Kriselle's Blog

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SWE Peer Partnership - Skills Gap

SWE Peer Partnership - Skills Gap

Upskilling - the practice of acquiring new skills or enhancing existing skills to stay competitive in the job market.Reskilling - the acquisition of entirely new skills. When I first joined the Society of Women Engineers, I also joined an affinity group for early career professionals. As part of this

USC SEP x a16z Hackathon

USC SEP x a16z Hackathon

To cap off LA Tech Week, I joined a team of 4 other members at USC's SEP AI Hackathon, sponsored by a16z. We met just after the opening ceremony, grabbed dinner, then set up camp in one of the campus dorm lounges. We were told ahead of time

Learning How to Pitch

Learning How to Pitch

It's a cloudy Tuesday morning in Downtown Los Angeles. On my calendar for 10AM is a pitching workshop hosted by the LA Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which offers free resources courtesy of the tax dollars that I've already paid. I made myself an iced coffee

Navigating Reddit for AEO

Navigating Reddit for AEO

I learned recently that Gen Z is starting to use ChatGPT for search queries instead of Google, so much so that the classic Google search may become obsolete in the coming years. As a business owner, this means that I have to keep my finger on the pulse of AI

Market Research in Little Tokyo

Market Research in Little Tokyo

"Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, 'What's in it for me?'" Brian Tracy, Author and Motivational Speaker To gain our first customer base, Chirp is focused on serving the blind box collector community. Blind box

ADHD is my Superpower

ADHD is my Superpower

I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2022. I was already 21, a successful mechanical engineering major, and a straight-A student. I didn't struggle academically, but I often had teachers complain to my parents that I was talking too much during class and doing random things unrelated to the

The First Pitch

The First Pitch

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon earlier this month, I met with a new mentor from the Society of Women Engineers. Charisse Rodriguez also started out as a mechanical engineer and then moved on to become a founder and CEO. We had a short conversation about what I can do to

LA Small Business Expo 2025

LA Small Business Expo 2025

I found out about the Los Angeles Small Business Expo through an advertisement on Instagram. I like to follow business-related accounts on my personal profiles so that I'm surrounded by resources and opportunities no matter where I'm browsing from. I saw that the expo was free

Why Did I Start a Business?

Why Did I Start a Business?

Here's how I became interested in starting a business... In around April of 2025, I became interested in the idea of launching a clear protein powder line. I'm a regular weightlifter, but I didn't even know that clear protein was an option until years