Raven Entrepreneurs Discuss Inspiration and Empowerment

Sandman: My first real jobs were lifeguarding at Seven Oaks Swim and Tennis Club, washing dishes at the Angus Barn and waiting tables at Beasley’s Chicken and Honey in downtown Raleigh. These remain some of my favorite work memories. Attending Ravenscroft prepared me well for my time at Cornell University, where I studied business and hotel administration. After graduating, I moved to New York City to work as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, followed by strategy and venture capital at Warner Media. My first boss at Goldman, Phil Han, gave me some good advice during my first week at work. He said that no matter where you work or what you do — whether it's bussing tables or representing Fortune 500 clients as a partner in a multinational law firm — you will perform roughly the same 10 tasks every day. You are never going to like all 10. If you find yourself enjoying more than half of them, that’s a home run. This has certainly been true for me at Animal Capital: each day I get to manage and work with people I genuinely care about; I speak with start-up company founders who are excited about pursuing their passions; and I network with celebrities and other successful individuals that I have admired for most of the past 30 years! It definitely is not all champagne and roses, though. Raising money can be challenging, and deploying it in successful investments is even harder.

It was a little nerve-racking taking the leap from secure employment to working for myself. But my years at Ravenscroft and Cornell — as well as my time washing dishes, waiting tables and working nearly 24/7 in finance — gave me the confidence I needed to make the move, and I have not regretted it for a minute.

Dorsett: I studied psychology at WashU and enjoyed it, but after graduation, I decided to move to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to become fluent in Spanish. There, I worked at Danone in the Dairy Division for Latin America, gaining experience in marketing and market research. Along the way I fell in love with Argentine tango!

Upon returning to Raleigh, my Ravenscroft connection helped me to secure a job at the branding firm New Kind, where I stayed for five years as a Brand Researcher and Strategist. At New Kind we had a fantastic team culture and a variety of inspiring opportunities for personal development, including coaching.

In the meantime, my now-husband and I met at a tango class in Durham. When we moved to Zurich for his job, I decided to take the risk and pursue my budding passion for coaching. I got my certification and launched my business, offering a mix of in-person and online coaching. During the pandemic, I began to feel lonely working fully online, and that’s where the idea for Spirit Drivers Mastermind was born. My business partner and I wanted to provide a space for people to connect and support each other in their personal and professional development journeys.

Now I am excited to shift my focus to coaching high-performing teams at BCG in enhancing their communication, collaboration and sustainable working practices.

Scheier: Growing up in North Carolina, I always enjoyed spending time in nature, whether playing soccer, backpacking in the mountains or swimming at the beach. I let this interest direct my studies and eventually discovered that I could turn this passion into a career. After studying environmental science and economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I joined a start-up in Washington, D.C., that was bringing households and small businesses together to make money through what was quickly becoming the cheapest source of energy available: solar power. As the start-up grew and became more corporate, I became tired of helping household names like Amazon and Nationwide earn amazing returns from solar while everyday families sat on the sidelines paying too much for dirty energy. To learn more about the energy markets from top to bottom, I spent a few years doing independent consulting projects and advising clean energy start-ups around the world. I returned to North Carolina to see if my skills could be useful in the community where I grew up and was finding that there was plenty to do. Around this time, I discovered the key piece of science behind Emergi — the concept of embodied energy — and that was the moment that spurred me to turn my consulting business into an enterprise dedicated to helping everyone access clean energy. In early 2020, I enrolled in a master’s degree program at UNC; we went home for spring break and never returned to campus [due to the pandemic], but the UNC entrepreneurship ecosystem helped me bring a co-founder on board and formalize all this work into something actionable.

Sandman: I would say that the skill set that has proven to be the most valuable to me is recognizing the importance of surrounding myself with the right people, from friends and family to mentors, co-workers and investors. I firmly believe that you are only as good as the company you keep — my friends from Ravenscroft taught me that! The people I turn to for advice now are largely the same people I asked for advice when I was in first grade (Chase Bernhardt ’10 and Joseph Cline ’08)! It is critical to seek out people that have your best interests at heart and are willing to provide selfless, honest advice, even if it is not what you want to hear. They will push you to be the best version of yourself and, most importantly, keep you out of an echo chamber of your own thoughts, feelings and ideas about how things should work. Secondarily, always being curious, leaving myself open to new opportunities, asking questions and listening (not my naturally best skill, but I’m leaning into it).

Dorsett: As a coach, listening is one of the most vital skills. In his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey beautifully articulates this skill in the chapter titled “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.” Being fully present with people, actively listening with your ears, eyes and heart, is both transformative and healing. It allows for a deeper understanding of their thoughts and emotions, helping to create a safe and supportive environment for personal growth. I will continue working on this skill for the rest of my life.

Scheier: Curiosity. Any success I can claim to have achieved has come from taking seriously the idea that we can live in a sustainable world where the trade-offs common in our current system don’t need to be made. We can have affordable energy that is also clean. We can have a high standard of living that is also available to everyone.

As a scientist, I don’t believe this blindly. It took 10 years of continuous, principled inquiry to go from an initial question I had about the importance of energy to the key scientific insight that underlies Emergi. It will take another 30 years of innovation and execution before the transition to sustainable energy is complete, and we will continue to live with the system for much longer after that. We are charting a path into the unknown, and there are no rules beyond the laws of physics limiting what future we can create. I could not have made it even a year down this path without a belief in the scientific method and a deep desire to understand the truth of whether society could even achieve this incredible transformation. When I think about how little I knew at the beginning, it makes me realize how little I probably know now compared to what there is yet to learn, and that is extremely exciting.

Sandman: Honestly, my parents… I went to them with what I thought was a solid plan, with a path where I could deploy my skills with a reasonable chance of success. They typically are my harshest (they would say most honest) critics, and they provided positive and constructive feedback. This gave me the confidence to make the move.

At the end of the day, a decision like this is really personal. A good place to start is taking a hard look at your comfort with financial risk — or lack thereof. Financial risk is uncomfortable. It may be best to make the leap in stages rather than a single jump: perhaps you can begin pursuing your passion part-time before going all in. Be prepared to receive constructive advice and some negative feedback. Do solid research on the front end. Find people who have been successful in similar endeavors and reach out to them to find out what they got right and what went wrong. Don’t feel like you need to reinvent the wheel. As Mark Twain said, “There is no such thing as a new idea. … We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations.”

Dorsett: Starting a new venture can be nerve-racking, and having the support of loved ones is crucial. For me, the encouragement of my family, especially my husband, was invaluable. My advice is to build a support network by sharing your business idea with those closest to you and explaining why it’s important to you. Enroll them in your vision. Then, ask them for the specific support you need from them. By doing so, you can cultivate a team of supporters who will help you navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.

Scheier: I have been around entrepreneurs my entire life, studied entrepreneurship at school and worked with start-ups for most of my career. This made me extremely reluctant to become a “founder” — but confident in my ability to do so, if necessary. From the beginning, the idea that we could unlock so many benefits and solve so many issues by transitioning the lifeblood of our entire society to sustainable energy seemed so obvious that I was sure somebody was already working on it. After a decade trying to find these folks, I realized that plenty of people are trying, but very few are getting it right because it is hard. We are bogged down by so many legacy systems that even the most innovative players are addressing a few pieces of the puzzle if they are lucky. All I have ever felt empowered to do is offer my time and effort to help, and Emergi is simply an extension of that. The key idea behind Emergi is that we can circumvent all of these obstacles by using the scientific method and economics to level the playing field so that anyone who wants to make the world a better place has a platform to do so.

So, my advice for anyone wanting to explore these opportunities is to find a way to get involved with an early-stage venture as soon as possible. Being a deckhand for another captain is a great way to see what it takes to build a ship while sailing it, and this is enough excitement for most people, without the risk of captaining their own vessel. But if you are (un)fortunate enough to come across an idea that you cannot let go of, an idea whose time has come, an idea bigger than yourself: follow it wherever it leads. Do not stop until your curiosity has been completely satisfied, and do not be dissuaded by anything other than real evidence. If you are in this position, this is less advice than validation of what you already know to be true in your heart.

Sandman: Definitely! Too many to count over the 13 years that I spent at Ravenscroft. Participating in plays, running in cross-country meets, playing basketball, losing to Chase Bernhardt in the finals of the seventh-grade spelling bee — all incredibly formative! And, I was fortunate to be taught by some of the best teachers on earth, in or out of school. Mary Beth Immediata, Kat Belk and Dan Teitelbaum were amazing, and I credit them for providing me with the tools required for my work with Animal Capital. They taught me real accountability, treated me with respect and pushed me to be the best version of myself. And, Mary Beth Immediata specifically made sure I knew the importance of surrounding myself with people who are smarter than I am. (She is always the smartest person in the room!) I think about the benefits of my time at Ravenscroft often. Make sure to appreciate these amazing teachers while you have them! Their willingness to spend time with you in and out of the classroom is a precious gift.

Dorsett: I gained confidence to explore new paths and travel, thanks to the foundation I received at Ravenscroft. Although the curriculum was challenging, the support and encouragement I received as a student, and even after graduating, was invaluable.

I want to give special thanks to several! Steve Swaim never gave up on me in Spanish class despite my struggles with grammar. Eventually, I became fluent in Spanish and even learned Italian! David Kates provided a supportive ear during my high school years and beyond as I navigated my career path. Steve McGill mentored me and taught me the power of presence. He helped shift my perspective to recognize that my intention, the why behind what I do, is often more important than what I do. Dr. Vana, my choir teacher, pushed me out of my comfort zone and encouraged me to participate in the play “Into the Woods,” which became one of my fondest high school memories. Coach Debbie Peek recognized leadership qualities in me and appointed me captain of the tennis team, a role I had not seen in myself. [Associate Head of School for Philanthropy] Phil Higginson has welcomed me back to the Ravenscroft community by giving me opportunities to serve and share my story, especially as a coach. And Head of School Doreen Kelly, an inspiring and visionary leader, has been a continuous role model for me in female leadership. She has been instrumental in keeping Ravenscroft at the forefront of learning, diversity and inclusion.

Scheier: Absolutely! I started attending Kindergarten at Ravenscroft because my father was a teacher there, and I was lucky to continue K-12 as a lifer. I rely on this formative experience every day. Mimi Lieberman’s AP Environmental Science class connected the dots of basic science to applications in our society for the first time, like how vehicle pollution causes ozone, which causes acid rain and skin cancer. My co-founder is also a graduate of Ravenscroft who was in that APES class with me when the seed of the idea was planted — that we might eventually power all homes with solar because it would eventually be the cheapest way to power anything (the sun is, after all, free). So, we owe Mimi our sincere gratitude. As editors of the Nevarmore, we wrote an editorial about how the question for our time wasn’t whether climate change was real, but what we were going to do about it. Mimi’s support of that piece was really incredible at a time when this wasn’t as common of a view. Looking back, these experiences and interactions were foundational and are now coming together to form Emergi.