Meet the Advocados
As we’ve been grinding for a little over a month now, I thought that you should get to know the amazing folks behind Advo and why we are doing what we are.
*To make sure this post continues to stay fresh, we’re going to keep it as an open draft, updating it as we learn more about ourselves and add new members to the group.
Why we exist
Advice columns today are warped. We’re stuck between listicles about what career spirit animals we are (?!) and “real adults” on LinkedIn telling us that following our passions is all we need to be successful. What about what we actually go through on a day-to-day basis? At Advo, we strive to make sense of the actual underpinnings of how to be a functional, productive human being (read: adulting). Whether that’s advice on personal finance to dating to work etiquette, we’re here for you. We work on well-researched life advice without the pretentiousness, and we share opinions from the heart.
We hope to be the publication version of a best friend. At times, we are straightforward and offer advice based on what we’ve learned and researched; other times, we’re sulking/laughing/brainstorming with you and offering our opinions on the world. Example pieces:
Who we are
Let’s start with what we look like from a bird’s-eye view and then who we actually are as individuals.
- We are a team of 15, all in our 20's.
- We are spread out across 7 cities: New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Washington D.C., Dallas, and Seoul. Half the team is living in NYC.
- We are split gender-wise with 8 females and 7 males, of varying sexual orientations and beliefs.
- During the day, we are Poets and Venture Capitalists, Physics Teachers and PhD Candidates, Management Consultants and Bankers, Writers and Baristas, and Founders and CEOs.
- A few schools we received degrees from (whew) include MIT, Columbia, Rice, Wellesley, UCLA, Harvard, and Stanford.
- A few companies we currently work at include Google, National Geographic, and Blackrock. About a quarter of us have started our own companies.
Team roster, sorted alphabetically and topped off with fun facts (my apologies for shamelessly bragging about the team):
- Claudine Cho — she’s produced dozens of public art exhibits and started a podcast on the importance of heartbreak.
- Devlin Cooper — the king of typewriter poetry (has exhibited internationally) and somehow eats an average of one cucumber a day.
- Jennifer Ding—entrepreneur applying machine learning to tackle daily life struggles — like finding parking. Songwriter and aspiring salsa dancer at night.
- Tara Gupta — able to juggle both art and computer science, she’s a woodworking expert and directs music videos in her free time.
- Michael Haskins — our resident physicist who lays down knowledge at conferences and in high school classrooms alike.
- Lance Katigbak — a bourbon enthusiast and photographer who probably has more airline points than all of us combined.
- Jeesoo Lee — the group curator of amazing restaurants; an investor in people by day and a writer by night.
- Grace Lin — a master frisbee slinger who loves honey mustard and a software engineer who moonlights as a fiction writer and political blogger.
- Ritish Patnaik — in addition to being a former science fair champion and a current PhD candidate, he is the encyclopedia of sports knowledge.
- Kay Rodriguez — a media junkie on the weekdays and a world traveler on the weekends, who finds the craziest flight deals.
- Patrick Siaw-Asamoah — a financier by day, he somehow finds time to stay ahead of any design/fashion trend. Don’t try playing him at squash.
- Brian Truong — somehow accepted as a member of this group 🙏🏼
- Viroopa Volla — an expert at food production and distribution, her former bosses at McKinsey would turn to her for recommendations on pairing wines.
- Amber Wang — a dancer whose crew won World of Dance and a mechanical engineer/designer at heart.
- Anthony Zhang — our resident college dropout who has already sold his first company and rides waves out in LA.
Also, thank you to our guest contributors: Emily Wenner, Tuongvan Le, Aakash Ravi, and Jewon Sohn.
I know what you’re thinking — we’re a pretty eligible crew (phone numbers by request 😉).
In all seriousness, though, we pride ourselves on having the best people around, and we’re constantly learning from one another. If you’re interested in joining the team or submitting a piece, please shoot us an email at mediumadvo@gmail.com, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Much Love,
Advo
