IDEA’s New CEO — Elizabeth Cavallo Takes Up the Torch
Elizabeth Cavallo is the 11th Altschuler-Meyer CEO of IDEA Venture Accelerator, for the 2020–2021 year, leading a team of 45 people. She’s a senior at Northeastern University and has been heavily involved with the NU entrepreneurial ecosystem. Cavallo is a Marketing and Experience Design combined major, with a minor in Entrepreneurial Engineering.
Stumbling into Entrepreneurship
When asked how she ended up leading IDEA, Elizabeth Cavallo admitted she did not come into college with the mindset of getting involved in the entrepreneurial community, yet feels lucky and excited to have found her way here. When she first came to Northeastern, Elizabeth was solely a Marketing major. While she enjoyed learning and interacting with other business majors, she learned that it is unrealistic to assume that disciplines work independently. In reality, it’s important to have different perspectives and skills. This realization inspired her to add on Experience Design to her combined major and pursue the Entrepreneurial Engineering minor, allowing her to get a taste of 3 fields of study. After that switch, she was introduced to Generate and Scout, which, like IDEA, are part of Mosaic, the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem at Northeastern. Over the next three years, Cavallo worked with both organizations. With Scout, the student-led design studio, she was Logistics Coordinator for the inaugural Interventions Conference and later rejoined as the Conference Lead. Cavallo interacted with lots of IDEA ventures and founders in these roles, as they are often clients of Scout. She discovered her passion for the entrepreneurial community as she found that she loved spending 30+ hours a week working with its members and making a difference. She also went to work in Operations at Generate, the student-led product development studio. To fulfill her role, she interviewed members of Generate to understand the processes in place and build a system that would last past her time working there. It led her to ultimately go on to become Outreach Director for a year, before her work at Generate introduced her to IDEA’s former CEO, Abhishek Balakrishnan, who asked her about her interest in joining the IDEA team and possibly leading it. When the question was posed to her, Cavallo realized she didn’t know much about IDEA; all she knew was that it was the orange, glowing box in the basement of Hayden Hall at Northeastern. After careful consideration, dozens of conversations, and thorough research, she ultimately accepted the role in early March. Then circumstances quickly changed as the pandemic hit. Although this wasn’t how she envisioned her path forward, it would soon become an inspiring journey nonetheless.
11 Year Goals
Cavallo’s vision for her term is, “To empower a diverse community of remarkable people, providing resources to allow innovation to come from anywhere.” The goals for the upcoming year include developing a culture of resilience, redefining experiences and authenticity in the digital world, promoting empowerment from within, supporting a more diverse and inclusive environment, and spreading resource awareness. As an “outsider” who had never been directly involved in IDEA before and then came in to lead the organization, Cavallo hopes to bring a new perspective supported by lots of research and interviews to understand IDEA and its operations.
Interestingly enough, many IDEA members and alumni told Cavallo that at the heart of the organization was Connor’s, a near-campus bar that was a frequent hang for many students, staff, and faculty. From going to Connor’s to hanging out in the Hayden lab, having a genuine human interaction with community members was a highlight of working with IDEA. With virtual meetings and social distancing, and the recent closure of the iconic bar, creating authentic and meaningful engagement presents a more significant challenge than it was before, so that is a large focus for the future while keeping safe.
Along with the general shifts to how IDEA operates in these times, there’s also the question of how to keep up morale, a challenge that Cavallo decided to face by focusing on storytelling. By elevating the stories and experiences of those involved in the program, and reminding everyone why we’re here. What IDEA does is essential to the community and has the power to change lives — working to help all those who come to IDEA to pick themselves back up, keep moving forward, do what needs to be done and be resilient, especially at a time like this. When Northeastern first shut down, many were wondering if IDEA would still function during this time and the immediate answer was yes. What IDEA does matters, and the team cannot stop providing resources, and supporting founders. Even during these past few months, $82,000 in Gap Funding has been allocated, and 11 ventures have been launched, giving purpose to those who are part of and touched by the community.
“IDEA is here to elevate our ventures and help tell the story of entrepreneurship. Because every pathway is different and recognizing the incredibly cool people that we work with every single day helps improve morale and uplift those involved with the program.” — Elizabeth Cavallo
Cavallo is also planning to implement feedback loops at all organization levels in order to empower people to make a difference themselves, so that not just the leaders can instigate change as ‘we are all in this together’. Her Experience Design background encourages asking, learning, and integrating, which are especially crucial in a student-lead organization. Everything done has a ripple effect, so there needs to be an intention behind actions and it’s crucial to make sure everyone in the community is heard. Along with the goal of empowering community members, Cavallo has always wanted to focus more of her plans and efforts on Diversity and Inclusion, especially since this year has brought forth such systematic issues in our society. While being part of different Northeastern Entrepreneurship community sections, she had already seen areas for improvement. As a female CEO, she wasn’t going to let herself be a token idol or hollow gesture. While working on thoughtfully making a systematic change, she realized she could make an impact by enlightening people about IDEA. Even though IDEA is the largest student-led venture accelerator in the country, people aren’t always fully aware of what it provides. Resource delivery, awareness, and allocation will help everyone get a chance to get involved in the entrepreneurship community regardless of the mold they fit. In fact, while IDEA has always been open to anyone who seeks it out, there will be an emphasis this year on the work done with underappreciated groups, and listening before acting.
While Elizabeth’s goals may seem ambitious, they are great places to start igniting change. These are uncertain times, where trying new things can have a lasting effect. With all of these goals in mind, we can’t wait to see what else is in store for the IDEA Management Team and ventures in 2020–2021!
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