On Friday, March 3, the NDB community welcomed Anna M. Counselman, CEO of Upstart for the Community Speaker Series.

Anna M. Counselman is a co-founder of Upstart, a leading AI lending marketplace that works to improve access to affordable credit. Counselman leads business operations, where she focuses on employee experience, culture-strategy alignment and operational scalability. She has received a White House Champion of Change award and was recognized as one of Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 40 under 40.

She shared with the school community important lessons she has learned from her career, three of them being to think of every opportunity as a chance to prove strength, raising your hand before you feel ready and figuring out what growth feels like for you.

“Every career path, every college, every choice that you make, has no one formula for a perfect life that leads to happiness,” said Counselman. “So do the journey. Be open to opportunities that show up in front of you, do the best you can at other things, [so you can have] as many options as possible to choose from down the road.”

Counselman encouraged the school community to prioritize themselves in addition to their work.

As she shared her story of resilience, hard work and courage, Counselman inspired the young women of NDB to lead with strength and perseverance.