Amelia DeSorrento - Alumni Profiles - People - Batten Institute

After extensive experience in startup, tech, and product management roles, Amelia DeSorrento is working with Solestiss to support Fortune 500 companies in the nuclear sector with business strategy and execution. Previously, she was Director of Product at Capital One, where she focused on business strategy, innovation, and enterprise-wide program development, most recently building and managing a nine-figure integration PMO. Prior to that, she co-founded Hatch Apps, a Y Combinator and Morgan Stanley-backed enterprise software startup where she led operations, fundraising, and product strategy.

An advocate for women in tech, she launched the Agora Initiative in DC, which has since helped DC-area female-founded companies raise millions in seed-stage funding. She has also taught at American University’s Kogod School of Business and has written for the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, and Fast Company. She has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 awardee, a Washingtonian Tech Titan, and a Power Woman of DC Tech.

Which Darden courses, professors, and/or activities have had the biggest impact on your learning and career post-MBA?

Oh how do I pick?! Different professors had very different impacts on my post-MBA life. One who comes to mind is Yael Grushka-Cockayne, who gave me a lot of direction on some of my passion projects, most notably helping me get organized to launch the Agora Initiative. And, as someone who lived my pre-Darden life as much more poet than quant, I really leaned into finance classes, taking pretty much all of them, which really trained my brain to think in different ways. I could go on and on about my classmates, many of which have been tremendously impactful on my life and career. Most directly, Amy Roma introduced me to the founder of Solestiss, which is how I ended up in the nuclear industry.

What advice would you have for current Darden students who are interested in pursuing an entrepreneurial career and/or founding their own venture?

Start now. You don’t have to have a big company from day one: You can start by building out a fun project and work on it a bit every day. If you improve something by 2% every day for a year, by the end of the year it will be about 1,377 times better than where it started. Crazy, right? So just start, and then every day make your project / product / idea just a little bit better. Before you know it, you’ll be a titan of industry!

And also, know that life comes in phases. Right now, I have six kids in the house and my husband is doing the startup thing, so it doesn’t make sense for me to take big risks. But I know that in a few years, that may change. Saying no to startup life now doesn’t mean you’re saying no forever.

Tell us more about the Agora Initiative!

Always!

Some important context first: Less than 2% of venture capital goes to female founders, and studies have shown that founders generate 35% higher ROI for investors and outperform their male counterparts by 63% over a six-year period. We could say that’s because women are badass (true, true) but my hypothesis is that there are real barriers to accessing capital for female founders and returns reflect a significant selection bias.

The Agora Initiative is tackling this challenge head-on. We put female founders at the center of the conversation, gathering the top business and tech influencers in the DMV to help women found, fund and scale their startups. We think by doing this, we’ll be able to meaningfully impact the VC funding flowing towards female founders in the DC region.

The Batten Institute was super helpful to me in getting this off the ground, championing and promoting it and helping to fund our initial programs. I was also smothered in encouragement and support by my classmates, several of whom helped in big ways. Kate Cavin (EMBA '24) of Brown Advisory, for example, helped sponsor our launch. The Darden community has been awesome for this.

Name a trend you’re watching now that intrigues you, and why MBAs should be interested in it, too.

I’m going to cheat here: This isn’t a trend, but commercial nuclear is poised for huge growth. Nuclear is the only energy source that can reliably meet the heavy energy requirements of AI. And I hear that’s trending these days, too…

But in all seriousness, our domestic nuclear industry is smaller now than it was 30, 40 years ago, and we need to ramp it fast. There’s going to be an incredible amount of opportunity for smart, creative people in order to lead in the rebirth of the industry. So, for folks interested in energy or finance or business or strategy – basically anything that you study at Darden – definitely give the industry a look-see.