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Venmo Founder Credit: Connie Kang , Connie Kang

English and philosophy majors don’t usually found tech startups.

However, Venmo co-founder and 2005 College graduate Andrew Kortina defied this stereotype by creating Venmo, an app for exchanging money.

Kortina spoke about his journey from Penn to entrepreneurial success last night at Huntsman Hall. The professional business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi, the Wharton Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club and the Dining Philosophers Computer Science Club invited Kortina as part of their efforts to bring engaging speakers to campus.

Unlike most tech startup entrepreneurs, Kortina’s journey began by switching out of studying computer science. He said the field was too self-directed, and that he wanted to devote his time to fields he could only explore while in college.

“You can pick up professional skills at work,” he said. “You’re never going to get to discuss philosophy elsewhere.”

Kortina jokingly encouraged the audience to switch out of Wharton, too — a bit of surprising though welcome advice to student struggling between pursuing professional fields and liberal arts studies.

College and Wharton senior Jierong Tan noted that Kortina’s message was especially inspiring because the Venmo co-founder ultimately chose not to major in computer science.

“People tell me that you need a technical background to succeed in tech startups, but Andrew studied unrelated fields and made it,” Tan said.

Kortina differed from his entrepreneurial peers for more than just his degree. He had no concrete plan when leaving college, and explained that when his mother asked for his ambitions two weeks before graduation, he still had no response.

He and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, his freshman year roommate at Hill College House and the other co-founder of Venmo, knocked on restaurant doors to sell websites after graduating. Their approach was rather informal.

“We offered to build Kabobeesh a website in exchange for a hundred chicken rolls,” he explained, chuckling.

The audience was receptive to this message. Wharton junior Evan Rosenbaum, president of WUEC, said he valued Kortina’s perspective on not having a post-graduation plan — especially at Penn, where planning is so heavily emphasized.

Kortina then narrated his trek from various positions at startups such as omgpop.com and iminlikewithyou.com, but emphasized his desire to start a venture with his longtime friend, Magdon-Ismail. He said that after starting their own separate careers, the two began meeting on weekends to brainstorm new ideas.

On one particular meeting, Magdon-Ismail left his wallet at home, but promised Kortina that he would mail him a check. This, Kortina explained, inspired Venmo.

“We used our phones in every other aspect of our lives, Kortina said. “Why were we still mailing checks?”

The friends designed and first launched Venmo as a text message-based payment system, and then converted it into an app.

Despite initial problems, Venmo grew quickly. It has found a strong base at Penn, used for everything from lending cash for a friend’s dinner to paying roommates for rent.

Wharton junior Chadwick Prichard, vice president of AKPsi and WUEC, said he was pleased with Kortina’s talk and with the audience turnout.

The club will host another speaker tomorrow, Hunting Hill Capital CEO Adam Guren.

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