Russ Sobti, 18

Q: What did you think about The Entrepreneur Academy prior to entering?

A: "Before entering TEA, I heard about it from a friend and he described it as a competition where you learn business skills like a learn-by-doing kind of thing, and it seemed like a cool extracurricular I can add on; but it ended up being a fair bit more than that!"

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Q: What was your favorite part of the program?

A: "My favorite part about TEA was getting the support I needed and it (the program) being very project based. Instead of sitting in the class and doing a set homework assignment, this is a classroom setting designed to help you instead of everyone doing the same curriculum and taking a test."

 

Q: What advice would you give to someone new to the program?

A: "There is a lot of structure that different mentors will give you. I’d suggest future students to get connected with the mentors so you can learn something from each one."

 

Q: How has TEA impacted your life today?

A: "The connections from the program were really influential for me. I actually started my own business, unrelated, but I actually ended up using a lot of the code that I wrote for the initial product of my TEA business. I kind of licensed that out for a backend feature for the companies I work with now."

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Q: Are you still working on your TEA project?

A: "Currently, I’m not working on the application of my past TEA project itself, but instead I am working on the algorithm that drove it all and making it more generalizable to sell to industrial companies for different AI uses."

 

Q: What are your future plans?

A: "In the future, I'm going to finish my Bachelors and from there probably go for a PhD in CS and go back into the startups and maybe vc keeping my business, Recombinant Solutions, alive throughout college and beyond!"

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-Russ Sobti, Class of 2021