy chairs or whatever it is. And so I'm hoping to revolutionize the wedding industry. That feels like a very scary and big and daunting thing to say, but it was one of the first things I said when I was starting out and had this idea for the venue was, I wanna revolutionize this industry because it just doesn't exist this way anywhere.

Grant Freking: (16:24)
Yeah. What's the feedback you've gotten on, on that particular idea from, even from maybe couples that you've helped out or other, other people, other peers in the industry?

Rachael Spoon: (16:33)
All of my couples have said that they wish that it was already open so that they could get married there. , and industry professionals have said that they love the idea and I get a lot of like, oh, be careful of noise or be careful of, you know, this or that, things that they've experienced. But I've also taken that feedback and our venue is gonna be built with so much intentionality. So a lot of wedding venues that you go to, it's like an old, something that they turned into a venue or they had one wedding there because somebody liked the space and then they thought, oh, this is kind of easy. We can just do this and make money off of it, or whatever. We are building these venues from the ground up with every single detail well thought out from a client perspective, from a guest experience perspective, and from a vendor perspective.

Grant Freking: (17:26)
Mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (17:27)
So I go to, I go to venues and there's nowhere for me to put my stuff. So I've put it in bridal suites and I've put it under the DJ stand and I've stuck it under the sink at the bathroom. I've put it in the kitchen. Like there's no, there's nowhere for me to have a touchdown space. So in all of our venues, we'll have a touchdown space. We'll have a, a large enough bridal suite that girls aren't stacked on top of each other and a groom suite, because so often grooms are just forgotten or

Grant Freking: (17:54)
Wandering around.

Rachael Spoon: (17:55)
Yeah. They wander or they get stuck in some small closet and they're like, here, hang out here for a little while.

Grant Freking: (18:00)
Yeah.

Rachael Spoon: (18:00)
So they're getting ready at a different location. And I think that there's, I, I like the togetherness of it all happening in one place and it being done well. So

Grant Freking: (18:10)
Wwhat advice would you give to current or prospective students tips, tricks of the trade? Maybe not tricks of the trade, but sort of like, sort to sort of, um, maybe ease them of like the same concerns that you had about your, your life as a, as a freshman or a sophomore here at Lindner and sort and sort of propelling them on their own journey?

Rachael Spoon: (18:31)
My initial reaction to you saying that was, it was so much harder than I thought it was going to be. I had this, this grand idea of I'm gonna graduate college and I'm gonna start the venue immediately and I'm just gonna get all the money because this is such a great idea. But we're, I'm now four years outta college and only just now making these larger strides on the venue. But I think that my advice is to lean into like mentors and building a group of people around you.

Grant Freking: (19:08)
Yeah.

Rachael Spoon: (19:08)
That support you and pour into you and are excited about your excitement and your passions. Because I've been told no, but then I can turn around and someone says, well, they said no because they don't understand or they don't see the vision or whatever it is. And I don't think it's blind optimism. I think it's having a good support team and it's more than just, oh, my mom says it's a great idea. .

Grant Freking: (19:30)
Right. Yeah. So maybe some cheerleaders, but some like realistic cheerleaders. Absolutely. Right. Let's close with this. What's your favorite memory at Lindner and UC?

Rachael Spoon: (19:40)
That is kind of an easy answer for me. All right. And it is my junior year of college, which actually ended up being when COVID started.

Grant Freking: (19:49)
So, yeah. So we're off to a curious start here.

Rachael Spoon: (19:50)
Off to a curious start. Um, it was one of my entrepreneurship classes and we had to, everyone in the class had to come up with an idea. We had to pitch the idea to the class, and then we voted on only five or six of them. So I pitched my idea, my idea was selected, and then we had to build a team, create an actual product, and sell that product. So it was for refresh the responsible alcohol aid, which was specific supplements chosen to help remedy hangover.

Grant Freking: (20:25)
Mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (20:26)
Symptoms, quote unquote. Um, and so when we began that semester in January of 2020, we had all of our, you know, we, we knew who our market was and we were gonna go to bars and we were gonna hand them out as people were walking in and get 'em to buy 'em and all this stuff. And then March hit when sure.

Rachael Spoon: (20:47)
When COVID happened and we stopped coming to school and we turned everything to online and we had to pivot and figure out who our new market was and how we were gonna sell this product. Because at that point we had already bought everything. We had to figure out how to assemble these little packets and get people to buy them. And I think COVID ended up being really helpful for that. 'cause people were home and so they were working from home. And so we sold them. I think we like put stuff out on Facebook and put stuff out on Instagram. And so people ended up reaching out and we beat this current, at the time, it was the current record for the most gross sales of anybody in that class ever. Um, I don't know if we're still the record. I hope so.

Grant Freking: (21:36)
You have to check with your professor.

Rachael Spoon: (21:36)
Fingers crossed. I'd have to ask. Yeah. But that was, is definitely, definitely a favorite, a favorite memory. I look back on that and that's what I talk about when people ask me about my time as a student in the entrepreneurship major. And then as a sort of a culmination of my four years, I was nominated by my professors as the outstanding student of the year.

Grant Freking: (21:58)
Mm-hmm .

Rachael Spoon: (21:58)
Or Entrepreneurship Student of the Year, my senior year. And that was, I think, one of my proudest moments because it was, they see the potential, they see that I, I have what it takes Yeah. To be an entrepreneur. And they saw the drive and the focus and the everything else from the past four years. So

Grant Freking: (22:22)
That's awesome. What great memory. All right. Well, my thanks to Rachael Spoon for dropping by the Lindner Podcast studio today. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider subscribing or leaving a five star review for Bearcats Mean Business on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Thanks for tuning in. Go Bearcats.

Rachael Spoon: (22:38)
Go Bearcats.

Grant Freking: (00:00)
From working in and running kitchens in Cincinnati area hotels and the Gordon Ramsey Group in New York City, to launching his own company, Somesh Saxena has taken a unique journey from Lindner student to entrepreneur. In 2022, after years at GE Aerospace, Somesh made the leap from working at a massive corporation to founding Pantomath, where he's attempting to change how companies monitor and support their data pipelines. My name is Grant Freking, Manager of College Communications and Marketing at the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business. On this episode of Bearcats Mean Business, Somesh joins me to chat about the challenges and thrills of building a business, what inspired him to pursue entrepreneurship, how his time at Lindner helped shape his passions and career path, and much more. Somesh, welcome to Bearcats Mean Business.

Somesh Saxena: (00:46)
Thanks for having me. Grant.

Grant Freking: (00:47)
Walk me through what your day-to-day life looks like today compared to three years ago, March, 2022, when Pantomath was founded.

Somesh Saxena: (00:55)
Yeah. When, uh, very different is the short answer. Um,

Grant Freking: (00:59)
I'm sure.

Somesh Saxena: (01:00)
when Pantomah founded Grant, we were a very, very tiny seed stage company, had just raised a $4 million round of funding. It was a handful of folks locked up in a room, uh, in a co-located workspace, really just trying to figure out, you know, A, do people want this, you know, um, I of course had some conviction in the idea, which is why I left my job at GE and started this company. But, but, you know, a lot more market validation is needed, not just in terms of, Hey, the problem we're solving, is it a relevant problem? Uh, is this something people care about? But also how do we go about solving it, right? What do people want? Um, what, what are the more nuanced and technical challenges they're facing in the space that we're working in?

Somesh Saxena: (01:46)
And how do we go about solving that? What product do we build? So a lot of market validation, uh, a lot of product exploration, uh, and also a whole lot of internal conversations, uh, both on the product front in terms of, uh, the what and the why. Uh, and then also solving the problem of the how, which was honestly the tougher problem to solve given, uh, Pantomath's a very technical solution. It's a, it's a technical platform, and so one of its kind run, nothing like it in the world really exists out there. So, so that was the early days. Um, uh, a lot of fun, a lot of unknowns, a lot of open-endedness. Um, um, and, you know, these days we're fortunate to be one of the faster growing startups in the country. Multiple rounds of multimillion dollars of funding, several large Fortune five hundreds using us.

Somesh Saxena: (02:29)
Um, and, uh, a team, almost 50 people large. Um, you know, the world looks very different for me specifically, uh, um, what, what I'm doing these days, um, is mostly focused on, you know, our customers, ensuring they're getting value out of the product, uh, focused on recruiting, focused on building the team and growing and scaling this up. And, and more so in general, uh, more traditionally running the company. Of course, it's not a large organization. There's still a whole lot of startup mentality and, and energy and, and drive that we're, uh, building this with a lot of urgency that we move quickly with. But end of the day, it is still and a company, right? We have, we have so many different departments that all, um, you know, need to collaborate and work well together, A lot of cross-functional work happening. And so a whole lot of my time is dedicated externally with customers and also with building out our, our team.

Somesh Saxena: (03:20)
Um, and then internally just making sure we, we, you know, I'm enabling and empowering my direct reports, our leadership team to go solve problems and, and help our customers out. Um, and then just lastly, um, uh, what's funny is a version of what we did in the seed stage, which is trying to figure out how to build a certain thing, how to have, um, um, uh, really, really innovative technologies to go solve customer challenges is also what we're kind of doing, but with ai, right? Because we've expanded the scope of the, the company recently, uh, to be a whole lot more than what we started out with, and that's very exciting. And so we're in parallel to everything I just described in terms of my daily life today, we're also, um, doing a whole bunch of early stage, call it seed stage style of development in the AI front, in the gen AI world.

Grant Freking: (04:12)
I heard business problem many times in that, in that response, what was it? What business problem is Pantomath attempting to solve? And what was it about its potential that prompted you to leave a job where you were leading more than a hundred people as the head of GE Aerospace's enterprise data and analytics team?

Somesh Saxena: (04:28)
Yeah, ge I was supporting 18,000 data consumers in the company. I was seeing my technical teams, business stakeholders, executives even struggle with data reliability issues and operational challenges. Um, you know, from a technical standpoint, it was, it was embarrassing for us. And honestly, every other team out there feels this too outside of GE where a, you know, it's reactive when your internal stakeholders or sometimes external customers tell you there's a problem in what you're delivering to them, right? Which in our case is data products and data reports. And when they tell you something's wrong, um, you then have to go and manually troubleshoot things. You have to reverse engineer data pipelines across several different data platforms to identify the root cause, understand the impact across the board. And it's extremely challenging to do, given the scale and complexity of an organization the size of GE or any other large Fortune 500 and, and was living with that pain and saw my teams struggle with that challenge quite a bit.

Somesh Saxena: (05:37)
And then also in my leadership role, I also saw the impact of that, right? Um, and talked to my, you know, peers in the industry, other data leaders and other companies, and realize it's not just a GE problem. Every company faces this. And, uh, of course, I kind of knew a version of that already, but, but going through the more nuanced and technical use cases and trying to figure out what exactly goes wrong in cross platform data pipelines that power data products and data reports, um, those challenges were also not GE specific. All of that was very general and universal in terms of the challenges organizations face that is industry agnostic. It's agnostic to the size of the organization, it's just the nature of the data analytics stack and how data pipelines are built and developed and the world we live in based on, based on that technology landscape. And so that, you know, talking to leaders out there outside of GE two gave me the confidence that this is not just a GE problem to solve. This is a problem that everyone cares about and everyone wants to solve. And so gave me the, the encouragement I needed to, to, you know, go and go and build a company to solve this problem. Um, yeah.

Grant Freking: (06:49)
And you've, you've obviously are an entrepreneur. Now, did you always want to be an entrepreneur and did, and if so, did you have any entrepreneurial or even business role models that you kind of leaned on when you were kind of in the early stages of this, of this con of this company and founding Pantomath?

Somesh Saxena: (07:07)
Yeah, to be honest, actually never thought I'd be an entrepreneur. I always thought, um, I, um, would, um, maybe join a startup at some point in my life. Uh, I saw a few startups at GE that we brought in that did really well. And so outside in, I was part of their journey with them. I was on the customer advisory boards, was keynote speaker at their conferences. And, and, uh, again, it was part of their journey. So I always thought that, yeah, maybe I could maybe be part of a startup, but I never thought that I could start one, and I never thought I could be an entrepreneur that takes on, um, that, that really, really big responsibility of leading an organization. And, um, um, honestly, the, the, um, turning point for me, uh, was, um, my brother's journey. Uh, my brother Shashank Saxena has been very instrumental in my journey.

Somesh Saxena: (07:57)
Uh, and he was the one that motivated me and encouraged me, gave me the confidence I needed to become an entrepreneur. Um, he local Cincinnati, uh, uh, started a company called VNDLY, uh, a vendor management software system, um, and built it right here in Cincinnati from the ground up four years in, they sold to, um, Workday for $510 million, and one of the larger exits in the, in the tech and software space for Cincinnati. And a great outcome for everyone involved in the company, including all the employees and investors. Uh, and Shashank, my brother as a CEO and co-founder had, you know, been through that entire journey end to end. Um, and so he not just opened doors for me when it comes to venture capital, when it comes to other leaders in the space that I could talk to for market validation, but he also, more importantly, was very instrumental in, in helping guide me on how to go about building a company. You know, the day-to-day challenges that an entrepreneur faces, especially in the early days. Everything is chicken and egg, right? Uh, you have to make tough decisions and it's, it's different level of grit that's required to do this. And so, you know, he's been a mentor to me every step of the way. And, uh, just looking at his, at his journey and what he accomplished, of course, with the support of his team and a lot of other great folks around him, um, really gave me, uh, the encouragement I needed to, to do this.

Grant Freking: (09:22)
I'm curious about your brother's involvement in another aspect of your business, and that's sort of rounding out your leadership team, which is an essential part of any business, regardless of what sector they represent.

Somesh Saxena: (09:32)
Yeah, my brother actually, uh, like I mentioned, uh, was part of Pantomath since the early days, but more kind of outside in, right? He, um, had a great outcome and exit with Workday. He was with Workday for a couple of years. Um, and, and so he wasn't directly involved with, uh, the daily operations of Pantomath. He was more of a, call it CEO mentor, uh, and he was on the board of directors since day one. Um, but more recently he's joined us as CEO. Um, and, and I'm currently the president of Pantomath. So we've expanded the leadership team, uh, to include Shashank, include his co-founder from VNDLY as well, um, and their CTO from VNDLY. Uh, and so, uh, the existing Pantomath team and the leadership team at Pantomath was already pretty phenomenal, uh, which is why, um, you know, uh, we have seen the traction we've seen in the, in the first, uh, few years and, uh, fortunate to, to, you know, provide value to customers through everything we've built and developed.

Somesh Saxena: (10:29)
Um, but bringing on people who've been there, done that and, and, you know, really heavy hitters who, um, have, have had a go at this before, um, brings so much more experience and expertise to the team. And Shashank is of course, front and center of that, uh, with him coming on, uh, over the last month, month and a half as a CEO, um, to take the company in, in, in many, many newer directions beyond the foundation. We've, of course built, which is really good, but I mentioned AI earlier. And so expanding the scope of Pantomath to not just be a data pipeline, observability and traceability platform that more so detects problems and gives folks the understanding of how to resolve issues. We're now expanding into, um, becoming an automated data operations platform that doesn't just, um, tell you there's a problem, but also resolves those issues for you. And, um, that's really exciting for me.

Grant Freking: (11:22)
Now, let's transition to your time at Lindner. What do you remember about your studies and experiences as an information student at Lindner in uc?

Somesh Saxena: (11:30)
I had a great experience at, at uc. It was, um, I actually wasn't there for, for that long because, uh, I started, um, um, my bachelor's degree and, and, uh, going to uc a bit later in my life, I switched careers. And so I, uh, actually graduated in just two and a half years. I kind of loaded up on 18 credits each semester and got through it somewhat, somewhat quicker than, than, um, the traditional time it takes to go through a program like that. But nonetheless, I had a great experience, um, amazing professors. Um, I, um, was very, um, uh, heavily influenced by the database design classes and, um, and, uh, any, anything related to IT, architecture and database design was my first love, uh, in, at uc. And that led me to the journey I was on with GE, you know, doing everything from hands-on data engineering and BI development to self-service data programs to democratize data and bring about a digital cultural transformation at GE Aerospace, all the way to, of course, Pantomath, which plays heavily in the data analytics space.

Somesh Saxena: (12:32)
So I think that that starting point came, came at uc because without the right foundational understanding of something that you of course get at a, at a place like, um, the Lindner College of Business, I wouldn't have been able to, you know, do the rest of the journey. Um, so yeah, amazing professors and, and great experience overall, really well structured curriculum and, and, um, good exposure to, to, you know, the business world to internships and co-ops. And, um, I remember meeting GE, Um, aviation at the career fair, uh, at uc, which led to my internship with them, which led to my, um, inclusion in the, their digital technology leadership program. And, uh, and that's, that was the start of my career. So, uh, in more ways than one, um, really fond memories of uc. And it's been, again, uh, very, very, it's played an important role in my career.

Grant Freking: (13:18)
Now, you mentioned, uh, GE Aviation as a, a co-op and internship experience. You also did a similar one with Kroger. How did those experiences impact your career goals and, and skill development as you sort of navigated your way, uh, and sort of like your second career, as you mentioned, you went to college a little later in life to, to finding your fit.

Somesh Saxena: (13:40)
Work in a space without understanding how it works. 360. Um, and both Kroger and especially GE really encouraged that type of mentality. Um, getting interns exposure to more than just their intern project, you know, um, a very open culture. Go and talk to leaders, um, schedule one-on-ones with whoever you want. Um, um, you know, planned events where interns are talking to C-level executives in the company. And so that was really good 'cause I was very curious. I could ask them a bunch of questions and, you know, a really good culture, like I said, of giving back and, you know, helping early career professionals, um, and figuring out kinda what they need. So the biggest thing it helped me with besides exposure Grant, was really just to understand the different areas of the business, different domains within IT, and what I wanted to focus on. And, um, beyond the internships, even the, uh, GEs IT leadership program now called the Digital Technology Leadership Program that I went through was a two year long program with four six month long rotations.

Somesh Saxena: (14:40)
It was a permanent position in the company, but starting out, um, with a rotational program really helps you go broad before you go deep. And so I did everything from IT project management to software development, uh, and cybersecurity data and analytics and, uh, all within different domains of the business, right? Some stuff was more kind of horizontal COE functions. Some stuff was more plugged into different areas of the business called it sales and marketing or supply chain and so on. And so really, uh, both the domain knowledge, at least within GE, relative to GE Aerospace, and more generally speaking, um, domains within IT, um, as we define them, really got to understand all of that, of course, at a surface level early on. But that gave me the understanding and the confidence I needed in then being able to pick a career path that made sense to me, which in my case was, was data and analytics and the enterprise data function within an organization. Um, that of course, I was in with GE for, for a while that led me to, to Pantomath eventually.

Grant Freking: (15:39)
Now, earlier you mentioned sort of your, your first career. You spent many years working as a line cook in hotels, also served al as a culinary manager. What did you gain from those experiences from your, your so-called first career?

Somesh Saxena: (15:51)
Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, yeah, for those, those that that don't know, I, um, um, moved here from India in 2006. I was 17 years old. Um, went to Le Cordon Blue, it's a French culinary school. I also worked for Gordon Ramsey in his Michelin Star restaurant in New York. Uh, and, um, most recently before, um, switching careers, I was a culinary manager for the banquet business at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Cincinnati. Um, and, uh, you know, the biggest thing I learned in that entire journey was two things. I would say it's grit and problem solving. And those two things have really served me well throughout my career, especially more so as an entrepreneur than than, uh, my time at probably GE or, or elsewhere. Um, you know, when you're, when you're a chef or a line cook and you know, it's a busy Saturday night and you have, you have, um, you know, a restaurant full of people, um, especially in the fine dining world, that's, you know, three to five, seven courses and all need to be timed perfectly.

Somesh Saxena: (16:53)
And, you know, everyone's seen the TV shows of course, these days. So, you know, the level of kind of grit you need to go through that day in, day out, um, the level of problem solving you need on the fly, um, to just go and figure things out. It's, it's, um, it, it just, you have to just have it right. There is no other option. Um, and, um, and that again, is, is really come to play a much larger part than I would've realized in the early days, um, especially at my time at Pantomath building a company from scratch.

Grant Freking: (17:23)
Sure. Let's close with some advice. What tips can you supply to current and maybe even prospective Lindner students seeking to start their own business or just be part of a startup?

Somesh Saxena: (17:34)
Yeah, I'd say a few things. Um, I'd say anyone that's looking to start a business, look for a problem worth solving, you know, look for something that is a real pain point for people, um, do market validation. There's a book called the Mom Test, the Mom Test. Uh, it's a good one to read. Um, the idea is go talk to people, not who would ideally be nice to you, but, but people who actually don't have any reason to be nice to you. And ask them about your, your, your idea. Um, is it, is this a problem we're solving? Is this something they'd pay money for? Uh, and that's true market validation to understand if, if you're onto something, or is this a solution looking for a problem to begin with? And, and that's never a good place to be, right? So, so that's my, that's my first piece of advice for anyone, um, is to get market validation and be objective in the way you, you hear it, right?

Somesh Saxena: (18:23)
Um, everyone of course thinks their idea is the best one in the world, and it's their baby, and especially if it's flSomeshed out enough, uh, or, or fleshed out enough, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's more than just an idea that for pen to paper, they probably have, in the technology world, at least speaking, like, you know, you'd have features, you may even have written some code and, and built a ui. And, um, it's much tougher to learn that what you're building, either A, needs some changes or updates, or B maybe just isn't valuable. It's much tougher to hear that much later. Much easier, as hard as it is to hear that upfront. And so, my advice truly, uh, behind the original advice is don't be defensive. Think about things objectively. Listen, actively listen to what people are seeing. Um, and don't take it personally.

Somesh Saxena: (19:13)
It could lead to really, really good things up front. You could avoid some mistakes and look around corners, um, if you, if you, um, go into these conversations to validate your idea with an open mind. Um, second one, maybe a bit more, um, just specific to how I think and how I operate, um, as an entrepreneur, I would tell everyone this is work every day like it's your first day at the job or first day building your business, right? Um, there's no substitute for hard work as, as everyone knows. And so, um, that's, that's all I'd leave folks with.

Grant Freking: (19:46)
Well, my thanks again to Somesh Saxena for joining me today on Bearcats Mean Business. Interested in studying or getting involved in entrepreneurship or startup activities at the Lindner College of Business? Consider getting involved with the Center for Entrepreneurship, which is a range of programs, resources, and services for students to participate in. Students can also major or minor in entrepreneurship, or pursue a graduate certificate in entrepreneurship. Visit business.uc.edu for more information. Thanks for tuning in. Go Bearcats.