What A Cofounder At Pencil Energy Wishes They Knew Before Entering Startups
Kyle, a cofounder at Pencil Energy and former auditor, advises aspiring auditors to be proactive in seeking "the types of projects or policy areas" they find interesting, as "you have agency in what kind of projects you can work on." For aspiring founders, Kyle stresses the importance of taking the leap early, noting that "the older we get, the more our responsibilities increase," making entrepreneurial pursuits more challenging.
Career Development, Project Management, Entrepreneurship, Agency and Initiative, Overcoming Challenges
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Kyle Brauer
Cofounder
Pencil Energy
UCLA - 2017
UCLA Anderson FEMBA, 2023 - MBA Degree
Political Science, American Studies
Climate, Environment, Sustainability & Waste Management, Energy & Utilities
Entrepreneurship and Business Owner
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, LGBTQ, Transfer Student
Video Highlights
1. As an auditor, you have more agency than you might think in choosing projects and areas of focus. Don't be afraid to proactively seek out assignments that align with your interests.
2. In the field of auditing, internal politics play a role, so understanding and navigating these dynamics is crucial for career progression and project selection.
3. To truly understand the entrepreneurial journey, you should try it as early as possible because responsibilities and obligations tend to increase with age, making it harder to take the leap later on.
Transcript
What have you learned about this role that you wish someone had told you before you entered the industry?
As an auditor, I wish I had learned ahead of time that you have agency in what kind of projects you can work on and what you can do in those projects. I initially accepted that I would just get assigned audits and then I would do that.
Then I realized that within my organization, I had personal power and agency to ask for the types of projects or policy areas that I was really interested in. Often, those specific audits weren't immediately available, but once I started asking, I got assignments that I had much more fun doing.
This is obviously with limits, and it's probably familiar for people in many organizations where you have to deal with internal politics. But it still applies. The auditor's office receives audits from the legislature, which can make staff feel like they get what they're going to get, because you don't always control your projects.
I'm saying this now to relay that it's not necessarily true. You can get what you get within the context of all the other things that you could get. So, just having a more proactive perspective would be helpful.
As a founder, it's really hard to answer this question because the founder's journey is so personal. You can't really describe the experience in a way that truly tells anybody what it's like.
With that in mind, I wish that a founder had told me that you need to try it. If you really want to know what it's like to be an entrepreneur, you should try it as soon as you can. There's usually no better time than right now.
The older we get, the more our responsibilities increase and the more obligations we have. This makes it harder to set aside other things for that lifestyle.