The NYC IE Alumni Mentorship Program Update
Following the start of the Mentorship Program in late August this year, we held a survey of the participants to gather their impressions of the first three months as a mentor or mentee. While there is great interest in this program, we held off on matching any more mentors with mentees until we got an early sense of how the first few participants fared.
We are happy to announce that the mentors were greatly appreciated by their mentees for their commitment and resourcefulness. The mentors got notable mention as advisors and counselors for their deep experience and the guidance they were able to provide in meaningful ways. The mentoring activities were mostly by email, phone or Skype, while some met in person as well. The focus of the mentorship was to develop tools for better networking, targeted problem solving, and career transitions. The mentees were particularly impressed by the accessibility and approachability that their mentors provided. The mentors provided introductions to relevant experts, career advice, resumé reviews and other types of feedback as needed.
The mentors gave us their feedback too. We were happy to hear that the mentees were committed to their goals, organized in their approach to the program, and receptive to new ideas and guidance. Overall, participants saw great potential for the Mentorship Program to be a powerful activity to complement the robust efforts of our career services group. Soon you will also meet a mentor and mentee here, and get their account firsthand, as you consider signing on as a mentor or mentee.
As many of you would like to get involved, we will be rolling out invitations for the next set of mentors and mentees in January 2019. We had anticipated doing this sooner, but decided to wait and see what the initial impressions were. As with any new activity, there were a few glitches we needed to work out so that the larger program rolls out smoothly. Please share your suggestions that you would like to see considered as part of the program.
A shout-out to our current mentors and mentees for signing up and leading the way to an expanded program – thank you for your continued participation!
Alumni Startup Spotlight: ParkYou!
New Yorker drivers waste over 2 1/2 work weeks per year looking for parking! If you park on the street in NYC, we have great news that is going to save you a lot of time and stress. IE Alum and Current Board Member Anthony Giordano and his team recently launched ParkYou!, a community of NYC car owners supported by a powerful mobile app platform that will allow you to instantly find street parking when you need it. To find a spot, enter your destination into the app and it will connect you with another community member who is nearest to your destination and about to leave their spot in real time. As a community member, you would then offer your spot when you are leaving and have a few minutes to wait for someone else. The app platform automates the rest.
ParkYou! is live on both Apple and Android app stores. Their initial coverage area is in Central Harlem and they will be expanding throughout Manhattan and the boroughs in the coming months, but you can download now and give it a try. Once they have sufficient coverage in your area, you’ll be notified.
Go to www.park-you.com to find more information and their entertaining promo video.
You can also download directly here.
The app is completely free for now so you can get in from the start and it only takes two minutes to set up. Over 450 car owners throughout the city have already joined, and it’s growing rapidly.
For any questions or feedback once you download, you can email anthony@park-you.com.
Also, please share with your fellow NYC car owners through the Invite feature on the app or by sending them the download link - http://bit.ly/2DrTpe7.
Alumni Spotlight-Christopher Cataldi
In each month's newsletter, we highlight one IE alum in the Alumni Spotlight. This month’s Alumni spotlight is Christopher Cataldi, Co-founder and COO of Genvid Technologies, Inc.
What program did you graduate from?
Global MBA 2012
What is your current job?
Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Genvid Technologies, Inc
How long have you been in New York?
I was born and raised in New York City. After college I went to work abroad, spending more than a decade in Japan, and returned to NY in 2015.
What’s a recent accomplishment that you are proud of?
This year our company raised an additional $16 million to further grow our team and expand our offerings to the interactive streaming entertainment domain.
https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/20/genvid-raises-10-million-from-horizons-ventures-for-an-interactive-streaming-engine/
https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/03/genvid-raises-6-million-for-esports-interactive-streaming-platform/
What is an ask from the alumni community?
Continue to be awesome ambassadors for the IE brand, as we continue to strengthen it in the US and beyond.
What can you offer to the alumni community?
Insight on fundraising for gaming/ tech-based startups, specifically in the B2B space. Mentoring for those who have made significant career shifts (I’ve gone from starting in the public sector, transitioning into large corporate HR and after IE, going into strategic consulting and entrepreneurship). Also, cooking tips and corgi-care advice.
What is a typical day in your life like?
Our company makes cutting edge technology that allows video game developers the ability to make uniquely entertaining content for people who watch their games on popular streaming platforms like Twitch or YouTube. Thus a lot of my time is spent visiting these developers at their locations; the game industry is truly global so on any given day I will probably wake up in a different timezone, in Europe, NA or Asia.
For simplicity’s sake, if I happen to be in NY, I’ll be woken by my dog, who wants me to walk him; during that walk I’ll start catching up on emails and messages from our counterparts in France or Tokyo. After breakfast (I enjoy cooking at home whenever possible), I’ll head to a client meeting or to our humble NY office in midtown, and start working with teammates in Montreal, Seattle and LA. Topics will run the gamut from addressing a specific client’s needs to corporate strategy to event planning etc. Two or three nights a week, I’ll have some sort of extracurricular professional event or dinner, and then I will retreat home where I’ll engage in a bunch of industry research (watching all sorts of gaming related videos and reading industry news).
What was a major turning point in your life?
I would say that going to Japan early in my adult life was the most fundamental to my life today. A close second would be my experience with IE, which was also extremely instrumental to my personal and professional development. The people, professors and fellow cohort members have been some of the most impressive, caring and inspiring people I’ve ever met, and I attribute a lot of that to the distributed / blended format of the Global program. While doing the Global program, I was relocated by my employer to Brazil for a multi-month project, and I learned about my ability to adapt to a changing environment.
What do you wake up for each day (what is your guiding purpose)?
I love tackling complex problems and trying to, from a conceptual stage to a practical roll-out, push forward new and interesting solutions. I get deep enjoyment from helping others achieve their goals, and refining my own abilities in the process.
Happy Holidays!
- Anthony, Dechu, Mariana & Sean
IE NYC Alumni Club Board
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