“The most important lesson I’ve learned during the past 10 weeks is not about programming, but about work ethic and entrepreneurial attitude,” Long Pham ’14 wrote near the end of his intern-ship with Jim Ray ’95 at his Boston, MA, startup, FASTPORT LLC.
Pham couldn’t have found a better man to learn those from.
The son of a trucker and with 20 years experience on the technology side of the trucking industry, Ray co-founded FASTPORT in 2011. A digital space for truck drivers to store information about themselves and their work history, it’s also a place where carriers can find good drivers.
The idea took off faster than a Kenworth down a seven-percent grade.
Colin Dunlap ’12 was already onboard as sales and marketing manager, and Ray hired Long and Aeknoor Cheema ’15 as interns through the College’s Small Busi-ness Internship Fund. With FASTPORT’s quick start, Ray needed more interns. So he flew out to Wabash in July and hired Tyler Munjas ’16, Daniel Purvlicis ’16, Craig Brainard ’16, and Alexis Rodriguez ’14 fresh from the College’s Business Immersion Program (BIP), and then added Zach Churney ’14 through the Lilly Intern-ship Fund. All five students drove out to Boston to begin work the next week.
“I think this is going to be a wonderful experience for all of us,” Ray wrote to BIP Director Roland Morin ’91. “I promise we will work them hard but take good care of them and make sure they learn something.”
They learned plenty.
“Even though the workload is tremendous, I never feel unmotivated, thanks to Jim’s wonderful mentorship,” Pham wrote. “When we stay late for work, Jim often takes us out to dinner and we discuss our work plan over wings. Jim tells stories about his ventures, his successes, and his failures.
“There is always some sort of life-worthy lesson.