The Enstitute Team
Shaila Ittycheria
Co-FounderShaila Ittycheria spent four years at Microsoft, first in a finance leadership development rotation program and then on the M&A team where she ran her own deals. In 2010, she received her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was also ran the Corporate Social Responsibility interest group. Upon graduation from HBS, she established herself in the NYC startup community, first by helping launch BirchBox in its early days and then by joining LocalResponse, where she ran the half of the company focused on small business solutions.
For Shaila, Enstitute is a solution to a problem that she witnessed first hand as a hiring manager: graduates lack the critical thinking, problem solving, and reasoning skills they need to be successful in the workplace, and they do not have any substantial experience that illustrates their potential. Shaila wants to build a new education model that not only gives students the skills they need, but one that also maximizes human capital potential across the board. Rather than simply letting the name of an academic institution define someone’s worth, Shaila hopes to build a system that maximizes value by focusing on skill based knowledge, developed competencies, and proven work experience.
Kane Sarhan
Co-FounderMoving to New York City at 18 years old from a small town in Michigan, Kane joined City Year, an Americorps program, and spent 10 months tutoring, mentoring, and running Saturday service learning programs for youth in the South Bronx and East Harlem. After City Year, Kane decided to give up his deferment at the University of Michigan and stay in New York. He enrolled at Pace University. While studying at Pace and waiting tables in the East Village, Kane met Jacqui Squatriglia and began his first apprenticeship within her hospitality, entertainment, and media empire. Kane spent two years working full-time, going to school, and running a magazine for a community of over 30,000 New York City college students. Working for Jacqui helped Kane realize the power of real-life experience and he began to look at each day at his job as a new opportunity to learn.
In January of 2010, Kane met Nihal Mehta and has spent the last two years as an apprentice, working across a portfolio of projects in mobile technology, advertising, investments, and politics. Kane effectively grew from Nihal’s apprentice to the Creative Director at LocalResponse, where he was responsible for company strategy, sales, execution, and product development.
Kane is also an active member of the New York Tech and Young Innovators Communities. He is the Co-Ambassador of the New York Hub of Sandbox Network and was the Producer and Co-Organizer of RaiseCache.
