Interview with Venkates Swaminathan, CEO of LifeLaunchr
Tell us a bit about LifeLaunchr.
LifeLaunchr offers expert, personalized college admissions coaching. We help parents and their teens find and get into the best-fit college for them and afford it. College is the most expensive investment many families will make other than the home they own, and getting expert coaching has now become mainstream as a result of the growing complexity of the process. Our coaching has helped students get into ivy league universities, top state schools, liberal arts colleges, and also engineering, pre-med, nursing, and performing arts programs. The company won the EdTech Digest Cool Tools Award in 2018 and was a finalist again in 2019. It is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
What gave you the idea for your business, and how did it start?
LifeLaunchr is based on my experience as my daughter went through her college admissions process. I realized how complex and confusing applying to college is and how difficult it is for students to find the best fit. It was also clear that the high school system—with one counselor for every 470 students—doesn’t provide the kind of individualized coaching that parents and students need.
Through LifeLaunchr and before it, I have been helping people with college admissions for years. Before starting LifeLaunchr, I worked for two years at GreatSchools, the nation’s largest education-focused parenting website. I saw how making the wrong choices can lead to a squandered education or a hopeless level of student debt.
I have deep expertise in college admissions counseling through having coached dozens of students with the college admissions process. I have spoken to hundreds of parents and students and used that knowledge to create the templates and checklists used at LifeLaunchr. I have also talked to many coaches and counselors, attended webinars and training sessions through the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC), Inside HigherEd, and the Department of Education, and am a member of the NACAC.
Some examples of my expertise in this space can be seen in my series answering questions on college admissions on LifeLaunchr, which you can also see at https://vimeo.com/channels/
What’s your favorite thing about your job?
I love that the work we do makes a positive difference in the lives of young people. Helping students develop their sense of passion and purpose, and go from thinking about college as something their parents care about, to something in which they are personally invested, gives me great satisfaction.
What are your keys to making yourself productive?
I am very disciplined and keep the same schedule pretty much all the time. I devote time to self-care through regular yoga practice and by hiking on my day off each week. I use a couple of hours each morning to reply to emails, and then focus on creative work during the day, before meeting with students in the evenings. That routine helps me stay not just productive, but effective, and helps maintain the emotional and spiritual balance that I need to excel at this work.
Tell us one long-term goal in your career.
I believe that every student can benefit from coaching, and providing an effective, affordable way for all students to access the kind of coaching that is sometimes only available to wealthy students is my goal.
What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned through the course of your career?
This job has been both the most rewarding and the hardest I have ever had. The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is the importance of experimentation. Experimenting with business strategies and tactics, listening to market feedback on those experiments, and adjusting course: those critical lessons drive success.
What advice would you give to others aspiring to succeed in your field?
Listen closely to what parents and students say, and also to what they don’t say. This work is first and foremost about helping young people find their path and passion, and the trust one needs to be able to do that comes from listening carefully. Model the behaviors you seek to teach: reliability, consistency, clarity in communication, and emotional spaciousness.
What are your favorite things to do outside of work?
I am a musician, and I love to sing (Indian classical music, blues, and jazz) and play the piano. I enjoy my practice of yoga and love that in the part of the world where I live, we have so many beautiful outdoor activities to do
Name a few influential books you’ve read and/or websites you keep up with that you’d recommend to readers.
I love Frank Bruni’s book, “Where You Go is Not Who You’ll Be.” It is an essential book about how anxious parents often misunderstand the college admissions process.
I also like “The Teenage Brain” by Francis Jensen and Amy Ellis Nutts.
And the work by Georgetown University’s Center for the Education and the Workforce (https://cew.georgetown.edu/) on college and career planning is excellent.
