Title:GTA Alumni Spotlight: Amelia Kao (C’14)

Meet Amelia Kao (C’14), CEO of Interlaced!

Please introduce yourself.

My name is Amelia Kao, and I graduated from the College in 2014. I was an economics major and a Spanish minor. Outside of class, I spent a lot of time working at Vital Vittles and playing club soccer. To this day, most of my closest friends are from Georgetown. It’s opened up a lot of doors for me professionally as well. I have so much love for the University and still try to stay connected.

Today, I’m the CEO of Interlaced. We are a private equity-backed IT services company for startups providing outsourced consulting, support, and cybersecurity. We help startups grow by ensuring their technology is fully functional, secure, and scalable.

How did your time at Georgetown influence your career path in the tech industry?

The biggest way Georgetown influenced my career path was the friendships and connections that I made that have led to career opportunities. 

I started my career after Georgetown at Bloomingdale’s in their executive development program. I wanted to be in operations as I really enjoyed that part of working at Vittles – being hands-on in an operating role. At the time Bloomingdales was just launching their online store and omnichannel business. I was really drawn to the digital side of the business since it was more fast-paced and innovative. 

I wanted to shift more squarely into tech and SaaS or marketplace products. A friend from Georgetown was at Uber and raved about her experience. That’s how I pivoted out of retail to join Uber on their growth operations team.

Many of the milestones along my journey have been conversations with classmates of mine or other alumni to learn about their work and experiences. The Georgetown Tech Alliance in the Bay Area is a great resource that I leverage. When I was at Georgetown it felt like the tech scene was pretty nascent but I’m seeing technology, naturally, infused more and more in all of the Georgetown programs. And the network of Georgetown alumni who have been successful in tech and can share their stories just continues to grow.

What does the day-to-day look like in your current role?

No two days are the same. While this is my second CEO role, I’ve been a CEO for a little over two years so I still feel like I’m learning the role and figuring it out on the fly. The role of the CEO is very dynamic because your breadth of exposure and responsibility is so wide. 

Most weeks I’m splitting time between my team, our clients, and strategic initiatives to help us grow. Most of my job is enablement. It’s setting the vision for where we’re going and then making sure my team has the resources and support to execute the vision. As in any business, we have clear strategic priorities, but then you get into the day-to-day and new demands arise from our team and our clients and our holding company. So a lot of my job is spent focusing us, communicating what matters, and making sure people have the tools to get that done.

I also spend time coaching and developing. The best part of my job is getting to see people in our organization progress, get promoted, and build new skills. It’s super rewarding when you see someone who came into the organization two years ago, and you saw them on a client call that was uncomfortable for them or they struggled. Then you fast forward 6 months or a year, and they’re crushing it and handling all of our client calls on their own. Giving them guidance and support along that journey is the most fun part of my job. 

Beyond that, I spend a good amount of time thinking on my own about where we want the business to be five years from now, and doing research on the market and on new tooling that we can adopt – so bigger picture thinking on where we’re going in the long term.

What do you wish more people knew about the tech industry?

Tech offers a wide range of roles, and in my experience, there’s a lot of opportunity to move cross-functionally, which allows you to explore different paths and build diverse skills along the way.

When I graduated, I assumed that most tech roles were engineering, which felt prohibitive as someone who didn’t study computer science. I’ve spent the last 8 years of my career in tech, always in an operations, finance or strategy role. Most tech companies mirror your standard business. Yes, you’re going to have more technical folks, but you’re also going to have large teams of operations, growth, finance teams, etc. There’s all of these components around the technology itself that take the product from an idea into the hands of customers.

One of the most rewarding parts of my Uber experience was the ability for me to have five different roles there over the course of four years. Moving across functions was not uncommon, and gave me the chance to constantly try new things and keep learning. In my time there I was able to touch rideshare growth in NYC, compliance and working with regulatory partners, and the acquisition and later sales of our e-bikes and e-scooters, e-mobility strategy, and business intelligence for new mobility (e-mobility, transit, etc.).

I had so many doors open to me that allowed for a nonlinear path in tech. A lot of tech companies are rooted in innovation and open to giving people outsized roles. Many founders and early joiners started with little formal experience or built something at a young age. There’s this openness to letting people prove themselves, try new things, and grow based on merit.

What is your favorite app or website, and why?

Right now, I’m really loving Granola. It’s a meeting notes taker that is accurate and very non-disruptive. It helps me focus more on calls – I used to be a copious notetaker, but now I just let that run and let it go. We’re in such an exciting moment when new AI tools are coming to market every day and enabling operators to work smarter. 

What is one quick piece of advice you would give to a Georgetown student that is interested in tech?

Be curious. People notice it, and it shows potential. As someone who hires, I don’t expect you to know everything but I do look for a genuine desire to learn. In tech especially, that passion comes through when someone’s exploring tools to improve their own life or help others. Tech companies want to see that you have a passion for using technology to make the word a better place. 

The other thing I would say is don’t be afraid to reach out to people. I started at Bloomingdale’s before we even had an online store which sounds wild now, and I swear I’m not that old! Coming from a non-technical industry, I was really intimidated to make the switch to tech. When I joined Uber, I felt out of place at first, surrounded by people from tech, consulting and banking backgrounds. But over time, I realized I could keep up and succeed just by staying curious and engaged and working hard. Even if you’re non-technical or new to something, shoot your shot. Reach out to alums and share what you’re interested in. People will open doors. The Georgetown community is incredibly generous. My mom and sister went there too, so we’re a big Hoya family. There are so many people who want to help – you just have to ask.

For more GTA Alumni Spotlights, click here.