By Vikki Bowes-Mok
This story was originally published in the spring/summer 2024 issue of Harker Magazine.
Harish Venkatesan ’06 learned valuable lessons about teamwork, leadership and problem-solving when he played basketball at Harker.
“I remember Harish’s senior year and after the first game that season, he asked me to give a starting position to a talented freshman, even though it meant he would not start,” said Jeremiah Brewer, who was his varsity basketball coach. “Harish was very coachable, unselfish and a great student of the game.”
Basketball was a big part of his life in high school, and he still plays pickup games in New York, where he now lives with his wife and infant son.
Venkatesan landed in New York after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering. He always had an interest in technology startups and Penn seemed like the perfect place to blend tech and business. While there, he founded TickrTalk, a web application for sports fans to share and communicate with each other during games. This “Twitter for sports” app was incubated at Penn’s Weiss Tech House where Venkatesan connected with many budding entrepreneurs, including the founders of Venmo.
This connection led to a transformative internship at Venmo. His senior year at Penn, he evangelized the product on campus and was part of a team that built the now ubiquitous app (Venkatesan was Venmo user No. 3!).
“This experience definitely cemented my desire to become an entrepreneur,” Venkatesan recalled. “I got to watch the founders create, navigate and adapt – and it was inspiring!”
With a degree in hand, school loans to pay off and entrepreneurship in his heart, Venkatesan headed into the working world. While at a startup, he and a friend, Daniel Shapiro, decided to tinker with some ideas around digital design education. At the time, everyone was focused on learning to code, but they realized that design was just as important.
Venkatesan wanted to improve his own design, branding and creative skills, but when he couldn’t find any good online resources, he saw an opportunity and didn’t hesitate. The two friends created a simple website to gauge interest and when they got thousands of signups, they knew they were onto something.
“The importance of digital product design was very apparent to Harish and me when we were working on our first project together,” Shapiro said. “And when it became clear there wasn’t a great way to learn those skills online, the initial concept for Designlab was born.”
Designlab is now an industry leader in online design education that helps students learn UI/UX design skills through a rigorous mix of hands-on projects, community interaction and one-on[1]one mentorship from top industry designers.
“I was just super excited to be back into a creative space; I felt energized again. I had a really great mentor that hyped me up but also allowed me to make mistakes,” said Designlab graduate Cage Castro. “There’s a lot of value in what Designlab directly offers, but it is so much greater than that. It gives you this opportunity to learn. I think it is an incredible thing that exists.”
Designlab exists because Venkatesan, Shapiro and their team continue to innovate and evolve. The lessons Venkatesan learned on the basketball court all those years ago – teamwork, leadership and problem solving – are being put to use in building Designlab today.
“You never know exactly where you are headed,” said a contemplative Venkatesan. “It’s good to have a master plan, but it’s also OK to jump to the next lily pad, which could lead to new pathways and opportunities.”
Vikki Bowes-Mok is a freelance writer and editor.