Office Hours at The Garage
Office Hours are a great way for Northwestern students to learn more about The Garage or get help with an entrepreneurial venture – or both!
A range of members of our community, including Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIRs), staff, current students, alumni and vetted professional service providers, are available to provide guidance on a wide array of topics. Office Hours with current students, alumni, staff, and EIRs will resume at the beginning of the academic year.
Read on to determine which expert is the best fit for you at this juncture. Due to the high demand for Office Hours, please note that these meetings may not be used for class interviews.
First time booking Office Hours? Meet with a current student first.
OPEN TO ALL NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS
Lilliana De Souza, McCormick ’21
Lilliana is a Computer Science and Entrepreneurship student, an LJV Fellow, and has won competitions such as ImproveNU and Stanford’s Hackathon. She loves helping ventures succeed and mentoring students to find their passions. For the past two years, Lilliana has worked in venture capital at Techstars Chicago, a startup accelerator.
Peter Dorward, McCormick ‘21
Peter is a Mechanical Engineering and MaDE student from Milwaukee, WI. He has previously interned at Tesla and P&G and is a co-founder of Litterbox, a Northwestern student-run summer storage company. He is an X-Factor participant and former President of EPIC, NU’s undergrad entrepreneurship club. Peter is passionate about team mentorship and getting underclassmen involved in entrepreneurship.
Yasmeena Faycurry, Weinberg ’22
Yasmeena has participated in Wildfire, was an ambassador for Propel, and was a student in YC’s Startup School. Her startup Unfound – an app to share and discover unique places – attracted over 8,000 users in three months. Yasmeena loves working on the product-market fit side of startups and developing out-of-the-box, guerrilla style marketing campaigns.
Katie Hoffman, SoC ’21
Born and raised in New York City, Katie majors in Communication Studies with a minor in Entrepreneurship. She currently serves as the Co-President of Form & Function Marketing on campus and was involved in X-Factor at The Garage. She is in the process of releasing her own podcast, “Network, Naturally.” Katie holds Office Hours jointly with Mateo Price.
Caleb Holland, SESP ’21
Caleb is a student studying Learning and Organizational Change and Entrepreneurship. He is passionate about building businesses with a focus on social impact and social justice. He is currently working on Innovestments, a real estate investment company that empowers everyday people to become ethical real estate investors.
Spencer Levitt, Weinberg ’22
Spencer is a Computer Science student from Baltimore, MD. He previously interned at Under Armour HQ and worked as a web developer at an EdTech startup. Most recently, he co-founded Buffd (previously Qade), a platform that provides automated stats and performance reports for gamers, winning grand prizes at VentureCat and Wildfire.
Mateo Price, Weinberg ’21
Mateo is studying Psychology and Economics hailing from the Chicagoland area. His journey with entrepreneurship started in high school, co-owning a sports website that went from zero to millions of views and a team of 20. Passionate about brands, social media, and building communities, he founded AMA at Northwestern, which utilizes social analytics and strategy to drive digital growth for brands. Mateo holds Office Hours jointly with Katie Hoffman.
Arshya Srinivas, McCormick ’21
Arshya is studying Industrial Engineering and is completing the Kellogg Undergraduate Certificate in Managerial Analytics. She is passionate about diversity in entrepreneurship, leadership techniques, and data analytics. She has helped co-found ScopeNU, a discount aggregation platform that connects savings to our communities.
You’ve met with a current student and want feedback on an idea. Your next step should be to chat with a recent alum.
OPEN TO ALL NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS
Sarah Ahmad ’18
Co-founder of Stable
Sarah is the co-founder and CEO of Stable (YC W20) – a virtual address and mailroom for startups. Previously, she was a UX Engineer at LifeLink. During her time at Northwestern, she co-founded HotPlate, a food app to help diners find the best dishes at local restaurants. She graduated from Northwestern in 2018 with a B.S. in Integrated Engineering Studies and a double major in Economics.
Rachel Cantor, SoC ’20
Writer at Morning Brew
Rachel is a Brew Recommendations writer at Morning Brew, running MB’s latest recommendations newsletter. Previously, she was a newsletter writer at Brightly. During her time at Northwestern, Rachel was a part of the first cohort of Little Joe Venture Fellows. She graduated from Northwestern in 2020 with a B.S. in Communication Studies, a minor in French and certificates in IMC and Entrepreneurship.
Sam Kim, Weinberg ’20
Data Strategy Analyst at Catch Co.
Sam is passionate about helping people and companies succeed. As a student, he founded multiple startups that incubated at The Garage including Care Package and Receiver. He participated in the inaugural cohort of Little Joe Ventures Fellows. In his current role, his team is on the hunt to make Catch Co.’s processes more efficient and strive to build infrastructure that enables everyone to think like the founder.
Don Meier, Kellogg ’19
Startup & Innovation Scout
Don is an Industry 4.o startup and innovation scout at Deloitte. He has experience founding a startup, LineShift, and working in the high-technology space. He earned his BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech and MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.
Lucas Philips, SESP ’19
Chief Product Officer at BrewBike
Lucas is the founder of BrewBike. He participated in the Wildfire Pre-Accelerator, won second place at VentureCat 2018, and retained Residency at The Garage for 15 quarters. In his current role, he finds and implements solutions that will enable the business to scale quickly and efficiently.
Matt Zients ’20
Operations Coordinator at Everytable
Matt is passionate about civic engagement, volunteering, and social justice. At Northwestern, he studied Social Policy, Design, and Playwriting. Over 5 years ago, Matt founded Connect & Care, a nonprofit tech startup that aims to connect young people to impactful organizations around the world.
Connor Regan ’16
Global Product Policy and Operations at YouTube
Connor Regan, SESP ’16, Medill ’20 is currently working for Global Product Policy and Operations at YouTube. Previously, he worked on consumer and retail marketing for Google Nest in Northern Europe, focused on retail advocacy, creative strategy and special projects.
Meet with staff or EIRs if you’re a Resident or a Tinkerer who has already met with an alum and current student.
OPEN TO RESIDENTS AND TINKERERS OF THE GARAGE ONLY
Melissa Kaufman
Executive Director of The Garage
Melissa is a former Googler, startup veteran, and entrepreneur with a decade of experience at consumer technology companies in Silicon Valley. Currently, she is a committee member of ChicagoNEXT (the mayor’s technology council), a member of P33 (the Chicago Technology Initiative), and a venture partner at Chicago Ventures. She was named to Chicago Inno’s 50 on Fire in 2017 and Crain’s Tech 50 in 2018. Melissa received her BA in computer science from Dartmouth College.
Mike Raab
Associate Director of The Garage
Prior to The Garage, Mike was an investor at a venture capital firm founded by Northwestern alumni, where he provided support and mentorship. He began his career serving in a multitude of strategy-focused roles at one of the largest media companies in Los Angeles. Mike is a proud Northwestern alum, having graduated with a BS in Communication focused on TV & Film.
Paul Burton
Entrepreneur in Residence
Paul started his career as an investment banking associate at Salomon Brothers in NYC in 1998 after serving as a U.S. Regular Army Commissioned Officer and finishing a JD MBA at the University of Illinois. Paul worked in corporate finance until moving back to the Chicago area in 2006. He served as CEO and Director for ResQ Pharma, Inc. Currently, he serves as CEO of Akan Biosciences, a firm seeking FDA approval for an allogenic stem cell product to treat osteoarthritis.
Tom Hayden
Entrepreneur in Residence
Tom was an engineer on the fraud team at Facebook and built out the data infrastructure at GrubHub. Tom holds a BA in Telecommunications, Information Studies and Media from Michigan State University, and a Master of Science in Information, Incentive Centered Design from the University of Michigan. He was also a Northwestern graduate student in theoretical computer science.
Lilia Kogan
Entrepreneur in Residence
Lilia is a member of Hyde Park Angels, the most active angel group in the Midwest. Prior to shifting professional focus to angel investing and start-up mentoring, Lilia had a career spanning healthcare, consumer and technology industries. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and MMSS (applied math) from Northwestern and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.
Andrew Parkinson
Entrepreneur in Residence
Andrew and his brother Thomas founded online grocer Peapod as the world’s first dedicated e-commerce company, took the company public in 1997, and sold it to Royal Ahold in 2001. Andrew and Thomas recently founded Sifter SP, LLC, a company focused on food as medicine. Prior to Peapod, Andrew spent 8 years in marketing at P&G and Kraft Foods.
Thomas Parkinson
Entrepreneur in Residence
Thomas co-founded Peapod with his brother, Andrew. As CTO and Head of Product, he was responsible for their web and mobile product development, IT, supply chain and transportation systems, and R&D. Thomas holds a Masters in Industrial Design from Pratt and a BA from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He is currently working on his fifth startup, Sifter, LLC, with Andrew.
Mike Saunders
Entrepreneur in Residence
Mike founded Campusfood.com in 1997 and grew it to over 300 college markets before merging with GrubHub in 2011. At GrubHub, he oversaw a national expansion to 900+ cities and the merger of Seamless, a NYC based competitor. Michael was the EIR at GrubHub through Oct 2015. Michael earned his BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1998.
Ben Turtel
Entrepreneur in Residence
Ben is the founder and CTO of Rivet, an AI-powered reading app for kids, as part of Google’s incubator Area120. He holds a Masters in Scientific Computing from NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, a Bachelors in Mathematics and Philosophy from Northwestern, and is currently completing a part-time individualized degree in Minds and Machines at NYU Gallatin.
Need advice on a specific topic?
Browse upcoming Office Hours with our visiting experts.
OPEN TO ALL NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS
Questions?
Email us at thegarage@northwestern.edu