I met the dynamic founder of STEMPaths, Jon Madamba, in the fall of 2013. At the time, he was working full time for Software AG, a global enterprise software company based out of Germany, and he had just started an after-school robotics program at the Filipino Community Center in Rainier Valley. He’s Filipino American and he told me it was his first time getting involved in his community. He had been so busy for years, working in corporate IT with his head down. He also had three very cute young sons, now ages 14, 12, and seven, who would sometimes go along with him on his trips to help during the classes. Over the past few years, I’ve caught up with Jon every six months or so and have been amazed by the progress he’s made considering his other commitments.

Last spring, I was invited to serve as a coach for the Jones Progress Awards by Sue Oliver, Executive Director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at Seattle University. After reading about the STEM Paths, I told Sue I’d only be willing to coach members of the STEM Paths team.

About STEM Paths

As programs for STEM grew, Jon established STEM Paths to improve the delivery of programs that would help community-based partners “increase student access to technology and build technology literacy, ultimately supporting under-served youth in engaging and pursuing opportunities in STEM+Arts-based fields.” They do this by bringing STEM programming to schools, parks, and other partner community-based organizations. Members of the staff load laptops, 3D printers, and robotic equipment into their cars, bring them to the schools, set up the equipment, teach the classes, and do the tear down. This way, the schools can provide supplemental STEM activities to their students without having to invest in their own equipment and training. They train and contract freelance teachers.

STEM Paths has served partners and schools in Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, and Bothell, and has taught hundreds of students. I was surprised by how much they had grown since I first met Jon. Part of their problem was they would take any opportunity given to them to grow without evaluating if it was smart growth or not. Since Jon’s team hauled around computers in their personal cars across the city, they first described their business as the Uber of STEM education. I said it’s more like a taco truck because they brought everything the school needed to “feed” their kids STEM programming.

The soul of STEM Paths is Jon. As an engineering and IT professional, he began to realized how few IT professionals looked like him, a person of color in a leadership role. He thought about his own three sons whom he mentors about the importance of having a strong STEM-based mindset and cross-industry skills such as robotics, programming, advanced manufacturing using laser cutters and 3D printers, unmanned drones, and many other emerging topics. In 2015, he took time off to see if he could really do this full time. Considering he has three kids to support, I was impressed.

Although STEM jobs are male-dominated, Jon’s team consists mostly of women. There is Katharine Barr, Deputy Director of non-profit member S.P.I.N.; Larcy Douglas, former business strategy manager at Lovely Domingo and current program manager at UW iSchool; Shana Beckwith, a 19-year veteran certified teacher who, as Director of Curriculum, is in charge of training teachers; and Jacqui Nolasco, who is studying to become a pilot and serves as office manager, does inventory logistics, and is generally a jack-of-all-trades.

Coaching through the Jones Progress Awards Program

There are many pitch competitions for entrepreneurs in Seattle. The great thing about Seattle University’s Jones Progress Awards is that it commits to awarding $10,000 to a team that follows through with making serious progress on their business and to being coached by three seasoned entrepreneurs/mentors. The team lead must be a Seattle University alum. (Jon graduated in 1997 from the Physics and Electrical Engineering programs.) SU provides a “solid infrastructure of mentoring, grant funds, and connections within the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

I got to coach alongside Ray Lepp, Steve Cordial, and Gregory Paley. When we started the coaching six months ago, they were all over the place. Jon had assembled this team of really inspirational people but you could tell he still needed to let go a little to get results. From June to November, we helped them build systems and put metrics in place to help grow revenue and manage the business.

Lessons Learned

A month before the presentation, the other coaches had worked with them on streamlining their operations and coming up with a better business plan and preparing their financial report. I worked with them on presenting their story, which was very dry. But because they each had so much passion, working with them to improve it was easy.

Although I was supposed to be coaching them, I learned a lot from STEM Paths. When I went to watch their final presentation, they pushed past their nerves to make small talk with their coaches beforehand. The presentation lasted 20 minutes and Larcy and Jon shared the team’s progress and what they learned in the process of working with the coaches.

Prior to SU Jones, in the spring of 2016, Jon onboarded to T-Mobile. He was recruited to help build teams to lead multi-million dollar projects to design and deliver innovative software platform architectures within the Enterprise IT Digital Development group at T-Mobile at HQ in Bellevue. He said they brought him aboard not only because of his success with his previous work building cloud- and agile- based organizations but also because he brings a unique perspective with an interesting background in educational and nonprofit startup initiatives. Considering how central he was to the project, the judges asked, what will happen if you leave? And his team chuckled. One team member said it’s been a huge achievement for Jon to not try to insert himself in everything.

The best thing now for STEMPaths, he said, is for him to leave it in the highly capable hands of the team that he has built. He said that he learned how to lead, which means stepping back. He understands his role was to build the vision and then to let go to guide the team members to grow their leadership and capacity.

And growing, they are.

The team ended up receiving $10,000 for their progress.