Alumni Achievement Award recipient Connor Sattely visits Penn State Behrend

ERIE, Pa. — Connor Sattely, one of eight Penn State alumni who were recognized at this year’s Alumni Achievement Awards, built his first business on a cheeseburger.

Sattely, a Penn State Behrend graduate, was in Amsterdam then, living with some chefs. A friend invited him to dinner with a staffer at the European Parliament, which represents 450 million people in the European Union. Over burgers, Sattely learned that parliament is complicated: There’s a council and committees and plenary sessions and elections every five years. Also: The 720 members, who are known as MEPs, speak different languages.

“Messy, right?” he said, remembering the discussion. “At one point, one of us said, ‘We should build a platform that better connects all those members and the people who elected them. Like a Facebook for politics.’ And that’s what we did.”

They pitched the business, which they called GovFaces, to all 720 members of parliament. Only five responded.

“That was enough to get it going,” Sattely said, “because those five were absolutely on-board. They were like, ‘This is amazing. This is going to change politics forever.’”

Within months, a third of parliament was using the platform.

Other startups followed: Sattely launched SEMA, a citizen-feedback tool, in Uganda. He worked with the Justice Accelerator at the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law. Today, he is a venture capital expert with Decile Group, which runs VC Lab, a global accelerator that has launched more than 500 funds.

In March, he returned to Penn State Behrend, where he earned degrees in communication and political science, to meet with students in a media class and record an episode of Chancellor Ralph Ford’s “Behrend Talks” podcast. He even sat in with the jazz ensemble, playing his saxophone.

Over lunch, he offered advice to students who were considering their own post-college plans.

“Here’s what you do,” he said. “Make a list of companies that do cool stuff — or, even better, people who do cool stuff — and reach out to them. Ask for a half-hour. Don’t ask for a job. Just ask them to meet with you.

“If they say yes,” he said, “get them to talk. Let them gush about their field and all their success in it. As you do that, you’re making a connection.”

As he talked, he wrote his contact information on the whiteboard at the front of the room.

“You won’t get a job by just applying for it,” he said. “Not anymore. For every job you want, there are like 1,000 other people applying for it, and their AIs are developing resumes and cover letters that are designed to match with the AIs of the companies that are reading those resumes. You need to create your own opportunities, and you do that by making connections.

“So, get out there,” he said. “Start some conversations.”