How a NovoED Course Helped to Shape the Path of a Microsoft Business Leader

When Sonal Mane enrolled in Chuck Eesley’s “Technology Entrepreneurship” class, she was managing the globalization project for the Windows 8 Store. Though she had already experienced shipping releases for Office 2007 and Bing, and had a plethora of product development experience behind her, she was blown away with Chuck’s iterative approach.

Sonal was not only impressed by the quality of the instruction, but also the means through which it was delivered. “The platform itself [NovoEd] helped with every aspect of the course. From team formation to peer evaluations, there was a lot of value-add in connecting with other teams and learning from discussion forums.”

She joined four others to create a team who together had sixty plus years of combined experience with companies including Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Amazon, and Lockheed Martin in addition to multiple startups. Through the experiential assignments, her team created “Neighborhood Match,” a site to match people moving into a new city with the right neighborhood and home.

After experiencing the world of entrepreneurship first hand, Sonal realized it was time to take her career in a new direction. She explained “the course definitely shaped my current role at Microsoft. I moved from Seattle to Chicago and changed roles from a technology lead in [an] engineering group to being a startup technologist with real-world startups. Today, my typical week includes holding office hours at coworking spaces, meeting entrepreneurs, judging elevator pitches, and connecting startups to resources through Microsoft’s entrepreneurship program. The course kick-started my journey in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and has been a solid catalyst in gaining momentum.”

Author’s Note: Whether you’re looking to breathe life into new ideas at your company, explore a different career path, increase the voice of your inner entrepreneur, or start your own venture, our suite of entrepreneurship classes is sure to offer a path to jumpstart progression. Check them out here.

If you enjoyed this content, be sure to read our Technology Entrepreneurship Course article.