Name: Cory Bolotsky (visit his personal website here)
Year at NU: Junior (4th year)
Major: Business Administration – Entrepreneurship
Hometown: Manalapan, NJ
What does entrepreneurship mean to you?
I genuinely feel that entrepreneurship is the single key to economic growth and global competitiveness. If you look at every single thing that you purchase today, there was once a startup and an idea that came out of someone’s garage which built that company. What I love about working with startups is that every entrepreneur I work with truly feels that they have the power to change the world – and they do. It’s awesome!
How did you get involved with the Entrepreneurs Club at Northeastern?
Freshman year I went to my first Entrepreneurs Club meeting and really loved what was going on. At that time, the club was a lot smaller and the speakers were a bit lower quality than today, but it was still a great community.
I first got involved in the Husky Startup Challenge fall of my freshman year, and then launched a new program that spring called Reach. After that, I became director of the Husky Startup Challenge and now work with the club as Director of Strategy.
What was your experience like at MassChallenge? What made you realize you wanted to work with startups?
Working at MassChallenge has been the greatest opportunity I’ve ever had. I’ve worked with the company for 3 years now and have really been able to grow with the company including my most recent role as Co-Founder and Director of Operations for MassChallenge Israel.
I started my first company when I was 14 and have always been excited about entrepreneurship. When I got to school in Boston and saw everything going on in the city’s startup community, I felt at home. I’m excited that I’m now deeply involved in the city’s innovation economy.
What are you favorite things about the HC National team?
As many HC readers know, for about 2 years the national team worked out of MassChallenge, so I was often responsible for helping make sure things were going well. In true Her Campus form, the girls added a lot of fun to the office (their Kickboard Scooters were often used to ‘scoot’ around the office until a few entrepreneurs raced against each other and one broke her wrist), and of course some surprises (the UPS delivery guy came to the office one day a bit overwhelmed when the HC team got a delivery of a few thousand Kotex tampons). With all of that aside, Stephanie, Windsor, Annie and the whole team are an awesome group of entrepreneurs that I’m proud to say are MassChallenge alumni!
What inspired you to launch Startup Summer?
I realized that there were a ton of startups I spoke to who were trying to figure out how to get undergraduates to intern for their company, and there were even more students who I spoke to that wanted to get internships at startups. The process of matching these together seemed broken and I wanted to setup a way to help my friends get amazing internship experiences in Massachusetts. It turned out to be an awesome program but there is still a lot more that needs to be done to connect talented students with high-growth startups in the Greater Boston Area.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
If you were to ask me that question 5 years ago I would have told you a completely different person then who I am today so I’m honestly not sure. I’ll definitely be in Boston still and probably working on building some sort of startup, but beyond that I have no idea. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
Photo Credit: Sam Crimmins, Boston Globe