Browse experts
Becca R.
🌎 Moving outside the US
I’m a nomad (I’ve lived in 3 countries and 4 states), career transitioner (former neuroscientist now working in tech), and lifelong learner (3 degrees and counting). For the last 5 years I’ve been working in educational technology, and I've spent my free time doing community outreach related to career transitions, largely focused on early career researchers—my former cohort.
This program excites me because it's something that I wish I'd had in my 20s. My experience as a twenty-something was nothing like my parents—my dad was a solider in Vietnam and my mom got married at 21—they both worked in stable office jobs that they each held for 20+ years. I, on the other hand, went to college to study science, which led to a pretty unstable, nomadic lifestyle. I didn't have any adults in my life growing up who had an experience even close to this, so I received very little (or relevant) guidance from anyone. This has led me to take the "long-way" round (several times) only to find out later that there was a better way.
While making mistakes and learning from failure is a staple of life, I would like to use my learning experiences to help younger individuals know about as many of the choices available to them as possible. I recently heard the phrase "lift as you climb", and I think that being a mentor at Twenty will help me lift others—even if only one step at a time.
Outside of work and mentoring, I’m going to school (again!) for an executive MBA to shore up my business skills. My free time is mostly spent hanging out with my two cats (Mick and Oscar), enjoying the performing arts (I love theater and standup), and learning to be a better artist (I’m taking a linocut class soon that I’m really excited about).
Sonya S.
🙏 First-gen
I’m a first-generation Indian American with a mashup of Southern manners (born and partially raised in Tennessee) and West coast values (moved to the Bay Area, CA for middle and high school). After high school, I went to Boston for undergrad and stayed for a couple years after before coming back to the Bay. And soon, I’ll be moving Seattle!
Like many undergrads, I started college wanting to be a doctor. I stuck with it all the way through taking the MCAT, nose to the grindstone, before realizing that I wasn’t actually interested in 7+ more years of training. After some reflection, I landed in management consulting for biotech, where I worked for a few years before transitioning to my current role in public health. The thread of science/healthcare has remained throughout my career, but I’ve had the privilege of being exposed to many different roles by working as or working with VC, hedge funds, research/academia, pharma and biotech, and private and public industry.
When I’m not working, I…
I always found that some of the best advice I received was from people who were my peers or only a few years ahead of me. It felt like a low-stakes way to get advice and ask "dumb" questions of people who understood where I was coming from. I’ve sought advice from all avenues—colleagues, family members, friends, strangers on the internet, and even DMs to cool people on LinkedIn. It’s time for me to pass on some of what I’ve learned 🙂
Jenny M.
📈 Marketing, sales, & business
The adventure keeps going.
I’m excited to help you find your voice, your platform for beliefs and self-confidence in a shifting and challenging world.
Ari G.
⚡️ Program management
Hannah S.
🌎 Social impact
I’m originally from Tampa, Florida, where I grew up surrounded by family (I have an identical twin and two other siblings). I went to school at UNC Chapel Hill, which I absolutely loved, where I majored in Business and minored in Journalism. The desire to explore the intersection of business, creativity and technology led me to a career in marketing. I also love photography as a creative outlet, so you can check out my work here: https://www.hannah-smith-photography.com/
Georgina C.
🔥 MBA
Yumi L.
🧦 Fashion & retail
Hi, I’m Yumi! I’m a Chinese American born in Venezuela, attended schools there and in China, and finally moving to the U.S. during my teenage year. Having been exposed to 3 different continents at a young age, I’ve taken an interest in learning about how different things work in different cultures. I’ve worked at various industries — art, import/export, non-profit, real estate, retail and tech - mainly in the operations and business development space.
Throughout my 20s, I’ve been very fortunate to have mentors from all walks of life that have pushed me to do better, expanded my worldview, and helped shaped the person I am today. I want to pay it forward and be the mentor that I wished I had when I was 20. Reach out and let me know how I could help!
Dee T.
Hi, my name is Dee and I am excited to be a mentor on Twenty! I am currently a student a Harvard Business School and excited at the opportunity to mentor the next generation. Let’s connect!
Reza S.
Hey, I’m Reza 👋 I'm currently living in Toronto.
I've spent the last decade leading growth and marketing at early-stage (Seed to Series B) tech startups as a FT employee or an advisor. Most recently, at On Deck during our rapid growth phase from 60 to 320 headcount. I joined as marketing hire #3 and grew that team to 300+.
My superpower (and what gives me energy) is being an early (or first) GTM hire to navigate the initial ambiguity and build the foundation for long-term growth.
I nerd out to all things personal knowledge management, football ⚽️, fitness and nutrition. I’ve lived in 4 countries across Asia, Europe and North America.
I didn't find my college education particularly stimulating, interesting or rewarding. I took a leap of faith early in my career and left my predictable engineering job to start my own company and embark on the startup rollercoaster. I haven't looked back since.
Eric I.
Hey Twenty Mentees! I’m a Bay Area native who relocated across the country to Raleigh-Durham four years ago with my now-wife so that she could pursue her PhD. Since then, we have grown into home-owners, dog parents, and travelers, just to name a few. I’m 30 years old and spent most of my twenties balancing aspirations and expectations.
Since leaving Stanford in 2015, I’ve worked for several different companies, in different stages of growth, with different levels of product strategy. I consider myself to be a “small company” or “early stage” contributor because I like wearing a lot of hats and immediately seeing the impact of my work and leadership abilities.
I started as a Sales Engineer, moved to Product Marketing, and have been in Product ever since. I’ve learned more about what I value in leaders, especially in business, and the work environments I thrive in. It’s been a long, arduous process that has taken time, patience, and discipline - and realizing that true meritocracies are hard to come by. I’ve also had to learn how to avoid the existential crises and comparisons that would trigger anytime I learned about another friend’s accomplishments.
Outside of work, I have found hobbies that allow me to also fund do what I enjoy doing. It has been a long, arduous process to learn work-life balance. But, I’m now invested in outdoor leadership opportunities as an adventure travel guide with Mountain State Overland. A true passion project that allows me to have an additional stream of income and skills doing what I love the most: teaching, leading, and hosting a good time.
Lastly, mentorship is difficult. It takes a lot of time and commitment to get to a healthy mentorship relationship, whether that’s providing the right kind of feedback, perspective, and upholding commitments to each other. For many years, I’d been involved with EDGE Youth Leadership out of Northern California leading their program development team and as the Co-Executive Director. Mentorship and leadership have been passions of mine since high school.
Natalya T.
Midwest gal at heart but spent the last decade and counting on both coasts. I have varied interests and professional experiences, and I refuse to be defined by one thing. Your 20s are such a formative time, and I can’t wait to empower people to enjoy the process of being in that phase of life, instead of trying to get to certain outcomes.
Brian H.
I've had a weird career. I’m a Computer Engineering college dropout, turned Recording Engineer in a music studio. I absolutely loved working in music, but was a bit scared that my entire personality was based around it, so after 8 years in the industry, I made the terrifying decision to leave my comfort zone and try something new. I picked up my life, moved to NYC, and switched industries. Since then, I’ve worked my way up to VP of Operations at a fashion technology startup, and I’ve absolutely loved the journey.
One day my goal is to open up a series of music venues, but for now, I’m continuing to learn the ins-and-outs of starting and scaling a business.
I pride myself on being a generalist, and love learning a lot about a lot. My favorite things to do are:
The fun (professional) highlights:
Outside of work, I enjoy pretty much anything to do with creating/working with my hands. My biggest passion is making music & helping others do the same. I also love gardening, woodworking, and am currently teaching myself to sew & work with metal. I knew nothing about fashion before joining up with my current company, CALA, but have absolutely loved digging into the industry and now I browse around fashion brands for fun.
Mihir P.
Hey Mentees, I grew up in Chicago and currently live here. I also lived in Salt Lake, Utah area, and most recently in Austin, Texas. I love exploring cities and local culture. My wife and I share an 8 month old son name Liam who we dearly love. And we have a very needy dog Leo who also we dearly love. Life on the home front is fun and never gets boring.
I studied Finance and Accounting, but didn’t pursue the field right away. Instead, I worked on other people’s startup ideas which eventually led to my own Humble Pen. This is when I got the product bug. I couldn’t scale the idea, so I moved on, and learned how to write web applications. I got my first job at Morningstar in their engineering rotational program. I rotated through several teams back-end, front-end, cyber security team, AWS team and finally design system team. I got a design bug while being on Morningstar’s Design System team. I made a switch back into Product Management. Today I am at Charles Schwab helping them rebuild their robo advisor offering. Product Management is many things but I like to use design lens to solve product problems. That is core part of my skill.
I also like building side projects. My most recently one was Wise Charlie which I sold in 2021. Currently I am building Big Imposter which is about imposter syndrome.
Outside of work, I like to read a lot and write a lot. When I am under-thinking, I read. And, when I am overthinking, I write. I also run a quarterly newsletter called mihirchronicles. It is nothing but a play zone for me. I also like to make art. Love the outdoors (bike and hike), exercising, playing basketball and tennis.
My 20s were all about exploration and my 30s are all about executing. This occurred to me while reflecting back on my career. My core belief is using your 20s to explore as much as you can. I have lived this and despite of having a few setbacks, life worked out great. I want to share this with others and help them do the same. This is my primary motivation to give back.
I am thrilled to talk to anyone who would like to have a conversation.
Mihir
Mariano S.
I’m originally from Argentina, and moved to Florida as a kid. I studied CS at Stanford (2016), and there I made many friends, learned about engineering and Bitcoin, and changed my mindset.
I worked at a fintech company (Token) for a few years, and at a crypto company (Chia) building the blockchain and crypto protocols for 4 years. That entire time I was doing engineering and engineering management.
Last year, I started a VC job and had a significant shift in my career (although still in the crypto space). I am using the skills I learned before, to invest in companies and analyze the crypto industry. I’m super excited about the potential of crypto to enable the whole world to transact freely. Of course I’m very intrigued by AI as well.
I have always loved teaching coding and technical subjects to peers in college or at work. I enjoy helping other people, but I haven't had too many opportunities to do this.
Looking forward to meeting!
Mishaal N.
Lawyer by education, entrepreneur by nature. Co-founded a creative agency, worked in D2C, and in early-stage Venture Capital. Excited to be mentoring on Twenty to help people through some of the decisions I was always confused by!
Jackson F.
I grew up in Foster City, California with my mom Laura, dad Jack and sister Shannon. I have always loved singing, and participated in musical theater, choruses, and an a cappella group along the way. I hold my own at guitar if you give me some easy chords to play. I also grew up playing baseball (1B/OF), soccer (Goalkeeper), and swimming. I still occasionally play in rec leagues around the Bay Area.
I grew up fascinated by psychology, sciences, and arts, and studied Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. There I grew my appreciation for biological sciences, but became more and more interested with the business side of operating life science companies. I joined ZS Associates, a consulting firm with a focus in the life sciences industry. There I was privileged to be able to focus on building customer engagement strategy for oncology medicine manufacturers, learn core concepts in data-driven strategic decision making, and build operational skills. A call to entrepreneurship led me to UCLA Anderson’s School of Management to pursue my MBA.
The next step is to create products. My goal is to build products by developing Edily in the education space, creating experiences for customers that will change the way that education is shared in the world and improving access, comprehension, and the skills that make learning a valuable pursuit in our lives.
