“NFTE empowered me. It provided me with opportunities and experiences that I couldn’t find anywhere else. It helped me to understand more about myself and discover skills that I was unaware of.”
—Dagim Girma
-
NFTE helped Dagim see himself as a leader and learn the skills that drove his first business venture.
As a teen, he created TheAudible, an online platform for the sports industry, and built a user base of thousands.
He went on to study at Babson College, the premier entrepreneurship college in the United States, where he developed VenturHub, an online platform for entrepreneurs starting small businesses.
NFTE helped him obtain coveted internships at EY and Goldman Sachs.
Dagim was a quiet student at the outset of his journey with NFTE. His family had recently immigrated from Ethiopia and faced challenges on arriving in the United States.
However, the NFTE class he took brought him out of his shell and allowed him to see himself in a new light: as a leader.
Inspired by the NFTE class he took as a junior at his D.C. high school in 2013, Dagim created an online platform to connect young sports fans, allowing them to post comments in real time. His app, TheAudible, attracted thousands of users. In order to successfully launch his business, he raised money through ad revenue.
Through NFTE, Dagim learned networking skills that he would put to good use to attract peers and high-level contacts to drive his app to be used in professional sports. Dagim credits his confidence, leadership and communication skills to the NFTE class he took in high school and the teachers and mentors who supported him on his journey to success.
Dagim not only developed the entrepreneurial mindset and seized control of his own future, but he wanted to help others do the same. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree with a concentration in finance and information technology systems from Babson College, the premier college for entrepreneurship in the United States.
While at Babson, he built another online community platform called VenturHub to connect entrepreneurs and help them jumpstart small businesses of their own. Dagim also landed two major internships through NFTE: a launch internship with EY and a summer analyst role with Goldman Sachs, where he was hired full time as a Product Manager. His resume includes work as Founding Product Manager at Domain Money and Product Management Manager at Capital One. He gives back as a Riverside Hawks Basketball Junior Board Member.
Dagim believes his attitude today, which is defined by self-confidence and self-reliance, is the direct result of his NFTE experience, making him an ardent advocate for entrepreneurship education. The skillset NFTE helped him develop—including opportunity recognition, initiative, communication and collaboration—have proven enormously useful to him in his product management roles.
Mindset Ignited
News — March 29, 2024
