Dev Alimchandani '25 | Finance and Applied Computational; Mathematical Statistics

Why did you apply to work for  Race To Revenue? What are you hoping to get out of this experience? My team and I decided to participate in Race to Revenue to work on our startup for a concentrated period of time while also gaining valuable experience and knowledge from the other founders, speakers, coaches, and startups within the Idea Center's ecosystem. By the end of the summer, we hope that with the resources and help of the Idea Center, we will have developed our MVP and begun our beta test.

When is a time you failed forward? Like everyone, I have 'failed' on several occasions in my life to achieve what I set out to do, but I am grateful for these failures as they have forced me to analyze the areas in which I need to improve. A recent and extremely embarrassing example of this would be in a theatre production back home, where I forgot my lines in front of around 200 people in the audience. I stood there in silence for about two minutes, my brain completely frozen until the director had to effectively come on stage to prompt me with the next line. This failure initially made me apprehensive and fearful of the idea of public speaking, and as a passionate actor and elocutionist, this was a feeling I was not used to at all. However, I overcame this fear by changing the way I approached my preparation for both acting and public speaking in general, and I now have faith in my abilities to be able to adapt and improvise in any situation, and also now view speaking in public as an opportunity, rather than something to be afraid of.

Where were you born? What is an interesting fact about your hometown? I was born in Mumbai, India, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. I can't really pinpoint one specific fact about the city that I find particularly interesting, but the best part about Mumbai is that it is a bustling city full of financial, sporting, and cultural activity.

Would you rather go back in time or be transported to the future? I would rather go back in time than be transported to the future simply because I believe I could use my knowledge of the future to enhance my life if I traveled back in time, while if I were transported to the future, I would have to play catch up to get my self up to speed on the way that the world works around me.

Who is the fictional character you have the most in common with, and why? The fictional character that I believe I have the most in common with is Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes.

Lastly, what do you want to learn more about, relating to business development in general or your own company/venture specifically? I hope to learn more about the fundraising process and have been trying to improve my knowledge of presenting and speaking confidently with investors. I also have been understanding more about the financial and technical aspects of building a technology-based business, and I hope to continue developing this knowledge.

Fun Fact about you: A fun fact about me is that I can catch pretty much anything. If you throw something at me and it is objectively catchable, I have full faith that I will catch it without fail.