Written by BenchPrep CEO and Co-Founder, Ashish Rangnekar
Today, I am very proud that two of our outstanding employees are leaving our company!
I hate to lose great talent and I never want people to leave because they are unhappy, but I love when people pursue their passions. We’ve been fortunate enough to grow rapidly over the past few years, and I’m proud to say that all of our voluntary employee departures have been team members returning to school or pursuing their personal passions.
My co-founder Ujjwal and I started this company as a side project while I was getting my MBA and he was pursuing his Ph.D. We’ve been fortunate enough to turn our passion project into a full-time job and something that we love doing. We want the same for our employees, which means that some of our employees will need to leave us. We founded BenchPrep to improve professional success, and that mission extends beyond the millions of learners who use our platform to our employees.
At BenchPrep, people are the cornerstone of the company’s success. Our strong company culture has enabled us to hire the right team and empower them to do their best work. To us, good culture means diversity, inclusiveness, empowerment, and fun.
We employ talented people from all different backgrounds and value their perspectives. We empower our employees to lead and grow regardless of their level of experience. We’ve had a number of folks join us right out of college who now manage teams, clients and key aspects of the business.
In June, we celebrate two of our outstanding employees who are moving on to pursue higher education – Scott Monsky (Manager | Instructional Design) and Lindsey Morrow (Manager | Business Strategy).
Scott Monsky
Scott joined BenchPrep in November 2015 from Teach for America where he was teaching 9th and 10th grade geometry at a Title I school in Miami Public Schools. As a teacher, he achieved a 90% passing rate on state-administered End-of-Course exam, compared to a 40% passing rate from the previous year. He also managed the entire math department of, 18 math teachers serving over 1,600 students.
At BenchPrep, Scott brought in the invaluable educator’s perspective. He built a library of hundreds of instructional videos that more than 600,000 students use to learn key college-readiness concepts. He helped us align our curriculum to Common Core standards. His passion for educational equity was a driving force behind several product decisions that helped millions of learners achieve academic success. In addition to his curriculum related work, he also led the go to market strategy for one of our key verticals: HR.
“Working at BenchPrep has been a crash course in startups for me,” Scott said. “I’ve learned that by leveraging technology, I’ve been able to impact the lives of more than a million students. I’ve especially enjoyed the freedom to pursue projects that are interesting to me, and the culture is amazing.”
This fall, he’ll start his MBA program at the world renowned The University of Chicago Booth School of Business with an interest in entrepreneurship. Scott is passionate about educational equity and expanding access to all students. He’s been an incredible asset to the team and believes the skills he’ll learn in business school will help him make a difference in the world.
Prior to joining BenchPrep, Scott graduated from Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology with a Bachelor of Science in Policy Analysis and Management and a Minor in Law & Society. At Cornell, he was honored as a Rebecca Q. Morgan Cornell Tradition Scholar and as a member of the College of Human Ecology’s Dean’s List. He also co-founded Miami Exploration Academy, a non-profit summer enrichment program. The non-profit offered students educational opportunities not typically available in low-income communities, such as financial literacy classes and college counseling, and to hire novice teachers to provide them with more intensive professional support.
Lindsey Morrow
Lindsey is starting her MBA program at the prestigious Harvard Business School this fall. Lindsey joined BenchPrep in July 2016 from Deloitte Consulting where she spent three years helping Fortune 500 companies solve complex business problems. She also served as the president on the Associate Board for LEARN Charter Schools, a network of eleven Chicago-area charter schools. As a board member, she helped LEARN leadership with network growth strategy and pre-school site selection.
At BenchPrep, she worked alongside our leadership team developing strategies and implementing programs to scale our business, refine our brand and enhance our culture -- all with the goal of cultivating an innovative, sustainable business and building long-term financial value. She was instrumental in setting up company’s employee onboarding program. Her passion for leveraging technology to uplift underserved communities has helped define our future growth strategy.
Lindsey says her time at BenchPrep inspired her to become a bolder leader, take the right risks and trust her instincts when making decisions. She appreciates the company’s diverse environment and inclusivity.
“Working at BenchPrep has been an experience that I could have only dreamed about,” Lindsey said. “Each person is encouraged and empowered to bring their best self to work in order to execute their best work. It’s been a privilege to be part of an organization that cares about its people and passionately pursues its mission.”
Lindsey is excited to be part of the Harvard community because of its focus on leadership, general management and global citizenship. I’m certain her contribution to Harvard will be impactful as it was at BenchPrep. I hope she’ll continue to push boundaries and challenge her classmates to think bigger, as she’s done for us.
Prior to joining BenchPrep, Lindsey graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she was honored as a James Scholar and was on the College of Business Dean’s Scroll.
We wish Scott and Lindsey the very best as they pursue academic and professional success, and we hope you’ll consider joining our team. We are always looking for top talent to help us accomplish our mission to help learners achieve success. For more information about how to join BenchPrep, keep an eye on our job postings through Twitter @benchprep.
