Career Success Stories

When I moved to the U.S. as an international student to pursue my Master’s in Data Science at Columbia University, I knew it would be an expensive and intense journey. But by the time I graduated, I wasn’t just debt-free—I had actually earned money during my program. How? I strategically combined research assistantships, internships, and scholarships throughout my Master’s. From the very beginning, I sought out research assistant positions, and by my second semester, I secured one that fully covered my tuition and provided a generous stipend. During my summer break, I balanced two internships—one at Columbia and another at IBM —while continuing to work on impactful projects and research. By graduation, I wasn’t just financially ahead, but I had also built a portfolio of high-impact work that propelled my career. Here’s my advice for anyone looking to do the same: 1️⃣ Be proactive about research assistantships: Most professors don’t advertise openings. Reach out directly, express interest in their work, and show how your skills can contribute to their projects. 2️⃣ Ask about scholarships, always: Even at private universities, scholarships and tuition waivers exist. Make it a point to ask professors or program coordinators and negotiate whenever possible. 3️⃣ Never skip negotiations: Whether it’s a stipend or internship salary, don’t settle for the first offer. Many positions are negotiable, and advocating for yourself can significantly increase your earnings. 4️⃣ Choose long-term value over short-term gains: Focus on projects, internships, and assistantships that align with your career goals. While jobs like working in a library or cafeteria might provide instant money, they don’t contribute to long-term success. To my fellow immigrants and international students: I know how overwhelming it can feel to chase your dreams in a new country, often with limited resources and endless challenges. But trust me, every opportunity is out there waiting—you just have to go after it. Be resourceful, stay persistent, and don’t be afraid to ask for help or put yourself out there. Your Master’s program isn’t just about earning a degree; it’s about building a foundation for your future, creating opportunities, and proving to yourself just how far you can go. You’ve got this—let’s make it count! What strategies or lessons have shaped your journey? I’d love to hear your story. 👇👇👇 Share this with your network ♻️ Follow me (Aishwarya Srinivasan) for AI insights, news, and educational resources.

We just hit $100M ARR at Clay. It took us six years to go from $0-1m, then two years to go from $1-100m. I’m going to walk you through the 6 biggest GTM bets that got us here. $100M ARR may be the headline, but I’m most proud of how we accomplished it: we’ve never churned an enterprise customer, have >200% enterprise NRR, every dollar we invest grows 15x, and we’ve created a culture of creativity and belonging (with a perfect Glassdoor score to match!). Note: -We are a product-driven company. Without that foundation and a unique POV, none of this would work. -Our GTM approach is authentic to us. Greatness comes from doing what only you can do. 1. Building a self-serve motion through reverse demos We originally had a product that nobody could use. It took us 8 calls to sell a $200/mo product! Reverse demos were key to bringing that to zero. Customers would share their screen, and we’d use Zoom annotations to solve their problem in 30mins. They accomplished something real, learned how to use Clay, and we got so much UI feedback. 2. An irrational investment in brand Most B2B startups treat brand as a post-PMF investment. We flipped that. We bought Clay(.)com and hired a claymation artist before we had revenue. Our Head of Brand was employee #18. These choices felt irrational but they’re authentic to us. Now it’s a moat. 3. Switching to usage-based pricing We were the first GTM company to offer usage-based pricing. Our customers were shocked we didn't charge per seat. But we're built for efficiency. Usage-based pricing helped us target more technical users and enabled our land-and-expand motion. 4. Building an agency motion to generate UGC on LinkedIn Cold email agencies were our first customers. They posted about Clay organically to position themselves as experts and win clients. We pounced on it and enabled them. This sparked a self-perpetuating cycle: new people discover Clay through that content, join, create their own, and earn recognition too. 5. Unconventional hiring 50% of our business teams are doing their job for the first time. This is how we bring creativity into our company and think differently. We’ve hired farmers, archaeologists, magicians in new roles. We look for product passion, customer empathy and technical curiosity, then teach the mechanics. 6. We created a new career path & economy: GTM Engineering There are now thousands of open GTME jobs and hundreds of agencies built around it. Many first-time entrepreneurs have already built 7-figure businesses on top of Clay. Our community, with clubs in more than 70 cities, is our force multiplier, and it’s the clearest sign that we’re building something meaningful. - All of these bets show we’re not racing anyone. We spent six years figuring out what and how we wanted to build. In an era of overnight successes and growth at all costs, it turns out that taking time to build something authentic can create a business with bigger impact & more growth than you'd think.

If you’re a young person reading this, listen up... One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is this: Find people who are living the kind of life you aspire to, and learn from them. Not just people who are “successful” in a vague sense, but people who have achieved the kind of success you actually want. People who reflect the values you admire. People whose lifestyle, mindset, and outcomes align with your vision of the future. There are countless life paths available today: career routes, business models, personal philosophies. The world is full of noise and options. That’s why generic advice isn’t enough. You need specific guidance for your specific career goals. So… if you want to be a creative entrepreneur, go find one and study how they think, how they work, how they recover from failure. If you want to be a world-class engineer, freelancer, software developer, look for someone who is already walking that road and humbly ask for their counsel. It’s not about copying someone’s life, it’s about learning what’s possible and crafting your own path with wisdom and intention. You don’t have to figure it all out alone. Proximity is power. Be bold enough to ask, wise enough to listen, and humble enough to apply what you learn. The right conversation with the right person can change the entire trajectory of your life.

Africa’s biggest creative exit began with one phone call. In 2017, legendary Nigerian music producer Don Jazzy had a successful record label. But he knew something was missing. While Afrobeats was exploding globally, African labels were still operating like it was 2005 - no data analytics, no proper structure, no international distribution deals. Then came an unexpected call from Kupanda Capital, not your regular investor but a business-building platform focused on emerging markets. 🎯 Kupanda told Don Jazzy: "We see Afrobeats going global. Let's rebuild Mavin Records from the ground up to capture that opportunity." What happened next became the blueprint for scaling African creative businesses internationally. The transformation was radical: Kupanda moved two senior executives to Lagos to work alongside Don Jazzy's team (poke Mavin COO Peter Tega Oghenejobo). Together, they didn't just add capital - they rebuilt everything: 🎤 An artist development academy: Training talent for the digital age 📊 Data-driven A&R: Using analytics to predict hits before they happen 🌍 A global distribution network: International contracts from day one 🏢 A proper corporate structure: a 70-person team with defined roles and responsibilities Only THEN did Kupanda bring in TPG to invest $10M+ in Mavin. Then came the proof of concept... 🚀 Rema's "Calm Down" (featuring Selena Gomez) became the first song by an African artist to hit 1 billion Spotify streams. The numbers tell the rest of the story: - 60x growth in overall revenue over 5 years  - 100x growth in digital revenue 🔥 In 2024, Universal Music Group acquired a majority stake in Mavin at a $150-200M valuation, in the largest deal in African Creative Industries history. When I said that Mavin’s success had become the blueprint for scaling creative ventures in Africa, this is why: 1️⃣ Partnership beats pure capital. Creative companies often need a lot more than just cash. Operational expertise + local creative knowledge = magic 2️⃣ Structure unlocks creativity. You can’t grow on shaky foundations. Proper systems amplify business AND artistic potential. 3️⃣ Bet on data not gut feelings. Creative companies are yet to fully adopt digital tools, and that’s stifling their growth. Mavin shows how analytics can enable global success. Few investors are ready to be as hands-on as Kupanda, and few founders can be as collaborative as Don Jazzy and his team. EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW IT WORKS. Think about that. Mavin Records is one of the 12 African companies profiled in my latest study for Proparco's CREA Fund. Read the full case study here: https://lnkd.in/diAwWrXe ------ Want more business insights on the African Creative and Sports space? Join the 9,500+ other professionals who subscribe to my monthly newsletter HUSTLE & FLOW: https://lnkd.in/drBY8jnz

"They are good at coding. I am not." "They are good at public speaking. I am not." "They are good at sales. I am not." This is the most frequent remark I hear when it comes to career growth. And the most limiting way of looking at one's career! Most of us think success = being the absolute best at one thing. That path exists - but it’s not the only path. A more realistic path is: Become very good (top 20%) at several skills that rarely overlap. You’re stacking value. Am I the best teacher in the world? No. The best speaker? No. The biggest creator? No. The best leader? No. But I am the sum of all of these. Someone who is a teacher, speaks well, has a decent social media following, has a dedicated team whom I care about. Individually, these are good-to-have. Nothing extraordinary. But together, they are valuable. When you focus on becoming useful, adaptable, and hard to replace, success finds you. Image via Justin Wright.

This founder took out $105K in debt and dropped out of college to launch a gummy bear startup. Four years later, she sold it for $360M. At 21, Tara Bosch was cooking gummies in her basement with a candy thermometer and a $10 mold from Amazon. She was a sugar addict. Grew up eating candy every day with her grandmother. As she got older, she realized all that sugar made her feel awful. But she really didn’t want to quit candy. So she dropped out of the University of British Columbia and launched SmartSweets with $105K in debt, leveraging her 2009 Honda Fit and a life insurance policy. Her first year? $2M in candy sales. By year four? $125M. Investors dismissed her. Accelerator mentors ignored her. Even her own grandmother was devastated when she dropped out of school to “make candy.” But she kept going. She first sold candy out of the back of her car. Cold-emailed retailers. And landed a national deal with Bed Bath & Beyond a month after launch. Tara also got into The Next Big Thing accelerator. Won a $100K Thiel Fellowship. And pitched on Dragon’s Den. She was only 25 when she sold a majority stake in SmartSweets to TPG for $360M. But it wasn’t just the exit. It was how she did it… 80% of her team was female, every employee had equity, and she started a $25K grant program (Bold Beginnings) for young women with big ideas. 💡 In 2025, I’m sharing 365 stories of women entrepreneurs in 365 days. Follow Justine Juillard for daily #femalefounder spotlights.

In the final lecture of my Corporate Finance course, I end with some perspectives on careers. I share this excellent Financial Times interview with Laurie Simon Hodrick, then a finance professor at Columbia Business School (who won the award for outstanding teaching not just for Columbia Business School, but the whole of Columbia Univesity) and also Managing Director and Global Head of Alternative Investments at Deutsche Bank. A book on personal development might take a weekend to read. This interview will take 5 minutes and it's the best 5 minute-read I've ever had, which I come back to time and again. Some nuggets: 1. A career is not a title or a job description, but a way of life: it's not what you do, but who you are. Become a professor not to add the title Professor before your name, but because you're passionate about the creation and dissemination of knowledge - not just teaching what is in the syllabus or ticking the boxes needed to get published. Similarly, become an investment banker or management consultant because being a trusted advisor is who you are: you are passionate about telling your client what they need to hear, not what they want to hear or what will pay you the highest fee. 2. "When you're in the room, be in the room". Be engaged in everything you do. The interview was conducted before the ubiquity of instant messaging on smartphones but it even more relevant today. 3. "You can do everything you want to do and be everything you want to be, but not all at once." The world is an amazing place; there lots of careers, hobbies, and countries we can explore. We often get FOMO when seeing (particularly on LinkedIn) others doing something that we're not. But we live long lives. Be fully committed to what you're doing right now and move into something else later. 4. "If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?" "Nothing". We focus too much on outcomes and beat ourselves up if the outcome was bad even if the decision was good. If we twist on 12 on blackjack and get a 10, we think we made a mistake but it was a right decision. See also Epsiode 9 of the All Else Equal: Making better decisions podcast by Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen about distinguishing between bad luck and bad decisions (https://lnkd.in/eVu_BXtS), and the mistake of "resulting" in Annie Duke's book "Thinking in Bets" where we focus too much on the result. 5. "If you are blessed to wake up, each day is a new beginning". Laurie expanded on this with me once over dinner. Often we look at our calendar for a day and think that we just have to get through that day. But many people did not wake up today, so be grateful for all the things you will get to do today. And if our schedule looks exhausting, we can control it: influence our schedule so that each day looks like a blessing rather than something we need to endure. https://lnkd.in/eURMsk9j

Our client landed a senior Marketing role with a $30,000+ raise. It took them 18 weeks. Here are 6 strategies they used to make it happen: Context: Our client had spent months applying to marketing roles without much traction. Their applications went unanswered and interviews weren’t turning into offers. The biggest challenge? Competing against candidates with direct Ed Tech experience while theirs was from another industry. We teamed up and helped them build a strategy to position themselves effectively and connect with the right people: 1. They Narrowed Their Scope Instead of applying to everything, they built a targeted list of companies by: - Outlining must-haves (growth potential, team structure, leadership style) - Using LinkedIn and industry reports to identify companies that fit - Prioritizing companies hiring for roles aligned with their skill set This gave them a focused approach rather than a scattered job search. 2. They Focused On Networking Over Apps Rather than relying on job boards, they prioritized connecting with decision-makers by: - Using LinkedIn to connect with hiring managers and peers in Ed Tech - Leveraging college alumni networks for warm introductions - Reaching out with specific, value-driven messages rather than generic requests 3. They Tracked Their Process They tracked their applications and networking messages: - They created a spreadsheet to track applications, networking efforts, and interview progress - They analyzed which outreach methods led to interviews - They refined their resume and messaging based on response rates By using real data, they quickly identified what was working and doubled down on it. 4. They Prepared Intentionally Their networking efforts led to a referral and an interview. Rather than “winging it,” with their interview prep, they: - Completed mock interviews with their coach to identify weak spots - Refined their answers based on real-time feedback - Rehearsed high-impact stories until they felt natural 5. Treated Their Interview Like A Marketing Pitch Instead of just summarizing their experience, they structured their responses to sell their value: - They used a “challenge-action-result” framework for every answer - They tied their past experience directly to the company’s needs - This ensured they stood out as a clear problem-solver, not just another candidate. 6. They Used A Value Validation Project (VVP) Instead of just telling the company what they could do, they showed them with a targeted project: - They analyzed the company’s existing marketing funnel - They built a retention strategy to increase student re-engagement - They presented a data-backed plan showing how similar strategies had driven growth in their past roles That helped set them apart and win the offer.

When I moved from a law firm to an in-house role, I thought I was ready. I wasn’t. The shift was more than just a change in job scope - it was a change in mindset, dynamics, and even how legal advice was received. Looking back, these are 4 things I really wish someone had told me: 1. You won’t always be seen as the expert. In private practice, clients come to you, pay you, and usually listen. In-house, legal is often viewed as a cost centre. Some stakeholders loop you in late or push past your advice altogether. I had to learn how to influence without authority - something no one teaches you at the start. (To be fair, I’ve also seen empowered legal teams. But that trust is earned, not assumed.) 2. Your boss matters more than your numbers. In a firm, if you bill well and get results, you’re solid. In-house, your direct manager controls your visibility, the projects you get, and sometimes even how you’re perceived across the company. A good boss can open doors. A bad one can quietly stall your growth. It’s a different game. 3. You’ll have to dig for the facts. Law firm clients usually come prepared: here’s the issue, here’s the contract, here’s the deadline. In-house, it’s often: “Something’s off, can you look into it?” You’ll deal with unclear scopes, missing context, or stakeholders who don’t even know what the legal risk is. Fact-finding becomes a big part of your value. 4. You need to market yourself - as a business partner. This was a tough one. I thought doing great legal work was enough. But to be seen as more than a gatekeeper, I had to shift how I communicated. Instead of saying “we can’t,” I had to start with “here’s how we can - with guardrails.” Commercial awareness became just as important as legal soundness. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all story - every in-house journey is different. But if you’ve made the switch too, I’d love to hear: What do you wish someone had told you?

Early in my career, I thought the only way to crush quota was to chase the “whales.” The $100K, $200K+ deals that would move the needle in one swoop. At first, I had a tendency to ignore the $2k-$3k deals. Big mistake. Here’s the truth: those “small” wins do two things: 1. They build momentum — and momentum MATTERS. That’s how you win the big deals. You get one happy customers with an account and the word spreads. 2. They strengthen your funnel, keeping you insulated when a big deal slips. I remember one deal in particular. They had about 8 hospitals throughout the city. One of them was the HUGE 800 bed hospital downtown. I tried and tried to get an “in” and couldn’t. Then one day, I got the opportunity to spend two days there letting the staff use my equipment to see if they liked it. Two whole days I had to spend, and they only needed two devices (about $6k). It seemed like small potatoes, but I went anyway. And you know what? They liked them, and eventually they liked them so much they helped me convince the ENTIRE system to switch to using my stuff. Sales isn’t just about landing whales. Whales are great — but they’re rare. Consistency is built on stacking small wins, every single day. Stop dismissing the deals that seem “too small.” They might be the reason you hit quota — while someone else is still waiting for their whale. 🐳 #sales #salestraining #marketing