Here’s How Pando is Helping Me Help Others
When I was a kid, my family immigrated from Argentina for a better life. My parents instilled in me a strong work ethic, and our move instilled in me a restlessness to help others. However, I always struggled between having financial security and taking risks to do what I’m passionate about.
While in high school, I realized the U.S. offers entrepreneurs and small business owners the economic opportunity to build something themselves. Though the U.S. is my home, Argentina is my motherland and I wanted to help fix the economic problems that plagued Argentina and forced my family to leave. My mission became to gain the skills to develop economic opportunities and support entrepreneurs and small business owners.
That’s how I ended up studying Economics and Business at Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania as an undergrad and deciding to go into impact investing. Unfortunately, I was having trouble landing a job in that field, despite my internships at the World Bank and in Congress, because I had “passion but need investment banking training” which is ultimately how I ended up at Lazard (much to my friend’s surprise — she thought I was “the last person who would go into investment banking!”).
It was a grueling two years. I worked 80–100 hour weeks and spent all of that time stuck on the 61st floor of the Rockefeller Center in New York City.
Still, even in my hardest weeks, I would look out the window past midnight at the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty and realize how lucky I was that my parents made that sacrifice. It made my nights a little less grueling.
These long nights were all worth it when I switched to Social Impact Private Equity at a firm called Developing World Markets, investing in businesses that worked with low-income customers in the emerging markets, including Latin America and South and Central Asia. I was finally having the impact I’d always wanted. I traveled the world (in coach) and got to see firsthand how my investments improved the lives of low-income customers. These customers would tell me how the work we did helped them send their kids to school, buy a house, or grow their businesses. I still remember one female entrepreneur in Peru telling me the story of how she needed a way to send her kids to school but had no way to make money, so she requested her first loan to buy a single cow. Now, she proudly showed us her large herd on a vast farmland and her several side businesses that kept her busy while the herd grazed. This, I thought, is why I got into this — to use my skills and passion to create opportunities for others.
However, I realized I wanted to have a more direct impact — not only investing in and advising other businesses but building my own — and that the only way was by becoming a founder myself. I would be able to gain insight from others to charter my own path toward greater impact.
The first thing I did was go back to the University of Pennsylvania to get an MBA from Wharton and a Masters in International Studies with the Lauder Institute. The second thing I did was to land a job at Microsoft at a time when it was going through transformational change so I could learn how a massive organization works, how top executives function, and witness the way a well-established machine navigates daily operations. Four years later, I founded my first company: AeroShield Labs.
At AeroShield Labs, we’re developing a replacement for traditional masks, that are not like masks at all. Think of us as the Apple Watch, but for protecting you from airborne disease. More protection, more style, and more comfort without the issues of a traditional mask (facial irritation, glass fogging, inability to see someone’s lips). We founded this company as Public Benefit Corp (PBC) since we want to make sure we have a long-term positive impact on all our stakeholders — customers, community, environment, and investors.
I’m excited every day to climb another learning curve, get stuff done, and learn from others. I quickly got the entrepreneurship bug, and I’m hoping this is the first of many startups.
I actually found out about Pando through Miguel Armaza, a fellow Wharton/Lauder student, while he was interning there. Pando, he told me, offers founders and athletes the ability to join a like-minded pool and commit a percentage of their future income to be shared equally among all pool members. It’s a way for ambitious individuals to invest in one another and mitigate income volatility. I then spoke to Pando’s co-founder, Eric Lax, with my concern that some pool participants wouldn’t contribute to the pool once their startups became successful, but Eric shared that Pando had spent over a year building out a thorough legal process that would prevent that from happening. From there, I was sold.
I first thought of Pando the way I think about World Cup soccer betting pools. I always root for Argentina, but I always bet against them. If Argentina wins, I am too happy to care whether I make or lose money. If Argentina loses, I am devastated, but at least I have a few extra bucks in my pocket.
I later realized that Pando is even better than these World Cup pools.
No matter what happens with my startup, I’m always going to end up winning. If my startup doesn’t do well, I get to share in the success of my fellow poolmates — success that I helped create. If my startup takes off, I get to share my success with the other entrepreneurs in the pool — those that are teaching me and helping me build my company.
Pando combines many of my passions — entrepreneurship, helping others, and community — with the financial security that gives me the freedom to take more risks and do what I’m passionate about. I’m excited to share in this upcoming journey with Pando and all of my poolmates.
