Entrepreneurship has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. After school, I spent my time at the local State Farm Insurance office behind our church where my mother worked. Day in and day out, local business owners who were the pillars of our community would stop by to renew policies and seek the agents’ advice. I was fascinated by their ability to create value and livelihoods for the people around me.

Beginning from a young age, I tinkered with entrepreneurial ideas ranging from creating a marketplace for reselling formal wear to selling local magazine ads. I attended Washington and Lee University on a full scholarship, where I studied commerce, economics, and politics. Upon graduation, I started my career at Vanguard, managing high-net-worth client relationships, providing investment portfolio advice, and selling financial planning services. Ultimately, I decided that being a small cog in a big corporation was not satisfying. I wanted the responsibility and achievement that only working in and running smaller organizations could provide.

I returned to my entrepreneurial roots by joining the entrepreneurship training program, Venture for America (VFA), where I built a small parking marketplace application, ParkPlug, to connect event goers with empty driveways near their destination. Through VFA, I also landed a role at IRIS Solutions, a small managed IT services company in Charlotte, NC. Over the course of my time there, I worked as:

• Business Analyst

• Channel Partner and Marketing Lead

• Partnerships Manager

• Chief of Staff

After further developing my leadership and analytical abilities at Yale School of Management, where I earned my MBA, I am ready to acquire the right company to run and grow. Together with my husband, I look forward to moving to a new town, setting down roots and being active members of the community.