To Whom It May Concern,
This is a letter of recommendation for Mathew Pregasen and his team Parsegon, a Columbia undergraduate early-stage venture focused on helping secondary school students and teachers regarding STEM curricula. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Mathew for the past 16 months. We met in early in 2016 as the team progressed through the ranks of the $250,000 Columbia Venture Competition Undergraduate Track. I’ve watched them grow from pitching (and winning!) to later receiving a $20,000 Ignition Grant from the Computer Science department at Columbia Engineering. I work primarily with Mathew on competitions, coaching for his startup, and on our annual StartupColumbia conference. Based on this experience, I can vouch for his vision of making technology accessible for teachers at the university level and secondary school level.
I have worked with and continue to work with Mathew on other Columbia projects as well. This year he is heading the video production for the Columbia Venture Competition, has been involved with entrepreneurship promotion through the Columbia Organization for Rising Entrepreneurs (CORE) and their ALMA Works incubator, and is working with Columbia Entrepreneurship, the university-wide entrepreneurship initiative. He has taken full advantage of the resources we have here at Columbia. I am personally pleased to report our department has successfully matched him with mentors and advisors with experience in the EdTech and education space. And I’m thrilled to report that half of the team’s funding has come from Columbia entrepreneurship programs and resources.
I am confident that Parsegon and Mathew will long be members of the Columbia entrepreneurship community, well after graduation. I am more than excited to see where Parsegon and Mathew’s work will lead into the future.
Chris McGarry
Director for Entrepreneurship