It was a typical Friday evening in Spring 2014 when Sandeep received a phone call from Kaushik while doing his laundry at UCLA. At first, Sandeep was surprised at Kaushik calling him at that point, as Kaushik had just reached India and was making an international call. Beyond all the small talk and usual discussions about Chennai, they both knew that there must be a bigger reason for the call.
That is when Kaushik mentioned that his dad’s friends had called him and asked him to talk to their kids about education abroad and provide mentorship and advice to their kids. While they were both sure that every student who left India to study abroad would be inundated with requests to provide advice to others, they got talking further and realized that many students don’t actually have anywhere else to go for this type of advice. Even career counselors can only provide advice on how to get into a college but not answer the broader and more holistic question of how to choose what to do in one's career in the biomedical sciences, rather than just 'end up' in an area for lack of a better choice. They then decided to bring their old classmate, Harshvardhan, into the discussion and realized over Skype that all three were clueless about career options five years ago in high school… This made them realize that there was a real knowledge gap that could be met- and that they could be people playing a role in meeting this gap. They immediately got very excited and started brainstorming ideas…..and this conversation gave birth to Incubate.
That is when Kaushik mentioned that his dad’s friends had called him and asked him to talk to their kids about education abroad and provide mentorship and advice to their kids. While they were both sure that every student who left India to study abroad would be inundated with requests to provide advice to others, they got talking further and realized that many students don’t actually have anywhere else to go for this type of advice. Even career counselors can only provide advice on how to get into a college but not answer the broader and more holistic question of how to choose what to do in one's career in the biomedical sciences, rather than just 'end up' in an area for lack of a better choice. They then decided to bring their old classmate, Harshvardhan, into the discussion and realized over Skype that all three were clueless about career options five years ago in high school… This made them realize that there was a real knowledge gap that could be met- and that they could be people playing a role in meeting this gap. They immediately got very excited and started brainstorming ideas…..and this conversation gave birth to Incubate.