Family Dinner: Kristi Ross

Welcome back, Wildcats! As if the start of a new quarter wasn’t exciting enough, the start of a new year brings all new possibilities for entrepreneurial minds. Earlier this week, The Garage hosted our first family dinner of the winter quarter. On Wednesday, January 9, The Workspace was filled with current Residents, as well as a fresh batch of new faces ready to take their project to the next level. The dinner opened with our standard discussion of successes and failure followed by general housekeeping.

It was only fitting that the speaker to kick off the new quarter was dough Inc. CEO, Kristi Ross. As she took the “stage” her energy and passion was apparent. A self-made business leader with a diverse background in the financial trade industry, as well as media development. In developing TastyTrade, Kristi said her team wanted to focus on sharing trading information that was not only informative, but fun to listen to. Throughout the talk she referred back to her storied career, starting first as a CFO at the age of 25 and running the gamut of the financial industry. She elaborated the importance of accepting and expecting failure and how to react in those moments, noting that what you learn is incredibly important. Kristi highlighted that as an entrepreneur, perhaps the most importance advice she could give was to, “Just Do It.” Yes, Nike’s famous slogan that promotes the sales of millions of shoes can be tied directly to entrepreneurship. If you have an idea, don’t be afraid to take it to the next level. Simply put, don’t fear failure, just do it, and if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. She closed with her dynamic approach to innovation, giving listeners her “Five Rules for Being a Better Entrepreneur.” Kristi’s talk left those in attendance energized and ready to move forward with their endeavors. Good luck Residents and have a great quarter!