I never anticipated that a Zoom call with two guys in a van halfway around the world would lead to the greatest professional experience of my life. Yet that is exactly what happened. While I was studying abroad in Prague, Czechia, a professor put me in contact with Aman Brar W99 and Josh Kline W99. After only a few minutes of talking, I knew that I needed to join them on their newest adventure: ground game ventures. After building and selling software companies for 20 years, they started a venture capital firm to invest in seed stage software startups. On our second call,
they offered me an internship for the summer, and we spent the next quarter hour outlining my responsibilities.
I can safely say that my internship morphed into a greater experience than we originally planned. During my 11 weeks with Josh and Aman I developed deep appreciation for customer closeness and for the power of entrepreneurship in my home state of Indiana. The economic dichotomy of cooperation and competition crumbled before my eyes as “competing” firms freely exchanged information and deals in a market that Josh properly characterizes as “coopetition due to an abundance mindset.” I examined my interactions with founders, lawyers, financers, and partners through the two lenses I study at Wabash: economics and religion. Money and market calculations motivated many decisions, but so did symbolic signaling and belief in certain ideals.
During my senior year, I’ll continue to engage with the startup ecosystem across the Midwest. So many people are ready to help entrepreneurs make an impact on the world around them. As I wait for that spark of insight that will lead to my first company, I’ll continue to help drive innovation forward in Indiana and beyond.
The passion of founders is contagious, and they freely share wisdom to start a business. I’m extremely grateful to everyone I’ve encountered this summer, with a special shoutout to Elevate Ventures. I also thank the economics department for making the introduction to these two great alumni. My deepest appreciation is to Josh and Aman for endless guidance and opportunities to engage with all sorts of people. They shared the minute details of their lives as entrepreneurs and ensured that we kept the adventure in venture capital.
