Hey y’all! I’m Chelsea.

Professional Me - The Jobs:

• 10+ years of professional full-time experience in non-profits, higher education, and tech.
• Currently Director of Community at Expert Session, a new platform where you can connect with an expert on a 1:1 virtual session for guidance, advice, or to learn a new skill.
• Previously, worked in Customer Success at Box and Snappy (a Series C startup).
• Before that, I worked in student support programs at CUNY Macaulay Honors College and NYC College of Technology.
• My first full-time role was at Jumpstart, an early education non-profit.

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:

• 31, turning 32 this year 😱
• Myers-Briggs: ENFJ.
• Top 5 Strengths in Gallup Strengths Finder: Achiever, Relator, Includer, Developer, Empathy.
• Married in 2021, and been with my husband for 6+ years

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• Enjoys: hot yoga, drinking tea, documentaries, mindless TV (Selling Sunset, anyone?), live comedy, trying and cooking new vegan eats, hanging with friends, boozy brunch, reading personal development books, meditating, mindful walks, street art, thrifting
• Used to take life very seriously. Now, I take it somewhat seriously.

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Hey y’all! I’m Chelsea.

Professional Me - The Jobs:

• 10+ years of professional full-time experience in non-profits, higher education, and tech.
• Currently Director of Community at Expert Session, a new platform where you can connect with an expert on a 1:1 virtual session for guidance, advice, or to learn a new skill.
• Previously, worked in Customer Success at Box and Snappy (a Series C startup).
• Before that, I worked in student support programs at CUNY Macaulay Honors College and NYC College of Technology.
• My first full-time role was at Jumpstart, an early education non-profit.

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:

• 31, turning 32 this year 😱
• Myers-Briggs: ENFJ.
• Top 5 Strengths in Gallup Strengths Finder: Achiever, Relator, Includer, Developer, Empathy.
• Married in 2021, and been with my husband for 6+ years

​

• Enjoys: hot yoga, drinking tea, documentaries, mindless TV (Selling Sunset, anyone?), live comedy, trying and cooking new vegan eats, hanging with friends, boozy brunch, reading personal development books, meditating, mindful walks, street art, thrifting
• Used to take life very seriously. Now, I take it somewhat seriously.

​

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

I studied child development for my bachelor’s and master’s degree and learned about social, emotional, and cognitive development/psychology. I used to be an educator and worked at a private school where I wore many hats. I truly enjoyed that time. Students always came to me for guidance on personal or academic/future matters. They shared that I was easy to talk to as well as open and understanding. I have moved on from that school to another city, and miss the opportunity to make a difference. I am the oldest of 5 to immigrant parents, and didn’t really have anyone to help me navigate my future. I understand the lack of support and want to be there for others. Joining Twenty allows for me to share my knowledge and experiences, and make a positive impact through mentorship. Right now: I currently implement SaaS (software as a service) at Zenoti as a Senior Product Specialist full-time. I also work part-time at Free People Movement as a Stylist as a creative/social outlet. I like to stay active by taking pilates and yoga classes as well as going to the gym and hiking from time to time with my partner. I love all things wellness and hold RYT certification. Most of the time, I try to keep myself busy and productive; other times, I’m not doing much but watching videos on TikTok. I recently got my sound healing certification. I love meeting new people, enjoy helping others, and I am excited about the opportunity to work with you :)

I’m a curious learner and a determined generalist who loves working with close-knit teams that are solving problems that really matter in the world.

I graduated from Brown University with an engineering degree, helped design, launch, and then price educational tours for high school students, built a tech-enabled scavenger company with a few of my best friends, and am determined to play a role in closing the opportunity divide in our country. I have background in finance, strategy, business development, and early-stage entrepreneurship.

I’m currently an MBA student at Harvard Business School, but I’m also a devoted Somerville super-fan, avid traveler, and washed-up distance runner.

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:

• I’m originally from Seattle, WA, but moved to Costa Rica when I was 16 to finish high school. From there, I headed to Williams College in Massachusetts for college, where I ended up majoring in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Biology.
• In college, I spent my Freshman and Sophomore summers interning at non-profits before doing a consulting internship at Oliver Wyman (OW) after my Junior year.
• I joined the OW Boston office after graduating from Williams and spent 3+ years doing work across Manufacturing, Aviation, and Oil and Gas clients. Learned a lot, traveled a lot, met lots of good people - but then COVID hit, and I realized I wasn’t enjoying working those long days from my cruddy apartment (that I previously spent virtually zero time in because I was traveling M → Th!). I took a big leap and left the firm with no next job lined up, knowing something needed to change.
• I had the luxury of a bit of savings that helped me to be intentional about my job search - I wanted to find a role that really felt right and let me work with people I could see myself in. After 3 months, I ended up starting on the Business Operations team at Robinhood. I spent 2 years on the BizOps team before I internally transferred to a Product Manager role, and started working closely with Engineering, Data and Design to build for our customers.
• Since high school, it had been my dream to work for the US State Department as a Diplomat. After years of trying in the background, I finally got the call to join in July 2023! I’ve recently moved to Washington DC for training and will find out soon where my first two-year posting abroad will be.
• Outside of work, I love to cook extremely elaborate meals for myself + others, I’m re-learning how to read for enjoyment vs. school, and recently picked up rollerblading (so! fun!).

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!

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!

Past experience mentoring and teaching others:

• Co.Lab: I mentored 2 teams of product manager + engineer + designer and helped them ship a product and break into their 1st full-time roles in tech (https://www.linkedin.com/company/joincolab/)
• Microsoft: I managed 2 product manager interns and mentored 2 full-time product managers
• Pomona College computer science dept mentor: tutored students 1:1 on 4 CS courses

Some episodes about career from my podcast: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/17wmAOLcS2H48YbpbBayPM?si=dabe9964b2e84e22

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.

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.

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 :) 

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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 🙂

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.

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.

I’m Linus, and I work in startups! I grew up in the Bay Area, and was a History major at Yale. I started my career in the public policy space before pivoting into startups. I’ve worked in BizOps, product management, Chief of Staff, and more, across consumer, B2B SaaS, and health tech companies. I’m currently a Talent Investor at Entrepreneur First, helping to find and nuture exceptional individuals they begin their journey as startup founders. Outside of work, I host a podcast and online salons with the Interintellect, and I love reading, classical music, and cooking.

I've been a design mentor for Out in Tech for the past 6 years, helping young queer folks break into the world of design. Currently working at Indeed as a design manager.

I switched my career focus from engineering to UX about 12 years ago. I took the scenic but this path has taught me so much. Moved to the US about 10 years ago to pursue my career in UX

I also collect a lot of music, I've curated a list of my favorite 500 songs, hopefully you'll find something you like: spoti.fi/3E9ZdWY

Ciao Twenty Mentees,

With an academic background in Sociology and a career in developing people and teams, my personal and professional journey can best be described as non-traditional and required me to be observant, scrappy, vulnerable, and creative. I’ve worked across various industries such as professional sports (San Francisco Giants, MLB and NHL) to a career pivot into software and VC (Hired, MasterClass, Motive, AngelList, Atomic, Tandem Capital) to becoming my own business woman (co_foundry) helping founders and creatives focus on their core product while providing resources that help the business run. In the last decade I have experienced 4 layoffs and I know first hand the stress and struggles you’re feeling. I understand the hustle and internal struggle that comes with losing your job overnight - let me guide you and support you in this trying time.

My spiritual journey has been developed through years of traditional therapy, reiki and shamanistic guidance, yogic practice, and learning how to cultivate a community that serves my highest good.

I’d be a great mentor for those who are willing to discus the “crispy bits” of life. My mantra is “practice mode” because everyday is a practice towards self improvement and realizing our fullest potential. Obstacles are the threads that make us who we are if we have the clarity to see the potential it has to shape us.

Before joining twenty I mentored in the work-place and professionally in my 1:1 sessions through co_foundry. I’ve helped junior colleagues get promoted, interview, and pivot careers. I have also helped women do product sprints to tease out business ideas through a 3-day program to identify their product/service offering along with a 1-minute pitch. I’m embedded in female founder circles such as The Female Founder Collective, The Weekend, and Brydge Club. My passion is in supporting women and POC to birth creativity and connect them with the resources they need. This is a lot of the work I do at co_foundry!

I’m an identical twin, mom to 3 kids under 4, I like to write poetry about my kids and pre-covid times kept juggling balls and legos on my desk at work to have as connection starters. I take the work I do seriously but never myself. I work to live and spend time with my family and have learned what happens when you don’t set boundaries the hard way. I lead a brand new function at a tech company and our team is building out some really cool People experiences and People products.

When I entered the workforce, I was lucky to have leaders who believed in me and mentored me and some of the best life and career advice that sticks with me to this day is from them. I have two people I've mentored over the past 4+ years and it's been a joy to see them grow! I'm excited to continue to pay that forward with an awesome company like twenty.

Hi there! Here comes the fun part. My story starts in Alexandria Virginia (east coast born and bred) until I took a scholarship to play Division 1 Lacrosse at Stanford University. Fast forward a few years, I moved up to San Francisco to start my career at Twitter as a Strategic Partnerships Manager. Life post college is wild (to say the very least) and frankly, for the past 6+ years it’s been a crazy ride of trial and error to figure out what fits. From Twitter I pivoted to scrappy startup life, then transitioned into formal consulting and finally landed on building my own coaching platform for integrative health (the club). I specialize in supporting women with hormonal and gut issues, to repair their relationship with their well-being (physically, mentally and emotionally). I'm currently a certified nutritionist, pilates instructor and crazy passionate about what I do in San Francisco. Great reminder that life and success is anything but a linear path up. When people asked that big question to me: “what do you want to do with your life?” I used to freak out. Now, when people pose the “what do you want to do” question, I smile and respond “does anyone really know?”

Hi! I am a MBA and MS Biotech graduate student from Harvard. I have a background in VC investing, therapeutics development, bioengineering, fundraising, product management, and operations. I am currently working on a digital health startup tackling stress management and a bioelectricity startup tackling cancer prevention and tissue regeneration.

As the child of refugees and a first generation college (now MBA) graduate, Twenty’s mission resonates deeply. It was hard to find mentors when I was younger and I struggled to find my way in my 20s. But when I did find mentors, they helped change the trajectory of my life. I would love to pay that forward.

Professionally, I've worked across tech, nonprofits, and government. For the last 5 years, I have been in B2B product marketing and customer success at ML/AI, edtech, and fintech startups, as well as larger companies like Apple. I'm now a product marketing manager at DeepL, a German unicorn that uses ML/AI to break down communication barriers. I recently moved to London, and graduated last May with an MBA at Berkeley Haas.

Hi, I’m DC, a UX Designer and Researcher based in the Bay Area. After college graduation, I moved to Berlin, Germany to work for a service design studio, where I learned a lot about stretching outside of your personal and professional comfort zone. Prior to landing my current job, I used my engineering degree to explore various career paths, from early childhood education to IT hardware.I’m passionate about: teaching; creating beautiful, helpful, functional products; and understanding the relationship between achievement and mental health.My formative years were shaped by great mentors, and I’m excited to pay it forward!

My name is Jacob Hogge (pronounced like “rogue” with an “H”) and I’m excited to chat with you!

I currently manage a team of 6 engineers (and a fluctuating number of interns) at SpaceX. Together, we’re responsible for the quality of thousands of components on the Falcon and Dragon spacecraft. Helping my team solve difficult technical challenges, and pushing them to grow personally and professionally is what makes me excited to go to work every day.

Outside of my career I enjoy backpacking, skiing, triathlon, and beach volleyball. I’m also passionate about Australian Shepherds, hot lattes, and key-lime pie; I try my best to indulge in these at every opportunity.

I’m a strong believer in continuous improvement, and I learned from an early age that mentorship is an excellent catalyst for growth. A great mentor can help you build the confidence and skills to reach your goals, while allowing you to learn from their mistakes and missteps. With that said, there’s no right way to live life; I don’t claim to have all the answers. Sometimes just having somebody to bounce ideas off of is all you need to move forward. I look forward to learning and growing together!

I came from a small city in Brazil where people tend to stay forever (high school, college, first job, second, third, build a family, grow old), and I decided to challenge that - got out of my parents house when I was 16 and haven't come back since. I went to study engineering, joined an NGO, went abroad a couple of times, volunteered, got to McKinsey and now to HBS.

Since then, I've been trying to share a bit more of my accomplishments to see if I could help inspire others to also get out of their comfort zones - and I believe I've been successful so far, as people keep reaching out to me for career advice and mentoring in general.

I've mentored professionals since I was a full-time employee at Cisco. I've always enjoyed teaching other, and I come from an underprivileged upbringing, so I feel like I have a lot to give. Twenty excites me because it is an opportunity to help up and coming professionals. I feel like my experience is very expansive, and I've made a ton of mistakes, so people can learn from what I've done wrong.

I grew up in Turkey, attended high school in Istanbul, then moved to California for Stanford. After studying computer science and architecture, I specialized in product design over the last decade at tech startups like Asana, Twitter, and Autodesk. My professional superpower is bringing clarity and mindfulness to teamwork. Attending silent retreats and practicing meditation allows me to be my best self. I know we’re inter-connected to each other and with the Earth. I bring these mindfulness practices to the teams and individuals I work with. In the wild, you can find me exploring new instruments and singing with friends!

My family left Vietnam when I was 4 and I didn’t return to my birthplace for 22 years. So there’s a lot of “straddling the line between being Vietnamese and American, trying to please my parents but also wishing they’d adopt more American values, finding the pride of being Asian-American in a society dominated by White people” stuff that I’ve grappled with throughout my twenties.

Work and career success was really tangled into my identity for a loooong time as well. Like, my self worth was tied to what I could achieve during my time on planet earth. I eventually found the unsubscribe button within the cult of productivity app, and realized my life, work, partner, friends, city, and bank account balance was all enough—stellar actually. Not to say I’ve figured it out; far from it. But I’m working on it every day.

I didn’t navigate and learn everything you’ve read on this page without people giving me a lot of their time and perspectives. So I’m here to listen, learn, ask questions, and hopefully pay it forward to you.

‍

Hello Twenty-something my name is Dartis Willis II, I’m a Senior Product Manager (and former UX researcher) who just became a new mentor at Twenty. I would love to give you some helpful advice, but first here’s a little bit of information on my background.

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Applicable highlights:

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• I am currently based out of Miami, but I was born in Detroit
• I graduated from Stanford in 2016 with a degree in Product Design from the D.school [I pivoted twice from Aeronautical Engineering & Mechanical Engineering (Go Card!)]
• For the past 7 years I’ve worked as a UX Researcher, Senior Product Manager & Design Thinking strategist for NetSuite (Oracle)
• I’ll intermittently work remotely & travel around the world setting up shop wherever I can find a stable internet connection
• I moonlight giving friends/founders product feedback as well as mentoring/career advising
• I'm joining Twenty as a mentor because I deeply value the opportunity to give back & to pass along some of the advice I wish I'd received earlier. Despite having a vast network of successful individuals, I didn't get all of the advice I needed in my early twenties because I didn’t see the value in establishing a formal mentorship (needless to say my perspective has changed!) I've been a track coach, a senior leader on various track teams, I've mentored multiple junior employees & I already have a few informal mentees. It's safe to say that I have significant experience with helping people & I would love to provide any help that I can!

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Other Highlights

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• I graduated from Detroit Country Day Highschool in 2011 (Go Yellow Jackets!)
• Steve Ballmer, Robin Williams, Chris Webber, Shane Battier & Courtney Vance (From Law & Order) are some notable alumni
• I was an All American High Jumper on the Track Team
• I used to play a mean jazz saxophone  ‍

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I'm a serial entrepreneur who is building my 4th startup. I dropped out of my undergrad to build my last company. I'm excited to be a mentor on Twenty because I love helping others and I'm super passionate about this space - my first startup was a mentorship platform :)

My career path has been challenging, unexpected, and rewarding. I’ve served as a founder, a consultant, an advisor, and a Board of Directors member. I’ve founded both an unsuccessful business venture and a successful non-profit, worked in massive multi-national corporations and early- and growth-stage VC-backed startups. I've been laid off, low-balled, and have had to navigate toxic workplace politics. I chose an untraditional path for post-graduate education, learned what fuels me professionally, and have both slogged away doing menial admin tasks and been in the room with some of the most powerful people in my industry. And I’m still figuring out what I want to do when I "grow up".

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A bit about my background, I graduated with a degree in marketing and global management, thinking I would go into the hospitality industry as a brand manager. It turns out I didn't actually like marketing in practice. So, with no educational background in healthcare or technology, I was thrown into the deep end of health tech when I became an implementations consultant working on the front lines in hospitals right next to doctors and nurses. I took everything that came my way as a learning experience and was promoted quickly until I got to an executive level IT strategy consulting role at a large corporation. The career plateau that came next was one of the largest struggles I had to face in my young career, and I think that a lot of people in their early- to mid-twenties may be experiencing this. I decided to pursue my education and, while still working full-time, got a masters degree from Penn School of Medicine in Healthcare Innovation. During this degree program, I moved to a venture-backed startup which doubled in size in my first year there. Dealing with the realities of what this meant not just for the business but for the job I was doing was another massive challenge, and I ended up leaving to start my next adventure. I am currently in the very early stages of building a business, while taking a much-needed break from the working world. 

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I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction mentoring young people through my university’s post-grad programs, as well as my own family members and other young professionals. I think a big reason for this is that a lot of the “influencers” giving advice are impractical for a professional environment (corporate and startup), and interviews with successful people such as Fortune 500 CEOs rarely give insight into actionable steps for young people to take in their careers. My approach is to be transparent and honest, and lean on my own experience to give examples of how you might want to (or not want to) approach certain topics. I hope to be able to create a space for college students and early career professionals to feel comfortable in uncertainty and in exploring their interests.

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I also have a great network who are looking for bright folks to help bring new perspectives, and I’m always happy to make the connection.

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When I scroll through Instagram or LinkedIn, it can be easy to fill in the gaps with stories about other people: “Their career has been smooth sailing!”; “Their relationship looks so easy”; “How are all of my friends somehow in Italy right now?!” However, when we create space for authentic and genuine conversations, we quickly uncover that all of us are having imperfect and sometimes frustrating moments in our personal and professional lives; leveraging some combination of skills, luck, and privilege to navigate our careers and personal lives; and simply doing our best to grow and succeed in a challenging world.

When I left Teach for America as a transitioning teacher, I felt unsure how to land a job at a top startup or how to apply my leadership skills in a new industry. Through the support of mentors and networking, I was able to land a great role in Customer Success at a really exciting EdTech start up. After my successful transition into EdTech, I found that many teachers were eager to do the same, and I started offering pro bono mentoring sessions to provide advice on how to navigate the transition and set yourself up for success. After supporting 20+ mentees, I have learned that sometimes the most impactful tool a mentor can offer is to believe in the mentee and just nudge them along the path they are already building for themselves.

I am eager to help early career leaders (especially young women) harness their greatness, see their potential, and take bold steps toward the life they want to create. Mentors have been critical to my personal and professional growth, and I am eager to pay it forward.

Hey! My name is Jackie Y. HU, born and raised in the city of Shanghai and had my first college dropout experience in Shanghai (ask me more!). At the age of 19, I moved to the U.S. with my parents and started college at UC Berkeley.

I wandered quite a bit in college and explored different aspects of college life before committing to taking Economics and East Asian Studies as my majors. I still remember how my college advisor wanted to dissuade me from doing two majors by saying ‘unless the other major is the first thing you want to do waking up Sunday morning’😅.

I still can’t wake up on Sunday mornings, BUT I am so happy that I wasn’t discouraged! Taking the East Asian Studies major and becoming involved in writing and conscious critical thinking really lifted me up spiritually, and that level of motivation made everything fall into places.

I LOVED social science and humanity so much so I decided to attend Oxford University for a master program that focused on contemporary China. The reason why I picked a UK school instead of a U.S. school (which is supposedly the strongest in the field) is that I just … loved a vegetarian buffet place in London so would want to always go back! Sadly by the time I attended Oxford, the restaurant was permanently closed down due to rising rent and I literally cried for 3 days and lost the sense of purpose going there.

At Oxford, I focused my research on a youth community in mainland China and did an interesting virtual ethnographic study about it (ask me more!).

I now work as a Data Science Manager at a dating company, leveraging data to spread love. I feel so loved by having the privilege to working with a group of super authentic, logical, reasonable, and open-minded people. My company has a very unique culture of bringing everyone close together while working and it exemplifies so many American ideals that attracted me to move to this country at the first place. I feel very proud of my work and fulfilled, and I am ready to invest in my mentees and to give back to the community that cultivated me!

At Twenty, being able to give authentic talk excites me! I love being explorative, real, and grounded with my mentees instead of coming to be prescriptive or pedagogical. Being authentic also helps us to learn from EACH OTHER — this would be a great opportunity for me to grow so I am looking forward to our conversations!! 😃

I’m a little bit of everything. From solo backpacking to permaculture farming (during the pandemic) to raising VC $ & running a startup to consulting to social impact… I’m happy to talk about it all. What strings across it all is my values & why I do what I do:

• My values: Adventure, appreciation of beauty, learning, newness, and positive impact ✨
• Why I do what I do: To make a positive impact in as many lives as I can while having fun & developing myself

Life is not just about achievement & busy-ness. Life also isn’t about living for other people & their perceptions of you. That’s why I think it’s super important to know what is important to you and build a life that celebrates that. F everyone else 😇

Hi there! I’m Julia, a mid-westerner who has spent my adult life in CA (Stanford for 4 years + 3 years in SF) and Austin, TX (past 2 years). I’m a former innovation consultant at a Management Consulting firm, and recently took 6 months away from the career hamster wheel to travel, read a lot, noodle on ideas, and spend time with family and friends. My next adventure is in the land of startups, where I recently joined a small 12-person team working to help athletes achieve their performance nutrition goals. While my whole career has been in the product space, I’ve jumped around a bit between design, innovation, and Product Management roles.

Outside of work, I stay busy with my 2-year old dog, Hazel, lots of outdoor adventures, racket sports, and exploring the live music and taco scene in Austin.

Why am I here? Mentoring is something that gives me a ton of energy, and I am where I am today because of my “village” of career mentors, close friends, family, and therapists helping me navigate my 20s. “The Defining Decade” is an accurate name for your 20’s - it’s when we start to build our careers, figure out our passions, and cultivate meaningful relationships. I believe each person needs that village of support to help them navigate this tricky decade and I would be honored to be part of someone’s circle of mentorship.

I have a strong interest in driving value for visionary leaders and ambitious, mission driven organizations seeking to make a meaningful impact. Given the various industries and companies I’ve been a part of, I like to think I have a diverse and grounded perspective. At my core is the unwavering belief in servant leadership - placing the needs and well-being of others at the forefront of my actions. 

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I started my career in investment banking, both on the equity research and M&A side. Then I spent some time doing venture capital and private equity. Currently, exploring the “operator” side of me at a beverage company called Guayaki Yerba Mate and have done a few stints at startups (with Chief of Staff and finance-related responsibilities). On a personal note, I moved to Los Angeles from Texas (grew up in Austin, TX, went to college at Texas A&M, and lived in Houston for a few years) at the beginning of 2019. I am currently engaged and have a puppy Golden Retriever named Goose. When I’m not going on long walks and exploring new places with my fiancee, Tara, and Goose, you’ll catch me playing pickleball or golfing. On his lazier days, Kevin loves to watch any sports events on TV (and sometimes catches himself watching reality TV shows with Tara).

I'm a design strategist and management consultant with a background in sociology. I started my career as an entrepreneur and switched to corporate consulting. I’m now on track to start my own consultancy! I’m action-oriented and a big picture thinker. I love learning from real situations and hence, I’m an opportunist. I actively seek out ways to help others and grow myself at the same time!

• 📍Currently living in NYC, but am from Southern California 🌴 and also lived in the Bay 🌉
• 📚 Graduated from UC Berkeley with an Economics degree, Go Bears 🐻
• 💼 Previously worked in tech sales roles at Klout (RIP), Square (now known as Block, Inc.), and Salesforce
• 🏃🏾♂️I've run three marathons (SF, NYC, LA) and am looking into triathlons 👀
• ⛰ Love to travel, eat, and hike/enjoy the outdoors - hope to summit Mt Kilmanjaro and Mt Fuji in the next few years!

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Ask me/Talk to me about:‍

• 📈 Digital/cultural trends, futurology, etc.
• 🏀 Any and all sports, but mainly basketball and golf (Go Lakers 🤩 and Angels 🥲)
• 💥 Finding the perfect meme or gif for any given context
• 🍎 The new iPad + magic keyboard I bought to replace my personal laptop - any tips/tricks to make the transition easier are welcome!
• ✈ Travel recs for Acadia and Zion NP

After 5 years in digital advertising program management & production, I pivoted to become a classroom educator. As a teacher I've mentored new teachers and led instruction for groups of students from K-12 learners to adults in the business world. I recently made another transition to re-envision my work life, and currently work as a consultant developing curriculum (ie. online courses and learning experiences) for organizations like The Life Brief and Rewiring America.

Also, as is common for many people, some of my most important learning and personal growth has happened outside the classroom and the office. After studying World Arts and Cultures (Dance) and geography in college, I moved to Spain for a year to teach English. Traveling and immersing myself in different cultures through language and the arts has continued to be a big part of my life, inspiring trips to Mexico, India, Japan, Korea, and around Europe. Some other jobs and side projects that have shaped my perspective are leading interactive art tours in New York City, planting trees in LA, serving drinks on a cruise ship in the Bay—and during the pandemic, starting an interview-based podcast about learning styles & stories called Still Learning. I’m also a nonfiction & aspiring fiction writer, and believe in the power of telling our own stories in order to see and know ourselves more clearly.

I’m excited to be a mentor with Twenty because connecting with mentors has provided such comfort and inspiration for me in both my personal and professional life. Conversations I had with former teachers, managers and wise, slightly older friends helped me to name and eventually pursue both major career shifts as well as smaller, also meaningful, adjustments to how work fits into my life. Finally, as someone passionate about being a lifelong learner, embracing a growth mindset, emotional intelligence and seeing the career journey as a learning process—all of which I'd be eager to discuss—are all topics near and dear to my heart!

When I meet new people, I like to say that I grew up with Southern sensibilities and East Coast values. Take what you will from that.

I spent my childhood between Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the greater Dallas, Texas areas. I was fortunate to have two older brothers who navigated the American public school system in the South, college applications and the job search as Asian Americans. They filled in many of the gaps that my parents, who will forever be immigrants in their eyes and others, had.

After graduating high school, I moved to the East Coast to attend Wellesley College, an all women’s college right outside Boston. I loved it, and that’s all I’ll say here. Please ask me more.

Prior to graduating, I realized that I needed to delay my graduation by a few months because I was missing one core requirement…don’t tell my parents. (Yes, I am 30 and still keeping some of my academic history a secret from my parents.)

I was fortunate to have internships during my college years, mostly geared towards the public sector. However, after graduation, my career has take me down a path of product and strategy within financial services and healthcare.

Mentorship has been so valuable to me as both a mentor and mentee. The most exciting aspect of mentorship is that both people grow and hopefully make better decisions because of the relationship.

I've been a mentor with my alumni group for years. I also work with two charities - one that provides financial counseling to young families and one providing comfort to terminally ill children.

I am a bit older than some of the other mentors, but it took me a bit longer to get my professional career to a place where I now feel I can give back in this way. I am 37 and look like I am in my mid-20s. I know the feeling of being in the corporate world and trying to be taken seriously but being looked at as a "little girl." I want to help other young women navigate the corporate world with confidence.

I’m Maddy and I’m excited to meet you! I’m super passionate about education, great marketing, and social impact. 

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I’m a Bay Area native — I grew up in Marin County, moved to Los Angeles for college at the University of Southern California, and now live in San Francisco. 

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I’ve had a mix of roles across research, marketing, and business development/partnerships. Currently, I’m part of the industry partnerships team at Coursera — helping companies like Google and Facebook create job-training programs for people around the world. I’ve also worked at design and marketing agencies (IDEO and Hero Digital) in marketing and business development roles. 

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Recently, I started my MBA at the University of Southern California (USC). This is a hybrid program, and I’m working full-time while in the MBA program. Happy to discuss any topics pertaining to applications, managing work/school schedules, and more. 

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Over the last 8 years I’ve mentored middle school, high school, college, and post-undergrad students across a wide range of both professional and personal topics. I am thrilled to be part of Twenty to help share tips and tricks on what I wish I had known in my early twenties.

I know how beneficial it can be to have relationships with people who are just ahead of you in their career and life. I personally have benefited from this, and would like to help others in this way. I’ve spent the last nearly 15 years trying to figure out what how to find fulfillment in my career and personal life. I’m still on that journey, and would love to join you on yours.

Hi there! I am a Nashville, TN native, which I hear is a unicorn these days around here :). I graduated from UT Chattanooga, although huge UT Vols fan! I have the cutest little Pomapoo dog, Ollie, and live with my Fiancée. (Getting married in Dec 2023)

I started my career back in 2012 in the Recruiting Agency world. I learned the fundamentals (good and bad) in that world + met a lot of good connections, that I still communicate with now. I found my passion lied in the Corporate space so switched over to my first Corporate recruiting job in 2015 and have never looked back!

While at my past company Asurion I stood in as the main mentor on our TA team. I thoroughly enjoyed having 1:1 conversation with my teammates about what their future career could look like, giving them advice, I had learned from my time thus far and how to approach certain situations. I have recently gotten into people management, and it still always takes me back to really enjoying the mentorship side of it.

I really feel everyone, especially in early stages, should get access to a mentor, or mentorship program. Remote work can make it very dangerous if there is not that structure, as most can feel on an island or scared to ask questions. Whether you are hunting for specific advice, or just want someone you can throw an idea to, I am happy to help!

Hi all! I’m Katya — I was raised in Bangkok, Thailand; my father is Indian-Thai, and my mother is American and German. I graduated from the International School of Bangkok and, at the age of 18, moved to Burlington, VT to pursue a Bachelors of Science in Social Work. I then went on to receive a Masters in Nonprofit Management from Northeastern University.

I started out my ecommerce career at Seed Health as one of its first hires, and helped build the foundations for their member experience, ecommerce and operations teams.

I recently transitioned out of my role as Director of Strategic Operations at Tomorrow Farms, a venture-backed food and beverage startup that I had joined pre-launch of its first brand and product, Bored Cow. In this role, (a la Chief of Staff), I was responsible for all customer experience, people & culture operations and internal communications, executive assistance, and internal operations, including process establishment and improvement and management of company softwares, systems and tools.

Having traveled to over 30 countries, my experiences in various cultures has deeply influenced how I build and scale with a human-centric approach. As a champion for candidate, employee and customer experience, I foster organizational health, drive operational efficiency, reduce friction, and eliminate pain points cultivated with the highest level of thought, care and intention.

I come from a low-income first-generation household and spent 8 years as an officer in the U.S. Navy before pivoting into a PM role at Meta. I then became a Project Manager supporting eLearning efforts at Google before transitioning into my current role as a Senior Project Manager at Boeing. I understand both sides of the coin when it comes to military/civilian life and the challenges that come with each. I'm currently a mentor for transitioning veterans through Veterati and have been in the mentorship space for over 10 years. A big passion of mine is sharing the knowledge I've learned in order to set folks up on a trajectory towards success. Twenty is a program I see big potential in because of the capability to create huge impact for such a small personal investment on my part. I'm excited to have the chance to not only help you navigate your professional career but also be a resource for life in general.

I’m an educational strategist, program designer, and illustrator. With a background in art and education technology, the bulk of my work aims to mitigate the education and equity gap using design. Currently, I work at Webflow where I scale education programming for the larger design community and students. Prior to Webflow I worked at Coursera as a Program Manager and Salesforce as an Instructional Designer.I’ve worked as a mentor since 2016, specifically looking to increase access to tech for underrepresented communities (Black, Latinx, disabled). I've mentored with SMASH, BuiltByGirls, and Young Data Scientists League (YDSL). Related, I am currently the Outreach and Education lead for Techsgiving, where I teach UX design & prototyping to students.I grew up in Palo Alto, but currently live in Brooklyn!

I’m a product marketer at Intuit on the QuickBooks team. Recently, I graduated from UCLA Anderson School of Management with my MBA, where I focused on Marketing Analytics and Technology Management. It’s great to meet you 😊

I’ve been a mentor and coach before for both W&M undergrads and Darden first-year MBA candidates. I’ve also been on the other side of the table and have had incredible mentors to learn from in my own circle. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been supported in taking some non-traditional leaps in my career and personal life and am excited to pay it forward in support of others!

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Some fun facts:

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• First Job: mucking stalls to pay for horseback-riding lessons
• Myers-Briggs Type: INTJ
• Favorite Book: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
• Current Hobby: brushing up on my Italian
• Personal Mantra: “progress, not perfection”

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Hello! I've just completed my MBA and am currently based in LA. I've mostly lived in California (10+ years, including 4 as an undergrad at USC) and grew up in East & Southeast Asia (I'm also not a US citizen!) Professionally, I've worked as a management consultant in SF and also as a strategic planner / business operations generalist at an LA-based public charter school district (a nonprofit). I recently began working at Beyond Meat and the learning curve’s pretty steep and humbling, so if you're in the same boat then I know your struggle! Outside of work, I love watching and playing tennis, listening to podcasts while I'm out and about, cooking new dishes, and going to the movies. I'm on Twenty because I'm a lifelong learner and I wish I had access to this platform as a resource when I was adulting in my twenties. Ultimately, I'm here to be a resource; whether that's being a whiteboard to discuss career directions, whether to apply to an MBA, adapting to the nebulous nature of life post-college, or something else from what I've written above. Happy to schedule regular conversations or to have one-off chats for more specific questions!

My name is Megan - I'm excited to meet with you as a Twenty mentor! By way of background, I majored in Economics and French Cultural Studies at Wellesley, and then I worked in investment banking and private equity. I’ve also volunteered at a nonprofit organization developing a curriculum to teach personal finance skills to underserved communities in NYC. Happy to talk about all things related to managing your career, finance, managing personal finances and more!

I am a brand and product marketer, writer, and content enthusiast deeply interested in how media intersects with technology. I’m a recent Columbia Business School grad where I focused on media and product strategy in my coursework. During school, I worked with Spotify helping launch their new audiobooks vertical. I also worked at seed-stage venture firm: Overton VC as their Content Development Intern, where I represented both the firm and its portfolio company’s initiatives from a strategic communications perspective. I spent my years prior to business school working in brand and product marketing for Google – running global campaigns for brand moments, kids and family products, and Google Cloud events. My previous professional experiences include BlackRock and Goldman Sachs. Personally, I’m a yoga fanatic, big reader, podcast listener, and write my own Substack newsletter providing content recs called Sorry to Stare.

The phrase: your 20s are a mismarketed decade resonates with me greatly. twenty, its mission, and business is something I wish I had started myself as I think there is SUCH a need and market for this type of community support! They are a time of great joy, challenge, freedom, and at times, disquiet. I enjoy mentoring greatly, as a junior board member at Girls Inc. of NYC, I've worked with a committee of teammates to plan events, fundraisers, and auctions on behalf of local teen girls in need. I have identified my superpower in and outside of work in mentorship. I find immense value in helping my community in career and personal development. During my MBA program, I worked as a Career Management Center fellow, where I was professionally trained to offer industry exploration and education guidance, networking best practices, résumé and cover letter reviews, pitch preparations, and mock interviews. Thus, I know how to quickly shift my perspective when it comes to diversity of thought in order to give informed advice.

I am a first-generation immigrant who was born in Peru and raised in the suburbs of Massachusetts. I began my academic journey in community college, and continue it at MIT Sloan this fall. My professional path has been equally diverse. I began my career as a bartender. Over time, I have worked in Finance, Consulting, and EdTech, all in a variety of roles. Career navigation is very important to me - I see it as a critical step in forming your adult identity.  Having only recently exited my twenties, I am excited to provide guidance and clarity as I am to learn from you and your perspectives. Mentors have helped me tremendously over the years, and I look forward to passing on what know (and what I don’t know) to future generations.

As I've progressed in my career, I've realized how important it is (especially for those in disadvantaged situations) to have a mentor and how my trajectory has been altered, for the better, by having someone to provide insight, bounce ideas off of and teach me about what is possible.

I received my bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida back in 2014, and decided to take a role as a field service engineer with Siemens Energy. I didn’t know it at the time, but this role has become a fundamental building block in my personality and work ethic, how I attack problems and deal with adversity, how I manage teams and interact with people, but most importantly, how I value my time and energy. After 5 years of 91 hour weeks, I was recruited to join EY in their business consulting arm out of Atlanta, GA. This was a 180 career change for me - I went from wearing cowboy boots and jeans every day to sitting in conference rooms with executives, and the first few months weren’t the easiest for me. But as I learned at Siemens, we learn, adapt and overcome!

I then spent 2 years getting my MBA at Emory University in Atlanta GA. I spent the summer interning at Nike HQ in Oregon, and could not have asked for a better summer. While I loved working at Nike, it made me realize that consulting was the current career path for me. I came back to Emory for year two and successfully recruited back into consulting to join McKinsey & Company’s Atlanta office.

While nearly everyone I met told me to take the summer off between school and work, I ignored their advice and pursued a passion of mine - 3D printing. During my MBA program, I came into contact with the CEO of a 3D printing company out of Austin TX, and expressed interest in formally gaining experience in the 3D printing space.  She allowed me to join her company for the summer, and I’ve loved every second of learning from her and her team. I’m sure I would’ve been happier on a beach in the Maldives or driving a motorcycle through Vietnam for the summer, but this is a close second!

Twenty excites me because I love the success of others and I really love helping others realize their full potential. One of the reasons I mentor is the hope that I can infect my mentees with the desire to continue the mentoring, and we get this long web of knowledge transfer, excitement and success as a result.  I've also realized that things I take for granted (like understanding the importance of keeping and maintaining a network, or things like good professional habits) are not common knowledge to everyone and I should share that from my place of privilege with those who may need it.

I started my first company at 18 and transferred to a new school to scale it to well over a six-figure business. I ultimately decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do and pivoted from retail/eCommerce to product management and am now at Atomic Venture Studio (the studio behind HIMS/Hers, Found, Openstore, Terminal.io, and many others). I’ve worked for myself, a Fortune 500 (Macy’s), a Fortune 1 (Walmart), joined an early stage startup that became a unicorn ($1.B Evaluation), and navigated what would be the best next move (joining a pre-product team as a founding team member, venture studio, or business school) before landing at Atomic! I’m obsessed with start-ups across all sectors and love to help people navigate their career journeys to meet their goals.

Howdy y’all! Eric here - currently in my last semester of an MBA/M.Ed dual degree program at Stanford. My 20s were a hop-around kind of decade personally and professionally - created a little visual representation of that below:

• BA in Economics in 2014 (Amherst, MA) >> Deloitte Consulting (New York, which is home for me) for 2 years >> Google (San Francisco) for 1 year >> Google (different role in Dublin, Ireland) for 2.5 years >> Texas Education Agency (Austin) for 1 year >> Stanford.

About as un-linear a career path as you can find, but it’s been a fun ride. Along the way, I learned a lot about what a “good job” looks like for me, as well as what I want in my life outside of work. Does it mean I have it all figured out? Quite the contrary, but I’ve learned to embrace being a little bit lost and a lot of curious all the time. After Stanford, that will likely mean working in the social sector (probably in education) and living back in Austin (where I was prior to school).

I’ve had countless conversations with strangers during my 20s - with people who had no obligation to help me out or to give me their perspective, but who did so anyway (often after I reached out cold). I mentor today to pay it forward, holding a sprinkle of hope that I might be that randomly helpful person to someone in your shoes.

I’m about as positive and as energetic a person as you’ll find (fun fact: without having ever sipped coffee!), and you can expect more of the same from me as a mentor. In those moments where life gets real, we’ll find a silver lining or a path forward, and if I don’t have the answers you need, I’ll give it my all to find you someone who does.

Excited to hear from you - let’s get crankin’!

I'm Ankush, and I am currently pursuing my MBA at London Business School. As an engineer turned consultant turned start-up & venture capital enthusiast - I've straddled various roles and would be happy to chat about any of them.

I'm an ambitious individual using my curiosity and passion to drive my decisions and carve my path in life. Obviously, along the way, I've faltered and learned from my experiences - would love to share and hopefully help you out in the process!

- Served as Peer Advising Fellow in college (mentor to college freshmen)- Served as official student recruiter on behalf of Harvard College Admissions- Harvard College Alumnae Interviewer- Currently a ICF certified professional coach; 100+ coaching hours (1:1 client sessions)- Born and raised in Miami, FL- I’m constantly on the move!- I teach beginner dance classes on the side

Hi, I’m Lucy! I’m so happy to be here. Let me give you a little glimpse of who I am and what my twenties were like 😊

I love quotes so I’ll first start out with one by Elizabeth Gilbert to set the tone ;)

“Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. Trust them. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart”.

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• I’m from the Bay Area and am currently reside in San Francisco, CA.
• Although, I recently got the nudge to move to NYC for 6 months in the new year (and possibly longer)…so see you soon Big Apple!
• I graduated from the University of Oregon in 2012 #goducks
• I had no idea what I wanted to do after I graduated college. All I knew was that I loved kids and didn’t want to become a teacher, lol! So, I decided to become a part-time nanny and volunteer at a Children’s Hospital in Portland to give myself some time and space to reflect on my next move.
• Fast forward 2 years, I got my Master’s in Social Work at USC in 2014 #stilladuckfan ;)
• After graduating, I spent 5 years working at a non-profit agency in Oakland, where I provided trauma therapy to families, teenagers, and children. During that time, I fell in love with being a therapist. Hearing people’s stories, helping them heal, and bearing witness to the profound transformations they experienced from our work together brought me immense fulfillment.
• While working at the non-profit, I started building my therapy practice on the side. It was during this period that I discovered my passion for helping twenty-somethings navigate this particularly challenging decade and move towards a life that aligns with their core values and biggest desires.

  How I Discovered Twenty & My Passion to Mentor: About a month ago, I confided in a friend about my desire to make a more significant impact in the lives of individuals navigating this unique phase of life, beyond my work as a therapist. I was struggling to pinpoint the ‘how’ I was going to do this, but my friend encouraged me to let it go and that opportunities sometimes show up when they are meant to show up.

  A month later, I saw an old teacher of mine on LinkedIn commenting on one of Twenty’s posts that Katie, the CEO of the company, had written. I began to read about why she was creating Twenty, and I deeply resonated with all of the points she made around this “defining decade”. Something inside me knew I needed to be a part of what she was creating.

  And here I am!

  I am such a strong believer of having mentors in your 20s. When we have mentors, we can truly “see to believe” what’s possible for us when we have direct access to people who possess what we desire or have gone through something challenging and made it to the other side.

  I’m so looking forward to meeting all of you and helping you on your path forward!

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I LOVE mentoring and teaching, and have done so since my early undergrad years! Besides being a teaching assistant for multiple classes during undergrad and grad school, I had an undergrad scholarship called TEPP (which translates to Tutoring, Teaching, and Research of PUC) where I mentored multiple students. During my MBA, I was an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow, a program in which I took coaching classes and coached 3 students during their first year at the MBA. I'm excited to be a mentor at Twenty so I can help people while doing what I love the most - coaching you through the different problems in life and sharing my experience with you!

I’m a founder with work experience across early-stage (Shef), growth-stage (Instawork), pre-IPO (DiDi) and big tech (Google) companies. I specialize in operations and product management of marketplace startups, always bringing a strong emphasis on data storytelling and analytics to every decision I make with a team. My background includes Data Science, Operations and PM positions, besides a BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

I’m a mom and marketing professional, with over a decade of experience building brands and culture at large organizations and high-growth startups. My career started with the question, “What now?” English degree in hand, with email writing as my superpower, I entered a mentee program at Franklin Templeton to find my place in the corporate ecosystem. 

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Career and life moves since: 

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👉🏼 Moved from SF to Portland 

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👉🏼 Got a job at adidas in Digital Innovation 

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👉🏼 Met my now-wife, quit my job, and moved to Los Angeles 

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👉🏼 Joined an electric scooter startup in Series A and ended up in NYC for the IPO bell-ringing ceremony four years later 

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👉🏼 Became a mom at the height of the pandemic (July 2020) 

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👉🏼 Joined a seed startup as the first marketing hire 

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👉🏼 Partnered with LinkedIn as an LGBTQ+ Creator 

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👉🏼 Joined a Series A startup in DEI tech to build & grow their marketing department 

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👉🏼 Started a professional newsletter for people leaders (The Break Room)

Hey, I’m Reza 👋 I'm currently living in Toronto.

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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+.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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• ✈️ Favourite destinations: Istanbul, Edinburgh, Mexico City, Rio.
• 📚 Favourite books: Meditations, Man's Search for Meaning, Four Thousand Weeks.

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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.

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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.

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:

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• Help others discover what they’re uniquely good at
• Turn complex, ambiguous problems into clear, concise solutions
• Create win-for-all solutions

  The fun (professional) highlights:

• Managed Business Development, Account Management, Customer Success/Service, Operations, E-Commerce, Fulfillment, Logistics, and Retail Sales teams across various organizations
• Have directly managed 40+ people throughout my career
• Employee #1 helping to grow an E-Commerce business from $0 to $2m in just a couple years
• Worked in a consultative capacity with mega-brands like H&M and Fanatics
• Helped lead a startup from seed, to private acquisition, 3x’ing revenue YoY
• Managed 30+ E-Commerce stores, and built a global logistics/fulfillment network to support them

  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.

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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

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!

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!

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.

My tagline says it all - I crave adventure, adrenaline, and anything that pushes me outside of my comfort zone. 

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Professionally, I've spent over a decade navigating the complex world of digital solutions in academic research and industry-sponsored clinical trials. My focus has been on bringing disruptive change to legacy standards. As the 6th hire to a health tech startup, which reached a 2.1B valuation, I have been fortunate to be part of a very unique professional journey. Utilizing my expertise in UXR and truly understanding our end-users’ lived experiences (patients and caregivers), I established a department solely focused on engaging and measuring the success of these key stakeholders in an innovative way. By empowering these patient and caregiver advocates, they now have a direct role in shaping our company’s product development, streamlining study workflows, and improving the overall trial experience thereby creating patient-focused solutions that matter. 

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Prior to working at a startup, I made significant contributions as a Clinical Research Manager at both Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine where I co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications, each focusing on harnessing machine learning, artificial intelligence, and remote patient monitoring for early autism spectrum disorder intervention.

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Additionally, I am a fitness professional and teach a heated HIIT class at boutique and exclusive yoga studios and fitness centers.

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Beyond my professional career, I've led Birthright trips to Israel, organized volunteer expeditions, and lent a hand to Big Brothers Big Sisters. I’m an avid horseback rider, mountaineer, and cyclist (🚴‍♀️ & 🏍️). I’ve delivered my best friend’s two babies (the first at-home delivery was not planned 😅), am one of less than 400 women who have skied to the South Pole, and have gone skydiving over 25 times. I sleep better in a tent than I do in my bed and my days always include exercising my border collie, Emma, and my horse, Taya.  

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Let's chat, connect, and find your path together!

Hey, I’m Slater. When many people our age hear the word “entrepreneur”, they often picture the Silicon Valley, VC-based startup founder. In my world, the word “entrepreneur” conjures a picture of my dad (running his construction business) or my uncle (starting his restaurant and brewery). Since I was young, I have been drawn to the highs and lows of building things. After finishing my senior year as a student-athlete at Stanford, I applied to and joined Venture For America to pursue this particular passion. Fast forward six years, I’ve now built ops functions and teams at two pre-IPO companies (BARK and DoorDash) and am currently running marketplace operations at a web3 startup, Braintrust. During this journey, I’ve found that I get most excited when I get the opportunity to unlock the people around me. Mentoring is one form of this. I view the mentor / mentee relationship as a two-way street where each person learns as much as the other in the relationship. I’m looking forward to sharing more and learning about you soon!

Hey everyone! I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC and spent time in the Bay Area, Boston, and New York City before moving to the Bay Area to begin training as an emergency medicine resident physician at Stanford while also working part-time on the investing team with a16z bio+health. Through my hybrid lens as a clinician and venture capitalist, I am passionate about finding ways to leverage technology to support underserved patient populations and build a more efficient and equitable healthcare system.

Throughout my 20s, I’ve gone through some existential rollercoasters of how I’m meant to impact healthcare at scale. Initially (overly) bought into the Silicon Valley mentality that technology can magical solve any hard healthcare problem, I’ve been humbled by many healthcare providers (including my wife) in learning about the many systemic gaps in our healthcare system. I went through a stint of deep dissatisfaction while working in healthcare startups/VC with the build-first and fast funding of new healthcare ideas in a vacuum without truly understanding patient care. And though I strongly believe you don’t need to be in medicine to change healthcare for the better, most of my twenties have been a circuitous journey of realizing that where I want to sit in healthcare innovation in service of patients as a physician directly while also building a more equitable and efficient care delivery models at scale.

On a more personal note, I ended up marrying the one and only girl I dated throughout  + after college (met in our freshman dorm!) and feel like we’ve grown a lot personally and as a couple over our 20s as well. Over the next 5-7 years, we’ve gained conviction in our shared medium-term goal of raising a family and building sustainable professional careers in Hawaii where my wife is from. In each new city we’ve moved to, we’ve made it a priority to find and plug into our local church and also cultivate a strong community  personal and professional friendships as house party hosts (and aspiring mixologists!).

Strong and consistent mentorship and my Christian faith has been an indispensable part of my own circuitous journey from engineering/product into both venture capital and medicine and something I'd love to pay it forward especially to anyone considering a career pivot from tech > medicine or vice-versa. Also passionate about helping underrepresented minorities interested in breaking into product, VC, or medicine. To this effect, I've started Path to Product with Emma Townley-Smith (another mentor on Twenty!) and also MD+ a 2K+ community of aspiring physician-innovators supporting non-traditional paths through medical school and clinical training.

I look forward to meeting and working with you!

Born in Lima, Peru. Moved to Mexico at 17 alone to study university awarded a full merit scholarship. Graduated top of the class, work in corporate, climb the corporate ladder to realized I was the only woman in C-level boardroom and hated it.

Moved to the UK at 24 and heard about the future of humanity, technology and Silicon Valley. Taught herself to code, started a tech star-up and went to Silicon Valley to fundraise for that tech start-up. Failed to raise money.

Moved to Silicon Valley at 25 and got mentored by a well known investor called Tim Draper. Work for his accelerator program. Got a full scholarship by Google to attend Singularity University when it was held at Nasa Ames Research Park. Founded and fundraised successfully for a venture backed startup. Got into key differences with founding team members and leave startup.

Travelled the world as therapy, then do actual therapy. Mental health is really important for me. And I’ve been remote working since 2018.

Moved to Brasil at 28. Consulted for big tech companies like Bayer, Boston Scientific, HP.

Remote at 30. Became a Limited Partner at an investment fund, Scout and Venture fellow for a stealth venture fund in New York.

Now. Guest Hosting the Women in Tech podcast.

Interested in mentorship: leveling up the playing field for diverse people around the world. To open more opportunities regarding where people where born.

Genius is widespread but opportunity is not.

As a current founder, I've the opportunity to mentor our interns in time management, goal setting, leadership skills, and most importantly, story-telling. When I was in college, I was turned down from people who I wanted to get mentored by. Mentorship is extremely valuable and I hope I can offer my expertise to others. As an investor as well, I dedicate my time to causes that I believe can change people's lives.

My career path has not been traditional at all and I love being able to pivot and take the knowledge I’ve gained in different industries and apply them to what I’m currently doing. I started as a professional makeup artist, then switched to healthcare management, and more recently to ecommerce and media. Always experiment until you find where you belong!

Hi! I’m Angela.

I was born in Shanghai, China and moved to Toronto, Canada at an early age. I was a part of the Huntsman Dual-Degree program at the University of Pennsylvania and quickly found out I loved consulting through solving strategy challenges for international NGOS.

After graduating in 2017, I joined Deloitte as a management consultant. The first team I was placed with was a horrible fit, but I found mentors who helped me to navigate the firm to find my perfect fit in public sector consulting as a defence innovation specialist. I was also very actively involved at Deloitte and ran our national Analysts and Consultants initiative, led on campus recruitment for my team, and managed the summer internship program for the Toronto office.

Three years into consulting, I decided I was ready for a change and applied to Stanford’s Masters of International Policy program. After I committed to the program, I found myself serendipitously becoming an edtech founder - in the summer between Deloitte and Stanford, I developed a tech product that mentored 11k+ university students across 81 countries. I’m working on a related idea now with generous backing from a Stanford Graduate School of Business innovation grant. Since starting at Stanford, I’ve also gotten involved with the VC side of the startup ecosystem as a venture fellow, accelerator lead, and angel investor.

Happy to share my experience & help you grow as you navigate your twenties 😊

I guess I’ll start at the beginning.

At the ripe age of 6, I decided it would be really cool for my best friend and I to “run away to China to open a restaurant” (I loved my weekly family dinners at our local Chinese spot). We packed a couple t-shirts in our JanSports and promptly walked off campus instead of to daycare. To answer your most pressing question, yes, I got in a lot of trouble once we were found.

I got a few other things too, though. I learned I loved to challenge what I was supposed to do (to my parents’ dismay probably up through today 😇). I’ve had the most fun and felt the most fulfilled achieving goals, reaching life milestones and overcoming challenges by doing it by avoiding any formulas.

Largely due to my phenomenal mentors throughout my life, my journey has landed me leadership roles at every stage of my life from athletic teams to some of the most successful tech startups of the century all the way to NGOs in Europe and Asia where I made the most amazing memories.

⚡ Summary ⚡

• MVP (Athletics)
• Youngest team captain (Athletics)
• Youngest TA (Undergrad Academics)
• Published Journalism (Undergrad Internships)
• Led Women’s Programs at Refugee Camps (Professional Post-Grad)
• Top Performing Sales Rep (Professional Post-Grad)
• Youngest Sales Manager (Professional Post-Grad)
• Top Performing Sales Manager (Professional Post-Grad)
• Most effective revenue generating program (Professional Post-Grad)

I have been a tech and social impact-focused founder since the last few years. When I get any time free from being a founder, I write or I teach.

I got into Teaching and Mentoring about 3.5 years back - this includes physical lectures, talks, and sessions, which then went virtual on the onset of the pandemic. My experience of mentorship comes from being a mentor with a Govt. of India initiative (Atal Innovation Mission) where I get to work with school students to help them build an industry-focused career. In addition to that, I have been a regular mentor to startups in India, Africa, and other geographies under programs such as the Africa Blockchain Institute Incubation program, MassChallenge USA etc. If this sounds like you - feel free to reach out and speak! As for my teaching experience, I have taught Blockchain Technology, web3, DeFi, and NFTs to 6,000+ students, faculty, and PhDs globally.

Most of my experience is in and around blockchain technology, product management, entrepreneurship (3 startups yet), fintech, and social impact. I am a Forbes under 30 honoree in the social impact category. I try to give back to the community by mentoring, helping, teaching, publishing.

Hi! 👋 I’m Eliana - born and raised outside of Boston. I’m an engineer —> consultant —> PM —> founder —> figuring it out again ;) I’m a generalist and produc person who loves to work with others and solve problems. 

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I love being outside and smiling at strangers on the street. I live in Nashville now and am strongly taking advantage of the hot summers and the music scene. I also love building (and participating in!) communities, learning about new technologies, watching and playing sports (#Wagr. Recently started to play pickup volleyball which has been fun. I’m no good but it’s a great time!), and traveling as much as possible.

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Looking forward to meeting!

I work at a division of SYSCO, and manage a commodity that is perpetually dying. I enjoy the constant speed of the food distribution industry, and since it changes daily, I have always stayed on my toes. I thrive on teaching and coaching those who are engaged and want to grow. There's nothing better than giving some guidance on an idea, project, or life path and seeing someone succeed. Growing teams is one of the best parts of my job, and I'd love to do it more; the next best opportunity is to branch out and do it in places like twenty.

👶 I was born in Kolkata, India

📍I currently live in San Francisco, CA

🌍 I’ve grown up all over the world: Kolkata (India) → Bangalore (India) → Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) → Dubai (UAE) → Singapore (Singapore lol) → Indiana → Nevada → California

My hobbies: 🎾 🏓 🚴‍♂️ 📖 🎥 🍺

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Life highlights:

1. Met my girlfriend (we’ve been dating 5 years now) at a coffee shop. I walked up to her and asked her about what book she was reading
2. Started a student accelerator program in college. Probably my proudest accomplishment (after the one above 😉)
3. Worked at Microsoft on their data ingestion platform for XBOX, Data Center, and Windows data. I built a compression algorithm from scratch.
4. Joined Ridgeline as their 5th employee, I helped grow it to 300 and then tried to start my own companies (and failed miserably)
5. Joined Atomic last year, I’ve launched over 8 companies so far

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Born and raised in Houston, Texas, so all about that southern hospitality. I've worked in male-dominated industries my entire career (finance, tech, entrepreneurship, getting an MBA). I've wanted to blaze a path and open a door for women and underrepresented minorities to explore these spaces and become leaders. I've also built an incubator for women who are thinking about starting companies so they have a supportive community around them that keep pushing them forward. I've advised and mentored dozens of founders along their journey of starting a company.  Happy to advise on anything from startups to getting an MBA to figuring out your life values and purpose.

I'm Shikha, and I'm passionate about helping people become the best version of themselves. I graduated from Rice (where I trained as a leadership coach) and started my career at Bain. Then, I transitioned to working health tech strategy at J&J. I just finished an MS from the Stanford School of Medicine (MCiM ‘23) and am now working in Operations at Headway.

I have many thoughts on how work environments shape our personal lives along with our professional lives. I’d love to chat about how to discover what you need to be successful at work and how to find the environments in which you can be most energized.

Born in North-West Poland, studied in the UK, worked in investment banking (briefly), NGO development (briefly), consulting (3 years); moved to the US for MBA, now in Impact Investing in NYC. Motivated to give back and lead a net-positive life. Love coaching and developing; my dream is to retire as a professor. When the sun sets, an occasional techno DJ. Enjoy reading books and organizing wildcard events. Die-hard Star Wars fan.

I’m originally from Marin County (just outside SF), and after bouncing all over for school and work, I’ve been back in the Bay for 6 years. I’m a California kid at heart (hiking, skiing, sailing, Giants games, screenplays), but have a deep love of travel and care immensely about continuing a global lifestyle and network.

I’ve done unofficial mentoring for years through various channels, and have always loved helping the next generation of leaders, travelers, dreamers find their next great opportunity and kick-ass. It feels like I’ve lived a lot of different lives, and I’m eager to share my perspective with people considering similar questions.

I’m Felipe, currently living in Chicago and pursuing my MBA at the University of Chicago School of Business - a.k.a Booth. I’m also a Consultant at BCG, where I have worked for 4 years having incredible experiences in Rio de Janeiro, Dubai and Berlin before coming to Booth.

Getting to where I am was definitely not a trivial task. I grew up in São Paulo in a very humble family that could not afford to me good education. Yet, having to start working at the age of 16 to support my family, I managed to study Computer Engineering at the best university in Brazil and Latin America becoming a 1st student generation.

As a mentor, I have had the privilege of guiding and supporting several individuals in their professional and personal growth. One of the most impactful mentoring experiences I had was working with a low-income computer science student through the ISMART platform, helping him land a job at a renowned game development company.

This mentoring experience taught me that even the smallest acts of kindness can have a profound impact on someone's life, and that mentorship can be a powerful tool for empowering individuals and helping them reach their full potential.

If I can be a part of your journey, just as many have been for me, I would be thrilled!

I’m passionate about empowering others and helping them to shine in a way that is authentic to them. I'm also a consumer enthusiast who loves brands that empower communities. 

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As a former consultant and now Harvard MBA, I am applying my passion for elevating the stories and experiences of overlooked consumers through the products that they use. CPG plays a significant role in consumers' identities and, and my mission is to make consumers feel seen, heard, and confident in who they are and how they show up. \n  \n Professionally, I have gained a number of skills from my almost 6 years in consulting including: project management, cross-functional collaboration, executive communication, data analysis, budget management, and human capital management. Through my internships in early-stage VC and at Procter & Gamble I learned investor relations and brand management respectively. As an entrepreneur I've learned strategic branding, partnerships, digital strategy, and scrappiness.  \n  \n  I wouldn’t be where I am today, without countless professionals and friends mentoring me. I am passionate about paying it forward to help provide access to knowledge that will help other break down barriers and eradicate statistics. If you would like to chat about career, life, or business school, schedule a chat and let’s get to work!

Hey there! I’m Leigh, a recent Harvard Business School MBA grad, pursuing a career focused on the intersection of strategy and social impact. Let me tell you my story.

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I graduated from Wellesley College at 22 thinking I had everything figured out. I had a great job in a city that I was excited about. I negotiated a salary that I was proud of and that would allow me to start the life I wanted. I was living with a good friend and had a community of college friends with whom to share the New York City experience. And yet... I felt lost. I started my job, and feeling unchallenged, under-stimulated, and undervalued, I quickly learned that it wasn't for me. I was overwhelmed by the size of the city and didn't know my place in it. I was working long hours and didn't have the time that I wanted and needed to take care of myself. For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel that I was learning, and felt pressure to find new educational channels. 

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Ultimately, I took a big risk. I left finance and New York City, took a 60% pay cut, and moved to Boston to work in an unconventional consulting role for a professor. It was because of the challenges that I struggled with in New York - allowing me to reflect and grow - that I could make progress in moving toward my passions and goals. 

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But, uncertainty, unease, and change aren’t parts of life that just go away, or that you simply grow out of. My pivoting career-wise was the progress I needed back in 2019. Now in new season of life as a newly minted MBA, I’m still addressing that familiar “lost” feeling although from a different standpoint. Facing a tough job market, I’m needing to define my goals and success more definitively than ever before. I often feel stuck in the comparison that “everyone else has it figured out,” and staying steadfast in what I care about and what I do and don’t want is more easily said than done. And yet, I’m learning to embrace the stillness and freedom of this reflective moment. I get to decide what progress means to me at age 29, and I’m growing in that process. 

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Twenty is the resource I needed out of college to help reflect upon and grow from change. It’s a resource that I still need today to help me reflect and learn in moments when the path ahead isn’t clear. I hope to be a mentor to those like my younger self, who could use the wisdom of someone with just a little bit more experience and distance. I also hope to be a mentor to those who find themselves struggling with the question marks that are inherently part of life as a 20-something. (I promise, no one has it all figured out!)

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I look forward to connecting & hearing your story. 

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.

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I’ve spent my entire career finding the right intersection of creativity, learning, and supporting my almost-but-not-quite bi-coastal lifestyle.

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I love postcards, Little Free Libraries, and my cattle dog mix, Luna.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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 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.

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!

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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.

1. Born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit Michigan
2. Went to the University of Michigan
3. Moved to LA, worked in consulting and contracted for Apple
4. Hired by Apple full-time, moved to SF, discovered a love for the outdoors
5. Pandemic hit, moved to Chicago, discovered a love for cooking and met my partner
6. Wanted to focus my life on the outdoors, so moved to Denver CO, still working for Apple

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.

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.

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…

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• I’m a hybrid product x design x startup leader trained at Stanford, IDEO, & Harvard Business School. I've spent my career launching new products, programs, & ventures in education.
• I also serve as a global advocate for women's rights x education. Over the years, I've worked & lived at a K-12 boarding school in India, helped scale a menstrual healthcare organization in Uganda, and co-founded my own nonprofit, Girl Possible. We first launched on Kickstarter and spent 14 weeks roadtripping across the US in an RV, teaching design thinking & leadership workshops for girls across 32 states.
• My work has been featured in Fast Company, Lean In, Ms. Magazine, SXSW Edu, and Edtech Insiders. I've also taught at Stanford's d.school and Harvard's Graduate School of Education and joined top startup / VC programs like On Deck Founders, Galvanizer, & Reach Roadrunners.

  But here’s my real talk, just for twenty:

• I think navigating your twenties is hard, complicated, emotional, transformational, intense… all of the things. I think we receive ZERO training on how to make the most of this “defining decade” and that colleges / schools are designed to just pump us out like machines with fancy degrees on paper but no actual sense of where we belong in the real world and how to define success on our own terms, outside of a report card.
• I’ve been through my fair share of ups & downs, trying to figure out what I really want and how to get there. I’ve been a marketer, a designer, a business development operator, a founder (non-profit and for-profit), a full-time “gap year” volunteer & globe-trotter, a “design program manager,” a consultant, etc. I studied engineering and product design, then got my MBA. I feel like a real “jill of all trades”—mediocre at a LOT of things but expert at none. At first, this gave me a ton of anxiety, but now I think it’s my superpower.
• At first, I also felt pressure to set a 5-10 year career plan & stick to it. Now, I refuse to lock myself into anything of the sort. We are constantly pivoting, evolving, & growing in unexpected, beautiful ways, and for me, embracing that journey (rather than the “destination”) is one of the greatest joys of life.
• I’m obsessed with asking both myself and others, “what would you regret NOT doing?” and live my life by that principle. I’m a fiery creator, product-builder, and people-connector. Nothing energizes me more than meeting new people (like you!) and asking them the real deal, big life questions - what do you really want to do, and how can you get there?

  With all this in mind, I can’t wait to meet you. Thank you for being here 🫶

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

Throughout my career, I've passionately dedicated myself to mentoring and teaching, recognizing the transformative impact it can have on individuals and communities. Through my Teach for America Experience and through my engagement with The Last Mile, I've nurtured the growth of students from diverse backgrounds, guiding them in harnessing design and technology for their future paths. With IDEO, my role as a Design Lead has enabled me to mentor professionals by integrating inclusive and human-centered design principles into learning experiences and leading initiatives like Disarming Whiteness to foster diversity and equity.

I am also an ICF-certified coach, and I have a career and life coaching practice called Alvita Coaching. My coaching practice has three primary offers: Vision & Vitality Coaching, Career Catalyst Coaching, and Next Gen Leadership Coaching (a career coaching program designed for 18-24-year-olds).

What excites me about twenty is that it is a service that I so desperately wished existed when I was in my twenties. The platform’s recognition that professional growth is inextricably linked to personal development resonates deeply with my holistic approach to mentorship. I am eager to be part of a community that doesn’t shy away from the tough, intricate discussions that pave the way for authentic growth and learning.

I’m Joe, a product manager who has background as an engineer, researcher and designer. I started my career in research, transitioned into consulting and transitioned these skills into product roles at various technology startups.

So far in my professional career, I’ve developed skills that span across product development from strategy, UX research, design and engineering. Having started my career in consulting and then transitioning to high-growth startups, I’ve worked internationally in 4 markets (Indonesia, Turkey, Amsterdam, and the UK) and 6 industries. From these experiences, I’ve strived to work on building meaningful products and experiences while helping create sustainable organizations and impact in local communities.

Aside from a tactical product skillset, my experiences have allowed me to develop as a people manager and leader. I’ve worked at organizations that offer B2B and B2C solutions, across all stages of maturity from seed funding to post-IPO fortune 500 organizations. I’m happy to discuss the nuances to my experiences and how to navigate these environments and advocate for personal growth throughout.

In addition, I currently advise entrepreneurs through my own agency services and as part of the Alter Global network. Outside of work, I love being active physically, socially, and mentally.  I love exploring the ocean - while working at a YC startup in Indonesia, I recently received my master diver certification. Additionally, I have competed in various lengths of Triathlons keeping me busy with training on a weekly basis. I try to stay active in my local communities, serving as a KIPP mentor to low-income high school students.