UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The connections made at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology don’t always end after graduation. Some relationships continue long after college as graduates collaborate together to make an impact in the workforce.
Rick Harrison, a 2010 College of IST alumnus, found this to be true with his fellow co-founders of Meadow, a point-of-sale software system created to assist customers of the cannabis industry, located in San Francisco.
“We started Meadow a little over four years ago by building a customer delivery platform for medical cannabis,” Harrison said. “Soon after, we were developing software that was helping our delivery partners manage their business, and we decided to focus full time on that.”
Harrison met two of his co-founders, 2010 alumni Harrison Lee and Scott Garman, during his freshman year at Penn State.
“Harrison Lee was actually our resident assistant on the IST floor in West Halls,” Harrison said. “We all lived there freshman year. We became friends and had classes together.”
After becoming fast friends, their professional relationship began quickly. Harrison and Garman began interning in the research and development department at AccuWeather in State College, where they worked on the software of systems running iPhones, Android devices, and other platforms that were recently released into the market.
“We were able to get a lot of experience together and supplement the learning that we had at IST with some real-world experience at the same time,” Harrison said.
After graduation, Harrison, Lee and Garman decided to stay in State College to start a consulting and developmental company, Nine Robot. They worked on software design projects for several clients, including Zappos, for whom they created the iPad, iPhone and Android applications.
From Happy Valley to Silicon Valley
The decision to move to the West Coast stemmed from another Happy Valley connection. After attending a Penn State networking event in early 2011, Harrison was introduced to College of Engineering alumnus Matt Brezina.
Brezina had relocated to San Francisco and was working as co-founder of Sincerely Inc., a company that creates customizable, digital greeting cards and postcards. Harrison, Lee and Garman joined the team as the first three employees of the company, working remotely at first, and then making the move to the Bay Area in mid-2011.
This westward move was something they had been considering for years.
“One of the things that connected Rick and me when we were living on the IST floor in college was the startup theme and the idea of Silicon Valley,” Garman said. “It was always something that was on the horizon and something we were interested in.”
Working together at Sincerely Inc. inspired the idea to branch out and create their own company. After experimenting in several industries, the trio began collaborating with 2004 Penn State Smeal College of Business alumnus David Hua to create new software supporting the young, opportunistic cannabis industry.
“We decided to take a chance, and we dove in head first,” Harrison said. “It has been a good fit for us. Cannabis is legal recreationally in California and in many other states now as well, so it’s definitely growing and we’re very excited about that.”
The beginning of Meadow can be credited to the team’s support from Y Combinator, a startup accelerator located in Silicon Valley. This organization invests in young companies, mentors its leadership, and helps them engage a vast system of entrepreneurial resources.
“For us it was similar to Penn State, in a way,” Harrison said. “We’re now in the Y Combinator network, and we always have access to it. We’re always meeting other Y Combinator alumni.”
Gaining invaluable soft skills in the College of IST
For Harrison and Garman, IST played a significant role in the development of their entrepreneurial skills. Because of the heavy focus on collaborative assignments in the IST curriculum, the professional skills they learned helped advance their careers and prepare them for the intense competition they’d face launching Meadow.
“Y Combinator is incredibly selective — it’s harder to get into than Harvard,” said Harrison. “IST helped us prepare for that and taught us how to present ourselves successfully.”
The Meadow founders attribute their success to the interpersonal communication skills and goal-driven initiatives they developed as IST students. The knowledge gained in the College of IST goes far beyond software development and programming, they said. Learning the behavior and skills necessary to advance in the consulting industry was equally important. Engaging with other students and professors to build their expertise and develop critical skills has helped them to progress their achievements.
“Working with other people is one of the most important skills you can have,” Harrison said. “I learned that from the very beginning. I also focused on learning how to talk to other companies and how to present yourself.”
Developing a proficiency in these skills has led Meadow to grow as a leading cannabis point-of-sale software in California, with 70 percent of the dispensary market using the system.
“From my perspective, [our success] is two-fold,” Garman said. “The first thing is the expertise and experience that the founding team has mastered before starting the company. Then, taking that and meeting with our customer; talking to our customer every day and week; understanding their feedback and understanding their problems and needs. We take that and use our expertise to build great software around it.”
Harrison and Garman advise current IST students to take advantage of the hands-on, interactive lessons in class.
“There were definitely classes where you could get as much out if it as you wanted to take,” Garman said.
“If you have interests, work on them in your free time and find other students that are also interested in the same things,” Harrison added. “The more experience you get early on in your career will help you exponentially later on.”
Beyond their formal education, IST helped form the skills and relationships that advanced their careers after graduation. Harrison came to college his freshman year with some background knowledge of programming and development. He was able to use the IST resources to supplement that and gain real-world experience from opportunities offered exclusively to IST students.
“IST gave us the opportunity to get some experience in the real world,” Harrison said. “I found my first internship because of IST. I was only a sophomore at the time, and I had real responsibilities. That was a great opportunity that IST presented to us.”
Garman feels that the personal and professional relationships he formed on campus were the most beneficial aspect of his education.
“I meet Penn Staters all the time,” he said. “There’s definitely a strong group of us. That’s been the most value that I’ve seen from being a Penn State alumnus.”
Meadow is expanding nationwide in 2019. As the company continues to grow, so will their team. Students focused on software engineering can email work@getmeadow.com for more information on available full-time positions.