Browse experts
Abby R.
💸 Personal finance
Hi Twenty Mentees! I’m stoked to be able to get to know you and hopefully provide some help as you navigate ✨ whatever life is throwing at you ✨. I’ve had the privilege of having some excellent mentors in both my professional and personal life and am thrilled to be able to pay some of that forward within the Twenty Community!
More on my background / where I’m coming from:
If anything in my background resonates with you, I’d be thrilled to chat more and learn about how I can help you. Finding mentors that I jive with has been so important to my personal and professional journey, and it’d be an honor to be one of yours!
Courtnay B.
🔥 MBA
Hi! I am a native Texan but have lived in many parts of the USA, including Nashville, Atlanta, SF, and now Boston, but I’ll be in Seattle interning at Microsoft this summer in HR. After college I worked as a management consultant for 4 years at McKinsey & Company, where I worked in multiple industries and functions searching for my passion. I finally found it in my last two years at McKinsey by working on the Women in the Workplace report and working with our Chief People Officer on the firm’s important people priorities. After that, I decided to go to business school to decide if I wanted to pivot into the HR space rather than stay in consulting.
I’ve been mentoring others since college in various topics, and love sharing my knowledge and experiences to help others be their best!
Personally, I love to be active (hiking, Barry’s, Pilates), to cook, and to spend time with friends and family. Looking forward to meeting you!
Sophia S.
💻 Startups
Past experience mentoring and teaching others:
Some episodes about career from my podcast: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/17wmAOLcS2H48YbpbBayPM?si=dabe9964b2e84e22
Grant A.
💍 Getting married
I’m Grant - a proud Houstonian currently living in Boston while attending MIT Sloan. I went to UVA and studied Systems Engineering. I spent the first 4 years of my career at BCG, starting as a Summer Associate and finishing up as a Project Leader. Have done a ton of work in Digital, Oil & Gas and Social Impact. Outside of case work, I was also able to work in my “magic time” with the Houston Food Bank and EMERGE on special one-off consulting projects.
More importantly, I have the most amazing wife Sarah and the best “good boys” (dogs) in the world and could talk to you for hours about any one of them 🙂 We love going on long walks, trying new restaurants and breweries, and watching just a little too much reality TV.
Miriam S.
🩺 Healthcare
I'm an engineer turned business student continuing to explore which career path might be right for me at this moment in time. I'm a firm believer in pushing yourself to be independently capable while also respecting the value of healthy relationships and supportive communities.
Sara G.
I’m Sara - a UX research lead passionate about helping people cultivate fulfillment, joy and growth in their careers. My own career path has been a windy road, and that’s one of the reasons I love supporting others on their journeys. I started out my career as a Hiring Rotation Associate at Google. After about 6 months of realizing this role was the wrong fit for me, I made an internal transfer and became the first user researcher at Google Health. While I was at Google Health, I had the opportunity to work on some fascinating projects that included optimizing the user experience of an anxiety disorder self-assessment tool, making it easier for users to find affordable care on Google Search, building an AI-powered skin diagnostic tool, and internationalizing a diabetic retinopathy detection device. After about 4 years, my UX team had grown from a team of 3 to a team of ~70 and I was ready to make a change. I’ve always been inspired by democratizing access to world class education, and this led me to Coursera where I now lead a team of researchers who work on advancing access to education worldwide. My favorite part of my current role is getting to be a manager to an incredible team of people: I love coaching my team to achieve audacious goals, watching people grow, and building strong and sustaining relationships. In my free time, I spend my time doing things that bring me joy: soaking in the sun at the beach or in the park, boxing, hosting and cooking for friends, spending time with my partner Ziad and dog Ziggy, and traveling and experiencing different cultures. A perfect Saturday for me would be reading a great book on the beach, and then spending the evening relaxing on my porch with some friends, Ziad and Ziggy and a nice glass of wine :)
Why am I here?
My own twenties were rocky and exhilarating – it was a raw time full of some really incredible highs and some serious lows. Even though I had a dream job at Google Health pretty early in my career, I struggled with a lot of things many people do in their twenties: feeling insecure, managing anxiety and depression, uncertainty about my purpose, dealing with challenging work relationships, etc. I was incredibly lucky to have some generous people who were later in their careers give me support and guidance during this time. I love paying that energy forward - and I get tremendous fulfillment out of the relationships I build with my mentees. If I can be a part of your journey, please don’t hesitate to reach out 🙂
James E.
⚽️ Sports
I’m an Arizona native with roots from Mexico. I currently live in San Francisco and have been here for the last 5 years. Moved to the bay to work with startups and never seemed to leave.
I attended the University of Arizona where I ran track and field collegiately. After graduating, I had the opportunity to pursue running after college and competed for the Mexican National team. After falling short of making the Olympic team, I decided to hang up the spikes and moved to San Francisco.
Since I’ve been in the bay, I’ve worked for 3 companies, Rubrik, Databricks and now Lacework. I specialize in enterprise software sales, which has been equally rewarding as it’s been challenging. But my experience working for some of the fastest growing startups has been amazing.
Outside of work, I enjoy cooking and traveling. Love to try new recipes that inspire my creativity. The one thing I do focus on is having a work-life balance. Figuring out what I like to do outside of work has helped me become a more well rounded professional.
I’m very excited to become a mentor because I believe success is a culmination of the people you surround yourself with and if I can have can impact even just one person in a meaningful way, I’ll feel like I’ve done my job.
Will C.
🎤 Public speaking
Hey there! I’m a Raleigh, NC native who’s spent my career in the Talent space at multiple startups and scaleups. I graduated from William Peace University in Raleigh, but am a die-hard NC State sports fan (Go Pack!). I’m a new home-owner alongside my Fiancée and our cat, Poppy, and am getting married in September 2023!
I started my career in 2017 in the contract recruiting space. I learned the basics of corporate life, and also found that my passion was to work in-house for startups and build high-performing teams in the SaaS space. This led me to my first Startup role….
I joined Pendo in early 2020 (What a time!) and was responsible for growing our Product, Engineering, Design, and UX Research orgs alongside our Chief Product Officer and CEO. This is where I learned to navigate the politics that come with working in a high growth org, as well as how to partner with executive stakeholders on a regular basis. I was lucky enough to meet my first mentor (My direct manager at the time), and see firsthand the impact they can have on your career trajectory.
After Pendo I was recruited to join Twilio and lead a global team of recruiters focused on hiring Principal level product IC’s and product leadership. Here is where I learned what working at scale looked like. With over 10k employees, it take an entirely different skillset to navigate an organization of this size. Being able to influence decision makers, as well as ensuring your work has visibility across multiple levels is essential.
Early this year (2023), I joined OnFrontiers as our Head of Talent Acquisition. We’re a small org with around 30 employees around the globe, and this comes with an entirely new set of challenges and objectives. Organizing your day, setting clear productivity benchmarks, and holding yourself accountable is key.
I’m passionate about making sure everyone who’s in the early stages of their career has access to mentorship. In the age of remote work, this has become even more of a challenge day-to-day. I aim on building long lasting relationships with Mentees and providing transparent feedback on your topics of choice.
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.
