by Ashna Satpathy, Staff Writer
For most Latin students, college is the biggest common goal to work toward- what classes to take, whether or not to study for a test, and the extent to which you should be involved in clubs. Students are busy trying to pitch themselves to the college of their dreams. However, Steven Schwartz ‘17 took an expansive approach on how to spend his time most valuably.
On August 31st, Forbes published an article by Elaine Pofeldt, spotlighting Schwartz and his newest endeavors. While a student at Latin, Steven co-founded SoleStrike with Cameron Zoub, which, according to Pofeldt, “specializes in limited stock merchandise and, they say, has grown to $2 million in annual revenue.”
Today, Steven, a junior at New York University’s Stern School of Business, is the CEO of Varfaj Partners, an IT consulting firm that constructs websites and mobile interfaces for their clients. Put simply, “It’s a design-first technology consulting firm,” said Schwartz. Like SoleStrike, he also founded this company with Cameron Zoub, the head of growth. Forbes describes the company as a “two-man technology and strategic consulting company” and is on track for $1 million in revenue.
“I started it at NYU during my fall semester of sophomore year (last year) after returning home from interning at Accenture in Singapore,” said Schwartz. Accenture is a global broad based technology consulting firm. As for the future, “I hope to keep learning as much as I can. If I am learning, then things are going well. I want to continue to improve our quality of services as well as delivery times to our clients.”
Steven also offered some wisdom to current and future Latin students. The most effective opportunity that Latin offers may be just what many of us do not take advantage of: “Latin free periods. Sounds like a joke, but if you think about what a free period means, it’s Latin telling you to do whatever you want. This allowed me to work on and learn new things that I wouldn’t have in a classroom,” explained Schwartz. “Latin’s entire mentality stems from their rationale about free periods. This is rare at most high schools. Short version, basically them telling you to explore whatever is interesting to you.”
Steven’s work entails strategy and prioritization of short term tasks, as well as working toward long term goals. So, for all Latin students that think a certain grade on a test will define their entire future, think again. “The biggest thing is to not stress about things that don’t really matter in the long-run. Take college – everyone gets stressed about college, but it won’t matter the second you step foot on your campus. You will love it and make use of all of the resources that the school has to offer. Also, don’t be afraid to try things that no one else is doing! Go out and start a club at school so that you can learn something new.”
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Spotlight on Steven Schwartz '17: Making it Big in New York City
November 16, 2019
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beaparr • Nov 17, 2019 at 11:45 pm
Sounds like some good advice—starting such a successful company while still in school is so impressive! (And so is your writing!)
Robert Igbokwe • Nov 17, 2019 at 9:53 pm
Fantastic article, Ashna!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Steven’s story is amazing and I love his advice about high school and beyond!! 🙂
Paige Hosbein • Nov 17, 2019 at 9:17 pm
Yay Stevo!
Zach m • Nov 17, 2019 at 1:52 pm
Way to go, Steven! Some great advice about college, too!