This summer I had the opportunity to travel to Benin City, Nigeria to work on my company NaSo. NaSo is a clothing brand that takes elements of West African Culture and American Culture and marries them. We apply West African Ankara fabric to minimalistic, chic designs. However, NaSo represents more than just clothing. At NaSo we take a portion of our profits and renovate schools in rural African villages, providing necessities such as desks, chairs, proper roofing, and bathrooms.
During my time in Benin City, I was able to work with local tailors to produce products for both men and women. I also had the opportunity to go to the rural village where my father grew up, Urhokuosa. While there I was able to visit our first school to be renovated, Okuosa Primary school. This experience helped me gain valuable insight into the world of entrepreneurship. I learned first hand how valuable it is to build personal and meaningful relationships when working with others towards a common goal. I am going to bring this venture to Kickstarter this fall with the goal of expanding the brand.
Carin Rollins ’94 and John Marlow ’90 are two Colgate graduates who are rapidly becoming household names in biotech. Both were invited back to Colgate on February 11, 2019 to speak about their experiences as innovators and industry leaders. The event, “How Liberal Arts Grads are Driving Innovation”, was co-sponsored by Career Services, Thought Into Action, Colgate’s Biology department, Neuroscience program, and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
Rollins is CEO and co-founder of Hinge Bio. Inc, a California-based biotechnology startup putting multimillion-dollar pharmaceutical innovations on the market. Marlow is co-founder and senior vice president of RingCentral, a cloud-based telecommunications company that boasts 4,500 employees and offices on four continents. Marlow also serves as legal director of Brainsonix, an ultrasound-based brain mapping system intended for faster and less invasive surgery and treatment.
RingCentral was among the first corporations to design wireless, centralized communication systems, intended to break away from the clunky, on-site phone boxes used by many corporations when the company was founded in 2003. Today, they’re the largest business communications provider in the world, and still growing rapidly as many businesses modernize their systems.
John Marlow ’90 (left) and Carin Rollins ’94 (right)
“Innovation, to me, is a way of thinking,” Marlow said. “We just replaced hardware with software, and that was a big thing.”
Rollins agreed. “You have to show that a prototype is working—that the market is pulling for your product,” Rollins said. “Otherwise you won’t go anywhere.”
Both Marlow and Rollins admitted that being an innovator and entrepreneur demands a tremendous amount of work—and some luck. Marlow used his own experience as evidence.
While seeking out funding for RingCentral in 2003, he was rejected by hundreds of investors during formal meetings. But he happened to run into a Class-A investor at a bar. That individual “instantly got it,” Marlow said, and agreed to fund the project. That support led to a second top-level firm investing as well. While it wouldn’t have been possible without a functional product, the amount of painful luck was, according to Marlow, “undeniable.”
Rollins also reflected on her experience at Colgate during the seminar. “The skills I learned in the liberal arts gave me the skills I needed to succeed,” Rollins said. “It’s how I am able to wear so many different hats as a CEO and entrepreneur. I wouldn’t be where I am without Colgate.”
My summer experience was a continuation of the work I have been doing for about a year now in trying to launch a clothing line with my business partner, Daniel Neeson. This summer largely revolved around our hope to successfully launch our first line of clothing which we did so at our 6 dat New York Popup retail shop. In preparing for our popup, we executed a marketing strategy that caught the attention of some of the world’s most prominent publications such as: People Magazine, GQ, Access Hollywood, and Page Six amongst many others. As for the Popup itself, we spent about 3 days straight turning an empty storefront in Soho into a fully operational retail store that attracted thousands of customers and sales. After the culmination of our shop, our most recent efforts have been to design and produce our Fall line of clothes that will be available at our online store this fall. Pine Outfitters is not only focused on providing unique, stylish and durable clothing, but also is passionate about the environment and doing its part to contribute to its sustainability. While this summer was a great success for the business, we are proud of our partnership with the National Forest Foundation that allowed us to donate over 1000 trees.
This summer was unlike my previous internship experiences. My venture this summer required me to truly take responsibility for myself as the face of a company. For the first time, I was not looked at as a student, or a young person, but as a legitimate businessman. Of course, this was quite the adjustment, but my difficult, yet rewarding experience this summer has taught me a great deal about life after college.
Claire Binder ’17 interned in Silicon Valley for a growing start up.
My internship was at an emerging internet company and start-up based in Silicon Valley, called way.com. An acronym for “What’s Around You,” Way is an online service marketplace, through which customers can purchase dining, parking, and tickets for competitive prices (“the Amazon of services”).
At Way.com, I worked as the Market Strategy Intern. My main responsibility was to strategize efforts to grow its customer base and visibility, particularly in its Dining department. My main project was to conduct market research on Way’s industry competitors, create a matrix to define their differences, and analyze the data for future marketing strategy.
