Zak Kann

I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions lately. And by lately, I mean at least since I was old enough to remember my internal monologue. For those that don’t know me well, I’m an aspiring serial startup founder. I love the concept of startups. I’ve wanted to run a business since I was a tween. […]

While reading the book Dare To Lead by Dr. Brené Brown, I came across a term that I have desperately needed in my vocabulary: the “dirty yes”. To quote Dr. Brown, a dirty yes is “when I say yes to your face and then no behind your back”. Have you experienced the dirty yes in your

Throughout undergraduate and graduate school, I always felt poor. Largely, that’s because I was. Schoolhouse Blues In my Freshman and Sophomore year, I was surviving on nothing but loans and scholarships totaling somewhere around $12,000 after tuition and fees. In my junior year, I added a part-time lab job that paid slightly over minimum wage, but

I remember the days when I could buy a piece of software and be done with it. Whether I used Office 2010 for a month or 5 years, it still cost me the same price. I never had to re-evaluate whether it was worth keeping because it was mine forever. And the same was true

Graduate school is supposed to be a life-changing experience, but the biggest changes I went through in those 5 years didn’t occur in the lab. This is the story of one of those experiences. One Small Step As most life-altering days do, it started completely normally. I got out of bed, showered, brushed my teeth,

I have held the title of data scientist in two industries. I’ve interviewed for more than 30 additional data science positions. I’ve been the CTO of a data-centric startup. I’ve done many hours of data science consulting. With that background, you will hopefully realize that I’m not a data denier. I’m a firm believer in

Why start a business? There are plenty of good reasons. One of the best reasons is that you had a problem. That problem led you to build a solution. And now other people with that same problem want your solution. My dad used to have a pet store. As you can probably imagine, pet stores in

What’s the picture in your mind when you think ‘early adopter’? Is it some rich kid surrounded by a ton of state-of-the-art gadgets? I’m sure he’s got the latest VR headset and an Apple watch. His fridge can tell him the moment his Chobani yogurt expires. If it has the word ‘smart’ in the name,

I went into my first startup thinking exactly what every other founder thinks: “This is the best idea anyone has ever had. There’s no way we can fail.” After less than a year working full-time with my co-founder on the business, it seems that I was wrong. We did fail. We failed so fast that

Standardized testing saved my life. Okay, that’s a complete exaggeration. Let me try again. Standardized testing, a touch of tenacity, a mountain of luck, and a man named Chuck Paulson made it possible for me to attend a university. Who Wrote Your Transcript? More importantly, were they as naive as the person that wrote mine?