Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose - because true success isn’t just about the money or the views - it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur and today I’m back with Kevin McMullin, founder of Collegewise and one of the most grounding voices in the college admissions space.
In Part 2 of our conversation, we go even deeper into the emotional and practical realities of applying to college: what colleges really want, what makes an essay feel fake, how to deal with pressure from parents, and why your high school years should feel like your life - not just a checklist.
We also talk about ChatGPT, red flags in college counselors, immigrant family expectations, and how to stop giving power to the schools most likely to say no.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, behind, or just unsure of what matters most - this episode is your deep breath and your blueprint. Let’s get into it.
Connect with Kevin and Collegewise here:
Kevin McMullin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-mcmullin-30633a20a/
Blog: wiselikeus.com
Collegewise
Website: https://collegewise.com
Blog: https://go.collegewise.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collegewise/
Find me! (Rachel):
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose - because true success isn’t just about the money or the views - it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur and today I am chatting with someone who completely redefined how I think about success: Kevin McMullin, founder and Chief Education Officer of Collegewise.
Kevin started Collegewise back in 1999 by literally driving to students’ houses and helping them with college applications. Since then, he’s helped thousands of students apply to college and rethink what “success” actually means.
In this episode, we talk about toxic application culture, why prestige shouldn’t define your future, what colleges really care about, and how students can take ownership of their stories. I also admit that I applied to Harvard - twice - and got rejected both times. This episode turned into part therapy, part pep talk. I hope you love it as much as I did.
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Connect with Kevin and Collegewise here:
Kevin McMullin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-mcmullin-30633a20a/
Blog: wiselikeus.com
Collegewise
Website: https://collegewise.com
Blog: https://go.collegewise.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collegewise/
Find me! (Rachel):
We are back. Join us (Rachel and Rishika) as we chat with cool founders, builders, innovators, athletes, and more as we navigate today's world of entrepreneurship.
Powered by the LaunchX program.
Find Rachel (LinkedIn / Instagram) and Rishika (LinkedIn) online!
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur and today I am chatting with Diane Darling, an entrepreneur, speaker, and author of The Networking Survival Guide. Diane coaches the skill every person in the world needs; networking. Today we talk about the real meaning of networking (spoilers: it’s not just meeting new people), relationship management, meeting people at events, introducing yourself, red and green flags of networking, and what to do if you don’t like networking.
Connect with Diane:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianedarling/
https://www.dianedarling.com/
Find me! (Rachel):
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur and today I am chatting with Isabelle Dijkhorst, the 17-year-old founder of Foundity, a digital platform that connects and empowers entrepreneurs. She thought she’d be an artist but quickly found a love for business and attended the LaunchX Berkeley program, where she met founders her own age and launched Foundity.
Now, she has more pressure than ever in her final year of high school, applying for universities, and running a startup full time. At the same time, she’s never been happier. We chat about the unpredictability of entrepreneurship, meeting new people, and pitching her startup at WebSummit Portugal 2024.
Connect with Isabelle:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabelle-dijkhorst/
Find me! (Rachel):
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur and today I am chatting with Berkeley 2024 LaunchX alumni Abhishek Gopal Ramshanker. Abhishek is a full on tech nerd who got to explore this passion through the LaunchX program. He built AI ed-tech startup Cogent during the program which became the 2nd education product of the month on Product Hunt and now has over five hundred active users after its first two months of launching.
We chat today about balancing startup life and school, being chaotic in the mind but calm in performance, and obsessive nature.
Connect with Abhishek:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishek-gopal-ramshanker/
Find me! (Rachel):
www.linkedin.com/in/rachelkzhang/
www.instagram.com/rachelkzhang
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur and today I am chatting with the dad of LaunchX, aka our CEO (and my boss) Forest Richter. Forest considers himself a startup operator, having started and sold his own startup and led operations for lots of venture backed startups. He loves early-stage hustle and ideation and joined LaunchX six months ago, further fueling his absolute love for entrepreneurship. In fact, he loves entrepreneurship so much that when he was interviewing with the team for this position everyone thought that his energy was fake. Six months later, I can confirm, the energy is still there and it is very real.
So bring on the energy for a chat with my boss on how to be an effective leader. We talk about his core, data-driven philosophy and why it works, being a “cool-boss” or a hard ass, the hubris of leadership, how to give tough feedback, and self-leadership in small teams.
Connect with Forest:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/forestrichter/
Find me! (Rachel):
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur and today I am chatting with Salah Osman, a fintech entrepreneur and fellow LaunchX 2020 alumni from Kenya. We get pretty philosophical here about money, ambition, fate, and how everything circles back to his motto of serving people. Salah is someone who really loves life and you can see it in the way he approaches life and his way of finding his version of an “American dream” now that he is in the US. On the note of serving people, he is now leading a LaunchX initiative in East Africa to bring the education an impact back to the community that he grew up in. But this is all about him and his story of optimism, giving back, trust in fate, and being open minded,
Connect with Salah:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/salah-osman-460747179/
Find me! (Rachel):
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur and today I am chatting with the 2024 AwardX winner, Abbie Goddard the founder of drink spike detection company Spikey. She is all energy and good vibes, and we chat about the process of starting a company at 15 years old, the challenges of running and scaling down a team, and having fun in entrepreneurship.
Connect with Abbie:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigailgoddard/
Find me! (Rachel):
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur and today I am chatting with three different LaunchX alumni from the recent 2024 summer program. Usually the first thing alumni say about this program is that the people are amazing. I love getting to chat with our ambitious and charismatic alum, so enjoy getting to know both what you’re getting into with the LaunchX program and who will be there.
Connect with Abhishek, Sophie, and Sudenaz:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishek-gopal-ramshanker/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-liu-b161952ba/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudenaz-irem-ak/
Find me! (Rachel):
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur and today we are talking to Adam Choe. Adam is a partner at Tundra Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in preseed founders with unique insights into untapped markets. He is an entrepreneur, former managing director of a startup accelerator, an investor, and all-around over achiever with so much experience in how to succeed in the startup world through meaningful connections.
He also happens to be a judge for our recent AwardX competition, where we are looking for teenagers at all-stages of startup-development to win cash prizes and coaching. If you are listening before November 1st, 2024, make sure to apply. Learn more at award.launchx.com.
Today we talk about how to get support for your startup, how to approach people, and the importance of your network.
Find Adam and Tundra Ventures here:
www.linkedin.com/in/adamchoe
@choeyoutheway on Instagram and Twitter
www.tundravc.com
Find me! (Rachel):
www.linkedin.com/in/rachelkzhang/
www.instagram.com/rachelkzhang
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur. And today we are talking to Guillaume Catella, the founder of Creatella, a venture builder with a team of 30+ that has helped launch over 50 startups that went on to raise over 50 million. He is an angel investor himself with 18 years of experience in tech and entrepreneurship across the world and our conversation was so powerful that I had to split it into two parts to help process the wisdom.
Today, we chat about a Valentines-day cofounder breakup, what it means to 'focus' as an entrepreneur, and the relentless pursuit of opportunities.
Find Guillaume and Creatella here:
www.linkedin.com/in/guillaumecatella
https://creatella.ventures/
Find me! (Rachel):
www.linkedin.com/in/rachelkzhang/
www.instagram.com/rachelkzhang
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur. And today we are talking to Guillaume Catella, the founder of Creatella, a venture builder with a team of 30+ that has helped launch over 50 startups that went on to raise over 50 million. He is an angel investor himself with 18 years of experience in tech and entrepreneurship across the world and our conversation was so powerful that I had to split it into two parts to help process the wisdom.
Today, we chat about the fear when jumping into entrepreneurship, how a cofounder relationship is like a marriage, and how Guillaume built his venture builder, Creatella.
Find Guillaume and Creatella here:
www.linkedin.com/in/guillaumecatella
https://creatella.ventures/
Find me! (Rachel):
www.linkedin.com/in/rachelkzhang/
www.instagram.com/rachelkzhang
Welcome to "Fueling Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast" where we explore what it means to balance ambition with purpose – because true success isn’t just about the money or the views—it’s about the impact we make and the lives we touch along the way.
I’m your host Rachel, a fellow gen-z serial entrepreneur. And today we are talking to Ali Debow, a 22-year old NYU drop out, Thiel fellow, and founder of swsh: swsh is an AI powered shared photo album app to help capture your memories and connect you with those you shared them with.
Today we talk about the hustle of building a network from nothing, "delusional" confidence in yourself and your team, pivoting, and what it took to drop out of school and launch her tech app, swsh, in New York.
Find Ali and swsh here:
www.linkedin.com/in/alexandradebow/
www.instagram.com/joinswsh/
Find me! (Rachel):
www.linkedin.com/in/rachelkzhang/
www.instagram.com/rachelkzhang
Welcome to Fuelling Tomorrow's Entrepreneurs: A LaunchX Podcast! Hosted by fellow gen-z founder and LaunchX alumni, Rachel K Zhang, we will dive deep into the future of entrepreneurship, balancing ambition and execution, and more.
Tune in to hear from FANTASTIC guests - including self made TikTok viral brand owners, college dean's of admissions, business program directors, Silicon Valley AI innovators, and more.
More about LaunchX here:
www.launchx.com
www.instagram.com/launchxed
