My time at Williams, including my double major in History and Geology, somehow set me on a path to become a successful entrepreneur. After graduation and an 18-month stint at a management consulting firm in Boston, I started a company named Employease with another Williams Alum named John Alberg. Employease was a pioneer in software as a service and delivered web-based human resource applications to small and medium sized businesses. We grew the company over 10 years and sold it to ADP, a Fortune 500 company, in 2006. Then, after running the business for ADP and having responsibility for 700 associates and $150M in revenue, I recently left to start a second venture, also with John. Our new business is named Euclidean Technologies and we aspire to bring quantitative rigor to the world of long-term, fundamental-based investing.
How did my history major prepare me for this career? I think the opportunity to be challenged by professors like Kohut and Dew and incredible students like Ali Garbarini, who was a peer of mine, sharpened my preparation and communication skills. These skills have been invaluable to me when raising money for our business, asking potential clients for the right to serve them, and inspiring our teams to create great things. When you couple these things with the perseverance that comes from having to crank out 5-7 page papers for Professor Kohut each week, I think it is fair to say that my History major prepared me well to withstand the tests of entrepreneurship.