Katie Kirsch
 


I’m Katie, a hybrid product x design x startup leader trained at Stanford, IDEO, & Harvard Business School.

I've spent my career launching new products, programs, & ventures in education. My work has been recognized in Forbes, Fast Company, SXSW Edu, IDEO Futures, IxDA, and Gentry Magazine, among others.

 

Currently the Founder & CEO of twenty, a VC-backed coaching startup that helps young adults navigate their twenties, personally and professionally.

Spent a summer in Stockholm, Sweden building new products & services at Sana Labs, a Series B personalized learning and AI startup backed by EQT Ventures.

Made the Forbes 30 under 30 List for Consumer Technology (2024) for founding twenty.

 

Got my MBA from Harvard Business School with First Year Honors.

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Organized and ran a superhero-themed leadership summer camp for 60 girls to discover their abilities to create social impact.

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Worked at IDEO for 3.5 years in a mix of marketing, business strategy, and product design roles, partnering with Fortune 500 companies.

 
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Raised $35,000 on Kickstarter to spend 14 weeks driving across the US in an RV, teaching design thinking & leadership workshops for 1200 girls across 32 states.

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Collaborated with Days for Girls in Uganda to help scale their impact on girls in the menstrual health sector through strategic marketing initiatives.

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Spent 3 years teaching at Stanford’s d.school an advanced design research course in the Mechanical Engineering department.

 
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Got a B.S. in Product Design Engineering from Stanford and won the Robert McKim Design Award, recognizing accomplishments at the top of my graduating class.

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Built a series of educational products & programs at Designer Fund, empowering hundreds of designers globally to grow as business leaders and scale their impact.

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Co-founded Period Futures, a playful project designed to spark curiosity and conversation around the future of periods.

 
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Launched a design thinking & leadership curriculum that now reaches hundreds of educators and thousands of young women globally.

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Delivered the Opening Keynote at Gentry’s Women in Technology Conference at SAP about impacting girls through design.

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Featured in Microsoft’s Art of Teamwork campaign alongside a handful of incredible leaders, including a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the CEO of UNICEF.