Link to linkedin profile.
Link to Tousel.me
Link to slides.
Priya Dandawate is the founder of a startup company called Tousled.me (link). The app enables people to schedule beauty services in their home or some other location (at a place of work, or a wedding location) - like Uber for beauty. The services include hair, makeup and more! She is one of the founders, and currently is the CEO and Software Engineer of the company.
When Priya was in high school she liked many subjects, especially science subjects. She was accepted into an engineering program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne. When she was accepted to the university she was planning on studying civil engineering. Priya confessed that she got a 1 in AP Computer Science, but she didn't let this put her off trying computer science again when she got to college. However when she was in college she took a couple of computing classes and found that she liked it. She worked hard in her classes, calculus was hard but she stuck with it because she started to figure out that she loved what technology could do - she loves the connected aspect of CS and technology - the idea that you have technology in your pocket that can connect you with anyone and everything is amazing.
Priya highly recommends traveling as a student. Before going to college she took a gap year and spent it in Germany. She found a gap program online that offered programs abroad and funding to make it happen. She had had already been accepted to University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, before she'd planned the gap year, however when she asked them if she could defer her start date for one year - they said yes! Priya also took advantage of studying a term abroad in college and went to Thailand. These travel experiences have been invaluable in numerous ways to her, especially giving her a global perspective on many things.
While Priya was at university studying Computer Science she earned money by working in a beauty salon. She learned all about the salon business while working their part-time, and became aware of how much money could be made from the products and services in a salon, and what kinds of challenges customers had in finding the time to come in for their appointments. She enjoyed the experience of working at the salon, but at the time she was studying for a Computer Science degree so didn't think about the experience beyond a college job.
During her undergrad degree program she completed a couple of internships as a software developer. One year she was recruited by Microsoft for an internship for the summer. The internship at Microsoft as a program manager helped her understand how the classes she was taking at college actually got put into action in the real world of making products. She enjoyed her experience with Microsoft and when she graduated from college she took a full-time job with them. She really enjoyed her experience at Microsoft because it helped her learn the craft of developing products - she had great access to people to collaborate with and also have as mentors and advisers as she was starting out as a program manager. She also found the problems challenging yet she had the support to get the work done.
Priya says that between high school and starting college the number of choices of potential paths at college or what career to shoot for can be overwhelming, but don't worry because eventually you'll find your path. Its good to talk with people and find out what others might think, but trust your instinct in what you want to do. 0
The male/female ratios in her classes were about 200 males and 5 or so females. At times this felt challenging because it felt hard to figure out who would be her study group, but she figured it out. When she got to Microsoft the ratio was better.
After working for Microsoft for a 4-5 years she was starting to consider what might be her next move. A friend of her suggested the idea of a salon app, and once Priya started to think about what that could be she got very excited. Because of her experience of working at the beauty salon as a student in college she had lots of ideas of how the app could work. She found she couldn't sleep at night! So she and her friend started down the path of nurturing the idea. She was still at Microsoft when she started work on Tousled but eventually left to work on it full time. Tousled officially launched in 2015.
In her work she finds no day is the same, the tasks are varied. She has to consider the coding elements or how to upload and tag images, design the interface and flow of the experiences, and she has to deal with unknowns. She suffers from the impostor syndrome sometimes as she's a CEO and only 29 years old, but she gets through it. She has learned that things don't always go as planned, but she likes to reframe problems as opportunities to learn from. She likes to think about Thomas Edison and the light bulb, he could considered he failed 99 times to make a light bulb, or he could say he's discovered 99 ways you couldn't make a light bulb!
Priya tells students if they're interested in technology jobs to look to companies you gravitate too - what companies match your passions and interests in what they do, as that will fuel your excite for the work and set you up for a strong learning and growth path.
Link to Tousel.me
Link to slides.
Priya Dandawate is the founder of a startup company called Tousled.me (link). The app enables people to schedule beauty services in their home or some other location (at a place of work, or a wedding location) - like Uber for beauty. The services include hair, makeup and more! She is one of the founders, and currently is the CEO and Software Engineer of the company.
When Priya was in high school she liked many subjects, especially science subjects. She was accepted into an engineering program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne. When she was accepted to the university she was planning on studying civil engineering. Priya confessed that she got a 1 in AP Computer Science, but she didn't let this put her off trying computer science again when she got to college. However when she was in college she took a couple of computing classes and found that she liked it. She worked hard in her classes, calculus was hard but she stuck with it because she started to figure out that she loved what technology could do - she loves the connected aspect of CS and technology - the idea that you have technology in your pocket that can connect you with anyone and everything is amazing.
Priya highly recommends traveling as a student. Before going to college she took a gap year and spent it in Germany. She found a gap program online that offered programs abroad and funding to make it happen. She had had already been accepted to University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, before she'd planned the gap year, however when she asked them if she could defer her start date for one year - they said yes! Priya also took advantage of studying a term abroad in college and went to Thailand. These travel experiences have been invaluable in numerous ways to her, especially giving her a global perspective on many things.
While Priya was at university studying Computer Science she earned money by working in a beauty salon. She learned all about the salon business while working their part-time, and became aware of how much money could be made from the products and services in a salon, and what kinds of challenges customers had in finding the time to come in for their appointments. She enjoyed the experience of working at the salon, but at the time she was studying for a Computer Science degree so didn't think about the experience beyond a college job.
During her undergrad degree program she completed a couple of internships as a software developer. One year she was recruited by Microsoft for an internship for the summer. The internship at Microsoft as a program manager helped her understand how the classes she was taking at college actually got put into action in the real world of making products. She enjoyed her experience with Microsoft and when she graduated from college she took a full-time job with them. She really enjoyed her experience at Microsoft because it helped her learn the craft of developing products - she had great access to people to collaborate with and also have as mentors and advisers as she was starting out as a program manager. She also found the problems challenging yet she had the support to get the work done.
Priya says that between high school and starting college the number of choices of potential paths at college or what career to shoot for can be overwhelming, but don't worry because eventually you'll find your path. Its good to talk with people and find out what others might think, but trust your instinct in what you want to do. 0
The male/female ratios in her classes were about 200 males and 5 or so females. At times this felt challenging because it felt hard to figure out who would be her study group, but she figured it out. When she got to Microsoft the ratio was better.
After working for Microsoft for a 4-5 years she was starting to consider what might be her next move. A friend of her suggested the idea of a salon app, and once Priya started to think about what that could be she got very excited. Because of her experience of working at the beauty salon as a student in college she had lots of ideas of how the app could work. She found she couldn't sleep at night! So she and her friend started down the path of nurturing the idea. She was still at Microsoft when she started work on Tousled but eventually left to work on it full time. Tousled officially launched in 2015.
In her work she finds no day is the same, the tasks are varied. She has to consider the coding elements or how to upload and tag images, design the interface and flow of the experiences, and she has to deal with unknowns. She suffers from the impostor syndrome sometimes as she's a CEO and only 29 years old, but she gets through it. She has learned that things don't always go as planned, but she likes to reframe problems as opportunities to learn from. She likes to think about Thomas Edison and the light bulb, he could considered he failed 99 times to make a light bulb, or he could say he's discovered 99 ways you couldn't make a light bulb!
Priya tells students if they're interested in technology jobs to look to companies you gravitate too - what companies match your passions and interests in what they do, as that will fuel your excite for the work and set you up for a strong learning and growth path.