The Future Belongs to the Curious | Gordy Hao 2009

What does it take to build a career at some of the world's most influential technology companies?

On this episode of Slightly Less Scripted, Stephen and Shaun sit down with Catholic Central alumnus Gordy Hao 2009, Sales Manager, Mid-Market B2B Services at Reddit, to discuss the rapidly changing worlds of technology, social media, artificial intelligence, and digital advertising.

Gordy reflects on his journey from Catholic Central to Johns Hopkins University, his unexpected path into the tech industry, and the lessons he learned while building a career at LinkedIn and Reddit. Along the way, he shares insights on networking, critical thinking in the age of AI, personal finance, innovation, and why curiosity may be the most valuable skill students can develop for the future.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Welcome back to slightly less scripted, a CC podcast. We're here with 2009 graduate uh Gordy Howe. Gordy, welcome back. Awesome. Thank you for for having me. Thank you for the tour today, too. Of course, no problem. I know this is your first time back in 15 years, 15 years?

SPEAKER_02 0:41

13, 14, 15 years about. So yeah, it's been a while since I've been back.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

And uh we just took you on a site tour. What did you think?

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Um it was mind blown. It's absolutely amazing and just inspiring to see how like nice the campus is now. Um, going through like the science wing, seeing the telescope, seeing the blue angel. Um, it just makes me really proud to come back and be a CC alum.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Good. I'm I mean, first of all, thank you for taking time to come back. Obviously, you're busy and from out of state, so we appreciate it. I didn't give him a proper introduction either. Uh, he has previously worked at LinkedIn and now works at Reddit, right? Yep, yep. You want to tell us a little bit about what you're doing uh right now at Reddit?

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah. Um currently I'm a sales manager at Reddit, uh, where I lead a team of sellers that works with B2B brands, um, advertisers and marketers that are looking to go to market and advertise on Reddit, uh, reaching our 400 million plus uh weekly active users.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

So you basically work with like two of the largest uh I don't know, are they social media platforms? What would you call them? Digital media platforms?

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Yes, I would say social media platforms, yep, networks.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah. And how has the landscape kind of changed since you started working to now? Like how does the social media um industry kind of look in?

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Yeah, I think it's been uh a pretty crazy transformation over the past 10 to 15 years, right? Um, I think even in the last two or three, um, we've seen a huge uptick in terms of AI, uh, artificial intelligence tools uh that have helped with you know driving efficiencies, uh changing how distribution works uh in terms of how brands or how users are able to engage with each other. Um so I think like in terms of like the network effects, that's been like the biggest change I've seen.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

It's kind of like uh we've been trying to adapt with it here at the school with the addition of STEM and everything. So it's been a wild, you know, 10 years. I feel like maybe CC was potentially maybe even a little bit late to the party, but now we finally are kind of um fighting against you know what the public schools have had for a little bit. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Yeah, the pace of progress has been uh astounding. Um I think it's one thing that you know it's important to always keep in mind is to always like stay curious and then always be learning uh because things move so fast. And I think it's important to always, you know, stay curious and be on the cutting edge of you know what's uh relevant.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yeah, when you talk about you know that like that curiosity, that nature and stuff, uh, you know, taking me back to your time at CC, uh, do you think there's anything that you learn from Catholic Central that has stuck with you into like your young professional career and now, you know, like creating a family and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah, um, absolutely. I think uh Sean and I were kind of chatting about this um a few weeks ago when we were planning this visit and planning this uh interview was just kind of thinking through like what are some of the fondest memories I had coming back to my time at CC. And I think um the common theme that always came into play was just the people and the community that you're able to build um and surrounding yourself with great people, right? Um I think a lesson that I've learned and that's kind of carried through my career is um at the end of the day, you become the average of the five people you surround yourself with. Um and it's really important to kind of build this network or your own personal board of directors, whether it's mentors or peers to help support you throughout your career. And I think that's one thing that I took away from my time at CC is that you are able to build those friendships, find those mentors, whether it's through teachers, through peers, through coaches, um, and really lean on them to support you, whether you're working on being the best athlete on your sports team or being the best student in your class or working on a project or competition. Um, I think having that support system and that network is something that's really foundational for your career and for success.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Gordy saved my butt many times in AP biology with Mr. Baker. There were plenty of days where I didn't understand the lecture at all. And I would call Gordy and I'd be like, Do you understand what he wanted us to do tonight? Because I didn't get any of that.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

You remember those? Yeah, I think those were the days where we may still have landlines, right, John?

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah. Yeah, now the kids uh can transfer information uh a lot more easily. It's probably to the annoyance of the teachers, as things can get around really quickly now. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I was gonna say the uh, you know, you touched upon AI. Uh it can probably be something that it's it's so interesting because it's such a powerful tool and it's obviously where there's a lot of investment and the future is going towards right now. But then it also it's almost like a disruptive uh insight for the students because and for the teachers, because it's like how do we adapt the this new technology and you know almost help kids because there's so there's importance to learning the way like you know, I would say that we did in terms of like, you know, and to notebook and paper. But there's also so many more opportunities uh now with technology that the kids also have to be aware of. I mean, is that something that you know you've seen uh working for these these massive corporate companies where you have to be technol technologically advanced?

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Yeah, I I think you know, AI tools are great in terms of driving efficiency, um, democratizing access to information. Um, I think it's it's wonderful tools that's really gonna amplify, right? Like everyone's future, unlocking a lot of potential. Um but I think one thing that's just really important to always remember and think back to um in the world of AI, when there is so much access to information, and whether you're on Chat GPT or Gemini or Claude, you're gonna get a lot of the same responses when you submit a query or ask a question. It's really important as an individual to not lose sight of critical thinking and having your own unique perspectives or point of view. Um and that's something that I found that for folks that are adapting well to AI is that they are still thinking critically and constructively and not forgetting how to like build off their own trans thought um and not relying too much on just like um AI slob or things like that. So I think it's like for students, I think just very important to kind of continue remembering to like have that type of like critical thinking.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yeah, and I'm sure you could probably also touch on like uh the importance of relationship building and networking. Like you may be able to get a lot of things from AI, but also like you know, maybe if you're sending an email or something, I think sometimes people can tell when it comes from AI and it might deter someone from reading it just because they're like, oh, you know, you didn't take the time to actually uh to to write about it. Is that something that you've seen maybe uh, you know, uh in the professional side of things?

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Yeah, I think um personalization is is still very important. I think using AI to do research and being prepared is always great. But I think still um in kind of the profession I work in sales, like still having those in-person relationships or in real life uh events and um meetups, like is still super, super important.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

When you talk about you know, being a sales leader for these companies, what because I I I think most people probably don't realize how did these social media companies actually end up making money? What are you selling? Like what what's the pitch to the other brands about the platforms that you know that that you've worked for?

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Yeah. Um so in terms of like the media company and media space, especially in digital marketing, uh, you really sell outcomes for marketers and brands. So typically uh as a platform, you have a user base uh or an audience um that's uh reachable for a company um to engage with. So for example, if your brand is Coca-Cola and you're trying to reach a audience of uh Gen Z users to pitch a new product or a new promotion, right? Uh you can go on to networks and brands and target these audiences um through their interests, through the communities that they belong to, uh, through keywords potentially as well, uh, and serve them ads to promote your products. Um and typically how users engage is you can pay on a click basis as a brand or on an impression level. So then as a seller, you kind of connect the dots of uh putting together these media proposals so that brands can um reach their audiences and either drive you know conversions, brand awareness, leads, or consideration.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah, so basically the the brands that you're partnering with are trying to target a certain demographic for you know whatever reason, and then that's how these social media companies actually end up making money from their platform is by selling those advertisements, basically, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Would you say that's the main form of revenue for most social media companies? Um it it is a majority, yep. So then when you you know, like I guess what is usually kind of like your pitch to the brand or the client that you're going after, does it really depend on what they're trying to do? Because you talked about like, you know, click-through rate or like how much can conversion that they're doing. Is a lot of it outcome based in terms of like, hey, if we drive this much to your website and you do this much in sales, this is how much we think it's worth? Or is a lot more of it impression based where it's like we just want this advertisement to get seen by as many people? Or does that really just depend on the campaign that they're trying to run?

SPEAKER_02 11:03

I I think it ultimately depends. And I think this is where I like discovery and having conversations is super important, is it depends on the goals of the client, right? And the initiatives that they're looking to drive. A lot of times, if you're focused on brand awareness or brand recognition, um, clients will focus on reach or impressions. So you would run certain campaigns that focus on maximizing the number of impressions that we can serve or the number of users that we're able to engage with. Whereas when you think of clients or customers that are focused on conversions or lead generation, then it's more on return on ad spend or the cost per lead or cost per signup that they're looking to drive. So then you would calculate that um through media planning of like, hey, if you are investing $50,000 for this campaign and we are looking for a return on ad spend of 4x, then from a revenue perspective, we're expecting to drive $200,000 of net revenue for that customer. So that's kind of like how these media plans uh and strategies go into place.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

I just thought of something because we're talking about the um esports assembly match, right? And uh obviously I know that all the different platforms, there's different um what do they call it? Different CPMs, cost per impression depending on what which platform it is. But like um, I wonder, you know, kind of what's your take on like what's the difference between you know that like paid advertisement and that organic viewership that a lot of the algorithms can drive. You see that companies tend to do something organically, and then once they see that the algorithm is pushing it, then they pour fuel on the fire and pay for an advertisement, or do you see that they're completely like different segments? So, like, you know, Coca-Cola is doing their organic stuff 24-7, and then they're doing select campaigns that are trying to drive certain um objectives for them.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Yeah, it's a very interesting. Um, I consider that a bit of like earned media as well. So when you do have like I I've seen some of the esports like reels go viral and driving like millions of impressions, uh, that's what I consider a lot of times like earned media. And what a lot of brands actually will do is kind of calculate, right? Like if that was a paid media campaign, like how much like would that have cost for us to run something like that?

SPEAKER_01 13:30

That was gonna be my question. It was like, you know, 30 million views on Instagram. What does that kind of equate to if you had to pay for it?

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think if you looked at like the average CPM on Meta, um, it could range anywhere from I would say three to maybe ten dollars. So you would just back that into the millions of impressions that you see. Um and you could kind of back that into like the the equation of like how much it costs. Um but that also plays into how like influencers and some of these um content creators are able to also like run a lot of their personal kind of branded content as well, uh, where they would go to market to brands and say, hey, look, like when I post this tutorial or when I post this type of content, this is the number of millions of impressions that I get. And then that's how brands also equated to like, okay, like what is that reach um cost from a paid side? And how much are we willing to sponsor or pay this influencer for these types of posts?

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Yeah. You think that's what the AI companies ultimately are gonna try to get to too, where they have so many people using their platform for search queries, maybe that you know it's taking away from Google and what was traditionally like Google AdSense. You think eventually they're gonna get to a point where you'll see a lot of maybe AI advertisements or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Well, it's interesting to see what's happening, right? I think uh Google had a massive drop a few years ago in terms of their stock price because of uh the fear of AI basically cannibalizing their search business. Um, but they've kind of come back quite a bit over the the past couple of months if you've kept track. Um I think they're at all-time highs again uh as of this week. Um but I know a lot of the LOMs are also starting to test advertising within um like Chat GPT, for example. Um OpenAI is starting to test that natively within their product.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Um but I think it's it's still too early to see where I know Google, you know, I think recently had that transition where when you type in uh a search query, it would also give you the AI overview if you wanted to from Gemini. So I think that was probably a large part of like they're like, hey, Google can still be the place you go to search things. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

It's all uh it's all about where you can capture attention.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Yeah. I was gonna uh ask you some questions about you know going on from CC and into college. You went to John Hopkins? Yep, Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins, sorry. I have a student there right now from uh the esports team, Ian. So if Ian, if you're watching, I'll say shout out and say hi to you. That's great. Yeah, but uh, how'd you like your time there?

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Uh really enjoyed it. Um I think growing up in Michigan, um, Johns Hopkins is in Baltimore, Maryland. So it was the first time I really moved away from home. So um definitely taught me a lot of like independence, um, you know, staying disciplined and just like having more um, I'd say like rigor to my day-to-day, uh, to be able to like stay up to date with my coursework. Um, it was really eye-opening as well, just to kind of expand and um open up my horizon a little bit in terms of the different types of people I was able to meet, uh, a larger like international crowd that went to Johns Hopkins. So um it was a really, really good experience for me.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Did you feel prepared uh from you know going as CC to that transition? Did you feel like CC prepared you all for college? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

I think um one of the great things about Catholic Central and um the programs we have here is one, it teaches a lot of discipline. So staying on schedule, um, staying on top of your coursework, um, being surrounded with like-minded humans as well, right? I think um being surrounded with very motivated people, whether you're on a sports team or the robotics team or the esports team or drama club, right? I think what's really unique about CC is how um passionate people are with um what they're interested in. So I think those two elements really help prepare me uh for the next step in my life journey or career journey.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

I always tell people that Catholic Central, we were talking about a little bit before recording. Catholic Central really kind of feeds into that drive and desire, I think, amongst different groups here, where no matter what you were interested in, as long as you had a drive, as long as you were motivated to achieve here, I think you were respected. It could be on a field, it could be in a classroom. Um, you saw the jocks kind of hanging out with the kids who are good in class, and vice versa. There was always that level of respect. And I don't think that that's necessarily at every school. I I contribute that to something that is uniquely Catholic central.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

It it was interesting that you brought up that point um because I think I could be wrong, Sean, remind me, but I think Nick Petrucci brought up a very similar point in his podcast, which was when he got into the the real estate industry. Um, you know, it's very like I mean, you're working for yourself and you're based off commission, and you know, you have to basically you know feed your family by making sales and things like that. Yep. And uh he was surprised by he was like, you know, that at CC, it was always like there was this standard, there was this thing, no matter what you did, if it was ban, like you said, esports, whatever, everyone was always trying to be the best at it. He's like, and then you go out into the real world, and then you're like, some people are okay with coming in second. And he was like, it was like eye-opening to him. He was like, because I was stuck at this place in high school where coming in second didn't it didn't mean anything. So I'm uh you kind of shared like a a similar sentiment. Definitely uh standard of excellence, right? Yeah, that I mean that's that's what we kind of preach here. You have a unique uh perspective too, because you went to Novae for a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Yep. So I went to Novae uh my freshman year. Um and like I think at the time uh my father, mother, and I were just kind of exploring like, you know, this wasn't like the perfect fit for me. Like, what are some other like options or schools we could go to? Um, and we knew CC had a great sports program. I was a baseball player. Um, and you know, we were able to meet uh Coach Walters, Kevin Walters, who I heard is retiring this year. So congratulations, coach. Um, but I still remember like the summer of my freshman going into my sophomore year, uh coming to visit CC for the first time and just falling in love with the place. Um, I met Mr. Collins uh with my dad, and he gave us a tour of the school. Um, and that was you know one of the the best life decisions uh I was able to make. So coming to CC and transferring in my sophomore year.

unknown 20:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

I did not go to Novi High School, but I went to Novae uh middle school or meadows, whatever it's called, the blue building right on the street. I've been in the same little uh three-mile circle radius for like 15 years. Yep. Did you grow up in uh in Novi then?

SPEAKER_02 20:39

I grew up in Novi. So um my wife and I are actually visiting for the first time together in like 15 years, um, as we kind of mentioned earlier. Yeah, I was gonna uh bring her around our uh old house. Um so I grew up right next to uh Novi Woods, uh like kind of by where the Novi High School is as well. So um lived here for for most of my childhood. Um and then yeah, it's it's made the move out to Cali. Made the move to California. I haven't been back in a while, so it's good to be. Which you're all probably jealous of.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

So it's probably it's probably beautiful. What's your favorite part about being in uh California?

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Um weather. Weather, weather is up there, definitely. Um it's it's hard to beat. Um, but I think the biggest, like I think thing that excites me about California is just the people um and the energy around innovation. So whether it was, you know, when we were growing up, the the internet um boom, um AI now, right? Like I think there's always a culture of like pushing innovation. Um, and you feel that in terms of you know the companies you work with, uh, the friends and the peers that you connect with, just the people. People that you're surrounded by. Um, there's that culture of innovation, um, and and kind of pushing the limits a little bit. So that's the one area that I really appreciate out of California. Um, and it's just like a culture I've really adapted.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Yeah, you've mentioned it that you know, staying curious, staying innovative, it's all things that are like really important to you. Would you say you like the kind of the industries you're in are like uh exciting and you're probably not doing the same thing every single day? You're probably like being able to change and kind of be adaptable.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Exactly. Yep. So um even though I was at LinkedIn prior to my time at Reddit, I was at LinkedIn for eight and a half years. Um, I probably had you know five to six different roles. And um what was really exciting is within these companies, uh, when you identify problems that need a solution, um, as long as you're proactive and have a strong perspective or a POV or a plan, um, a lot of times you do have the flexibility to go solve those problems on your own. So I think that's one element that's been really kind of a fun part of my journey in my career is being able to identify problems or challenges and then looking and putting together plans to um find solutions for them.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Did your college uh degree have much to do with what you're doing today? Would you say?

SPEAKER_02 23:25

So that's a great question. Um taking a step back, uh in college, um, I actually studied public health. So I went to Johns Hopkins with the intent of becoming a doctor or a dentist. Um and actually was planning to go to uh take the MCATS after I graduated and go into medical school. Uh in the summer after my college graduation, um, I was living in California and I found uh internship at a ad tech company called Critio. They um do display retargeting at the time. So, for example, if you went to like Nike.com and you were looking at a pair of uh Air Force Ones, um, and you go to Wall Street Journal or or weather.com later, you may see that same ad for like that same shoe. Oh wow. So we did a lot of that display retargeting um at Critio. Um But I think just taking the story back, like long story short, is um I went into this role not knowing that this is the career path that I was gonna take. But I had tremendous leaders around me and tremendous mentors that invested in my career development and helped like coach me and uh get me to become like the best account manager that I could become uh at the company. And I was able to convert that opportunity into the career I have now. Um and it just shows that even when you go to college or even after college, like there's still opportunity and room to continue to develop and learn and find your passions uh and make pivots in your career in your in your life.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Yeah. So you probably learned a lot of things that you know at school that help prepare you for your career, but maybe the actual degree itself wasn't necessarily the biggest factor in what you do today, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Yeah, and I think what's really interesting to kind of give perspective to to any students today or just anyone listening is um for a lot of students that are going to school now, the companies that they're working for in the future either started like today or may have not even existed yet, right? So you think of like the companies I work for, like LinkedIn was founded in 2003. Uh Reddit was founded in 2005, the same year that this campus was open. Yeah. Um, and if you were to ask me in high school, like, where are you gonna work one day? Like you wouldn't think of like, oh, I'm gonna work at this internet tech company uh working as a sales manager, right? So I think it's really important to always just have that mindset of like remaining like in a learner's mindset or like staying curious um and always like adapting because a lot of the jobs in the future, like we probably can't even envision what they're gonna what they are gonna be like today.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

That's uh something our athletic director started to say a lot during um COVID was remain pivotable. Yeah, just get ready to pivot because you don't know what's coming. And I feel like the past five years has that's been more and more true in the case. Um I know you you gave some great advice for career advice, but you know, we were just in the um business and finance center, and you were talking about the personal um wealth and finance class and saying, I wish this is something I had in high school. So, you know, do you have any advice on on that side of things for the kids in high school today that you know are starting to think about, okay, what does the future look like uh in terms of my personal finance? You know, is there anything that you look back on? You're like, I wish I would have done that in high school.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Yeah, I think um, no, I don't think we'll have enough time to go through everything today, but I think just like um, you know, I think studying like personal finance and like just being prepared of like managing your finances, like you can never start too early. Um, I'll admit, like I didn't focus or even like look into it until I graduated from college, and I regret that every day. Like I kind of wish I started as early as high school because of the power of combo compounding, right? I think like um the earlier you start investing, whether it's just putting a few dollars away into like an SP 500 fund, um, that's gonna carry so much weight because uh the most valuable asset you have is time, right? And the earlier you're able to invest, the more you're gonna be able to compound um and set yourself up for success long term.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

I saw Sean, I saw you looking before I asked that question. Did you have one?

SPEAKER_00 28:06

I don't remember. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

I saw you look over at me and I was like, oh, oops, sorry, I might have cut it back.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

No, but I mean I think I would share Gordy's sentiment on that uh quite a bit because you know you you kind of I think that in high school you always have that mindset of like, oh, I'll worry about finance when I have money because I don't have money right now, you know. But it's like like he said, you you can really never start too soon. And and just having a few dollars actually can go a long way. And I think that's something that our students are learning now in in business and finance courses when they're setting their budgets for things. They have to go out, you know they do a project every year, they have to go out and they have to find um you know an apartment. They have to, I think I think they're given a salary, a starting salary of like forty thousand dollars, I think, and they have to go find what car they're gonna buy, like an actual car on the lot of what apartment they're actually gonna live at. And they have to provide the receipts for these things. And I and when I hear about this project, I'm like, wow, I wish I would have done that. Yep, you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah. I've got uh one more question that has to do with uh career, something I noticed on your LinkedIn page, and then I'll switch over to two final questions that we ask all our CC grads. But uh the question I had uh had was because I saw that for a little bit, I think I want to say at LinkedIn, you work with like uh finance tech and like crypto in terms of sales. What have you uh noticed? And I being on California, you probably get to notice it a lot more. What have you noticed about the crypto industry recently and like uh what do you see for it going forward? Is that uh is that something that is still glossing, or have we kind of seen the the cap of that?

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Yeah, I think that's also a question we could probably go super deep for an hour. Um but I think you know with crypto it's it's very interesting in the sense that it's it's cyclical, right? So I think right now we're going through a bit of a crypto winter where um you know the overall market is kind of going down or or losing a bit of steam. Um but it does seem to always consistently come back. Bounce back. Bounce back. Um I would say being in the Bay Area, like obviously like AI has taken a lot of the oxygen out of the room and a lot of the hype. Um, but there is still a lot of building being done in the crypto space. Um I think like you continue to see like ETFs popping up every single month, right? Um I think there's a lot of applications around stable coins and a lot of like interesting projects that are being done. So I think that long term, like you know, don't quote me on this, but I think like there's still a lot of like momentum and energy being around crypto and fintech as a whole. Um yeah, I think that's cool, what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Just wanted to get your take on it because I know uh me and Sean, I mean there's a few of us here at the school that we talk about. We talk about it quite a bit. We've just messed around with the technology. I mean, obviously the esports coach that makes it still.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Yeah. So what's what's been the biggest application for you guys in the the crypto space outside of like in investing? Uh great question.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

For me, it's all personal finance, really, yeah right now driven. Um, I just see it as uh the building blocks of a lot of things. Like when you mentioned earlier, um we may not know the companies that we're gonna be working at uh if as a high schooler now, where he could where he could be working. I feel like that's kind of where we're at with crypto too. You know, we may be putting money into coins and we don't actually understand the full weight of their application yet and uh how diverse of they they could be used for um for what we're doing in the future. They could be the building blocks of certain uh entire industries.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Yeah. And I think that the um that the technology behind the blockchain and tokenization of things makes a lot of sense for like other things that we haven't started necessarily to use it for. But I also kind of agree with you, like I don't think we know which um I don't think we know which tokens or which coins are gonna be used in the future. That's almost like that that part's a little bit scary because maybe the you know the the stable coin of the future hasn't even been created yet. That's a very like real possibility. But I could always see things like um, you know, one of the first things I remember thinking about when um uh this kind of whole crypto boom came out in the blockchain, I was thinking that'd be really smart if we did like social security numbers that way or something like that, where like ID cards were issued on on a network, basically. It's kind of interesting, and now you you know you get an actual any sort of authentication copy, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

If it's on the blockchain, you can authenticate things a lot quicker. So and and that would be almost like an analogy of like uh in the like the trading card space, there's like authenticators, right? You can get something like a great like graded PSA 10 or whatever, you know, like I could see crypto being like that for for things.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Yeah. I think the risk of not being involved is probably potentially scarier than being involved in it.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Yeah, that's uh mantra for a lot of venture capitalists, right? Uh when I if I lose my money, you only lose it one X. But if you don't invest in the the right company, you you miss you know infinite X of gains.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

FOMO is very powerful. Have you I can't remember. I feel like I saw somewhere that you did some VC or work with VC for a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Uh I do a little light like uh investing. Uh I'm part of uh a group called uh Invest Ventures. So it's actually it's actually pretty cool. It's uh a bunch of former, it's unaffiliated with LinkedIn, but it's a bunch of former like LinkedIn alums uh that invest in early stage startups that are um founded by ex-Linkedin employees, uh ex-Linkedin founders. Um it's like um going back to the importance of like community and network. Um this just shows like even working at a company, you can create a network that continues to support each other um even when we're not you know at the same company anymore.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Yeah, that there's been a lot of uh LinkedIn guys that have gone and started their own stuff. I could be wrong, but I feel like the the SoFi CEO is a former uh LinkedIn guy, right? I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

I know um Figma. Uh he used to like Dylan used to work um at LinkedIn for a little bit. So there's a lot of like LinkedIn founders out out there today.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

So which makes sense as like the networking app for uh career professionals. So it's not surprising that they all go off and start their own. They continue to network. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I'll I'll I don't want to take up too much of your time. I know you want to see the baseball wall uh or the baseball fields too, but the last questions that we usually have been asking CC alums is uh one, just try to think back of uh you know a favorite CC memory if you can recall one, or maybe an event that you always looked forward to each year or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Yeah. Um I think I was telling my wife this before we came in uh today, and I think I mentioned to you guys when we were doing the tour, is like I think like one of like being a baseball player here, like one of the fondest memories I always had was just like all the practice and like the time I got to spend with my teammates, whether it's bus rides to a game, uh grabbing like Buffalo Wild Wings after like a win. Um, I still think like after winning uh the district championship my senior year, like we went to Buffalo Wild Wings after and like all like hung out there for a while. Um, I think even just like some of the hard harder stuff, right? Like uh now in California, like all the baseball fields like are pristine, like it's sunny year-round. Yeah, but like growing up in Michigan, I remember when we had to like shovel snow off the field or the warning track so we could play a game, or doing tryouts in the parking lot, or you know, taking batting practice or pitching in the like the gym, like that always brings a smile to my face, and those are like memories that um I'll never forget and I'll always carry with me.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

So yeah, well, were you telling us that you guys were taking ground balls in the what I guess is formerly the parking lot, but now is the STEM building area?

SPEAKER_02 36:22

I think the STEM building is a little better use of the space than than us taking ground balls out there, but uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Tommy Sarter uh said when he was on the show, he said, Hey, there's a giant plane where I used to park. What's going on here?

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Yeah, yeah. And then uh the last one that we've been kind of asking about too is uh can you remember some of the bazillions that were here during your time? Like just name a few or if you remember any of them.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Uh Father Reneletti Renaletti. Um gosh.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Sean, I'm sure like if I could think we had morality with like Father McKernan. Yep. Um I had him. Uh Father Thompson was always in the classroom a lot, but he was he was like a French teacher primarily. So was Father Wheeler. Um we had um Father Klein was one of the guidance counselors at the time, too. There were there were more bazillions, certainly back back in those days. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

We have we have less bazillions here now. That's why we've been kind of ending with this question for all the alums, which is can you remember? Like, do you have a fond memory or or a funny memory about one of the priests here? Oh man. No, one one that's appropriate to share.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

No, I I do. Um I can't remember um their name, but Sean, I'm sure you know, like the father that would kind of spray us a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Yeah, Father McKernan.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Yeah, Father McKernan. So that was always like taking one of his classes where if someone was a spray bottle. Yeah, like dozing off or not paying attention, uh, he'd wake you up, he would get you.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

Yeah, it was filled with like, I don't know, five different kinds of cologne. Yeah, he just like uh if you were falling asleep, yeah, he would spray you with uh, and then for the rest of the day, you would be marked essentially, like, oh, you fell asleep in Father McKernan's class.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

I love it. Yeah, cool. Well, thank you so much for your time. We definitely appreciate it. And uh have fun at the the wedding this weekend. Yeah, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Um, thank you guys so much. And it's it's awesome to be back here and as an alum, um, just super proud of like where this school has come, but also where the school continues to go. Yeah, always welcome back. Awesome. Thank you.