Garrett Lord (Handshake) - The Network Effect

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL)

Stanford eCorner

Journey, Startups, Education, Stanford, Culture, Strategy, Stanford University, Entrepreneurship, Business, Life Lessons, Thought Leadership, Creativity, Etl, Challenges, Leadership, Innovation, Founders

4.4 • 739 Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Garrett Lord started Handshake to make it easier for students from all backgrounds to find internships. Lord discusses his own experience studying computer science at Michigan Tech and the disparities that leave so many students without exposure to recruiters at their campuses. In democratizing the job search, Lord talks about identifying a two-way marketplace and how to scale helping one student at a time.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So welcome everybody to the entrepreneurial thought leader seminar at Stanford or ETL.
0:19.0	ETL is brought to you by basis, the Business Association of
0:23.0	Stanford Entrepreneurial Students and STVP, the Stanford Engineering Entrepreneurship Center.
0:28.5	I am Ravi Balani, a lecturer in the Management Science and Engineering Department at Stanford
0:33.0	and the director of Alchemist and Accelerator for Enterprise Startups.
0:36.5	And today, we are thrilled to have
0:38.9	Garrett Lord, the co-founder and CEO of Handshake with us. How many people have heard of Handshake?
0:46.7	Okay, I'm glad. Okay, so Handshake needs no introduction. You guys know that it is the career
0:51.2	platform for Gen Z, but you may not understand the full
0:54.6	story behind it, which packs in so many seminal lessons on entrepreneurship.
1:00.5	Garrett grew up in Detroit and went to college in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at Michigan
1:06.4	Tech University.
1:07.9	And then at school, he met his co-founders, Scott and Ben, who were fellow classmates.
1:13.6	And then in 2014, I believe as a junior, at age 20, how many people here are 20?
1:19.6	Or within a year of 20?
1:21.6	Okay. So I just want you to put yourselves in Garrett's shoes. At age 20, he drops out, really goes and drives in a Ford Fusion and lives in his Ford
1:31.7	fusion with the ambition of starting Handshake.
1:35.6	Handshake's mission is to democratize access to opportunity by enabling students and alumni
1:41.3	to establish meaningful relationships, no connections, experience,
1:45.2	or luck required.
1:46.8	And it really has attacked what's probably one of the most difficult businesses to build.
1:51.2	It's a multi-sided marketplace, and now it's becoming an AI-first platform.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Stanford eCorner, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Stanford eCorner and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.