Editor’s note: IdeaStorm, the same competition that launched Charli Brady’s entrepreneurial journey, runs Oct. 13–20. Learn more by clicking HERE.
 

A poster placed on the T. Anne Cleary Walkway in the heart of the University of Iowa campus caught the eyes of Charli Brady during an otherwise mundane stroll to class. 

The message on the sign, promoting an IdeaStorm competition sponsored by the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC), combined with Brady’s follow through, altered the course of her collegiate career.

“I didn’t have anything better to do and I didn’t have a lot of ideas, but I was going to show up and pitch,” said Brady, a sophomore from Ankeny, Iowa.

Brady not only pitched at the late February competition, but she placed third and won $1,000 in seed funding for Pathway+, an idea that connects alumni to students to foster mentorship. 

“People lack career readiness coming out of college,” Brady said. “I’m a firm believer that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. We are connecting students to mentors to help accelerate their careers.”

Since that competition, Brady has taken her business idea to the undergraduate Startup Incubator in the Bedell Entrepreneurship Learning Laboratory where she is surrounded by like-minded peers.

“I’m a young entrepreneur, I don’t know everything, and I need to learn a lot more,” she said. “It’s beneficial to be in an environment where I can share common interests and struggles with people, and have these people understand me. We may be pursing different ventures, but there are a lot of similarities to how we approach things.”

Brady, who is majoring in finance and entrepreneurship, admits to undergoing several pivots with Pathway+, but nothing serious enough to zap her determination. She knows the facts that many ventures fail, and Brady says she has “a good level of delusion” to keep pushing forward.  

“In the long term, I will make decisions that benefit the business and benefit people,” she said. “I want to create the biggest net impact of helping people.”

With Pathway+, students and mentors are matched using MLS software based on career preference, personality, demographics, and organizations involvement. The idea is piloting now without technology with 30 University of Iowa alumni and 30 students.