Hi Crabwalk! Here's a little more about Laura + Carly

March 19, 2019 Carly Chase

Hi!

We want to get to know you better, but first, let us introduce ourselves.

We are Laura Castaing and Carly Chase. Our story starts when we met in 2014 when we were both General Managers at startups in New York City. We were those friends / work peers who saw each other once a quarter for drinks or coffee to compare notes, vent, and feel more normal about the challenges we were facing while growing our startups.

Fast forward a few months (and a couple of major work and life changes) later … and we found ourselves sitting across a table once again, both having left our respective jobs. Neither of us was sure what was next. All we knew was that the path we had each been on no longer 100% fit. We found ourselves on the joint pursuit of jobs that authentically fit us while minimizing the anxiety that accompanied career transitions.

8 months later, after many more dinners, coffees, and working sessions, we finally put on paper the simple framework that had helped us navigate our non-linear career paths our whole working lives. Now, we teach that framework to help others navigate their own careers and, in the long-run, develop career agility.

Just as a crab walks, we often take side steps to move forward in our own careers and love helping others learn to do the same.

Here’s a bit more background on our own crabwalk journeys and where that landed us…

A little bit about Carly

Carly in her happy place - Menemsha, Martha’s Vineyard! (with her husband, the lovely Peter)

Carly’s Crabwalk Journey

Born and raised in Longmeadow, Massachusetts (yes, which means I’m a Patriots + Red Sox fan)
Lived in New York City for the last 12 years, so I’ve also adopted the New York Rangers as my new hometown team (maybe because I married a native New Yorker who was at the ‘94 cup winning game)
Currently live in the West Village in Manhattan (ask me for restaurant recommendations!)
Am a Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management where I teach Entrepreneurship, and also run a summer accelerator program (delta v) in NYC for MIT student led startups. I crabwalked to MIT via work in corporate finance, government, and startups.

Some other things to know about Carly…

…that you’ll likely see reflected in our newsletters and blogs. I…

am a morning person and news junkie and typically start my day by reading or watching at least an hour of news
try to spend quality, in person time with friends and family - it feels so good when I do
am not a foodie but love the experience of dining out and try to cook too
became devoted to yoga because of lingering back problems but appreciate it even more as a spiritual practice (practice is one of my favorite words)
care a lot about getting from point A to point B as efficiently as possible
wish everyone was more civically engaged
love traveling about anywhere, but my happy place is Martha’s Vineyard
….and, sharing personal information in a public forum is still scary for me, so I’ve eaten about 12 Andes creme de menthe thins while writing this!

A little about Laura

Laura (second from left) with her 3 older sisters — she’s interested to know who you think she looks like more

Laura’s Crabwalk Journey

Raised in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan (“Detroit Hustles Harder” stickers make frequent appearances)
Fourth daughter of a French father and Austrian mother (I speak French but only know a few things in German, mostly about food)
Have a Mechanical Engineering Degree from Duke University (you likely love OR hate that school — I’m ok with that)
Learned all things business in a real estate development job in South Florida
Currently living in Manhattan after pitstops in Chicago and DC for work and business school
Spent 6 years leading operations for two tech startups from 20 people to 500+ people
Launched a Career + Business Coaching business in 2017, helping successful professionals and entrepreneurs navigate work transitions (more detail on that here)

Some other things to know about Laura…