Chasing Your Moonshots Young: A Student’s Perspective
SkyDeck DeCal Startup, Stroll, Reflects on Journey as Student Founders
This summer I had the incredible opportunity of being a marketing intern at Berkeley SkyDeck. Having an opportunity to hear from founders about their innovative ideas inspires me to work towards bringing my own business idea to fruition in the future. As students, we are often told that we are too inexperienced or young to have a seat at the table, but that has never been the case here at SkyDeck. SkyDeck has provided college-age students with opportunities to get a head start on testing out business ideas and learning about the tech ecosystem.
Joseph Jin and Jessica Wang, cofounders of Stroll, are one such example. Starting from the SkyDeck Decal class, they took their business idea and have turned it into a full-fledged startup. I wanted to better understand their journey as undergraduate founders here at Cal and caught up with them for a virtual interview. Read on to learn more about what they had to say.
Harjap: What is Stroll and how did you come about the idea?
Joseph: Stroll is a data-centric navigation app that enables you to map the safest walk to your destination. Going to school in Berkeley we, naturally, hear stories every week about someone getting mugged or assaulted and these people were our roommates, friends, and classmates. Our teammate, Daniel, was actually stabbed one day while just walking down the street, and it took months for him to heal. You hear so many of these first-hand stories. For instance, there was a girl living two floors below me who was chased at night by a homeless man. Hearing all of these encounters made us very aware of the danger around us, but there’s not always much we can do.
This feeling of helplessness drove us to create a program students could use to take the safest route home whether it was day or night. Our goal was to ultimately lessen the amount of crime-related stories we hear every day, and that was the biggest motivation behind Stroll.
Harjap: That’s amazing! I know you first came up with the idea as students of the SkyDeck DeCal class, what made you decide to sign up, and how did you hear about it?
Joseph: I grew up in Austin, Texas and there I only ever heard stories about the famous Bay Area known for its startup culture. When I decided to go to UC Berkeley I knew I really wanted to get involved in that sphere. When looking for business and entrepreneurship-related opportunities at Cal, SkyDeck’s name popped up more than a few times and that’s how we learned about the DeCal. The DeCal offered knowledge about everything imaginable in the startup realm and mentioned acceptance into SkyDeck’s incubator program for the team that won the pitch competition at the end of the semester. For me, that was the opportunity of my dreams and so I took the class, learned the basics, and we got into SkyDeck following our winning pitch.
Harjap: Throughout the DeCal what motivated you to keep working harder on this unique idea? What was the thought process that led you to eventually winning the pitch competition?
Jasmine: We realized that our Stroll, and the idea behind it, was going to leave a tangible impact in the community, especially since everyone relates in knowing how unsafe Berkeley can be. This really motivated us to create a product that would help people solve this issue that we face in our day-to-day lives in Berkeley, which definitely pushed us during the process of the SkyDeck DeCal.
Harjap: So once you guys were accepted into HotDesk (recently renamed Pad-13), how did you feel being the youngest founders amongst the more seasoned entrepreneurs?
Joseph: Honestly it felt amazing. At first, we were like “Wow, this is awesome!”, and then one-by-one challenges kept presenting themselves that we needed to overcome. Overall, it was still an incredible learning experience, especially, due to how talented and helpful everyone is at SkyDeck. It was definitely quite daunting at first because you go in with little experience and you’re instantly surrounded by all of these veterans in the incubator. They all know what they’re doing and have done it before but, naturally, everybody has to start somewhere. Learning is never a shameful process, we have to use a growth mindset and pick up whatever information we can whenever we can. Also, SkyDeck does an amazing job teaching in a way that works for everyone.
Harjap: I’m sure you felt intimidated in the beginning, how did you see your confidence grow over time?
Jasmine: Personally, it was very intimidating for me in the beginning, but I quickly realized that this is something everyone goes through, especially in a place like Berkeley. We believed in our mission so deeply and that constantly reminded us that we are not doing something that’s superficial or insignificant. The concept of Stroll offers a tangible solution designed to help so many people which motivated me through that intimidation. Everyone goes through that initial nervousness, it’s part of the journey.
Harjap: Yes, I can imagine it was likely overwhelming at times, being a student and a founder at the same time. What personally helped you combat that?
Joseph: It was definitely not always easy, but we were always motivated to keep pushing forward by going back to the idea itself. We wanted to make Berkeley a safer place for everyone from staff to students at Berkeley. Even in the early days of my freshmen year, I was aware of the dangers on and around campus. From the beginning, we knew that if this worked, we would be adding immense value to the world that would impact people in a notable, positive way. When you realize that you are actually creating something of that much value it constantly pushes you to keep going.
Furthermore, we have an amazing team of four engineers and six people on marketing and they are extremely motivated. They all want to do something impactful in this world and that’s what Berkeley is all about. They have this desire to make something of their own to push change in the world. That kind of motivation and drive is infectious and we’re so lucky that it’s shared by everyone on our team.
Harjap: Looking back at your journey, what was the biggest highlight and the biggest lowlight of it all?
Jasmine: My biggest highlight was the incredible feeling of gratitude right after we pitched. We were all so excited and satisfied with our work even if we didn’t win. It was so fulfilling to have had the opportunity to work with like-minded individuals who all shared the same dream. Even with our freshmen, it’s so rewarding to see them going above and beyond in the projects I assign them. Throughout the journey, there have been many small highlights but that one will always stand out in my mind.
Joseph: For me, the greatest highlights were always when we were working on the computer algorithm for the actual route generation. I would first integrate the front end with the back end and when it finally generated an amazing route it would be absolutely amazing. The feeling of seeing the generation of this unique route is incomparable because it solidified how tangible this project was. On the other hand, I would be extremely miserable when doing code reviews, seeing like 15 different merge conflicts. Moments like those were also important because they made the highlights infinitely better.
Harjap: Absolutely, that’s amazing! Lately, Stroll has made great strides in the field, looking back, is there any advice that you wish you were given early in your startup journey?
Jasmine: Personally, this wasn’t a challenge for us, but I think what matters the most is finding a solid team of people who are equally if not more invested in the success of the project. I’m so grateful that we were able to curate a group of people from varying backgrounds. It’s crucial to remember to not settle for anything less than the best team to truly support the growth of your startup.
Harjap: Lastly, what advice would you give to students that were once in your position of having an idea that they wanted to materialize but didn’t know how or where to start?
Joseph: Keep on persisting. It sounds cliche but that’s the most important thing you could ever do for any idea that you have. There are a countless number of times when you’re going to want to give up, but you have to rely on discipline when motivation falters. Especially going to a school like Berkeley, you are faced with countless opportunities to bring your ideas to fruition. Taking that initiative is very important. Do you have an idea? Do you want to execute it? Then take the initiative and just go for it.
Harjap Sandhu is a sophomore studying Economics and Public Health at UC Berkeley.
