Exec Search x EdTech = My Past, Present, & Future

Nick T
Aug 23, 2023
8 min read

Updated: Mar 25, 2024

In my day to day job as Sales lead at AboveBoard, I sit at the intersections of Tech, Executive Search, DEI, and Venture Capital/Private Equity funds and their portfolios of companies(Seed through IPO'd Enterprises). I spend my time having conversations with CEO's, Founders, Heads of Talent, Heads of DEI and many other extremely accomplished people I never even knew existed. Since entering the world of Executive Search, I've gained access to world's no one taught me about - which to me, shows an incredible opportunity.

My career started as an intern with Heidrick & Struggles, and in that same summer, an intern with True Search which founded the company where I was hired as employee #3 and currently reside at, AboveBoard, the Inclusive Platform for Executive Hiring. The other half of my professional life is spent as a volunteer & member of the Board of Directors at Grassroots Health, where we're advancing health equity in cities by using sports to re-imagine health education in middle schools & mobilizing NCAA athletes as health educators and role models for youth.

Glancing at my resumé, you might think I had it all figured out from the start, aiming straight for the Executive Recruitment + Education combo as soon as I hit Howard University. But honestly? That couldn't be further from the truth-

Up until the middle of my Junior year, it was all about sports for me. Not just because I've been an athlete my entire life and was living out my D1 soccer dreams, but because it was all I knew.

Growing up I had virtually no access to the white collar business world. My mom, a lifelong teacher, and my dad, a lifelong pilot, both came from small towns of less that 500 people. They grew up learning trades, and the careers they built were a result of venturing far outside of their families comfort zones- They had to figure out what they didn't know. Far removed from companies such as McKinsey, Heidrick & Struggles, Ellucian, etc - my parents never saw those career paths for me and my brother, because they didn't even know they existed- As a result, those brands never played a role in my life and I was never able to understand the roles workers at those companies play. When I signed up to be part of the School of Business in college, I still didn't fully understand what that meant, but I knew I would put the pieces together, and boy did I.

Pairing my Business degree with a Sports Management degree + being captain of the men's soccer team at Howard, set me on my path towards becoming a sports agent. My plan was the same as many other athletes', chase being a pro & if it doesn't work out stay as close the the sports world as possible. Through Professor Alois 'Ricky' Clemons , I was able to visit the NFL Players Association office in D.C. as well as have an in person visit with The Sports Entertainment Group, a D.C. based agency that manages the likes of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Stefon Diggs, Le'Veon Bell & many other athletes and entertainers. In the span of just a few months I was thrown headfirst into the business side of the world that I had always known and loved. The next steps were obvious- studying for the LSAT, getting into law school, and staying driven on my path. But it just didn't feel right...until Tuesday, October 1, 2019. The day my world was quite literally changed forever.

That day, sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Radford, Virginia, stretching out before a soccer game, I felt my phone go off in my pocket. Coach Gyau(head coach of the Howard Men's Soccer team) had just sent the team a message asking if any of the seniors wanted to go to dinner with a guy named Aaron that was coming into town to recruit for Heidrick & Struggles. None of the Seniors on the team accepted the invite, but curious & having recently had one of my many many life revelations -just say yes- pushed me to ask coach if I could go to the dinner even though I was only a Sophomore. The answer of course, yes.

That day fundamentally changed the path of my career & ultimately led me to my life passion as an entrepreneur. The dinner was hosted by Aaron Clubb. Now Partner and Head of the DEI Practice at True Search, then Partner at Heidrick & Struggles. Even after doing a couple days worth of research I still had no idea what the H*ll Heidrick & Struggles really did. A google search brings up - "Heidrick & Struggles is the Premier provider of executive search, corporate culture and leadership consulting services". 4 years later I can tell you all about the world of the SHREK's, but back then, & still to this day when I talk about my career with my family and friends, no one knew what that meant or what a job in that field entails.

After an interview in D.C., and in-person interview in L.A.(Heidrick knows how to do accommodations btw), I was offered an internship for the upcoming summer. A few months later, Covid struck & the world got flipped turned upside down(ba-dum-tss)-internship canceled and turned into a 2 week virtual program. What seemed like a tragedy in the moment, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Aaron had recently made his move to True Search, who were in the process of launching a new platform to help companies diversify their executive talent pools and enable inclusive hiring practices at the highest levels of all companies, regardless of industry, but starting with their sweet spot in the VC + tech worlds.

To kickoff the company, AboveBoard's CEO, Lucinda Duncalfe, and the 2 engineers she was building the initial platform with(Shoutout to John & Marni) were looking for a few interns. Aaron remembered me & intro'd me to the team for a round of interviews. Keep in mind that at this point I had basically 0 exposure to the official world of Venture Capital/Startups. I had previously built my own DTC company(Rep Your City Bracelets-picture at the end) & knew what product market fit was, how to develop an effective tech stack, basic marketing from my days managing social media at Howard, & the hard work building a company entails, but my learning curve was about to get a rocket ship attached to it. Going into my interview with Lucinda Aaron gave me 1 piece of advice-Study Venture Capital and Private Equity.

Now if you know me, you know that once I'm exposed to new information, it's game on, I need to know it all. Immediately I was able to make the connections between what I was learning about Venture Capital/Private Equity & what I had already built myself. Early stage startups/venture capital is the world I knew I belonged to. When I say early stage, I mean the very earliest stages of company growth(seed stage). Over time and through many experiences I've learned that my favorite things to do as a human are be scrappy, build, and chase product market fit. That's what made me the perfect employee #3 at AboveBoard. Initially hired as a general intern, I quickly moved to the sales side of the business as the first hire and began working through the talent side of VC & PE firms and their portfolios.

In the 4 years I've worked at AboveBoard I've grown from intern, to sales development rep, to Account Executive, to Sr. Enterprise Account Executive, and finally before our recent acquisition, Sales Lead. Through AboveBoard my inner philomath has tackled a joint course in building businesses, understanding different financing methods and the pros and cons of each(Bootstrapping vs. VC), Executive talent acquisition, DEI, Functional education(think learning about sales, ops, marketing, product, engineering, etc) and most crucially-turning my access into a comprehensive understanding of the companies that drive the world & what careers at many of those companies entail.

The Grand Finale - EdTech

Since Oct 1, 2019 when I was first exposed to the Executive talent acquisition world I have learned more about the world than I could have ever dreamed. I know more about the world than I could have ever dreamed solely because I took a chance & ended up getting exposure on a level rarely seen. Luck got me in, my abilities took me to the top. There needs to be more success stories like mine, but not fueled by luck-fueled by access to the right kind of education.

-My Mission

To help people answer the question-What do you want to be when you grow up?

Step 1-Understand the Business world & access the professionals driving it by gaining experience in the Executive Talent Acquisition industry. Learn how different businesses and industries function by working directly with the people placing talent at the thousands of companies that make up the global economy.

Step 2-Gain an understanding of the sales process in different education systems(and at different levels) by entering the EdTech world as an Account Executive (It will be necessary to understand the education systems buying process/decision makers for my future project). Works hands on with Learning Management Systems, Enterprise Resource Planning tools, and Education Content Providers to get a hands on education, in education.

Step 3-Use my combined knowledge from my time as a volunteer with Grassroots Health, my time under the True Search/AboveBoard umbrella, and the understanding I develop of the education system sales process, to build a SaaS platform that enables students to understand the careers available to them early in their education so they can better define their career goals entering college. Hypothesis: If we arm people with the knowledge of what careers are available to them, especially in the least known industries like Private Equity & Venture Capital, we will naturally increase the level of diversity companies see because a wider variety of people will know they exist, and the roles employees play within institutions, and will therefore be able to align their studies to those fields before it's too late.

What's Next

Well that's where you come in. If you're reading this blog post I probably sent it to you as part of my sales pitch for why I'll be a great addition to your company as a salesperson, or I've started fundraising (more coming soon) and you're a Venture Capitalist deciding whether to invest in my mission, or cheer us on from the sidelines. Either way, who you are getting is a transparent and dedicated leader whose life has been intertwined with the education world from the very beginning. Added bonus is that I'm a killer salesperson & I love to learn in awesome team environments : )

From having an unconventional early education through the Montessori system
to teaching a class of 5th graders how to do multiplication tables when I was in 3rd grade
to being chosen to speak at the Desert Pines High School Graduation ceremony when I was only a 5th grader
to facilitating Grassroots Health's 3 curricula (Sexual Health, Nutrition/Physical Health, & Mental Health) in more than 20 middle schools across D.C. & Philly
to presenting Grassroots Health's Mental Health curriculum to the Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity
to joining the Grassroots Health Board of Directors
to launching 3 products under the True Search umbrella
and finally, understanding my purpose as an EdTech entrepreneur,

This is my journey & this is my ask for you-Is your team looking for an enthusiastic problem-solver that'll work their butt off every day to understand the business and drive it forward?

Let's chat-I can be reached via