Weekend Update #044
Welcome to Blue Room's Weekend Update. Each week, we're sharing what companies we're researching and the what, the who and the how that we think makes the companies interesting and unique. This roundup is brought to you weekly by a group of interns, creative minds, artists and investors who believe that through best in class investing along with the democratization of financial education we can do great things together. Enjoy, Explore and Share.
On the twentieth anniversary of 9-11
we think about that day.
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MINYOUNG SOHN
BLUE ROOM FOUNDER
That morning, as I was watching business news, CNBC reported breaking news. They thought a small commuter plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. Ten minutes later, as I pulled into Janus, I flipped on satellite radio to hear Hugh Hewitt, a conservative radio commentator bemoan the end of the world. / The Pentagon, and also news of United 93. My younger brother, Eun, was driving across the country with our friend Dan. Both had just graduated from Dartmouth and were about to start work in the Bay Area. At our urging they stayed a few extra days with us before resuming their trip out West.
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IAN CARTER
BLUE ROOM ANALYST
I do remember the day that the event occurred even though I was about 3 or 4 years old. My family lived in Philadelphia at the time and my mother heard about the news when it came onto the television. She took me to the park that day where there was no radio or media access so that I didn't have to see the tragedy unfold. I have a deep appreciation for my mom. My grandfather's birthday also happens to be on September 11th and she told me much later on that she had called him and apologized for such a tragic event to occur on his birthday. My father was meant to make a business trip to New York that week, but there were some complications with his travel schedule and he ended up not going. I cannot imagine what would have happened to him if he had gone. I wish happiness and health to all of those individuals who were directly affected by the event.
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NINA SOHN
CO-FOUNDER + TOGETHERISM LEAD
Man. I remember so many moments, but the big one is the first flight I took post 9-11. It happened to be an international flight, and as we prepared for take off, the pilot came onto the loudspeaker. I cannot recall his exact words - something about unity in the face of adversity that felt so galvanizing in that fragile national moment. I reached across the aisle to grasp my dearest friend's outstretched hand. She was crying, and I found that I was, too.
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JARED FENLEY
BLUE ROOM ANALYST
Every September 11th, I am caught off guard by the deep emotions I feel for every life lost on this day - thousands of family members, friends, and neighbors. These are rare moments we share as Americans - we are mourning but together. Above all, I take a moment to cherish everyone in my life knowing tradegies can strike at any moment. My heart is with all of the firefighters, police officers, and paramedics who lost their lives fighting to save thousands 20 years ago, and I am grateful for all of the people still working to keep our country safe.
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EMILY PHILPOTT
BLUE ROOM CO-FOUNDER
While I was driving to pick up a co-worker on the commute to work, I listened to a voicemail my best friend had just left for me. Habitually, she would call me on her walk to work and leave a good morning message to share her latest thoughts. On that morning, she switched gears mid-conversation — stunned — with a confused then chilling report that the plane overhead was out of place… and then… crashed into the first tower… soon followed by loud sirens and chaos.
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SHARON SCHNEIDER
BLUE ROOM IMPACT CONSULTANT
9/11 is my birthday. For 20 years, it has been hard to celebrate, though, considering what the day means to so many others. On the ten-year anniversary I ran a half marathon to raise money for charity. But most years, it's just a reminder of how truly grateful I am to be alive.
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COLE WILSON
BLUE ROOM MARKETING CONSULTANT
I was in NYC on 9/10 visiting friends and was going to stay in the city one more day, but I decided to drive back to Charlottesville late at night so I could wake up in my own bed. After driving most of the night the next morning I turned on The Today Show right as they were reporting that the first plane hit the towers. I frantically started calling my friends- five of which were at WTC- but all the cell lines were jammed. It was a paralyzing, terrifying day waiting to hear that loved ones had walked across bridges to Brooklyn or hitchhiked to Connecticut. I remember not wanting to be in front of the television so I just drove around back country roads to clear my head…. It was such a pretty fall day with a clear blue sky, so hard to believe that the same sky was in New York City now filled with dust and smoke.
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OMAR GUZMAN
BLUE ROOM TEAM LEADER
I first heard the news while on the school bus. I was seated near the driver, within earshot of her radio. She was listening to the news, and at the time it sounded like a Cessna had crashed into a building. Although tragic, it sounded like it was more of an accident than anything sinister. It wasn't until I got to school (I was in 6th grade) that I began to sense something was not right. During first period our teacher rolled in a television set and turned on the news, and that's when we realized the gravity of the situation. Because everything was so uncertain, the school began allowing parents to pick up their kids early, and they decided to bus the rest of us home early as well. My parents had contemplated stocking up on gasoline since they foresaw prices jumping as a result of impending war in the Middle East. I remember President Bush urging Americans to not let the events deter us from living our lives, and was inspired by the leadership he showed when he was on Ground Zero with a megaphone, arm around a firefighter, rallying the crowd of first responders and police men and women, supporting them as they worked through the wreckage. What a moment in history.
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STEFANIE NESTER
BLUE ROOM MARKETING CONSULTANT
I think of my 3rd period Spanish teacher saying the day's lesson suddenly didn't feel so important, of the smoke we could all see from the science lab on the 3rd floor, of the chaos in the school cafeteria when no one could reach their parents at work. I think of my brother's parakeet dropping dead in his cage that day (did he sense something was wrong?), of the soles of my dad's "good" shoes being rubbed down to nothing after his trek from Manhattan to Long Island, of the realization that my parents would never again point out across the bridge during car rides and say "look, there are the Twin Towers."
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ALFONSO MEDINA
CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
The day that changed the world.
These days, talking to different friends, this is the only day everyone remembers where they were 20 years ago.
I was in college in Monterrey, there was a storm so we turned on the tv to see if school was canceled. When we turned it on, one of the towers was on fire, the rest is history.
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RICHARD CUTSHALL
BLUE ROOM LEGAL ADVISOR
I was in my first year of law school in a new city (had lived in Chicago for less than five weeks). I had Criminal Law that morning, and the first plane hit right before class. Every person who came into the room had a new update, each of which felt more surreal. We held class (the thought it was an accident and “what can you do but lead a normal life” prevailing, though the class was still unusual). By the time it was over, another plane had hit, what was happening had become clear, and the rest of the day was cancelled. I walked home, stopped outside a sports bar with huge open windows that I often played pool in - did not go inside but rather stood on the sidewalk in the Gold Coast neighborhood, and watched the TVs through the window as the towers came down. Retreated to my studio apartment and just tried to figure out what I’m the Hell was happening. Feelings of sadness, loss, anger, and nerves (that did last for months) of what and where could be next (including classic Chicago second city views of where was safe to go there). Life ultimately resumed, but I had many one-off moments - playing football, being out, walking to school - where I had vistas of downtown and wondered what could be next.
But to end on a positive note that I think we all could use - the way the country (and world) rallied in the days and weeks that came after and came together, unified - right, left, middle in particular were irrelevant, it was one country, one world - was truly as amazing as that morning was horrifying and all the rest. We could do well to all remember those feelings of a common thread, common experience, common goal, and work to get back to that sense rather than what is different for the purposes of sewing division.
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