BASES Spotlight: Former BASES Co-President Andrew Blum reflects on past year and experiences

BASES Spotlight November 1, 2019

Andrew Blum, Class of 2020, was the BASES Co-President with Sabina Beleuz Neagu for the 2018-2019 academic year. He is majoring in Political Science and minoring in Mandarin, and is also very interested in the intersection of politics and business.

1. What was it like being co-president of BASES as just a junior? What did you learn?

It was a great experience. I learned more [while] being the President of BASES than I have as a student or doing anything [else] on campus. You really understand what it takes to lead an organization but also motivate individuals, and to organize people. I think that is a skill that you do not really get unless you take a leadership role in a student organization. And there are so many parallels between that and the real world. 

2. How did you balance being the president with your other extracurriculars?

I wasn't really involved in other extracurriculars. When you become president of an organization, it becomes your baby and your responsibility, so that comes first. Whether you’re in a class, or interning for another startup, all of those things were minor roles and being present is so much more encompassing than that. You have to be constantly engaged with other people and thinking, what could be better, what could be worse? It’s very fast paced, especially in the quarter system.

3. Why did you originally want to join BASES?

[In the beginning of] my freshman year, I didn’t even know about BASES. A friend of mine said, you have to go to this info session about entrepreneurship for a great organization on campus. I knew I was interested in entrepreneurship in high school, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do [at Stanford]. I went to the info session, and initially I remember being ‘so what’ and being very unimpressed. I don’t know what changed my mind. I remember reading up on different teams, and I decided to apply to some of the teams. I was given a lot of responsibilities as a freshman, [so] it engaged me from the beginning.

4. When did you know that you wanted to be president of BASES?

Last year, I remember [my co-President] Sabina had said to me that she wanted to run, and it was something that I was considering, and I was overwhelmed with all the work. I remember thinking, ‘I’m a sophomore, I can’t do it, I just don’t know if I have the capacity.’ My friends and my family encouraged me to take the position. I’m really happy that I did because I learned a lot more doing this than in my summer internship. I initially didn’t think that I was going to do it, and Sabina told me why she wanted to run and the new things we could do with BASES, and I found that really exciting. So, [I knew I wanted to be president of BASES] after talking to her, and actually, we had to rearrange our abroad plans because we were going at the same time. 

5. How did your roles in freshman and sophomore year differ?

I had a unique role freshman year. I already had a kind-of leadership [role in the BGarage team], but as a VP my sophomore year, it’s different because a lot of the people are very dedicated towards BASES, whereas as a freshman, there was more of an impetus to follow through. But when I was leading a team, obviously there were people who flaked and dropped off, but there were also people who were super strong and followed through. [Current BASES co-President] Vibhav was one of those people. And that was really great because you were able to work with your team and get the outcome whereas as a freshman, it was about getting my own work done and delegating a bit. As a VP, it was a lot more cohesive working together. 

6. How do you see BASES growing and improving in the future?

There are a bunch of [student] entrepreneurship organizations on this campus and in Silicon Valley. There didn’t use to be, and BASES used to be the only one, and now there’s a lot of competition. What does that mean for our sponsors? What does that mean for how BASES can attract the best students on campus? What does that mean for the activities and events that they plan? I think Sabina and I were really trying to address that and understand, what is our niche and what is our competitive process? Sabina and I looked at it on this high, systemic level of what value we bring to our community. And some of our answers were making BASES more diverse, connecting and doing events with other entrepreneurship clubs on campus, and having more global events. Not just events focused on Silicon Valley, but also focused on innovation in different parts of the world. [We asked,] what can we learn about information here by looking at innovation elsewhere? I started the Global Entrepreneurship Conference, and we still have the Global Entrepreneurship team that continues to thrive today, and I’m very happy with that.

7. Why do you find the intersection of politics and business so interesting? 

I definitely think business is very interesting to me, and it kind of comes naturally. I went to a for-profit high school, which was very focused on innovation, and I took entrepreneurship classes in high school. And just being in New York, so much value is added from the private sector, and you can really see that in the city. I was super privileged to have that experience, and I loved it. Entrepreneurship is really cool because you’re tackling a really large problem and getting a small group of people together, trying to figure out a problem that a big company can’t solve. I hope business, entrepreneurship, and politics are mechanisms for producing change in society. They operate obviously on very different levels, and the outcomes can be vastly different, but I currently see them both as ways to enact large change, and that is very inspirational to me. I think entrepreneurship and business, especially in the short run, are easier [fields to enter], and for a young person, easier to take part in.