CEO and Aggie Alum Mentors Students – Nudging Students Out of the Nest for Success
Nate Putnam is an entrepreneur, CEO, and data wiz who lives to make the world a better place. Students at the Huntsman School of Business are fortunate he’s also an Aggie who’s passionate about mentoring and helping students launch careers.
On September 11 and 17, the Monumetric CEO and Co-Founder engaged with students at ASC Studio, a weekly workshop hosted by the Huntsman School’s Analytics Solutions Center (ASC). The ASC provides students with hands-on learning experiences and Putnam took the chance to coach students and prepare them for the ASC Business Pitch Competition to be held October 14. Putnam loves coming back to campus and believes it’s all about student learning and outcomes.
“I want to be the type of alumni that I wish I would have had 10 years ago, 15 years ago,” he said. “Because you need to have the theory and the practice. I'm in the private world, so I have all the practice that I can handle and I’m trying to give some of that back to students.”
Putnam has strong bonds with Utah State University (USU), serving as a USU Ambassador and Student Association Exec VP and even meeting his wife Monique at Day on the Quad – who he adds is “still way out of my league!” They have four children, one of whom is currently a sophomore at USU. Putnam earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy and later an MBA at USU where he met Monumetric co-founder Kevin Hill. He credits the professors at the business school for helping launch Monumetric, a successful Utah-based company in the ad tech industry.
“Monumetric was birthed actually in David Herrmann's New Venture Growth and Strategy class,” he said. “The major thrust of the course was to start a company in the semester and to see how successful you could be. And that was the impetus that we needed, the nudge and shove into just start trying to do it.”
Putnam remembers other influential professors like Michael Glauser, who worked in an office that was a converted closet before the Huntsman School’s Center for Entrepreneurship. But Putnam says that didn’t stop Glauser from supporting students in any way possible.
“He would work in the hallway so we could have a private office to do phone calls and call clients,” Putnam said. “That buy-in and belief that was instilled in us by the teachers and mentors is all you really needed – it’s a nudge out of the nest, and then you just figure it out.”
That is exactly what Putnam hopes to help students do: build confidence, develop practical skills and, ultimately, take the leap beyond the classroom. Putnam and Monumetric were among ASC’s first partners. Through the partnership, ASC students worked on real-world data projects for Monumentric, gaining valuable experience for their careers. The company has also hired Huntsman students, and Putnam is eager to continue strengthening relationships with the faculty and students at the Huntsman School.