April 4, 2025 • 35 mins
Dr. Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, talks with Connor Sattely, a 2025 recipient of the Penn State Alumni Achievement Award, about his work in venture capital in the Netherlands. Originally recorded on March 27, 2025.
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Ralph Ford (00:00):
I'm Dr Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State,
Behrend, and you're listening toBehrend Talks.
My guest today is Behrendgraduates 2011 graduate, Connor
Sattely.
I remember, Connor, when he wasa student Hard to believe you
went on to do all these sosuccessful things after you
graduated.
But you're an entrepreneur.
You've launched businesses inSwitzerland, Uganda, Netherlands
(00:21):
.
We're going to talk a whole lotmore.
You now live overseas.
You have, for a while, you haveadvised startup founders in
more than 50 countries.
Anyways, welcome to the show,Connor.
Connor Sattely (00:30):
Thank you, nice to be here.
Ralph Ford (00:32):
We really appreciate it.
So just a little context.
Today is March 27, 2025, andConnor has returned to campus.
Is this your first time back?
Connor Sattely (00:42):
Yeah, I think so .
Ralph Ford (00:43):
Since you left.
Connor Sattely (00:47):
I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, you just haven't invitedme back sooner, so I was waiting
, but sometimes these emails getcaught in spam, so I must have
missed it.
Ralph Ford (00:52):
Well, you and I have stayed connected over the years
, that's true, but it's a reallyspecial honor.
You are here because you areone of eight people in Penn
State University that'sreceiving something known as the
Alumni Achievement Awards.
So you've come to campus herefor a day, at Behrend, and
you'll be going to UniversityPark tomorrow to officially
(01:14):
receive the award, and itrecognizes successful alumni who
are younger than 35.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about you know how
things are going here on campustoday?
Connor Sattely (01:23):
Oh, it's cool, it's nice coming back.
I mean, there's all sorts ofnew buildings and stuff the
barn's gone, you know and newbuildings sprouting up
everywhere, new residences and Igot to meet some of the
students today.
That was pretty cool.
It's cool to talk to some ofthe students and ask them
questions and hear what life'slike for them.
And you know, what's it like tobe a student in 2025?
I think it's radicallydifferent than what it was like
(01:44):
to be a student in 2007, 2009,.
Just in the terms of whattechnology has changed and how
people are attached tosmartphones and what the
pandemic did for sort of theirdevelopmental history.
That was really interesting tolearn about and hear firsthand.
And then I got to be the oldguy that would prattle on some
false wisdom that feels superaccessible and inspiring today
(02:04):
and they'll forget it bytomorrow.
Ralph Ford (02:06):
So that's always a pretty good stuff I don't think
you give yourself enough creditbecause there is wisdom in there
in what you had to say.
We'll get into some of thattoday.
Well, I'll add a little bitmore about your bio and we'll
continue on.
You got two degrees while youwere here communication and
political science.
You went on to earn a master'sdegree in international affairs
when you were living in Geneva,Switzerland, and I won't run
(02:31):
through everything, but you madea real impression when you were
here at Behrend because youwere in about every single club
and organization that we seem tohave I'm exaggerating, but it
was quite a few.
But very notably you werehighly involved in the Behrend
Beacon Alternative Spring Breakand a whole lot of other things.
You performed with the jazzband, pep band, matchbox players
(02:52):
and you won some prestigiousstudent awards when you were
here, notably I'll say theprestigious T Reed Ferguson
Award.
That is for scholarship,leadership and citizenship.
So I hope I embarrassed you alittle bit there with all the
great things that you did evenbefore you left Behrend.
Connor Sattely (03:08):
Yeah, and the Amber Heater Memorial Award,
that's the one I'm most proud of.
That one meant a lot because Iknew, Amber, you did.
Yeah.
Ralph Ford (03:16):
And what's that one for?
Connor Sattely (03:17):
Yeah, that's a fantastic question.
As I recall, I haven't reallyfamiliarized myself too much
with it.
But I haven't reallyfamiliarized myself too much
with it but it was for apolitical science student that
sort of went above and beyondand was active in the community
et cetera.
And Amber was a fantasticperson and student.
That was in the politicalscience program and so it was
something created in her memory.
So that was one that I wantedto make sure we mentioned in
(03:39):
there.
Ralph Ford (03:40):
Well, you are correct, you passed the test
because that?
Is in fact, what the award wasfor.
All right, great, and let'sstart a little bit.
You know, I'd love to hear thestory of how did you end up at
Behrend?
Where did you grow up?
We're not looking for the lifestory, but where did you grow up
and how did you actually end upselecting Penn State Behrend as
a destination?
Connor Sattely (04:00):
Well, the 15th of May 1989, it was hailing in
Oklahoma and at a small hospitalthere in Midwest City that's
where I was born.
Obviously not too many careerprospects in Oklahoma.
So at about six months old Idecided I think probably
Pennsylvania seems more like thetype of developing economy
(04:21):
that's interesting.
So I convinced my parents Icould only kind of crap in my
diapers at that point, but myparents interpreted it as we
should move to Pittsburgh.
So I grew up in WesternPennsylvania and then, yeah,
penn State was cool.
I mean, a lot of my friendswere applying to Penn State.
I applied to a couple places.
My grades weren't that good andmy girlfriend at the time got
(04:41):
into University Park and Ididn't, oh, and I was so upset
it was devastating.
But then I got into this.
Oh, but you can go to Behrend.
Now the secret thing, the thingI knew in the back of my head,
was I really didn't like myvisit at University Park.
It didn't really appeal to methat much and I loved Behrend.
I think I came up here to visitover the summer and the fall,
(05:03):
you know, when the suns out andit's beautiful and people laying
on the grass, and so, yeah, itwas the second choice, but by
the time I came here I waspretty happy about it and yeah,
Behrend was the right place
Ralph Ford (05:16):
And did you stay together with your girlfriend,
or was that the end of therelationship?
Connor Sattely (05:26):
It wasn't the end, but it was the beginning of
the end.
She very justifiably broke upwith me there shortly thereafter
, so that didn't last too long.
So then I was at Behrend andthere was obviously the
opportunity to transfer toUniversity Park.
So that's what I was thinking.
But, man, I fell in love.
I love this place and there werea lot of opportunities for me
here, so ultimately better tostay.
Ralph Ford (05:44):
Let's talk about one thing in particular that a lot
of us who remember you as astudent and where you made a
large impact, that was theBehrend Beacon.
Did you know you wanted to beinvolved in newspaper and
communication?
How did you end up at?
Connor Sattely (05:58):
the Beacon, my friend Evan said I'm going to a
meeting of the student newspaper.
Do you want to come?
And I said okay, that's it.
And then they were therehanding out stories to all the
eager frosh that had walked inthe door.
There were 12 or 13 freshmenthat came in and just said we'll
take stories.
And then they assigned us all astory and I took one and did an
(06:19):
okay job with it.
And so they said you seem likea competent person, would you
like to continue to work withthe newspaper?
And I said all right.
And then I became theentertainment editor.
That was like a month intoschool or something like that,
because they didn't have anybodyto write articles about Britney
Spears.
So I got to proceed to thathigh pinnacle of the
journalistic craft right away.
(06:39):
In my career which, you know, Iwas always an overachiever, but
being able to write aboutBrittany was the joy of a
lifetime.
Ralph Ford (06:46):
Was that what the first story was that they gave
you what was the first story.
Connor Sattely (06:49):
No, the first story was about students living
in hotels.
Well, there wasn't enoughhousing so there was an overflow
of students and the days inhere at Erie was housing a bunch
of students on one floor.
So I sort of got to track downthe story and there were people
that were, in my opinion, tryingto sort of conceal that story,
which sort of gave me thatjournalistic.
I got to find out the truth andyeah, so that was fun and I got
(07:16):
to talk to students and it feltlike I was exposing something
or helping people and yeah, thatsort of hooked me.
I think in journalism ingeneral, because you sort of
chase that high afterwards oflike the article that
everybody's saying, hey, did youread this thing?
Or you know that people talk toyou about in your classes, hey,
I read that thing about thestudents in the hotels.
That's a pretty cool feeling.
Ralph Ford (07:33):
So you felt at that time they were trying to not let
that story be known.
Connor Sattely (07:36):
That's what I felt at the time.
Whether or not that was thecase I don't know, but in any
case, the students who were inthe hotels were unhappy about it
and were being given also, inmy opinion, a very raw deal.
One shuttle to school in themorning, one shuttle to the
hotel late at night.
That's not a good collegeexperience because there's no
flexibility in this for you tohang out with people or to just
(07:57):
lie on your bed and relax inbetween classes.
Like that's rough and nobodywas aware of that.
And yeah, that kind of gave methe social justice feeling too
of like hey, I've got to tellthis story and I'm sure it
changed a lot of people's lives,but you know, it was something
endearing to me about journalism.
Ralph Ford (08:13):
I think after a few weeks we got most of the
students on campus.
I don't recall.
I wasn't involved at that time,but I remember when we were so
full at times they wouldoverbook and, yeah, there were
students staying at the Days Inn.
We knew that.
So, at least for the first fewweeks of class.
One other interesting thing Ifound here you were both a
member of the College Democratsand the College Republicans.
(08:35):
Does this mean that you hadsome sort of political epiphany?
Connor Sattely (08:39):
No, it was just very brief because I didn't get
too much into the politicalstuff on campus.
I was the newspaper guy.
But then after Obama won in2008, there was no college
Republicans, it just stopped.
So a buddy of mine and Ioffered to Ken Miller hey, can
we sort of kickstart the CollegeRepublicans again, and just so
(09:00):
that there's some sort ofpolitical diversity of thought
on campus.
And so very, very briefly, wetemporarily I think I'm pretty
sure that was Fracassi that thatwe very briefly tried to
kickstart it and have some infosessions to get some Republicans
out to lead it.
And then, once they did, wewere like all right, great,
let's have a debate.
And then we of course sponsoredthe debate as the newspaper,
(09:22):
but ultimately it was Adam and acouple other guys behind the
scenes sort of pulling thosestrings.
Ralph Ford (09:28):
Well, I think Adam still keeps in touch with us.
Connor Sattely (09:31):
Yeah, and he's now like the director of
elections for Michigan orsomething which makes me feel
real dumb, like guys.
You missed it, like you flubbedit.
You missed the wrong.
You got the wrong guy for thealumni achievement.
If Adam's not here next yearthen I lose my faith in my own
award.
Ralph Ford (09:47):
Well, we're going to have .
.
.
Britt, we'll put that on thelist.
I'll nominate him.
He spoke on campus this lastyear, so we were real and I've
never even come back.
Connor Sattely (09:54):
So again, there's still time.
The ceremony's tomorrow.
You can take back the award.
Ralph Ford (09:58):
I'll call Adam we're not taking back the award, but
I think there's something calledlife isn't always fair.
Yeah, not taking back the word,but I think there's something,
you know, something called lifeisn't always fair.
Yeah, well, fair enough.
Well, you know, and I'll hit afew others, you know there's one
that I remember well.
So, first of all, back then Iwas director of the engineering
school and you were in theSchool of Humanities and I
remember you well because you'reprobably one of the few people
(10:19):
from the Beacon who showed up onmy door when I was school
director, yeah, and said beacon,who showed up on my door when I
was school director and said,hey, help me with some stories
or we want to do some features.
And I remember quite a bit ofengagement with you.
Connor Sattely (10:30):
Yeah, well, the whole thing was we were trying
to figure out why people didn'tread the paper and we started
talking to people and peoplesaid I don't read the paper
because it's a bunch ofcommunication students talking
about communication stuff.
It's a pretty good point.
And then the second thing wefound was that when we got a
writer from one of the scienceor technical schools, they were
easier to keep as a writerbecause it's more remarkable in
(10:53):
their field that they know howto write and communicate.
Everybody's going to graduatefrom the physics program with a
degree in physics, but then howmany of them can actually write
something that's convincing andconcise and cohesive and
understandable?
Maybe not as many as can dophysics.
So when we got some of thosewriters, they stayed.
So let's combine both things.
So the concept that we did atthe time I think this was like
(11:14):
2010, was we made an engineeringpage and a science page.
We made like a humanities page,I think so, like a page for
each of the colleges orsomething like that, and then
staffed them with writers fromthose schools, and that was
pretty cool.
We had one guy that was anengineer that came in to write
for us.
That ended up switching tocreative writing, and I think he
became an English teacher, sowe got one of yours.
Ralph Ford (11:37):
Yeah, people make big shifts sometimes.
They really do, absolutely.
They find their calling.
Connor Sattely (11:45):
Yeah, but that was fun because, yeah, nobody
from the Beacon had gone upthere before probably, so we got
to have some news in thereabout new engineering faculty
and stuff that was going on inthe engineering college, and we
started to see more newspapersgetting read.
When we would put them inwhat's now the Burke Center,
more newspapers would get takenoff the racks.
So it worked.
Ralph Ford (12:01):
Well, there's one other episode that I remember
well and I think was, at thetime, really cutting edge, and
that was the fact that we had anincident on campus which was
probably almost 16 years ago,maybe almost to the date it was,
I think, March or April 2009.
And that is when there was someconstruction going on in
Dobbins Dining Hall and atmidnight or so, I don't know
(12:25):
middle of the night, someelectrical cord sparks a fire
and we have a major fire thattook that building.
I mean, literally, that was araging fire.
Good thing nobody was there,but the interesting part of the
story is not the fire.
Maybe that's interesting, butwas the reporting that happened,
and I recall you were like thefirst reporter on the scene and
(12:46):
you were like broadcasting liveon Facebook or YouTube.
Connor Sattely (12:49):
Yeah, something like that and this was brand new
at the time.
Ralph Ford (12:51):
You beat all the.
It was a thing here on campus.
Connor Sattely (12:54):
Yeah, you can find some hyper-cringy YouTube
thing with like 19-year-oldConnor trying to have a deeper
voice than he actually had andnarrate this YouTube video.
No, and you know, when I setthe fire at Dobbins Hall, I
think you know what was forwardthinking about that decision was
the transformative educationalimpact that it would have on the
(13:14):
rest of the journalists aroundme, and it really did.
We all bound together and wehad actually kind of prepared
for that.
We had run through what are wegoing to do if something really
breaking news-ish happens withphotos or with the news?
Because we had a website atthat time and also the paper.
So, like, how fast could weprint a paper?
So I was on the phone withSample News Group, who is the
(13:35):
people that print the newspaper,with Bob Williams, our
publisher, saying, like, howfast can we make a physical
print newspaper?
We turned around in like 24hours or something 36, 36, but
then it was all online withinminutes.
And, yeah, we had photos.
We had one guy running a SIMcard from the dining hall down
to the newsroom so that we couldget that onto the website and
then run a fresh SIM card up tothe photographer who had been
(13:56):
taking photos.
In the meantime, keep swappingthe SIM cards.
It feels so stupid now becauseof course now we would never be
the first person to the story.
Whoever's looking out theirdorm room window is the first
person to the story, becausethey just put it on Instagram
Live or whatever.
So it's not that remarkable now,but at the time it felt cool.
Ralph Ford (14:12):
Hey, it was at the time, but now we know, you know
how the fire started and you'revery fortunate that the statute
of limitations has probablypassed.
Connor Sattely (14:21):
Yeah, so for arson it's 15 years, and so why
I'm so happy that you've invitedme back now is just because
it's fantastic timing for mycareer and for my judicial you
know approach to not beingarrested.
Ralph Ford (14:32):
Well, we're going to get to your career, but before
we do, just you know, if youlook at all of your experiences
at Bayer and the relationshipsyou've developed, I mean really,
how do you think that thatshaped who you became
professionally?
Connor Sattely (14:47):
Yeah, I mean, it was everything.
There's very little in my lifeI think that I can point to that
doesn't have its origins insomething that happened at
Behrend.
I think the most transformativething was Ruth Pfluger in the
study abroad office, helping mefind a way to afford being able
to study abroad, and thatinvolved going well outside of
the Penn State system.
(15:07):
Sorry, ruth, if I get you introuble, but like there was this
Penn State option Attitude oflimitations.
There was this Penn State optionthat was completely
unaffordable and I told her I'llnever study abroad then, and so
she closed the book and we justGoogled it together and she
used some recommendations thatshe had had from her network to
find a French school and thatgot me out of the country for a
(15:27):
summer to study abroad reallycheap too.
And then, even then shenotified Schreyer, which I was
part of, Schreyer helped helpedpay for part of it, even though
it wasn't a Penn State program,and then gave me honors credit
for doing it.
So it was like Ruth went so farabove and beyond in helping me
study abroad and there's almostno element of my life right now
that couldn't be traced back tothat 30-minute meeting where
(15:49):
Ruth went above and beyond.
So everybody that I met herehelped me and shaped who I am, I
think in a certain way.
You Gary and Viebranz and hissupport for my music, Ken Miller
, not expelling me for thevarious things I did in student
activities.
You know Rod Troester and JohnGamble, and I can go on and on.
Catherine Wolfe, of course,with French.
(16:11):
But if there's one thing, yeah,it would have been Ruth's Above
and Beyond to help me studyabroad.
There's no way I would havemoved abroad if it weren't for
that.
Ralph Ford (16:18):
Well, as you know, she's still here and she's still
impacting students' lives allthe time.
So did you meet her yet today?
Not yet.
I think she's coming later ontoday, so I'll have the chance
to tell her.
Connor Sattely (16:34):
Let's switch to the faculty for a second Some of
your favorite who are yourfavorite faculties or mentors or
experiences.
Yeah, well, I mean I wouldn'tspeak French if it weren't for
Catherine Wolfe.
You have to learn French topass a class that's led by
Catherine Wolfe.
You have to learn French tospeak French, and so my grades
were okay.
So I learned French and she wasa fantastic, if very, very
difficult, teacher.
Her style didn't work foreverybody, but it worked for me
(16:58):
and it was the hardest coursethat I took at Behrend probably
were her French courses but Iworked really hard and, yeah,
now I speak French, so thanksfor that.
Gary V Brands was cool.
I played music in high school ata really serious music program
in my high school, but it wasstressful.
It was like when you would playa jazz solo.
(17:19):
It was like my high schoolteachers were fantastic about
music theory and everything, butit was also really terrifying
because you didn't want to messup and then Gary V Brands would
tell dirty jokes in front of thejazz band and tell you don't
look at the chords when you'replaying a solo.
What do you mean?
Don't look at the chords, I'mgoing to play wrong notes.
I play some wrong notes.
(17:40):
Who cares, Stand up and closeyour eyes, and that taught me
sort of the extra joy andgoofiness that can come with
playing music, and that was ajoy.
My political science folks weregreat John Gamble gave me my
first research opportunities,Rob Speel and his trip to DC
with the students was fantastic.
And then on the comm side, RodTroester advised my thesis, and
(18:03):
I mean John Champagne was anhonors English teacher and just
challenged everybody to thinkmore and think deeper and read.
So I could go on all day.
But there's a lot of faculty.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some,but there were a lot that had an
absolutely fantastic impact onmy time here.
Ralph Ford (18:21):
I know you're talking about some of the
legends here at Behrend, and itcontinues on for sure.
I'm sure you did miss some, butlet's talk about so.
You end up going, you decideyou're going to live overseas.
You haven't turned back.
Let's talk about that decision.
I'd love to hear about yourprofessional journey, how you've
(18:43):
been involved in creating yourown startups.
You spend a lot of time nowadvising people on startups, but
let's hear it.
Connor Sattely (18:50):
Yeah, so I studied abroad between my junior
and senior years and that gaveme this taste for living abroad.
You know, I would go and getnoodles with this guy from Syria
and I was roommates with a guyfrom Colombia and for a kid that
grew up in western Pennsylvania, that was like that was awesome
and I had this crush on thisMexican girl.
It was.
You know, it was likeeverything was different and
(19:11):
interesting and fascinating andnew.
And you know, we went out onenight to have a bottle of wine
and there were these Japaneseguys that were visiting in the
town not at the school, but theywere bakers and they had come
to France to learn how to bakeand they spoke some French
because they were studying inFrench, but they didn't speak
any English.
So here were people that I wascommunicating to that I had no
other option but to speak thelanguage that I was there
(19:33):
studying and that was awesome,it was addictive and it was a
new experience for me assomebody that didn't grow up
bilingual.
And then I just decided I'vegot to live abroad.
So I applied to a master'sprogram in Geneva at the
Graduate Institute.
For some reason they let me inand you know they gave this pie
chart and the orientation on howmany languages their students
(19:55):
speak, and it was like you know.
Here's a quarter of ourstudents that speak like four or
more.
Here's 60% of our students thatspeak three, and then here's
this tiny shred of our studentsthat, like, speak two or less.
I was like so proud of my Frenchand I was like, oh no, now I'm
an idiot again.
It was great and that wasfantastic.
(20:17):
I loved living in Geneva.
I loved living abroad.
I loved the challenges and thecomplexities and the beauty of
being around people of othercultures and reflecting on
yourself and how you were raisedand your assumptions about the
world, and constantlyreadjusting your views and your
principles and your beliefsbased on new information and new
thoughts that may not occur toyou if it's not for great
(20:40):
conversations over glasses ofwine with people from around the
world.
So it became my life and I juststayed out there.
I loved the idea of livingoutside of my country, so I just
stayed.
Ralph Ford (20:51):
But at some point you said I have to feed myself,
I've got to make some money.
How did your professionalcareer start?
Connor Sattely (20:57):
My professional career has been accidental at
every step.
It's just something randomhappened and because of that
then the next opportunity wasavailable, and I think part of
it is because I was lucky enoughto meet really incredible
people.
My roommate came home one dayand said that he met this guy
that was starting this techstartup about politics.
(21:17):
And I'm like that's dumb, thatwon't work.
And then after a month Idecided to start helping him
with it and then we jumped in onit and started a startup
together.
But if I wasn't lucky enough tomeet somebody like that, I
wouldn't have had thatopportunity and I wouldn't have
told you, man, after leavingBehrend, that I'm going to go
start a political startup inEurope.
That wasn't part of the plan,it was just random.
(21:38):
And then after that I appliedfor 100 or 200 jobs and didn't
get anything.
And then, just randomly,somebody I met at my university
said here's this job in theNetherlands.
They contacted me about it, butI don't want it.
I know you're looking here, doyou want it?
Then suddenly I'm working inthe Netherlands.
It's just.
You know, if you my my life hasbeen about meeting good people
(21:59):
and trying to dive into myrelationships with people and be
kind and, you know, care forpeople and and try and help
people out if you can, and, andthen usually they turn around
and point out interesting thingsfor you to get involved in.
So the professional career hasbeen one accident and random
occurrence to the other man.
There's been no design by anyof it, but ultimately I ended up
being the startup guy.
Ralph Ford (22:20):
So tell us about the startup guy.
What's the startup guy do?
Connor Sattely (22:24):
Well, right now it's in venture capital.
Right now, the latest turn inthe startup guy history is about
helping people start venturecapital firms.
So there are a massive amountof former founders and
entrepreneurs who are becomingthe next generation of venture
capitalists.
Venture capitaliststraditionally are these old
white dudes in Silicon Valleythat all have MBAs and dads that
(22:46):
worked for VC firms and they'reall finance bros in Silicon
Valley that all have MBAs anddads that worked for VC firms
and they're all finance bros.
But there's a lot of highlydiverse and underrepresented
founders that are becoming VCs.
There's more women who arebecoming VCs and therefore
investing more capital inwomen-led businesses.
There's way more VCs gettingstarted around the world and in
different ecosystems than you'dexpect, and so I work with a
(23:07):
company that helped start abouthalf of them.
About half of all global VCsthat are getting started in the
world come through VC Lab, whichis a free accelerator for VC
firms.
So that's where I work now.
So there's some layers ofabstraction there between me,
the startup guy and that rightLike I'm helping people start
the firms and the people thatstart the firms give the money
(23:27):
to the founders and then thefounders start the startup.
So I'm like three levels awaynow from startups, but it's.
It's a fascinating view on aparticular part of the startup
industry, which is how vc firmsget started and how vc firms run
and invest ethically.
Ralph Ford (23:41):
So that's what I'm working on now yeah, because I,
you know, I have some limitedexperience there and some of the
people I've worked with arelike the ones you talked about
and they've had a lot ofexperience, but they just seem
to know a little bit about itand they're out there investing
in good people.
But this is a real importantniche.
If I may ask the question, whatqualifies you to do that?
Connor Sattely (24:00):
What a fantastic question.
I ask myself that every singleday.
My boss probably asks himselfthat question too.
Who the heck is this guy?
Well, I mean 12 years ofworking in startups.
I started a couple of startupsmyself.
I worked with an accelerator.
You get pretty good atunderstanding what's a good
startup and what's not a goodstartup and where startups need
to improve and how to work withfounders.
It's mostly occupationaltherapy like just ask what keeps
(24:24):
them up at night and try andbrainstorm some solutions and
listen to them.
But after a decade or so ofdoing that, I can take a look at
a VC that's investing instartups and I can try and give
them another perspective on it.
And I'm surrounded by a groupof people that have been
professional investors fordecades, and so when I come from
the founder perspective andthey come from the professional
(24:44):
investment perspective, we meetin the middle.
We teach each other things, andI've, yeah, spent the last year
and a half really diving intojust a few parts of the VC
decision making process, of howthey decide what startups to
invest in, and I've sort ofpicked up the a thing or two
that I can use to help new VCs.
But I'm sure if I sat in youknow, andreessen Horowitz or any
(25:07):
of that, and try and share somepearls of wisdom, they'll
probably laugh me out the door.
But look, that's a differentinvesting ecosystem than I work
in.
I work with new and emergingmanagers in small funds.
They're usually working bythemselves.
They usually don't haveassociates running around doing
their diligence for them.
They're doing everythingthemselves, and that requires a
certain set of skills, and soI've been fortunate enough to
(25:29):
meet a lot of managers who dothat well, and so I can take
what they're doing and offer itas ideas to other folks that are
doing it.
So really it's aboutcommunication.
So hey, look at us, we're backto parent.
Ralph Ford (25:39):
It sounds great, and you see yourself doing that for
a while.
You think about what's next, oryou'll find what's next when
you get to what's next.
Connor Sattely (25:47):
That's exactly what I would say Right now.
I love it.
I love helping new VCs getstarted.
I love working around thestartup industry because there's
always optimism, there's alwayspotential, founders are fun to
work with and the people whowork with founders are usually
fun to work with too.
So I love being here for nowand, yeah, love focusing on that
at the moment.
Ralph Ford (26:07):
And you think you'll stay in Netherlands, Amsterdam,
that's your home now.
Connor Sattely (26:11):
That's the home for the time being.
Yeah, okay.
Ralph Ford (26:13):
We'll go back.
You've lived in a number ofplaces, though Any interesting
you know, tell us a little bit.
Uganda you lived in Uganda fora while.
Connor Sattely (26:19):
Well, yeah, I mean I spent some good time in
Uganda.
My second startup was a techplatform is a tech platform in
East Africa, specifically therein Uganda, and so I moved out
there and just spent like, yeah,maybe nine months or a year or
something, so not a ton of time,but I was based there in
Kampala for a little while and,yeah, that was fun.
I mean, Uganda is beautiful andfull of amazing and good people
(26:43):
and beautiful countryside andobviously a country that has
some really significantchallenges, but a beautiful
place and what an experience fora kid from Cranberry Township
to get to go do so.
I feel very fortunate to livein the places that I've lived.
Switzerland was great.
I lived in Switzerland for awhile for my master's program.
It's probably the mostbeautiful place I've ever seen,
(27:06):
but it's also like somehow alittle bit too perfect.
Ralph Ford (27:09):
It is.
Connor Sattely (27:10):
Amsterdam's got some grime to it.
Amsterdam has a little bit ofmessiness that I like.
Everything still works justfine, but it's a little grimy,
it's a little messy.
You know, if you stumble intothe center of Amsterdam on a
Friday or Saturday night you'regoing to see some stuff.
And I like that dirt.
So Amsterdam is sort of theplace for me.
Ralph Ford (27:29):
Well, it's good to see that you found your place.
You know we had lunch earliertoday with students and I really
, you know you did a wonderfuljob.
I would say talking to thestudents and giving them some
advice, don't get good grades,don't get good grades.
Don't get good grades.
You don't have to be top of theclass.
Connor Sattely (27:48):
You don't want to be bottom.
Ralph Ford (27:50):
What advice do you have for students?
I mean, you listened to themtoday and you heard they did
talk to you about theiraspirations and what are some of
the things that stood out andadvice that you'd give to
students thinking about goinginto the startup VC world or
overseas, or just in general?
Connor Sattely (28:09):
Yeah, well, overseas, just do it.
Like, find any opportunity youcan ask for money from whoever
you can, especially when you'rein university, because maybe
there's still some opportunitiesfor you to get some money to do
it from somewhere.
Do it, if you can.
I know it's expensive and it'sscary, but like, yeah, just find
any opportunity to get out ofthe country and it's just going
(28:30):
to be a life-changing experience.
Yeah, the lunch was cool.
Like the students are awesomethat I spoke to.
The one thing that stood out tome is that everybody's kind of
everybody.
Yeah, somebody said it was likea slow motion car crash, the
economy right now.
You're in the car and you knowit's going to crash, but it's in
slow motion and there's nothingyou can really do about it.
So you just figure, you knowI'll spend a little bit more
(28:52):
time on my phone, it's not goingto crash yet for a few more
minutes.
And then somebody else said wedon't really talk about it much.
I found that a bit.
Yeah, I found that a bit sad.
So I guess I think my advice istalk about it.
I'm not arguing with you aboutthe car crash.
Like.
I think students that are inschool right now are probably
really screwed man.
Like, tuition costs are superhigh.
(29:13):
So many of them are going tograduate Penn State with
crippling education debt.
And then they live in a countrywhere corporates are usually
abusing and squeezing youngprofessionals until they burn
out and that's a rough situationto be in and there's not a lot
of jobs.
They're going to graduate andthey're going to submit their
job application.
It'll be one of a thousand andthen they won't get the job and
(29:34):
they'll do that 200 times andit's not going to work out.
So they need to talk about it.
They need to compare strategiesand try and yeah, I don't know
whatever, I'm being tooprescriptive or judgmental, but
my advice is, if you'restruggling with trying to figure
out what to do after college,talk to your friends about it.
Like, try and triangulate itand see what your friends are
(29:56):
doing and don't keep it insideBecause, like, if you just wait
until two months before yougraduate to figure it out,
you're going to make it worse onyourself.
Start two years or four yearsahead of time If you're a
freshman.
Start trying to meet people nowthat you think are doing cool
stuff and working at coolcompanies.
Start years in advance tryingto just meet people, reach out
(30:17):
to people and say Hi, I'm Connor, I'm a sophomore at Penn State,
Behrend, I'm studying this.
I love your company because youguys do cool stuff around this.
You have time for a coffee and,like, 80% of people will ignore
you but 20% of people won't.
And then you have a leg up whenit comes time for the job.
So there's a thousandapplications but you're the girl
that asked for the coffee.
(30:37):
Or you're the guy that had aquick Zoom call and that helps
your resume pop off the pile,but you don't get those
strategies unless you talk aboutit with people.
So don't stick your head in thesand as soon as you leave this
place.
You're like that planet Earthbaby turtles go into the water
while they're seagulls trying topick them off.
Like, give yourself the bestchance possible of getting a
(30:57):
good job after school at anyexpense.
Talk about it and try and makea plan and start early and meet
people.
That's my advice, because it'snot easy out there.
Ralph Ford (31:06):
Well, I think your advice was build your network
and don't be shy about talkingto people and go about it in
different ways.
Don't be the one who's gettingthe resume that's scanned by AI
and being compared to 70 otherpeople.
Connor Sattely (31:19):
Yeah, Make that part, the formality.
It's like I'm submitting to youa resume because I need to
technically use your applicationsystem, but you already know me
, You've talked to me, you toldme to apply for this job, so no
problem, I'll toss in my resumeand probably the AI scans it and
says don't hire the person.
And then the hiring managergoes oh no, no, let's just have
a talk with that person.
That's how most people get jobsnow is people just know them
(31:43):
right, or at least most youngpeople they do it, because one
guy today said he got a jobafter college because he got
drunk with somebody that worksfor the Buffalo Bills and now
the Buffalo Bills are hiring himor his friend or whatever.
So those types of interpersonalconnections get you jobs
definitely.
Ralph Ford (32:00):
Absolutely.
Connor Sattely (32:01):
Well, we are coming to the end, so any last
words of wisdom or anythingyou'd like to add, I'll give you
the last word, Connor uh, yeah,last word I'm receiving the
alumni achievement award andit's um, it's a big honor for me
and it's a pleasure, it's sonice being back, but my last
word is um, forget achievement.
(32:24):
Achievement is a mirage.
It's something that you maybework towards and the journey
towards achievement is moreimportant.
And who cares if you get there.
I didn't get there.
All the things that are on myresume that sound really
impressive, they're thin If youlook into them and this is an
imposter syndrome.
Speaking like my startups thestartup startup, the political
(32:44):
startup, failed and like all ofour girlfriends dumped us and we
ended up in debt and you know,and having existential crises.
And like the accelerator that Iwork for is like it's in
financial difficulties and it'llshut down like cool accelerator
.
So, like everything that yousee other people achieving, it's
just like Instagram.
(33:05):
It's a version of somebody'slife that is the rosiest and
most impressive version, whenthe reality is sometimes they
just sit on their couch eatingchicken quesadillas and watching
House All Day.
You know, like people's livesare difficult and complex and
anybody who you think isachieving a lot probably just
has a good PR team, and my PRteam is some professors that
(33:26):
kept in touch that decided thatwhat I'm doing sounds good
enough, and now I win the AlumniAchievement Award.
So my advice is focus on loveand experience and just go see
things and meet people, investin your friendships.
Like, be there for people and,you know, love people and have
good experience.
(33:47):
That's all I would advisepeople to do.
And like keep your head up.
It's rough out there, you know,be realistic, but then just
focus on loving your friends,like that's the stuff that
matters.
Ralph Ford (33:57):
It's good advice, but I can assure you you deserve
the alumni award.
I will tell you that.
Thank you, and no, it's reallya pleasure having you back.
It's so much fun.
I remember you well as astudent, as many do here.
You left a large impression, soit's good to see that you
haven't changed.
I think you've only gottenfunnier.
Connor Sattely (34:19):
More gallows humor.
It's darker.
Maybe there used to be morejokes and now it's just
observations on life, I don'tknow.
But thank you.
Ralph Ford (34:27):
Well, it's a good way for us to end and thank you
so much for being here Today.
You have been listening toConnor Sattely, a Penn State
Behrend grad, who has won thePenn State Alumni Achievement
Award in 2025, and well-deserved, and it's going to be fun.
I can't wait to hear yourremarks when you accept the
award tomorrow.
So thanks for being here.
Connor Sattely (34:48):
Thanks a lot.
I'm Dr Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State,
Behrend, and you're listening toBehrend Talks.
My guest today is Behrendgraduates 2011 graduate, Connor
Sattely.
I remember, Connor, when he wasa student Hard to believe you
went on to do all these sosuccessful things after you
graduated.
But you're an entrepreneur.
You've launched businesses inSwitzerland, Uganda, Netherlands
(00:21):
.
We're going to talk a whole lotmore.
You now live overseas.
You have, for a while, you haveadvised startup founders in
more than 50 countries.
Anyways, welcome to the show,Connor.
Connor Sattely (00:30):
Thank you, nice to be here.
Ralph Ford (00:32):
We really appreciate it.
So just a little context.
Today is March 27, 2025, andConnor has returned to campus.
Is this your first time back?
Connor Sattely (00:42):
Yeah, I think so .
Ralph Ford (00:43):
Since you left.
Connor Sattely (00:47):
I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, you just haven't invitedme back sooner, so I was waiting
, but sometimes these emails getcaught in spam, so I must have
missed it.
Ralph Ford (00:52):
Well, you and I have stayed connected over the years
, that's true, but it's a reallyspecial honor.
You are here because you areone of eight people in Penn
State University that'sreceiving something known as the
Alumni Achievement Awards.
So you've come to campus herefor a day, at Behrend, and
you'll be going to UniversityPark tomorrow to officially
(01:14):
receive the award, and itrecognizes successful alumni who
are younger than 35.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about you know how
things are going here on campustoday?
Connor Sattely (01:23):
Oh, it's cool, it's nice coming back.
I mean, there's all sorts ofnew buildings and stuff the
barn's gone, you know and newbuildings sprouting up
everywhere, new residences and Igot to meet some of the
students today.
That was pretty cool.
It's cool to talk to some ofthe students and ask them
questions and hear what life'slike for them.
And you know, what's it like tobe a student in 2025?
I think it's radicallydifferent than what it was like
(01:44):
to be a student in 2007, 2009,.
Just in the terms of whattechnology has changed and how
people are attached tosmartphones and what the
pandemic did for sort of theirdevelopmental history.
That was really interesting tolearn about and hear firsthand.
And then I got to be the oldguy that would prattle on some
false wisdom that feels superaccessible and inspiring today
(02:04):
and they'll forget it bytomorrow.
Ralph Ford (02:06):
So that's always a pretty good stuff I don't think
you give yourself enough creditbecause there is wisdom in there
in what you had to say.
We'll get into some of thattoday.
Well, I'll add a little bitmore about your bio and we'll
continue on.
You got two degrees while youwere here communication and
political science.
You went on to earn a master'sdegree in international affairs
when you were living in Geneva,Switzerland, and I won't run
(02:31):
through everything, but you madea real impression when you were
here at Behrend because youwere in about every single club
and organization that we seem tohave I'm exaggerating, but it
was quite a few.
But very notably you werehighly involved in the Behrend
Beacon Alternative Spring Breakand a whole lot of other things.
You performed with the jazzband, pep band, matchbox players
(02:52):
and you won some prestigiousstudent awards when you were
here, notably I'll say theprestigious T Reed Ferguson
Award.
That is for scholarship,leadership and citizenship.
So I hope I embarrassed you alittle bit there with all the
great things that you did evenbefore you left Behrend.
Connor Sattely (03:08):
Yeah, and the Amber Heater Memorial Award,
that's the one I'm most proud of.
That one meant a lot because Iknew, Amber, you did.
Yeah.
Ralph Ford (03:16):
And what's that one for?
Connor Sattely (03:17):
Yeah, that's a fantastic question.
As I recall, I haven't reallyfamiliarized myself too much
with it.
But I haven't reallyfamiliarized myself too much
with it but it was for apolitical science student that
sort of went above and beyondand was active in the community
et cetera.
And Amber was a fantasticperson and student.
That was in the politicalscience program and so it was
something created in her memory.
So that was one that I wantedto make sure we mentioned in
(03:39):
there.
Ralph Ford (03:40):
Well, you are correct, you passed the test
because that?
Is in fact, what the award wasfor.
All right, great, and let'sstart a little bit.
You know, I'd love to hear thestory of how did you end up at
Behrend?
Where did you grow up?
We're not looking for the lifestory, but where did you grow up
and how did you actually end upselecting Penn State Behrend as
a destination?
Connor Sattely (04:00):
Well, the 15th of May 1989, it was hailing in
Oklahoma and at a small hospitalthere in Midwest City that's
where I was born.
Obviously not too many careerprospects in Oklahoma.
So at about six months old Idecided I think probably
Pennsylvania seems more like thetype of developing economy
(04:21):
that's interesting.
So I convinced my parents Icould only kind of crap in my
diapers at that point, but myparents interpreted it as we
should move to Pittsburgh.
So I grew up in WesternPennsylvania and then, yeah,
penn State was cool.
I mean, a lot of my friendswere applying to Penn State.
I applied to a couple places.
My grades weren't that good andmy girlfriend at the time got
(04:41):
into University Park and Ididn't, oh, and I was so upset
it was devastating.
But then I got into this.
Oh, but you can go to Behrend.
Now the secret thing, the thingI knew in the back of my head,
was I really didn't like myvisit at University Park.
It didn't really appeal to methat much and I loved Behrend.
I think I came up here to visitover the summer and the fall,
(05:03):
you know, when the suns out andit's beautiful and people laying
on the grass, and so, yeah, itwas the second choice, but by
the time I came here I waspretty happy about it and yeah,
Behrend was the right place
Ralph Ford (05:16):
And did you stay together with your girlfriend,
or was that the end of therelationship?
Connor Sattely (05:26):
It wasn't the end, but it was the beginning of
the end.
She very justifiably broke upwith me there shortly thereafter
, so that didn't last too long.
So then I was at Behrend andthere was obviously the
opportunity to transfer toUniversity Park.
So that's what I was thinking.
But, man, I fell in love.
I love this place and there werea lot of opportunities for me
here, so ultimately better tostay.
Ralph Ford (05:44):
Let's talk about one thing in particular that a lot
of us who remember you as astudent and where you made a
large impact, that was theBehrend Beacon.
Did you know you wanted to beinvolved in newspaper and
communication?
How did you end up at?
Connor Sattely (05:58):
the Beacon, my friend Evan said I'm going to a
meeting of the student newspaper.
Do you want to come?
And I said okay, that's it.
And then they were therehanding out stories to all the
eager frosh that had walked inthe door.
There were 12 or 13 freshmenthat came in and just said we'll
take stories.
And then they assigned us all astory and I took one and did an
(06:19):
okay job with it.
And so they said you seem likea competent person, would you
like to continue to work withthe newspaper?
And I said all right.
And then I became theentertainment editor.
That was like a month intoschool or something like that,
because they didn't have anybodyto write articles about Britney
Spears.
So I got to proceed to thathigh pinnacle of the
journalistic craft right away.
(06:39):
In my career which, you know, Iwas always an overachiever, but
being able to write aboutBrittany was the joy of a
lifetime.
Ralph Ford (06:46):
Was that what the first story was that they gave
you what was the first story.
Connor Sattely (06:49):
No, the first story was about students living
in hotels.
Well, there wasn't enoughhousing so there was an overflow
of students and the days inhere at Erie was housing a bunch
of students on one floor.
So I sort of got to track downthe story and there were people
that were, in my opinion, tryingto sort of conceal that story,
which sort of gave me thatjournalistic.
I got to find out the truth andyeah, so that was fun and I got
(07:16):
to talk to students and it feltlike I was exposing something
or helping people and yeah, thatsort of hooked me.
I think in journalism ingeneral, because you sort of
chase that high afterwards oflike the article that
everybody's saying, hey, did youread this thing?
Or you know that people talk toyou about in your classes, hey,
I read that thing about thestudents in the hotels.
That's a pretty cool feeling.
Ralph Ford (07:33):
So you felt at that time they were trying to not let
that story be known.
Connor Sattely (07:36):
That's what I felt at the time.
Whether or not that was thecase I don't know, but in any
case, the students who were inthe hotels were unhappy about it
and were being given also, inmy opinion, a very raw deal.
One shuttle to school in themorning, one shuttle to the
hotel late at night.
That's not a good collegeexperience because there's no
flexibility in this for you tohang out with people or to just
(07:57):
lie on your bed and relax inbetween classes.
Like that's rough and nobodywas aware of that.
And yeah, that kind of gave methe social justice feeling too
of like hey, I've got to tellthis story and I'm sure it
changed a lot of people's lives,but you know, it was something
endearing to me about journalism.
Ralph Ford (08:13):
I think after a few weeks we got most of the
students on campus.
I don't recall.
I wasn't involved at that time,but I remember when we were so
full at times they wouldoverbook and, yeah, there were
students staying at the Days Inn.
We knew that.
So, at least for the first fewweeks of class.
One other interesting thing Ifound here you were both a
member of the College Democratsand the College Republicans.
(08:35):
Does this mean that you hadsome sort of political epiphany?
Connor Sattely (08:39):
No, it was just very brief because I didn't get
too much into the politicalstuff on campus.
I was the newspaper guy.
But then after Obama won in2008, there was no college
Republicans, it just stopped.
So a buddy of mine and Ioffered to Ken Miller hey, can
we sort of kickstart the CollegeRepublicans again, and just so
(09:00):
that there's some sort ofpolitical diversity of thought
on campus.
And so very, very briefly, wetemporarily I think I'm pretty
sure that was Fracassi that thatwe very briefly tried to
kickstart it and have some infosessions to get some Republicans
out to lead it.
And then, once they did, wewere like all right, great,
let's have a debate.
And then we of course sponsoredthe debate as the newspaper,
(09:22):
but ultimately it was Adam and acouple other guys behind the
scenes sort of pulling thosestrings.
Ralph Ford (09:28):
Well, I think Adam still keeps in touch with us.
Connor Sattely (09:31):
Yeah, and he's now like the director of
elections for Michigan orsomething which makes me feel
real dumb, like guys.
You missed it, like you flubbedit.
You missed the wrong.
You got the wrong guy for thealumni achievement.
If Adam's not here next yearthen I lose my faith in my own
award.
Ralph Ford (09:47):
Well, we're going to have .
.
.
Britt, we'll put that on thelist.
I'll nominate him.
He spoke on campus this lastyear, so we were real and I've
never even come back.
Connor Sattely (09:54):
So again, there's still time.
The ceremony's tomorrow.
You can take back the award.
Ralph Ford (09:58):
I'll call Adam we're not taking back the award, but
I think there's something calledlife isn't always fair.
Yeah, not taking back the word,but I think there's something,
you know, something called lifeisn't always fair.
Yeah, well, fair enough.
Well, you know, and I'll hit afew others, you know there's one
that I remember well.
So, first of all, back then Iwas director of the engineering
school and you were in theSchool of Humanities and I
remember you well because you'reprobably one of the few people
(10:19):
from the Beacon who showed up onmy door when I was school
director, yeah, and said beacon,who showed up on my door when I
was school director and said,hey, help me with some stories
or we want to do some features.
And I remember quite a bit ofengagement with you.
Connor Sattely (10:30):
Yeah, well, the whole thing was we were trying
to figure out why people didn'tread the paper and we started
talking to people and peoplesaid I don't read the paper
because it's a bunch ofcommunication students talking
about communication stuff.
It's a pretty good point.
And then the second thing wefound was that when we got a
writer from one of the scienceor technical schools, they were
easier to keep as a writerbecause it's more remarkable in
(10:53):
their field that they know howto write and communicate.
Everybody's going to graduatefrom the physics program with a
degree in physics, but then howmany of them can actually write
something that's convincing andconcise and cohesive and
understandable?
Maybe not as many as can dophysics.
So when we got some of thosewriters, they stayed.
So let's combine both things.
So the concept that we did atthe time I think this was like
(11:14):
2010, was we made an engineeringpage and a science page.
We made like a humanities page,I think so, like a page for
each of the colleges orsomething like that, and then
staffed them with writers fromthose schools, and that was
pretty cool.
We had one guy that was anengineer that came in to write
for us.
That ended up switching tocreative writing, and I think he
became an English teacher, sowe got one of yours.
Ralph Ford (11:37):
Yeah, people make big shifts sometimes.
They really do, absolutely.
They find their calling.
Connor Sattely (11:45):
Yeah, but that was fun because, yeah, nobody
from the Beacon had gone upthere before probably, so we got
to have some news in thereabout new engineering faculty
and stuff that was going on inthe engineering college, and we
started to see more newspapersgetting read.
When we would put them inwhat's now the Burke Center,
more newspapers would get takenoff the racks.
So it worked.
Ralph Ford (12:01):
Well, there's one other episode that I remember
well and I think was, at thetime, really cutting edge, and
that was the fact that we had anincident on campus which was
probably almost 16 years ago,maybe almost to the date it was,
I think, March or April 2009.
And that is when there was someconstruction going on in
Dobbins Dining Hall and atmidnight or so, I don't know
(12:25):
middle of the night, someelectrical cord sparks a fire
and we have a major fire thattook that building.
I mean, literally, that was araging fire.
Good thing nobody was there,but the interesting part of the
story is not the fire.
Maybe that's interesting, butwas the reporting that happened,
and I recall you were like thefirst reporter on the scene and
(12:46):
you were like broadcasting liveon Facebook or YouTube.
Connor Sattely (12:49):
Yeah, something like that and this was brand new
at the time.
Ralph Ford (12:51):
You beat all the.
It was a thing here on campus.
Connor Sattely (12:54):
Yeah, you can find some hyper-cringy YouTube
thing with like 19-year-oldConnor trying to have a deeper
voice than he actually had andnarrate this YouTube video.
No, and you know, when I setthe fire at Dobbins Hall, I
think you know what was forwardthinking about that decision was
the transformative educationalimpact that it would have on the
(13:14):
rest of the journalists aroundme, and it really did.
We all bound together and wehad actually kind of prepared
for that.
We had run through what are wegoing to do if something really
breaking news-ish happens withphotos or with the news?
Because we had a website atthat time and also the paper.
So, like, how fast could weprint a paper?
So I was on the phone withSample News Group, who is the
(13:35):
people that print the newspaper,with Bob Williams, our
publisher, saying, like, howfast can we make a physical
print newspaper?
We turned around in like 24hours or something 36, 36, but
then it was all online withinminutes.
And, yeah, we had photos.
We had one guy running a SIMcard from the dining hall down
to the newsroom so that we couldget that onto the website and
then run a fresh SIM card up tothe photographer who had been
(13:56):
taking photos.
In the meantime, keep swappingthe SIM cards.
It feels so stupid now becauseof course now we would never be
the first person to the story.
Whoever's looking out theirdorm room window is the first
person to the story, becausethey just put it on Instagram
Live or whatever.
So it's not that remarkable now,but at the time it felt cool.
Ralph Ford (14:12):
Hey, it was at the time, but now we know, you know
how the fire started and you'revery fortunate that the statute
of limitations has probablypassed.
Connor Sattely (14:21):
Yeah, so for arson it's 15 years, and so why
I'm so happy that you've invitedme back now is just because
it's fantastic timing for mycareer and for my judicial you
know approach to not beingarrested.
Ralph Ford (14:32):
Well, we're going to get to your career, but before
we do, just you know, if youlook at all of your experiences
at Bayer and the relationshipsyou've developed, I mean really,
how do you think that thatshaped who you became
professionally?
Connor Sattely (14:47):
Yeah, I mean, it was everything.
There's very little in my lifeI think that I can point to that
doesn't have its origins insomething that happened at
Behrend.
I think the most transformativething was Ruth Pfluger in the
study abroad office, helping mefind a way to afford being able
to study abroad, and thatinvolved going well outside of
the Penn State system.
(15:07):
Sorry, ruth, if I get you introuble, but like there was this
Penn State option Attitude oflimitations.
There was this Penn State optionthat was completely
unaffordable and I told her I'llnever study abroad then, and so
she closed the book and we justGoogled it together and she
used some recommendations thatshe had had from her network to
find a French school and thatgot me out of the country for a
(15:27):
summer to study abroad reallycheap too.
And then, even then shenotified Schreyer, which I was
part of, Schreyer helped helpedpay for part of it, even though
it wasn't a Penn State program,and then gave me honors credit
for doing it.
So it was like Ruth went so farabove and beyond in helping me
study abroad and there's almostno element of my life right now
that couldn't be traced back tothat 30-minute meeting where
(15:49):
Ruth went above and beyond.
So everybody that I met herehelped me and shaped who I am, I
think in a certain way.
You Gary and Viebranz and hissupport for my music, Ken Miller
, not expelling me for thevarious things I did in student
activities.
You know Rod Troester and JohnGamble, and I can go on and on.
Catherine Wolfe, of course,with French.
(16:11):
But if there's one thing, yeah,it would have been Ruth's Above
and Beyond to help me studyabroad.
There's no way I would havemoved abroad if it weren't for
that.
Ralph Ford (16:18):
Well, as you know, she's still here and she's still
impacting students' lives allthe time.
So did you meet her yet today?
Not yet.
I think she's coming later ontoday, so I'll have the chance
to tell her.
Connor Sattely (16:34):
Let's switch to the faculty for a second Some of
your favorite who are yourfavorite faculties or mentors or
experiences.
Yeah, well, I mean I wouldn'tspeak French if it weren't for
Catherine Wolfe.
You have to learn French topass a class that's led by
Catherine Wolfe.
You have to learn French tospeak French, and so my grades
were okay.
So I learned French and she wasa fantastic, if very, very
difficult, teacher.
Her style didn't work foreverybody, but it worked for me
(16:58):
and it was the hardest coursethat I took at Behrend probably
were her French courses but Iworked really hard and, yeah,
now I speak French, so thanksfor that.
Gary V Brands was cool.
I played music in high school ata really serious music program
in my high school, but it wasstressful.
It was like when you would playa jazz solo.
(17:19):
It was like my high schoolteachers were fantastic about
music theory and everything, butit was also really terrifying
because you didn't want to messup and then Gary V Brands would
tell dirty jokes in front of thejazz band and tell you don't
look at the chords when you'replaying a solo.
What do you mean?
Don't look at the chords, I'mgoing to play wrong notes.
I play some wrong notes.
(17:40):
Who cares, Stand up and closeyour eyes, and that taught me
sort of the extra joy andgoofiness that can come with
playing music, and that was ajoy.
My political science folks weregreat John Gamble gave me my
first research opportunities,Rob Speel and his trip to DC
with the students was fantastic.
And then on the comm side, RodTroester advised my thesis, and
(18:03):
I mean John Champagne was anhonors English teacher and just
challenged everybody to thinkmore and think deeper and read.
So I could go on all day.
But there's a lot of faculty.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some,but there were a lot that had an
absolutely fantastic impact onmy time here.
Ralph Ford (18:21):
I know you're talking about some of the
legends here at Behrend, and itcontinues on for sure.
I'm sure you did miss some, butlet's talk about so.
You end up going, you decideyou're going to live overseas.
You haven't turned back.
Let's talk about that decision.
I'd love to hear about yourprofessional journey, how you've
(18:43):
been involved in creating yourown startups.
You spend a lot of time nowadvising people on startups, but
let's hear it.
Connor Sattely (18:50):
Yeah, so I studied abroad between my junior
and senior years and that gaveme this taste for living abroad.
You know, I would go and getnoodles with this guy from Syria
and I was roommates with a guyfrom Colombia and for a kid that
grew up in western Pennsylvania, that was like that was awesome
and I had this crush on thisMexican girl.
It was.
You know, it was likeeverything was different and
(19:11):
interesting and fascinating andnew.
And you know, we went out onenight to have a bottle of wine
and there were these Japaneseguys that were visiting in the
town not at the school, but theywere bakers and they had come
to France to learn how to bakeand they spoke some French
because they were studying inFrench, but they didn't speak
any English.
So here were people that I wascommunicating to that I had no
other option but to speak thelanguage that I was there
(19:33):
studying and that was awesome,it was addictive and it was a
new experience for me assomebody that didn't grow up
bilingual.
And then I just decided I'vegot to live abroad.
So I applied to a master'sprogram in Geneva at the
Graduate Institute.
For some reason they let me inand you know they gave this pie
chart and the orientation on howmany languages their students
(19:55):
speak, and it was like you know.
Here's a quarter of ourstudents that speak like four or
more.
Here's 60% of our students thatspeak three, and then here's
this tiny shred of our studentsthat, like, speak two or less.
I was like so proud of my Frenchand I was like, oh no, now I'm
an idiot again.
It was great and that wasfantastic.
(20:17):
I loved living in Geneva.
I loved living abroad.
I loved the challenges and thecomplexities and the beauty of
being around people of othercultures and reflecting on
yourself and how you were raisedand your assumptions about the
world, and constantlyreadjusting your views and your
principles and your beliefsbased on new information and new
thoughts that may not occur toyou if it's not for great
(20:40):
conversations over glasses ofwine with people from around the
world.
So it became my life and I juststayed out there.
I loved the idea of livingoutside of my country, so I just
stayed.
Ralph Ford (20:51):
But at some point you said I have to feed myself,
I've got to make some money.
How did your professionalcareer start?
Connor Sattely (20:57):
My professional career has been accidental at
every step.
It's just something randomhappened and because of that
then the next opportunity wasavailable, and I think part of
it is because I was lucky enoughto meet really incredible
people.
My roommate came home one dayand said that he met this guy
that was starting this techstartup about politics.
(21:17):
And I'm like that's dumb, thatwon't work.
And then after a month Idecided to start helping him
with it and then we jumped in onit and started a startup
together.
But if I wasn't lucky enough tomeet somebody like that, I
wouldn't have had thatopportunity and I wouldn't have
told you, man, after leavingBehrend, that I'm going to go
start a political startup inEurope.
That wasn't part of the plan,it was just random.
(21:38):
And then after that I appliedfor 100 or 200 jobs and didn't
get anything.
And then, just randomly,somebody I met at my university
said here's this job in theNetherlands.
They contacted me about it, butI don't want it.
I know you're looking here, doyou want it?
Then suddenly I'm working inthe Netherlands.
It's just.
You know, if you my my life hasbeen about meeting good people
(21:59):
and trying to dive into myrelationships with people and be
kind and, you know, care forpeople and and try and help
people out if you can, and, andthen usually they turn around
and point out interesting thingsfor you to get involved in.
So the professional career hasbeen one accident and random
occurrence to the other man.
There's been no design by anyof it, but ultimately I ended up
being the startup guy.
Ralph Ford (22:20):
So tell us about the startup guy.
What's the startup guy do?
Connor Sattely (22:24):
Well, right now it's in venture capital.
Right now, the latest turn inthe startup guy history is about
helping people start venturecapital firms.
So there are a massive amountof former founders and
entrepreneurs who are becomingthe next generation of venture
capitalists.
Venture capitaliststraditionally are these old
white dudes in Silicon Valleythat all have MBAs and dads that
(22:46):
worked for VC firms and they'reall finance bros in Silicon
Valley that all have MBAs anddads that worked for VC firms
and they're all finance bros.
But there's a lot of highlydiverse and underrepresented
founders that are becoming VCs.
There's more women who arebecoming VCs and therefore
investing more capital inwomen-led businesses.
There's way more VCs gettingstarted around the world and in
different ecosystems than you'dexpect, and so I work with a
(23:07):
company that helped start abouthalf of them.
About half of all global VCsthat are getting started in the
world come through VC Lab, whichis a free accelerator for VC
firms.
So that's where I work now.
So there's some layers ofabstraction there between me,
the startup guy and that rightLike I'm helping people start
the firms and the people thatstart the firms give the money
(23:27):
to the founders and then thefounders start the startup.
So I'm like three levels awaynow from startups, but it's.
It's a fascinating view on aparticular part of the startup
industry, which is how vc firmsget started and how vc firms run
and invest ethically.
Ralph Ford (23:41):
So that's what I'm working on now yeah, because I,
you know, I have some limitedexperience there and some of the
people I've worked with arelike the ones you talked about
and they've had a lot ofexperience, but they just seem
to know a little bit about itand they're out there investing
in good people.
But this is a real importantniche.
If I may ask the question, whatqualifies you to do that?
Connor Sattely (24:00):
What a fantastic question.
I ask myself that every singleday.
My boss probably asks himselfthat question too.
Who the heck is this guy?
Well, I mean 12 years ofworking in startups.
I started a couple of startupsmyself.
I worked with an accelerator.
You get pretty good atunderstanding what's a good
startup and what's not a goodstartup and where startups need
to improve and how to work withfounders.
It's mostly occupationaltherapy like just ask what keeps
(24:24):
them up at night and try andbrainstorm some solutions and
listen to them.
But after a decade or so ofdoing that, I can take a look at
a VC that's investing instartups and I can try and give
them another perspective on it.
And I'm surrounded by a groupof people that have been
professional investors fordecades, and so when I come from
the founder perspective andthey come from the professional
(24:44):
investment perspective, we meetin the middle.
We teach each other things, andI've, yeah, spent the last year
and a half really diving intojust a few parts of the VC
decision making process, of howthey decide what startups to
invest in, and I've sort ofpicked up the a thing or two
that I can use to help new VCs.
But I'm sure if I sat in youknow, andreessen Horowitz or any
(25:07):
of that, and try and share somepearls of wisdom, they'll
probably laugh me out the door.
But look, that's a differentinvesting ecosystem than I work
in.
I work with new and emergingmanagers in small funds.
They're usually working bythemselves.
They usually don't haveassociates running around doing
their diligence for them.
They're doing everythingthemselves, and that requires a
certain set of skills, and soI've been fortunate enough to
(25:29):
meet a lot of managers who dothat well, and so I can take
what they're doing and offer itas ideas to other folks that are
doing it.
So really it's aboutcommunication.
So hey, look at us, we're backto parent.
Ralph Ford (25:39):
It sounds great, and you see yourself doing that for
a while.
You think about what's next, oryou'll find what's next when
you get to what's next.
Connor Sattely (25:47):
That's exactly what I would say Right now.
I love it.
I love helping new VCs getstarted.
I love working around thestartup industry because there's
always optimism, there's alwayspotential, founders are fun to
work with and the people whowork with founders are usually
fun to work with too.
So I love being here for nowand, yeah, love focusing on that
at the moment.
Ralph Ford (26:07):
And you think you'll stay in Netherlands, Amsterdam,
that's your home now.
Connor Sattely (26:11):
That's the home for the time being.
Yeah, okay.
Ralph Ford (26:13):
We'll go back.
You've lived in a number ofplaces, though Any interesting
you know, tell us a little bit.
Uganda you lived in Uganda fora while.
Connor Sattely (26:19):
Well, yeah, I mean I spent some good time in
Uganda.
My second startup was a techplatform is a tech platform in
East Africa, specifically therein Uganda, and so I moved out
there and just spent like, yeah,maybe nine months or a year or
something, so not a ton of time,but I was based there in
Kampala for a little while and,yeah, that was fun.
I mean, Uganda is beautiful andfull of amazing and good people
(26:43):
and beautiful countryside andobviously a country that has
some really significantchallenges, but a beautiful
place and what an experience fora kid from Cranberry Township
to get to go do so.
I feel very fortunate to livein the places that I've lived.
Switzerland was great.
I lived in Switzerland for awhile for my master's program.
It's probably the mostbeautiful place I've ever seen,
(27:06):
but it's also like somehow alittle bit too perfect.
Ralph Ford (27:09):
It is.
Connor Sattely (27:10):
Amsterdam's got some grime to it.
Amsterdam has a little bit ofmessiness that I like.
Everything still works justfine, but it's a little grimy,
it's a little messy.
You know, if you stumble intothe center of Amsterdam on a
Friday or Saturday night you'regoing to see some stuff.
And I like that dirt.
So Amsterdam is sort of theplace for me.
Ralph Ford (27:29):
Well, it's good to see that you found your place.
You know we had lunch earliertoday with students and I really
, you know you did a wonderfuljob.
I would say talking to thestudents and giving them some
advice, don't get good grades,don't get good grades.
Don't get good grades.
You don't have to be top of theclass.
Connor Sattely (27:48):
You don't want to be bottom.
Ralph Ford (27:50):
What advice do you have for students?
I mean, you listened to themtoday and you heard they did
talk to you about theiraspirations and what are some of
the things that stood out andadvice that you'd give to
students thinking about goinginto the startup VC world or
overseas, or just in general?
Connor Sattely (28:09):
Yeah, well, overseas, just do it.
Like, find any opportunity youcan ask for money from whoever
you can, especially when you'rein university, because maybe
there's still some opportunitiesfor you to get some money to do
it from somewhere.
Do it, if you can.
I know it's expensive and it'sscary, but like, yeah, just find
any opportunity to get out ofthe country and it's just going
(28:30):
to be a life-changing experience.
Yeah, the lunch was cool.
Like the students are awesomethat I spoke to.
The one thing that stood out tome is that everybody's kind of
everybody.
Yeah, somebody said it was likea slow motion car crash, the
economy right now.
You're in the car and you knowit's going to crash, but it's in
slow motion and there's nothingyou can really do about it.
So you just figure, you knowI'll spend a little bit more
(28:52):
time on my phone, it's not goingto crash yet for a few more
minutes.
And then somebody else said wedon't really talk about it much.
I found that a bit.
Yeah, I found that a bit sad.
So I guess I think my advice istalk about it.
I'm not arguing with you aboutthe car crash.
Like.
I think students that are inschool right now are probably
really screwed man.
Like, tuition costs are superhigh.
(29:13):
So many of them are going tograduate Penn State with
crippling education debt.
And then they live in a countrywhere corporates are usually
abusing and squeezing youngprofessionals until they burn
out and that's a rough situationto be in and there's not a lot
of jobs.
They're going to graduate andthey're going to submit their
job application.
It'll be one of a thousand andthen they won't get the job and
(29:34):
they'll do that 200 times andit's not going to work out.
So they need to talk about it.
They need to compare strategiesand try and yeah, I don't know
whatever, I'm being tooprescriptive or judgmental, but
my advice is, if you'restruggling with trying to figure
out what to do after college,talk to your friends about it.
Like, try and triangulate itand see what your friends are
(29:56):
doing and don't keep it insideBecause, like, if you just wait
until two months before yougraduate to figure it out,
you're going to make it worse onyourself.
Start two years or four yearsahead of time If you're a
freshman.
Start trying to meet people nowthat you think are doing cool
stuff and working at coolcompanies.
Start years in advance tryingto just meet people, reach out
(30:17):
to people and say Hi, I'm Connor, I'm a sophomore at Penn State,
Behrend, I'm studying this.
I love your company because youguys do cool stuff around this.
You have time for a coffee and,like, 80% of people will ignore
you but 20% of people won't.
And then you have a leg up whenit comes time for the job.
So there's a thousandapplications but you're the girl
that asked for the coffee.
(30:37):
Or you're the guy that had aquick Zoom call and that helps
your resume pop off the pile,but you don't get those
strategies unless you talk aboutit with people.
So don't stick your head in thesand as soon as you leave this
place.
You're like that planet Earthbaby turtles go into the water
while they're seagulls trying topick them off.
Like, give yourself the bestchance possible of getting a
(30:57):
good job after school at anyexpense.
Talk about it and try and makea plan and start early and meet
people.
That's my advice, because it'snot easy out there.
Ralph Ford (31:06):
Well, I think your advice was build your network
and don't be shy about talkingto people and go about it in
different ways.
Don't be the one who's gettingthe resume that's scanned by AI
and being compared to 70 otherpeople.
Connor Sattely (31:19):
Yeah, Make that part, the formality.
It's like I'm submitting to youa resume because I need to
technically use your applicationsystem, but you already know me
, You've talked to me, you toldme to apply for this job, so no
problem, I'll toss in my resumeand probably the AI scans it and
says don't hire the person.
And then the hiring managergoes oh no, no, let's just have
a talk with that person.
That's how most people get jobsnow is people just know them
(31:43):
right, or at least most youngpeople they do it, because one
guy today said he got a jobafter college because he got
drunk with somebody that worksfor the Buffalo Bills and now
the Buffalo Bills are hiring himor his friend or whatever.
So those types of interpersonalconnections get you jobs
definitely.
Ralph Ford (32:00):
Absolutely.
Connor Sattely (32:01):
Well, we are coming to the end, so any last
words of wisdom or anythingyou'd like to add, I'll give you
the last word, Connor uh, yeah,last word I'm receiving the
alumni achievement award andit's um, it's a big honor for me
and it's a pleasure, it's sonice being back, but my last
word is um, forget achievement.
(32:24):
Achievement is a mirage.
It's something that you maybework towards and the journey
towards achievement is moreimportant.
And who cares if you get there.
I didn't get there.
All the things that are on myresume that sound really
impressive, they're thin If youlook into them and this is an
imposter syndrome.
Speaking like my startups thestartup startup, the political
(32:44):
startup, failed and like all ofour girlfriends dumped us and we
ended up in debt and you know,and having existential crises.
And like the accelerator that Iwork for is like it's in
financial difficulties and it'llshut down like cool accelerator
.
So, like everything that yousee other people achieving, it's
just like Instagram.
(33:05):
It's a version of somebody'slife that is the rosiest and
most impressive version, whenthe reality is sometimes they
just sit on their couch eatingchicken quesadillas and watching
House All Day.
You know, like people's livesare difficult and complex and
anybody who you think isachieving a lot probably just
has a good PR team, and my PRteam is some professors that
(33:26):
kept in touch that decided thatwhat I'm doing sounds good
enough, and now I win the AlumniAchievement Award.
So my advice is focus on loveand experience and just go see
things and meet people, investin your friendships.
Like, be there for people and,you know, love people and have
good experience.
(33:47):
That's all I would advisepeople to do.
And like keep your head up.
It's rough out there, you know,be realistic, but then just
focus on loving your friends,like that's the stuff that
matters.
Ralph Ford (33:57):
It's good advice, but I can assure you you deserve
the alumni award.
I will tell you that.
Thank you, and no, it's reallya pleasure having you back.
It's so much fun.
I remember you well as astudent, as many do here.
You left a large impression, soit's good to see that you
haven't changed.
I think you've only gottenfunnier.
Connor Sattely (34:19):
More gallows humor.
It's darker.
Maybe there used to be morejokes and now it's just
observations on life, I don'tknow.
But thank you.
Ralph Ford (34:27):
Well, it's a good way for us to end and thank you
so much for being here Today.
You have been listening toConnor Sattely, a Penn State
Behrend grad, who has won thePenn State Alumni Achievement
Award in 2025, and well-deserved, and it's going to be fun.
I can't wait to hear yourremarks when you accept the
award tomorrow.
So thanks for being here.
Connor Sattely (34:48):
Thanks a lot.
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