Spotlight #7: Sam Resendez

Thoughtful, eclectic, relaxed.

Meet Sam Resendez, a rising sophomore at the University of Southern California. This summer, he’s working as a software engineer at Thor Trucks, a technology company that aims to fix America’s broken transportation system. He’s Finnish and Mexican and beyond programming, he plays guitar and does gymnastics. Sam admires LA for its “underdog” vibe and hopes to gain as many different perspectives as possible during his fellowship. In the future, he hopes to become a big player in the Open Source community and even build his own firm.

What inspired you to explore startups and join a small company?

Mostly that there seems to be more room to learn a variety of things as compared to a larger company, and you get way closer with the people working on it with you.

What’s excites you most about working in LA?

It’s got that underdog kinda vibe, where all the hype may still be in Silicon Valley, but the amount growth and potential happening here is, well, really exciting, and I would love to be here as the startup microcosm grows into that potential.

What’s your favorite (non-work related) thing about LA?

Santa Monica and the food, for sure

What do you hope to get from this fellowship?

I want to meet all sorts of people that share a similar passion to myself, but have approached it from a vastly different direction.

What are your goals for the next 5 years?

As far as goals go, I think I’d like to become a big contributor to Open Source, and I’d like to work at some bigger firm just long enough to understand how things are run, and then go off and build my own. Also, I’d really want to give a talk at PyCon or something like that. I think that’d be fun!

Describe a perfect day in your life.

I think it would be any day spent road tripping with some friends and my dog, honestly. Maybe we’d be at the Colorado Arches or Lake Powell? I’m not too sure. But I think ideally it would be spent barbecuing and doing some of those adrenaline junkie activities, like building a ridiculously large rope swing or free climbing or wakeboarding. That’d be a good time.

Anything else you’d like people to know about you?

Not too much, honestly, I think the previous questions have the important things covered: I’m a giant nerd, I like traveling and the outdoors, and I’ve got a drive to try to make a positive impact during my lifetime. Cheers!

What’s your spirit animal and why?

A doggo, probably. It loves what it does, and enjoys the people it spends time with, but is also easily distractable and pretty silly a lot of the time.

Favorite food?

Seafood. All of it.

Vans or Converse?

Globes

Favorite TV show?

Psych, or House of Cards

What’s one misconception people have about you?

One that I struggle with fairly regularly is that people refuse to accept I speak multiple languages.

What’s your fun fact?

Kangaroos are the only large animal to use hopping as their primary form of locomotion

What’s your secret talent?

I can still (though with increasing difficulty) do the splits.