Why Marketers Should Study Behavioral Economics - Ken Rona

In Chapter 5 of 12, Ken Rona discusses his early career transition touring with large bands to getting a PhD from a Top 10 business school, Duke University. Rona studies voting behavior in political science courses at Stony Brook University and Rona starts to enjoy the business-driven behavioral economics. Rona translates the voting to how consumers process product attributes in purchasing decisions, including paradox of choice, and why people choose what they do.

Why Earning Economics PhD Boosted Self Confidence - Ken Rona

In Chapter 4 of 12, business analytics expert Ken Rona shares two huge self-confidence boosting moments in his life. First, Rona shares why his engagement and consequent marriage mattered so. Second, he shares why earning a PhD in Behavioral Economics from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business changed his perspective on what is possible.

Why Statistics T.A. Chose Political Science Masters Program - Ken Rona

In Chapter 3 of 12, interviewee Ken Rona reflects on the most prescient guidance he has received to date. Upon graduating Stony Brook University, Rona's political science teacher Milt Lodge convinces him to stay for graduate political science coursework. Rona, Lodge's statistics class teacher's assistant, finds the guidance invaluable, as he hones his interests in underlying quantitative methods and statistics classes comprising the master's curriculum.

Why Sound Engineer Left Roadie Job to Study Political Science - Ken Rona

In Chapter 2 of 12, business analytics expert Ken Rona reads "In Search of Excellence" while touring with bands as a sound engineer. Following the book's guidance, Rona creates a BHAG - big hairy audacious goal - to be President of the United States and charts his first step, return to school to study political science.

How Management Consulting Job Prepares Entrepreneur - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 13 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo co-founder and UPenn Wharton grad Slava Rubin answers "What Made You Choose Management and Technology Consulting as Your First Job Out of College?" Rubin shares how, upon graduating The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, he took a management consulting job with Diamond Management and Technology Consultants.  Rubin highlights the influences shaping his decision to pursue consulting, how the work then contributed to his overall education, and finally why it was an essential development step before becoming an entrepreneur and co-founding IndieGoGo.

Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What made you choose management and technology consulting as your first job out of college?

Slava Rubin: I really see there being an extensive amount of education that one needs just to ready for their roles in life, whatever that role is.   My role is that I really wanted to be an entrepreneur but I thought that my layers of education would be, one I would go college for my academic education.  I studied abroad for my kind of global and international education and I still didn`t feel like I had a corporate education.  So, I felt like consulting was the best opportunity for a corporate education to understand how Fortune 500 companies operate, their inner workings, how you can maneuver within them and how decisions are made.  And realistically in a consulting job you get to dip and dive between different companies, so you really get a varied exposure, which is exactly why I became a consultant.  So, really it`s extension of my education to be an entrepreneur.

Why Penn Wharton School Student Chooses Belgium for Abroad Study - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 12 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, University of Pennsylvania graduate Slava Rubin answers "Why Did You Choose to Study Abroad in Belgium During College and How Have You Applied That Liberal Arts Education to the Choices You Have Made Since?" Rubin shares how he chose a Belgium school, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, over a Hong Kong school for his study abroad program. He takes several liberal arts courses, including Conjugal Sexual Morality with Priests, European Art History, Flemish, and The Evolution of the European Union.  This, along with a Penn Film Study class, rounds out Rubin's Wharton undergraduate education before graduating and starting work as a management consultant. 

Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  Why did you choose to study abroad in Belgium during college and how have you applied that liberal arts education to the choices you've made since?

Slava Rubin:  My choices for where I wanted to study were, there was this really cool school in Hong Kong, which was very exciting to go to, there was a school in Belgium that I thought was cool, and then maybe I was looking at a school in South America, but really it was between this Hong Kong school and the Belgium school.  Realistically, I just hadn’t had a lot of travel experience yet and kind of wanted to knock out Europe first and maybe I wasn't as risky with my moves or maybe I would have gone to Hong Kong. 

I think also the Belgium was suppose to be a little bit easier and I wanted to have an easy of an experience as possible, but I took some really fun class.  Conjugal Sexual Morality that I took with priests, European Art History, Flemish, all kinds of crazy stuff, the evolution of the EU (European Union).  The closest thing that I took anything about a liberal arts class at Wharton, which was really just accounting and marketing and financing, was writing about film, which wasn't even a real writing class, it just watching movies and taking notes.  So, it was definitely interesting to see that side of an education and I knew as I was consulting and as I was doing these corporate jobs that I still wanted to tap that other side of my brain.

How Penn Wharton School College Experience Reshapes Career Goals - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 11 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, University of Pennsylvania graduate Slava Rubin answers "What Were Your Career Ambitions Entering the University of Pennsylvania and How Did They Change By the Time You Graduated?" Rubin highlights how his career goals changed while attending the undergraduate Wharton School business  program.  While studying abroad in Belgium, Rubin rethinks his values and finds he is less interested in Wall Street banking work.  Leaving behind his high school ambition to be the next "Wall Street" Gordon Gekko Michael Douglas character, Rubin instead secures a management consulting job and begins his career.

Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What were your career ambitions entering The University of Pennsylvania and how did that change by the time you graduated?

Slava Rubin:  When I was applying to colleges I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted to do in life.  I wanted to be pretty rich, pretty powerful.  I wanted to be a banker and I kind of wanted to be in that Wall Street role, you know ``Wall Street`` the movie with Michael Douglas.  And as I went to Penn I was surround, I think, by a lot of those characters.  I actually went to Wharton Undergrad, which is a lot of cutthroat individuals and I actually figured out that I wasn't as cutthroat and desiring the money and the power as the people around me, which was kind of surprising. That, along with my Belgium experience just taught me maybe I don’t want to be doing exactly what all these other people want to be doing.  Which, don`t get me wrong I didn't turn into a quote in quote a liberal arts fluffy job person, I became a strategy consultant, which is not so far away from being a banker.  It was pretty important to figure out what my values were and I think college, I learned a lot about that.

How Berkeley Lester Center Helps Incubate Startup - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 5 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, IndieGoGo co-founder Slava Rubin answers "What Has the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of California at Berkeley Done to Help Launch Indiegogo?" Rubin shars how the University of California Berkeley Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation provided early-stage support launching his company with Haas School of Business student co-founders Danae Ringelmann and Eric Schell.

Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What has the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of California Berkley done to help launch Indiegogo?

Slava Rubin:  It`s really amazing.  Most people don`t know but some of these schools how they help with entrepreneurialism and I must say I was shocked to see how much Berkley did to help entrepreneurs.  The Lester Center is just a testament to that because they have their own incubator where they help bring up and support these different startups with office space or different resources, which we were lucky enough to be able to get.  As well as, besides the Lester Center, the whole community, there were different classes we where we were able to leverage the professors or the student body to be able to do different market research or testing or bouncing off different ideas.  The amazing thing is that Indiegogo was one of many different ideas that came out of Berkley in that year for graduating in 2009 and some of them are quite successful in the last few of years as well.

Why Vegetarian Teacher Decides to Raise Pigs in Vermont - Cathy Erway

In Chapter 15 of 15, "The Art of Eating In" author and "Not Eating Out in New York" food blogger Cathy Erway shares why Tamarack Hollow Farm's Mike Betit has inspired her through his actions. Betit, a Vermont-based greenmarket farmer and small meat producer, left a teaching career to raise pigs and create healtier, locally grown food options for parents raising families. Erway shares Betit's early struggles and persistence building a business around a clearly defined purpose.

How Harper's Magazine Informs Author's Research Ambition - Cathy Erway

In Chapter 10 of 15, "The Art of Eating In" author Cathy Erway traces her ongoing inspirations from graduating Emerson College with a creative writing degree until present times. Erway highlights how Harper's Magazine showcases a thoughtful news approach that inspires her to incorporate a more research-driven journalism approach to her writing. Specifically Harper's writer and "Nickel and Dimed" author Barbara Ehrenreich influences Erway's plans for what comes next in her writing career.

How Childhood Storytelling Propels Writing Ambition - Cathy Erway

In Chapter 7 of 15, writer and "The Art of Eating In" author Cathy Erway shares why she writes and what early experiences helped shape her passion into a career. Beginning early, Erway dictates stories to her older brother, who then writes them down and presents them to their parents. Erway attends college for creative writing and, over time, finds literary non-fiction writing and reading most appealing.

How Informational Interviews Lead to Graduate School Admission - Diana Wilmot

In Chapter 9 of 9, Diana Wilmot shares how building practical experience and talking to people about job roles focuses her educational measurement and assessment career ambition. Upon moving to northern California, Diana Wilmot visits University of California Berkeley and asks what it will take to get admitted into the masters and doctorate program. She then goes off and teaches for several years, meeting new professionals along the way to understand what possibilities exist in assessment.

How to Understand Student Thinking and Monitor Progress - Diana Wilmot

In Chapter 8 of 9, University of California Berkeley Ph. D Diana Wilmot informs classroom instruction and measures student progress by blending education assessment innovation and systematic implementation. Using assessment as a diagnostic tool, Wilmot works with teachers to understand data comfort level and how much they can handle in a short one-hour meeting. Assessment becomes an innovative lens to understand student thinking, while data measurement is used to systematically monitor progress over time.

How to Help Teachers Better Understand Students - Diana Wilmot

In Chapter 7 of 9, educator Diana Wilmot attends University of California Berkeley for a masters and doctorate degree in educational measurement and evaluation program. As a psychometrician, she applies her cognititve science education to assessment, improving how teachers teach. Her passion is not only to create sharper students, it is also to help teachers better understand students. Wilmot's college education, studying mathematical methods and social sciences at Northwestern University, provides early immersion into interdisciplinary work linking math to policy. Her Ph. D Berkeley work incorporates education policy programming and assessment into this focus, opening doors to understanding how algebra can be better taught to students.

What Led Investigator to Teach Math at Charter School - Diana Wilmot

In Chapter 6 of 9, educator Diana Wilmot shares why she left her job as a City of New York City Civilian Complaint Board Board confidential investigator to teach math at a Brooklyn charter school. As an investigator, Wilmot saw consistent police misconduct filing themes, namely early teen African American boys filing complaints after late night police encounters in parks. Wilmot chooses teaching as means to give city children a reason to stay in school and get excited about education.

How Mother Supports Daughter's Education Career - Diana Wilmot

In Chapter 5 of 9, education psychometrician Diana Wilmot shares how her mother's support and education career have impacted her own ambition and career in education. Wilmot starts young watching her mom teach high school English and interacting with a family focused on education careers. From applying to Northwestern University to deciding on Berkeley for graduate studies, Wilmot's mother has been a constant encouraging force for her daughter.

How Math and Policy Studies Shape Assessment Career - Diana Wilmot

In Chapter 3 of 9, education assessment and evaluation psychometrician Diana Wilmot shares factors shaping her career as well as the overall assessment industry. Coming into college at Northwestern University, Diana Wilmot builds upon high school debate skills using math in quantitative-focused policy courses. Early career teaching experience ignites Wilmot's passion to learn and apply assessment to improve systemmatic change across classroom environments.

How Education Psychometricians Improve Schools - Diana Wilmot

In Chapter 2 of 9, education measurement and evaluation psychometrician Diana Wilmot shares how she applies her education to measure and assess what students really know and whether they are ready for college. The job requires she blend qualitative and quantitative skills using her social science, math, statistics, and teaching background. She uses assessment to inform instruction and evaluation to monitor curriculum programming to monitor effectiveness.