🔬 Issue #12: Allow Us To (STEM)ulate Your Interest
Do STEM majors matter for technology entrepreneurship? A deep dive.
💬 Welcome to issue #12 of Between the Lines
Whew - am I feeling rejuvenated! I feel so lucky to have spent a few days in Claremont last week. I met with faculty, administrators, and of course, the highlight, current students, and had many discussions about the entrepreneurship scene on campus. It remains such a special place, and I’m so proud to see the community coming back together after these particularly strange 18 months. There’s still so much uncertainty in the world, but it felt reassuring connecting with the on-campus community. There are still some certainties in life, one of those being just how special the Claremont community is!
A quick reminder to make sure to check out our Storyboard and take two minutes to create a profile on our talent network, and to tell your friends - one of the first 100 members will find themselves a nice $100 Amazon gift card! 😉
In other news, we are on Issue #12, and we have another 6th Street Stat coming your way! This one is brought to you by a senior and student superstar at Claremont, Adhitya Venkatraman. It’s all about STEM majors and their importance in entrepreneurship. Dig in and enjoy!
My Best, Miles
📊 6th Street Stats: Claremont’s STEM and Entrepreneurship
Authors: Adhitya Venkatraman, Josh Tatum, Miles Bird
Over the past 20 years, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education has exploded. The percent of degrees awarded in the U.S. STEM fields increased from 29.5% in 2009 to 37.1% in 2016. Over the same period, the technology sector has also continued to expand rapidly, achieving unprecedented job growth since the 1990s. Even in Claremont, STEM is increasingly a priority. The Keck Graduate Institute, the newest Claremont College, was founded in 1997 largely to bolster the sciences at the Consortium. Since then, multiple companies have been spun-off from technology developed at Keck. More recently, Claremont McKenna officially announced its plan to develop a Department of Integrated Sciences, hiring Founding Chair Dr. Ran Libeskind-Hadas this summer.
Since STEM seems poised to continue cementing its prominent position in education, the economy, and at Claremont, we decided to use our dataset, and an interview with Shadiah Sigala (founder of unicorn technology business Honeybook and up-and-coming childcare benefit Kinside) to better understand how STEM relates to success in Claremont-affiliated entrepreneurship. Overall, we find that most “successful” startup founders who graduated from the Claremont Colleges do have a STEM background. We also find, however, that a non-STEM major is certainly not a limiting factor for successful entrepreneurship and, at times, could be an advantage. 🤷
Like the famous liberal arts college drop-out who founded a little company called Apple once famously said, “Technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with the liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that makes our hearts sing.” We think so too, Steve. We think so too.
Dig in below and click to read the full article! 👇
This is the first of our co-authored pieces where Between the Lines partners with students/alumni and provides them access to our dataset of Claremont founders and companies. They then can investigate an area of their interest, and publish their findings to the Between the Lines readership. If you are a current student, alumnus, or faculty of the Claremont Colleges interested in exploring this type of research, please reach out to us.
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Matthew Goldman
A loud round of applause for CMC grad, Matthew Goldman. 🎉 Matthew is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Vertical Finance which was just acquired by Apto Payments. Vertical Finance is a venture-backed startup at the intersection of credit and loyalty. They build new solutions that reward and empower consumers by connecting their payments with their passions.
“Apto is at the forefront of bringing the power of cards to companies and developers everywhere. We are excited to combine our technology with the Apto platform to enable new experiences.”
💼 Who’s Hiring?:
Founded by CMC grad, Adam Altman, Redocly helps businesses quickly build their API documentation into comprehensive and interactive documents. Their vision is to create solutions for API developer portals that are both developer-friendly and fully customizable. Check out the jobs they are hiring for:
Apto Payments is a next-generation cards and payments platform that helps companies design and deploy successful card programs in a day. Apto recently acquired Vertical Finance, which was founded by CMC grad Matthew Goldman, who is now VP of Sales & Partnerships. Email Matthew directly if you want to learn more about Apto, fintech, or cards. They are hiring for the following remote positions (apply and list Matthew as a referral):
Ben Draa is a CMC grad who is working for the Golden State Warriors on their Corporate Development team. He is currently looking to hire a manager who wants to help shape the future of the Warriors! Check it out:
Check out 5,000+ open jobs at 400+ Claremont-founded companies here on our Storyboard!
Sign up for the talent network to get updates on jobs/companies in your interest cluster
Check out the 50+ jobs at Samba TV - a global leader in omniscreen advertising and analytics
Over 660 remote jobs are available
2,700+ jobs available at late-stage startups
As always, if any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines. Or, if you are an employer and are looking to hire top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured!
🗣️ Conversations on the interwebz:
This week’s top read 🔥
Mark Munro, a CMC grad at First Round Capital, just shared a piece by Maven CEO, Gagan Biyani, to help us all avoid startup MVP pitfalls. Give this First Round Review piece a read before checking those emails in your inbox 📥
Everything else you need to know….📖
Congrats to Mammoth Biosciences and Co-Founder Jennifer Doudna (PO) on their mammoth Series D raise! Fun fact, this is now Doudna’s 5th founded company that has raised $120M+ 🤯
Tune in and listen to how LanzaTech and CEO Jennifer Holmgren (HMC) are joining forces with Lululemon to turn Carbon Emissions into Fashion ✨
Can’t get enough Between the Lines? Follow and connect with us on Twitter!
🤤 BTL Snacks:
You may not be able to get your favorites snacks at the Claremont dining halls anymore on the weekdays, but hopefully, these juicy tidbits from BTL will satisfy the hunger for now! 🍽️
💉 PharmaJet doesn’t even need needles….. Read all about how Heather Potters’ (CMC) company is selected to deliver the Scancell Covid-19 DNA vaccine needle-free
🇺🇸 The future of America…..Check out why CMC professor of Government, Minxin Pei, thinks that China will not surpass the United States
🦄 Another day, another Unicorn status for Jennifer Doudna….. CRISPR company Mammoth Biosciences just closed a ~$200M round as they work to re-write the code of life
Feedback? We love to hear it. Hit us with an email. 👊🏼