Humans of Stern: Jordan Karstadt
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Jordan Karstadt (BS ’20)
Concentration: Undecided
Hometown: Tampa, Florida
On Campus Involvement: $300K Entrepreneurs Challenge, Stern Venture Fellowship
Best part of freshman year?
The friends I've made this year.
Coolest speaker/person you’ve met?
I met David Ko, the former COO of Zynga. I also saw Louis CK in passing if that counts!
#1 item on your bucket list?
I want to spend a year traveling and working on my social venture.
Let’s talk about your social venture. You founded Omni Systems – what is it?
Omni is a blockchain-based mobile application that allows users to withdraw and transfer money through an uberized network of human ATMs. As a user, you can store, convert, withdraw, or transfer cash in seconds directly through a vendor, which can be anything from a grocery store to your next door neighbor. To the average person, Omni is like Venmo in that it makes cash more accessible. On a global scale, Omni can be used in lieu of a bank account by the 50% of the world that doesn’t have access to banks. Plus, instead of paying 5-10% in transfer or conversion fees, we do all this for as little as 1%.
What were some challenges you faced in making your idea come to life?
It was difficult to get the company off the ground with no funding and no connections. When I first started trading with digital currency in Tampa, people would literally laugh when blockchain was brought up because they didn’t understand the promise of it. Now that it’s become more mainstream, that’s not so much of an issue. Convincing those first people that I am capable of moving this company forward was definitely the hardest challenge, but I was very fortunate with who I was able to meet.
You say it was luck, but I’m sure there’s more behind that. How were you able to build your network, especially in the beginning?
While I was trading, I sort of made a name for myself in my trade group, and two prominent connections ended up coming out of that. One was the executive client-side producer of Pokémon Go, who had listened in on one of my calls and heard about the Omni story. Having him jump on board really helped substantiate us. Connor, a friend and now an Omni team member, had also been active in the community and knew an investor who wanted to get into the digital currency space. He flew out to meet us in Tampa, and we were able to close that deal. Now that we’re in New York, it’s much easier to meet and talk to people who may be interested in investing or helping us grow.
Were there opportunities that NYU or NYU Stern provided for you and your team?
Oh, man, tons. For the $300K Entrepreneurs Challenge, it’s not even about the money, it’s about the connections we were able to make through the whole process. The entrepreneurial community at NYU is so big and supportive, and just being able to get our name out was so helpful. This competition, as well as the Stern Venture Fellowship, really helped us formulate how we would build and develop our company.
Where do you see Omni going in the future?
We are looking into forming a subsidiary company in Dubai with the support of a prominent business man and government official there. We are also working with an investment trust here in New York to open up a second subsidiary in Mexico. After this school year, we will be flying out to California to dedicate 100% of our time to improve and expand our company through the Stern Venture Fellowship program. Hopefully, we’ll be able to roll out Omni by the end of the summer.
What advice would you give for students interested in the entrepreneurship space?
First of all, I’d love to help anyone interested so feel free to reach out to me. Second, from my experience, breaking into entrepreneurship is really about finding out where your passions lie. Building a business can often seem formulaic, but I definitely encourage people to not be afraid to break the mold of conventional education. After all, it took me two years to figure out and hone in on my passions, but those two years were the most impactful in my business career. Third, people our age are often told various reasons why they can’t do something, but they really should be told that they can. I don’t believe in the idea that you have to be a certain age or have certain credentials to achieve, so if the chance comes, take it.
Concentration: Undecided
Hometown: Tampa, Florida
On Campus Involvement: $300K Entrepreneurs Challenge, Stern Venture Fellowship
Best part of freshman year?
The friends I've made this year.
Coolest speaker/person you’ve met?
I met David Ko, the former COO of Zynga. I also saw Louis CK in passing if that counts!
#1 item on your bucket list?
I want to spend a year traveling and working on my social venture.
Let’s talk about your social venture. You founded Omni Systems – what is it?
Omni is a blockchain-based mobile application that allows users to withdraw and transfer money through an uberized network of human ATMs. As a user, you can store, convert, withdraw, or transfer cash in seconds directly through a vendor, which can be anything from a grocery store to your next door neighbor. To the average person, Omni is like Venmo in that it makes cash more accessible. On a global scale, Omni can be used in lieu of a bank account by the 50% of the world that doesn’t have access to banks. Plus, instead of paying 5-10% in transfer or conversion fees, we do all this for as little as 1%.
What were some challenges you faced in making your idea come to life?
It was difficult to get the company off the ground with no funding and no connections. When I first started trading with digital currency in Tampa, people would literally laugh when blockchain was brought up because they didn’t understand the promise of it. Now that it’s become more mainstream, that’s not so much of an issue. Convincing those first people that I am capable of moving this company forward was definitely the hardest challenge, but I was very fortunate with who I was able to meet.
You say it was luck, but I’m sure there’s more behind that. How were you able to build your network, especially in the beginning?
While I was trading, I sort of made a name for myself in my trade group, and two prominent connections ended up coming out of that. One was the executive client-side producer of Pokémon Go, who had listened in on one of my calls and heard about the Omni story. Having him jump on board really helped substantiate us. Connor, a friend and now an Omni team member, had also been active in the community and knew an investor who wanted to get into the digital currency space. He flew out to meet us in Tampa, and we were able to close that deal. Now that we’re in New York, it’s much easier to meet and talk to people who may be interested in investing or helping us grow.
Were there opportunities that NYU or NYU Stern provided for you and your team?
Oh, man, tons. For the $300K Entrepreneurs Challenge, it’s not even about the money, it’s about the connections we were able to make through the whole process. The entrepreneurial community at NYU is so big and supportive, and just being able to get our name out was so helpful. This competition, as well as the Stern Venture Fellowship, really helped us formulate how we would build and develop our company.
Where do you see Omni going in the future?
We are looking into forming a subsidiary company in Dubai with the support of a prominent business man and government official there. We are also working with an investment trust here in New York to open up a second subsidiary in Mexico. After this school year, we will be flying out to California to dedicate 100% of our time to improve and expand our company through the Stern Venture Fellowship program. Hopefully, we’ll be able to roll out Omni by the end of the summer.
What advice would you give for students interested in the entrepreneurship space?
First of all, I’d love to help anyone interested so feel free to reach out to me. Second, from my experience, breaking into entrepreneurship is really about finding out where your passions lie. Building a business can often seem formulaic, but I definitely encourage people to not be afraid to break the mold of conventional education. After all, it took me two years to figure out and hone in on my passions, but those two years were the most impactful in my business career. Third, people our age are often told various reasons why they can’t do something, but they really should be told that they can. I don’t believe in the idea that you have to be a certain age or have certain credentials to achieve, so if the chance comes, take it.
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Humans of Stern