This Week @ The Garage SF (1/7)
This weekly newsletter serves Northwestern alumni in the SF Bay Area and is meant to be interactive. If you have job openings, upcoming events, or any “gives” or “asks” of the community, email me to include your post in next week’s newsletter.
Happy new year and welcome back to The Garage SF’s weekly newsletter! As a reminder, The Garage SF is Northwestern’s new initiative to connect and support alumni working in Tech in the SF Bay Area. If you’d like to learn more, email me here.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Monday 1/13/20, 5-7pm: Northwestern is hosting a networking and keynote event titled New Frontiers in Synthetic Biology. RSVP here.
Tuesday 1/21/20, 7-9pm: The Garage SF is hosting a second Founders Dinner & Discussion. This intimate gathering is for founders of companies in all stages and industries to meet each other and discuss fundraising, recruitment, and other pressing issues. If interested in participating, sign up here (only if you haven’t already).
Thursday 1/23/20, 6-8pm: Northwestern Connects 2020 (San Francisco). Northwestern Connects is a series of networking events held on the same night in cities across the globe. You can view the attendee list here and RSVP here.
JOBS / OPPORTUNITIES
An early stage medical device company founded by an NU alum is currently seeking a co-founder / CTO. If you have a referral or are interested in learning more, please respond to this email.
Plenty, co-founded by Matt Barnard (’95), is hiring across Engineering, Finance, Hardware, Logistics, Marketing, and Farm Operations teams. Apply here.
Affirm's Product Marketing team is looking for an Enablement team leader and Product Marketing Managers. Email Josh Brower (’11) at josh.brower@affirm.com if you are interested.
GIVES
AdvisorSmith, founded by Justin Saeheng (Kellogg ’16), provides comprehensive research and advanced tools to better understand insurance for your business. You can check out some of their free data analyses & studies here.
SAP.iO’s SF Foundry program is accepting applications for Seed through Series C companies focused on Travel & Expense innovation. Foundry takes no equity and provides a 3.5 month in-residence program with mentorship, access to SAP executives/API’s/400,000+ customers, and workspace. Founders can apply here by 1/24.
5 QUESTIONS WITH JOHN GEARY (’15), CO-FOUNDER OF ABODU
1. How did Northwestern prepare you for starting a company?
“Northwestern does an amazing job providing a collaborative atmosphere for students to learn and grow. As an Industrial Engineering student, Northwestern taught me how to break down complex problems with simple, easy to understand solutions - something that is at the core of the value Abodu provides.”
2. What does Abodu do?
“Abodu works with a network of housing factories to build well-designed Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs for short), constructed offsite and installed in homeowner backyards through a simple 2-week process. Abodu offers an end-to-end experience, handling permitting, construction, and install for homeowners looking for more living space or rental income.”
3. What was the genesis of the idea for Abodu?
“Abodu was developed as a way to rapidly add housing in high-living-cost areas. California legalized ADUs for backyards state-wide in 2017 (6,000 ADUs were built in 2018!) and no-one was serving the new market at scale. We believed there was an opportunity to provide a seamless homeowner experience through removing construction from the backyard and tackling permitting in a programmatic way.”
4. What stage is Abodu at?
“We are a seed stage company, with product in market for 3 months, and 8 projects underway (with more in the pipeline!). We've made our first hire and are actively hiring for additional roles.”
5. How can the Northwestern community in the Bay Area support you and Abodu?
“Our founding team is comprised of first-time founders, and we're always looking for experienced folks to help with day to day guidance. Also if you own any single family rental properties, ADUs are the perfect way to increase rental capacity!”
Go ‘Cats,
Mike Raab ’12
Director, The Garage SF
mike.raab@u.northwestern.edu