E-Club Seasons
From Silicon Valley to New York - here's where our members went this winter and spring.
Silicon Valley Tiger Trek
Met the heads of ChatGPT and Google Gemini - heard differing perspectives on foundational model priorities
Spoke with Brex the day before their $1B+ CapitalOne acquisition was officially announced
45+ speakers across technology, policy, and human-focused development
Annual Masterchef Night and alumni networking dinners throughout the week
AI Tiger Trek
Visited 20+ AI labs, startups, and VC firms - from training frontier models to funding companies built on top of them
Technical discussions on robot foundation models (Physical Intelligence), ML systems bottlenecks (Google Deepmind, Meta FAIR), and real-world AI safety (Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI)
Early exposure to emerging AI categories: agents, legal AI, behavioral simulation, social AI
New York Tiger Trek
Visited Schrödinger - explored computational drug discovery and the "predict-first" AI paradigm with Dr. Abba Leffler
Challenged personal convictions in conversation with political strategist Bradley Tusk
Explored interpersonal connection and leadership with Kara Barnett
Student-led cooking competition and a Red Bull-hosted dinner to close out the week
Alimtas Bioventures
Pitched a CRISPR-Cas13 diagnostic platform for rapid, multiplexed plant pathogen detection using the mCARMEN system
Presented to Dr. Li Chin Wong (Princeton alum, former Merck/Prevail Therapeutics, startup founder) and a team at UBS
Toured UBS offices - met on the same floor as the regional president
Team bonding: cafes, restaurants, and a picnic at Madison Square Park
Then v.s. Now
Then - Alumni Derek Lidow (EE ‘97)
Sold iSuppli for ~$100M
CEO, International Rectifier ($2B NYSE)
7× Princeton Teaching Award
100+ articles in HBR & Forbes
Author of 3 books
2025 AOM Distinguished Educator
What are you building?
An information and advice platform for aspiring entrepreneurs - to help them be more successful. It started from me being an entrepreneur and getting what I felt was a lot of bad advice. Being invited to teach at Princeton allowed me to research what good advice actually looks like.
How do you define success?
Entrepreneurial success is if what I did helped people lead better lives. And if I did that in a way that was self-sustaining - I think that makes it super successful.
What does EClub mean?
One thing that made EClub super successful early on was organizing the Tiger Trek to Silicon Valley. The students were so blown away. But there was also something called the Idea Factory - every Wednesday at 4:30, students would bring startup ideas and professors would give real feedback. That energy is what made EClub grow into the biggest club on campus.
What would you do differently at Princeton?
I graduated in three years - and maybe looking back, I would have really enjoyed that fourth year. I was probably too focused on science. Science doesn't answer everything, and being good at it doesn't make you a good leader. If I'd spent more time with people, I would have become a better leader faster.
Now - Student Jerry Han (MAT ‘27)
Co-Founder, Gradient Incubator
Scaled cash business to 6-figures ARR
Former Singapore Army Corporal
Interested in AI superalignment research
What are you building?
I co-founded Gradient, a zero-equity nonprofit incubator, to give Princeton's best and brightest the connections, resources, and technical support to kickstart their startup journey - especially ambitious founders making ambitious bets. I'm also deeply interested in AI superalignment research, which is part of why I'm so excited about the caliber of founders we're backing.
How do you define success?
From my days serving in the Army to here at Princeton, I've always defined success by the impact I have on my friends and community. I want Princeton to compete at the highest level of startups - and we'll know we've succeeded when we incubate the next Princeton unicorn.
What does EClub mean?
First and foremost, an incredible community of friends and supporters. For me personally, EClub is my platform to shape Princeton's entrepreneurship scene and leave a legacy of success.
What do you want to do at Princeton in the future?
Find a startup with my friends to tackle the most important problems humanity is facing!
