We have narrowed our finalists for the Dave McClure Shadow position to 15 all-star candidates. They come from over 5 different countries, 14 different universities, and all share an exceptional interest in entrepreneurship, technology, and pushing ideas to the next level.
On May 1st they were tasked with the challenge of telling Dave why they should be his shadow and to use interesting social media channels to convey the message.
While the competition got heated responding to Dave’s Quora post, the applications themselves are mind-blowing. Enjoy some of the most creative job applications I have ever seen (ps if you are looking to hire someone for your startup, this is a pretty good place to start).
Mimi Newton:
Mimi is finishing her first year as an MBA at the University of Chicago. She hustled to get Mark Suster’s opinion on whether this shadow position could truly launch her career better than an MBA. Now she wagers that if gets the position and this is truly the case that she will drop out and go and do a startup. See her Startup Analytics for Vampires slideshow to see how her ability to listen, learn and take action has contributed to numerous startups already.
Stefano Bernardi:
Hailing form Rome, Stefano has helped galvanize the Italian startup community as an active blogger, writer for TC Europe, hacker and startup founder, and is now an analyst for a leading Italian VC firm. In his application he presents a re-worked Startup Metrics for Pirates slideshow, a shadowing Dave term sheet, and a blog post that sums it all up. His post on Quora got over 150 up votes and sits atop the responses.
Ronald Angsiy:
Is a student at Indiana University who wants to create a college startup network that encourages top students to forgo bigger companies and explore tech startups. Using Final cut pro, Wordle, Adobe Premiere, Camtasia, Animoto, Prezi, Powerpoint, and more he made this powerful video that leaves a strong impression.
Johnson Nakano:
A current junior at Cal Poly Johnson has a hunger for learning and entrepreneurship. He designed a simple, clear and down right beautiful presentation and has already started a few companies including MyCollegeLoop.com in his free time.
Austin Bowlin:
Better known for his twitter alias, Startup Paparazzi created more buzz/controversy than anyone else in this campaign. Getting RTs from Robert Scoble, Dave Schappell and more is an impressive feat for a student. After being called a spam bot by some and a G by others he did what any good entrepreneur would do — pivoted and summed up what he learned in an awesome blog post.
Jennifer Turliuk:
Is an active Canadian entrepreneur. She is the Founder and President of the Young Entrepreneurs Club in Canada, ran Canada’s largest business competition, was featured in the NYT, and spends her free time as a DJ and extreme sports enthusiast.
Corey Hoffstein
Corey is a passionate hacker. After getting a CS degree from Cornell, Corey got a masters at CMU’s Tepper School of Business and built Newfound Research which develops new financial models using CS algorithms. His blog post is simple and witty, and he demonstrated his leadership skills by bringing the 15 finalists into an email group that is already churning out new ideas and possibly new companies.
Greg Mathews:
Serial entrepreneur and student at San Jose State majoring in software engineering. Greg was an intern at Intel before helping create and develop content for Hacker Dojo, and more recently starting Testt.me a site to help SJSU students improve their studying. Snagging Davemccluresshadow.com definitely gets a big +1. Greg made a cool website and has a stand out hacker profile.
Andrew Swiler:
Is a former lawyer who converted to a blogger and entrepreneur after realizing he had chosen the wrong career path. In Barcelona he worked with Brote International helping startups find capital and launch. Recently he moved to San Francisco with an interest in the edu tech space. His blog posts include predictions for the next big startup out of Spain!
Crystal Cyan:
Crystal has written some great blog posts, but mainly she is doing BIG things on Quora! Crystal is an Amherst student who has done more things on campus than seems possible. She works as a designer and marketing specialists for multiple non-profits on campus, she hosted a highly successful social entrepreneurship summit and this summer she is interning for Wednesdays a hot startup in the 500 startups accelerator. Ambitious, creative, and an upbeat personality.
Krishna Nandigam:
Krishna graduated from the University of Michigan and is now attending the Wharton School of Business. She created this website and wrote this snarky post to apply.
Stephen McInnis:
Stephen just graduated from High School and is headed for Purdue, with a life goal of becoming an F-18 pilot. His cover letter for the initial application may have been the best we saw — crisp, witty, and demonstrated knowledge about Dave and his portfolio companies. His recent twitter and www.davesshadow.com application do the same.
Daniel Marienthal
Is a digital media student in Stockholm. He has a lot in common with Ferris Bueller and wants to use technology make the world more fun. He won a HS film festival in 2008, developed the “Luke Soundwalker” iPhone app in 2010 and brings creativity and talent to all the projects he works on.
Luke Richter:
Luke Richter is a senior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo majoring in Business, Marketing and Entrepreneurship. He is the president and founder of the Cal Poly entrepreneurship club, and won the CalPoly Venture competition with his company SC Lights. His application combines design, crisp content writing and strong personality.
Jason Martin:
Made an awesome blog post, tied to a QR Coupon and Facebook app that turns his shadow application into a buzz machine. Jason is graduating with a degree in entrepreneurship from the University of North Dakota this spring and is currently working on a new web startup called The Sky District.
Chris Yin:
A serial entrepreneur who turned his house into a profitable coffee shop at age 15 and who made a successful tutoring and note sharing company in college. He has since started Pathway Ventures in San Diego and designed a slick video/blog for his app.
