The Inspiration for Serendipify.Me

It happened at my school, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The school received the biggest donation at that time (in 2008) from an alumnus who attributed his success to being a student there.

David Booth went to Chicago GSB in 1971, and met there his future business partner Rex Sinquefield. Ten years later, in 1981, they launched the hugely successful Dimensional Fund Advisors investment firm, which enabled David Booth, some twenty-five years later, to make such a sizeable donation.

This should be the best example of an alumni partnership success story, one that had a very considerable impact on the alma mater itself. It should be used as a model for other schools, who should try to empower their alumni, and continue investing in them and supporting them to launch successful careers and ventures.

As the founder of this service, I believe that everyone should try to be lucky enough to find themselves in such a successful partnership (hence the Serendipity reference). And since luck can many times be helped by our actions, Serendipify.Me is designed to facilitate the discovery of those connections - especially between people who have the trust relationship already in place (via the shared education institution or any other common organizational affiliation).

I graduated Booth without a partner. And it hurt realizing how much talent was there and how much opportunity did not materialize because I did not find myself a cofounder. So I decided to keep looking for such a partner. Serendipify.Me is one of the means for discovering it, and making me (and them) successful.