Born from a
rejection letter.
I've always had an interest in building something from scratch. That spark was first lit when I created my nonprofit in high school, Doorstep Donations, and I realized I was not only good at building organizations, but that I genuinely loved it.
When I arrived at Cornell, I applied to the premier finance clubs on campus. These clubs have acceptance rates below 5%. It is statistically easier to get into Cornell than to get into some of these organizations. Like many others, I didn't get in my first semester. So I chose to build something better.
Cornell had a gatekeeping problem.
Even within the business school, freshmen and sophomores receive almost no structured guidance on how to recruit into financial services. The education students need comes almost entirely from clubs with acceptance rates under 5%.
If you don't get in, you're largely on your own.
Two paths. One mission.
I designed BAC around a two-pronged system: one to serve every Cornell student, one to serve those deeply committed to a career in financial services.
You still have to walk it. But at least you can see where you're going.
We don't just provide the path. We walk it with you.
How we went from zero
to the room.
Four years led to the creation of Banking At Cornell.
Manufacturing credibility before results existed.
On day one, BAC had no alumni, no placement history, and no proof it could get anyone a job. So I had to manufacture credibility before results existed.
I recruited an executive board of people already in some of the best clubs on campus, talented, respected, and close friends. That gave BAC immediate social proof. Then I built a modern website, because most existing finance club sites barely existed. I wanted BAC to feel institutional, polished, already established.
Even the name was intentional. Banking At Cornell. It sounded official. It sounded like something that had existed for decades. And when students Googled "investment banking at Cornell," I wanted them to find us.
Give value before asking for commitment.
To attract attention I needed to give students something useful immediately. So I created an online course, How to Get Into Finance Clubs at Cornell University, covering exactly how the recruiting process worked, what to know, how to prepare, and how to interview. The kind of information I wished I'd had as a freshman.
To access the course, students became general members of BAC. That created a pipeline: students entered through general membership, received real value, and the most committed applied to become analysts.
I also built an internship tracker. In banking recruiting, timing matters, applying the moment an internship opens improves your odds. The course helped freshmen entering finance. The tracker helped students actively recruiting. Together, they proved BAC wasn't just another club. It was useful.
A lucky email and 600 names.
Once I had the website, the course, the tracker, and the founding team, the next challenge was distribution. I promoted BAC in classrooms by asking professors I had relationships with to share it with their students. I used Instagram, cold emails, and every channel I could think of.
Then, during a recruiting cycle, another finance club accidentally sent an email without BCC'ing its list. That mistake handed me 600+student emails who had already raised their hand for finance. It became a major distribution moment, a direct way to reach the exact students BAC was built to serve.
84 applications. A core was born.
Sophomore year, while I was recruiting for IB myself, we recruited BAC's first analyst class. Through advertising, Instagram, cold emails, and word of mouth, we received around 84applications. At the time, that felt incredible. We selected a class of 19 students.
That first group became the foundation of the club. We taught them the fundamentals of investment banking recruiting: behavioral interviews, accounting, equity value, enterprise value, valuation, DCFs, LBOs, merger models, networking, resumes, and how to actually speak about finance with confidence.
It was funny because while I was teaching students how to recruit, I was going through the exact same process myself. In a way, teaching made me better. I had to understand the material deeply enough to explain it clearly to others.
More than education, a place to belong.
BAC was never supposed to be only technical lessons and interview prep. I knew the club needed community. People stay committed to organizations when they feel connected to the people inside them.
So we hosted socials and created ways for members to actually build friendships. Later, we tested a lineage structure where members were divided into smaller groups for mentorship, accountability, competition, and community. The idea had promise, but it never fully took traction.
So we simplified it. We moved toward a big/little structure, similar to fraternities and sororities, where younger members were paired with older members. That created family lines within the club and made mentorship feel more natural. Connection became the basis for continuity.
Associate with the best until you become them.
Junior year, once I had secured my own job, my mission changed. I wanted to build BAC's credibility, recruit the best members, and start educating the broader Cornell community about investment banking.
One of the biggest levers was collaboration events. In the Cornell finance scene, collaborations matter. They signal reputation. They show where a club stands. So I wanted BAC to be associated with the strongest organizations on campus.
We started reaching out early. Once one respected club agreed to partner with us, others followed. Soon, BAC, only about a year old, was hosting some of the largest banking events on campus alongside clubs that had existed for years.
119 students. School backing. A platform.
One of the biggest turning points was hosting a large investment banking recruiting event with the top finance clubs on campus. The idea was simple: bring juniors and seniors who had already gone through the IB recruiting process into one room and have them explain how it actually works.
We covered networking, cold emailing, follow-ups, behavioral interviews, technical preparation, resumes, confidence, and how to think about the entire recruiting process.
I also reached out to the business school administration and asked them to help advertise the event. It took some convincing, but the point was clear: Cornell itself was not directly teaching students how to get IB jobs, the clubs were. Eventually, they supported it. 119students attended. That event made BAC more than a club. It became a platform for recruiting education at Cornell.
Move earlier. Move smarter.
Another major strategic decision was recruiting earlier than the more established clubs. Freshmen coming onto campus often don't fully understand the hierarchy of clubs. They don't know which organizations are old, new, prestigious, or emerging. That created an opportunity.
We gathered lists of incoming freshmen in the business school and hotel school, our main target audiences. We built a strong email campaign and reached them before any other club did.
The logic was simple: if we recruited earlier, with a strong brand and a clear value proposition, we could attract some of the best candidates before they were pulled elsewhere. And it worked. We brought in an incredible cohort of students who became the next generation of BAC.
Outrageously prepared, on purpose.
Since BAC didn't yet have years of alumni or placement results, we had to win through education. So we built the most comprehensive new-member education process we could.
We taught students how to network, how to write cold emails, how to answer behavioral questions, how to build resumes, how to understand finance, how to prepare technicals, how to speak with confidence, and how to navigate the recruiting landscape.
The goal was not for students to know "just enough." The goal was for them to become outrageously prepared. By the time they completed the process, many freshmen knew more about investment banking recruiting than students years older than them. That became one of BAC's biggest competitive advantages.
Personal responsibility, taught underneath the technicals.
BAC's culture was built around my personal philosophy. Effort. Discipline. Positive attitude. Personal responsibility. Kindness. Respect.
I wanted students to understand that the moment you take responsibility for the outcomes of your life, you become free. You determine your future. You become the master of your own destiny. That idea became central to the club.
Yes, we taught technicals. Yes, we taught networking. Yes, we taught recruiting. But underneath all of it, we were teaching students how to take ownership of their lives.
The model worked.
The biggest turning point came during senior year, in the 2026 recruiting cycle. By then, BAC had a full executive board dedicated to helping students get jobs. The education system was stronger. The community was deeper. The brand had more credibility. And the students were incredibly prepared.
Every single member of our sophomore class who applied for a job in financial services is employed today because of Banking At Cornell. That was the proof. The model worked.
What began as an idea born out of necessity had become a real institution. Today, BAC has 82analysts and 606general members. I am incredibly proud of what we have created.
What we built.
Banking At Cornell has grown into a self-sustaining institution that will continue serving Cornell students long after the founding team graduates.