Start @ a Startup: Closing Remarks

Hi, everyone. I can’t believe this conference is finally coming to a close, but I hope you’ve all had an amazing weekend.

This weekend, we all came together to explore the growing startup world from a new perspective.

We got to speak with the founders and engineers behind the technologies and platforms we use every day. We got to ask them the questions and get the answers you can’t find on the internet. We got to hear their honest responses and get a candid look into the workings of a startup, both the ups and the downs.

Yesterday, we began by looking at the tremendous growth and opportunity provided by startups. We looked at peer-to-peer marketplace startups and learned about their goals and challenges in the market. We heard founder stories about how their companies began, what problems they sought to fix, what challenges they faced, what advice they have moving forward.

Today, we continued this dialogue and heard about company culture and how to choose the startup you want to work at. We explored the world of Enterprise Startups and heard the story behind one the latest breakthrough in trading.

And even outside of formal programming, we used the breaks to meet one another. To meet our fellow students. To meet our dream startups. We used every moment of this weekend to learn more, to push ourselves, to push each other, and to never stop looking for our next opportunity to innovate.

This conference maybe be coming to a close soon, but as I said yesterday morning, we hope the experience continues on. We hope that you take the conversations you started here and continue them past this weekend. We hope that you continue to challenge yourselves and each other, to ask questions, to learn more. Thank you so much for coming out this weekend, and I hope you’ve all enjoyed the conference as much as I have.

Before I conclude, I would like to thank and recognize some of the people who made this entire event possible

Firstly, I want to thank our amazing speakers and startups for volunteering their time to be here to speak with you all.  I’m sure we all learned so much from all of you and really appreciate your time. I want to thank these companies for their generous sponsorships, which allowed us to cover all of your travels, hotel accommodations, and conference expenses.

And a special thanks to Yik Yak for being an amazing lead sponsor.

I also want to extend a huge thank you to our partners at Sequoia Capital. Bryan, Bret, Michelle, Kym, Blair, Seth, and Juliette—thank you so much for all of your hard work and help; it has been an absolute pleasure working with you all. Thank you for being such a fantastic partner.

I want to thank the Business Today conference staff—all the people wearing long sleeve navy shirts. Thanks for being on call at all times and making the event run smoothly.

I want to thank my fellow BT officers for their support. Vaasvi, thank you for the endless hours you dedicate to BT and all of your help and guidance in planning this conference.

To my assistant directors, Peter, Waqa, Natalia, Sam, and Mihika, thank you so much for your commitment to this conference for the past several months. Thank you for dealing with my hundreds of frantic emails and making this conference possible.

Shefali, thank you for being the most amazing chief-of-staff I could ask for. Thank you for all the time you spent making this event possible, managing our stellar staff, handling all of the crazy logistics, and keeping me sane throughout it all. It’s been amazing working with you, and I am so happy to call you one of my best friends. There is no way this conference could have happened without you.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for being here. Thank you for taking time out of your crazy schedule to come to New York, to ask probing questions, to contribute to the dialogue. I hope you all had an amazing weekend.