Browse experts
Becky L.
💡 Product
I’m a mixed race design leader & strategist. I was born in New York City’s Chinatown and spent most of my childhood on the Jersey Shore. I can’t be away from the ocean for too long and jump in to mark moments of transition, no matter the season.
I’ve spent my entire career finding the right intersection of creativity, learning, and supporting my almost-but-not-quite bi-coastal lifestyle.
I love postcards, Little Free Libraries, and my cattle dog mix, Luna.
I've tiptoed around teaching professionally for my whole life, from teaching SAT prep classes in college, to being a volunteer ESL teacher in NYC, to spending a year at a university in Brazil as an English Teaching Assistant. Ultimately, I like being able to form meaningful relationships with my students and have learning go both ways, which usually means small group or 1:1 relationships with other adults or near peers.
I've volunteered with Braven for over a year as a Leadership Coach for their Accelerator program at San Jose State University, leading 8 students through a course that included career coaching and a design thinking capstone challenge. My team won the challenge, but it wasn't about winning ;) Afterward, I became a Professional Mentor, working 1:1 with students to help them find a job.
I’ve also deeply benefitted from mentoring and coaching in my own professional career. It’s helped me get over humps of insecurity, little and big, and lean into opportunities I wouldn’t have dreamed of before.
I try to overindex on supporting students who wouldn't otherwise have mentorship support, whether they're first-generation college students, BIPOC, or don't have a degree.
In my job as a Senior Director at IDEO, I regularly mentor and guide more junior designers and design teams on client work, and more informally through ERGs and programs like Color by Design, an apprenticeship for BIPOC Design Researchers.
Emily G.
📈 Marketing, sales, & business
Professionally, I began my career as an educator after I got my Masters. I really loved the idea of my students finding their own voice and driving their own learning. I tried to use technology as a way to allow students to dive into what they loved to learn about in the way they loved to learn it.
I moved from New York to San Francisco in 2015 and joined a company called AltSchool in its early stages. They were personalizing learning for students using innovative technology and I learned first hand what being involved in a startup meant. I felt like I was at “Startup University”- I learned about office culture, work relationships, being part of a team, how to make a slide deck, and more. I also learned about how teams connect and interact and how being a collaborative partner and connective tissue within an organization holds so much value.
Over the past 5 years or so I moved out of K12 education/edtech and into early childhood/parenting technology. I have two of my own children (4 and 2) and know first hand just how much information parents need about parenting. Through my work at Higher Ground Education/Guidepost Montessori as well as Lovevery, I have helped organizations reimagine their place in the world of parenting startups and rethink how parents access content related to parenting.
I have launched new digital products and services for families and understand the cross functional nuances that go into building something from scratch. I am a user-first driven creator and always think about the experience of the person using the product.
Personally, I love cooking and all things food-related. I also am an ex-theater major and to listen to Broadway show tunes and sing to myself in the car. My kids think I’m nuts. I promise I won’t burst into song on our call!! I look forward to connecting with you and learning more together!
Percy B.
⭐️ Freelance / consulting work
In previous mentoring experiences, I've guided other creatives (brand and product designers) through navigating an in-house design role; I've also offered advice around freelance and recharging from work.
Twenty excites me because I'm able to give back to the generation beyond me, and in a sense be able to give back to my past 20-odd-year-old self. And at least in unprecedented times, trying to alleviate some of the stress navigating through those uncertainties.
Nikhil K.
💸 Personal finance
Why am I here?
I've had the pleasure of having mentors in my life who helped me through some of the most challenging times. Im here to do the same for others.
Im currently at Apple building computer vision algorithms for the cameras hundreds of millions of people use. I love it and the life I’ve built. The least I can do is give a helping hand.
Katia T.
🔥 MBA
My name is Katia and I am the Head of Product at Mighty, a platform that empowers the next generation through creativity and the skills of entrepreneurship. I’ve been a part of the NYC tech scene for 7 years now as a product manager and project lead. Over time I’ve discovered that I have a knack for nurturing happy, cross-functional teams and am obsessed with building playful consumer products that help individuals believe in themselves and realize their potential. Eventually, I’d like to launch a company of my own.
So why am I here? I see mentoring as a skill and a give and take. I get mentored and like to mentor as way of improving my capabilities and a way passing it forward. But also, I enjoy human connections more than anything else. I can’t wait to partner together to help you navigate a defining decade and this beautiful thing called life.
Katie K.
🔥 MBA
Hey hey! I’m Katie, the founder & ceo of twenty! Up to this point, I’ve been building twenty behind the scenes, but I got FOMO… so now I’m here to join the party 🙂 Can’t wait to meet many of you in person - I’ve heard so much about you!!
To give a more “formal” introduction…
But here’s my real talk, just for twenty:
With all this in mind, I can’t wait to meet you. Thank you for being here 🫶
Claire J.
💸 Personal finance
I’m Claire, a software designer and strategic planner. I’ve dipped my toes in many industries and skills with my main constant being my own high bar for building design driven and ethically-sound products in each of my work experiences.
I originally grew up in Houston, the fourth largest city in the US, with a highly medically-focused Argentinian-Jewish family. While studying pre-Med at Stanford and shadowing a few physicians, I found myself much more interested in the efficacy and beauty of their medical devices rather than the practice of talking to, diagnosing, and treating patients. That served as my wake up call to try out some engineering classes. Long story short, I loved them and ended up declaring Mechanical Engineering: Product Design as my major.
Having worked on a range of physical and digital products at Stanford related to the medical field; I decided to explore my ability to move and learn quickly by joining Accenture’s digital consulting practice after college. Fast forward 3 years, 6 industries, and 4 live products later, I felt I had acquired enough skills during my time at Accenture to lead design at a startup. That led me to a 10 person virtual fashion startup called Forma Technologies (recently acquired by Snap) for a brief 6 months until I realized I wanted to work at a medium sized company and have the ability to critique and collaborate with other designers again. I then landed my current position at Silicon Valley Bank where I was designer no. 5 to join our rapidly growing team of almost 45 designers now. I’ve now been at SVB almost 2 years and look forward to continued work building internal and external tools for our Global Fund Banking and Corporate Finance sectors.
In my personal life, I spend most my free time either playing and caring for my Aussie puppy named Gio 🐶, at Austin Bouldering Project (ABP), running, learning about climate change mitigation, painting, and hanging with loved ones! I also love to cook and bake and try new recipes (particularly on a Yotam Ottolenghi kick recently).
I’ve been mentoring via my Stanford, Accenture, and Brown networks both informally and more formally for a couple years. I particularly like working with passionate students and early/mid career employees to guide them to find what fulfills their purpose or ikigai in life and work. Understanding the concept of ikigai (japanese term for “reason for being”) and putting it in practice in my life played a significant role in my early twenties and the concept continues to keep me grounded and navigating my life in the right direction for me.
Devika P.
💡 Product
Hi! My name is Devika, and I'm a designer and public health researcher, originally from New Jersey, recently living in San Francisco, and now a medical student at Penn State University, College of Medicine.
I studied product design engineering before pivoting to focus my career on healthcare disparities research (via a Master’s degree in Community Health and Prevention Research). For the past five years, I was the Design Manager, and then Design Director at The Better Lab, an academic research laboratory that utilizes human-centered design to address vexing healthcare challenges facing disadvantaged patient populations in San Francisco and beyond.
RJ S.
Hey y’all! I’m Chelsea.
Professional Me - The Jobs:
Professional Me - The Navigation:
I’ve gone through a major transformation in my identity as it relates to work. I forged my sense of self on the idea that I need to ‘achieve’ in order to be liked and respected. As a child, I was put into accelerated learning and AP courses. I received a full tuition scholarship to college and was part of a very rigorous honors program. I would put 150% toward every internship and role and only feel good when I would receive validation of my output.
I also feel like I prioritized the words and direction that people had ‘for me’, instead of me giving myself the chance to really uncover what I liked and didn’t like. This suppression of expressing my true self and putting so much effort and energy into work would often lead to burnout and feelings of ‘not good enough’ or ‘how can I be better.’
Now, I’ve finally gotten to a place where I’ve found some balance between ‘work me’ and ‘me outside of work’. I still work hard and do a good job, but also prioritize joy and exploration and my relationships.
If you’re in a similar boat, we can definitely chat about this. It’s a topic I’m very passionate about.
Personal Me:
Chelsea A.
Hey y’all! I’m Chelsea.
Professional Me - The Jobs:
Professional Me - The Navigation:
I’ve gone through a major transformation in my identity as it relates to work. I forged my sense of self on the idea that I need to ‘achieve’ in order to be liked and respected. As a child, I was put into accelerated learning and AP courses. I received a full tuition scholarship to college and was part of a very rigorous honors program. I would put 150% toward every internship and role and only feel good when I would receive validation of my output.
I also feel like I prioritized the words and direction that people had ‘for me’, instead of me giving myself the chance to really uncover what I liked and didn’t like. This suppression of expressing my true self and putting so much effort and energy into work would often lead to burnout and feelings of ‘not good enough’ or ‘how can I be better.’
Now, I’ve finally gotten to a place where I’ve found some balance between ‘work me’ and ‘me outside of work’. I still work hard and do a good job, but also prioritize joy and exploration and my relationships.
If you’re in a similar boat, we can definitely chat about this. It’s a topic I’m very passionate about.
Personal Me:
Katalina B.
Who I am: Hi! I’m Katalina. I grew up internationally (Germany & Switzerland) and moved to the states when I was nine. As both a middle child and third-culture kid, I always felt a bit in-between. My career has been similar, working across CPG and tech, going from brand management to product management. Lately, I’ve been leaning more into embracing the ambiguity and not needing to define myself by external labels, achievements, or affiliations as much — it’s an ongoing journey.
I’m passionate about: Mental health (overthinkers anyone?), dance (modern, jazz, ballet, hip-hop, tap, lyrical), dogs (ask me about my cute 3-year-old golden retriever cocker spaniel mix, Jovie), people (psych undergrad), sunny weather (find me at the beach).
Why I mentor at Twenty: I have mentored throughout all stages of my career - from being a dance instructor in high school, to providing mentorship through StepUp in Los Angeles, to interviewing and mentoring for Duke University. I want to give back, help navigate, and provide support in ways that I wish I had in my early twenties. I love that Twenty provides the type of support, direction, and guidance that was previously hard to come by without either access to top institutions or a ton of potentially awkward conversations.
Let's break the ice and make the twenties the best decade for the next generation!
Kruti M.
Who am I? I’m Kruti - a native Texan (I love my homes of Houston and Austin equally!) currently living in Brooklyn. I’m a former management consultant, and for the last 3 years, have been helping grow a network of high-performing public startup schools in underserved areas of the Bronx. I am about to start my next adventure: getting my MBA at Chicago Booth. There, I will focus on my interest in building and scaling a new generation of sustainable nonprofits that provide direct services to children and families while also influencing broader public policy.
I’ll also be using this time away from work to pour into the things that bring my endless joy: spending more time with my family (happy to talk about being the only person in your family that lives in a different place!), making up new recipes and feeding all the people in my life, and all things yoga/hiking/boxing.
Why am I here? Mentoring is incredibly personal to me because I did not find real mentors in my life until my mid-twenties. I know the challenges of finding people with the right experience to guide you, and know that this depends heavily on the complex combination of who you are, where you come from, and where you're trying to go.
If I can be a part of your journey, just as many have been for me, I would be thrilled!
Clara M.
Hey Future Mentee!
I’m a Bay-Area native who grew up in the OG Silicon Valley (my dad was a chip programmer) so tech has always been a part of my life. In my career, I’ve worked almost exclusively at early stage startups (AngelList, On Deck, Hugging Face) with a stint at a Bollywood fitness company, and most recently, I’ve started my own recruitment and placement agency for Chiefs of Staff. Looking back on my career, I can weave a concise narrative of why I went from place to place but while I was going through it, I felt lost and like I was never going to “catch up” to my peers who were all engineers or product managers or data scientists.
I’m a strong believer in operationally minded folks being the next wave of talent that startups and companies want (it’s already starting to happen) but it’s a hard role to feel successful in because of it’s generalist nature. I can help you better define what it is that brings you joy and how you personally define success so that you feel more fulfilled.
Outside of work, I love staying active and seeing friends. I grew up dancing (competitively like on Dance Moms and was also on my school’s dance team) and so I try to take a dance class whenever I can - my favorite teacher is in NY. I’ve also been nomadically traveling around for the last year and a half so finding community around me has been something that I’ve grappled with and know the struggle to do so first hand.
I’m excited to share all the things I’ve learned in my twenties with people who want to listen and chances are, I’ll learn a lot from you too! I’ve mentored folks both within the companies I’ve worked at as well as through the communities I’ve built and my favorite thing to do is help others succeed. I can’t wait to meet you!
Chase D.
Twenty excites me because I remember feeling overwhelmed with the number of seemingly "life critical" decisions I was making. I want to help give back by providing guidance and frameworks to help people understand how they make the best choices for their future selves (professionally and personally) while still taking care of their present selves.
Teddy S.
I have always pushed myself to the extreme in many facets of my life. I played lacrosse in high school which allowed me to get recruited to some of the best colleges in the country. When I got to Amherst College, I gained an affinity for computer science and soon found myself taking twice as many classes as I needed to major in CS. While there is also played lacrosse and sang in the Glee Club.
After college I went to Bridgewater as an engineer and quickly found myself working as an Investment Engineer on the FX research team. I have some wild stories from those years 😄. But I realized I wanted to do more in ML/AI and left Bridgewater for a small start-up in NYC where I got deep into building neural network models.
At the same time, I also applied to HBS and was accepted and started a year later. HBS really opened the aperture of what was possible in life and the different paths I could take.
If you want to hear more, happy to tell you over a call!
Lastly, I've always mentored those earlier in their career than me as it is one of the activities which brings me energy, in a world where many activities deplete. I have helped many navigate finance (hedge funds), start-ups, and venture capital.
Justin S.
I led an LGBTQ+ mentorship program and Dartmouth and loved helping students in that context. I have spent the last several years focused on finance and am working on a personal finance mini-course at HBS, and would like to help individuals in their 20s improve their financial lives and financial decisions.
