Shelton High senior works with entrepreneur

Shelton High School senior Jake Oddo worked with a new company, Knocking, for his Capstone project.Under the guidance of Brian Meehan, Knocking’s co-founder and chief operating officer, Oddo accompanied Meehan in meetings to learn work ethics and the roles in being an entrepreneur.Since 2017, Knocking works with major media companies and brands to turn their audiences into e-commerce buyers, meaning the company will help generate more online purchases. Knocking works with a variety of companies, such as Lifetime, Alex and Ani and Yahoo!, according to Knocking’s website.Oddo said he wanted to work with Meehan to explore a world in which he had little experience.“I picked my Capstone project because I wanted to try out different job opportunities than what I was interested in at the time,” Oddo said. “So when I was able to get this opportunity to try out something that I ended up finding interesting and thought I would get a good experience out of, I knew I had to do it.”A highlight of his time working with Meehan, according to Oddo, was being able to pitch in his ideas during meetings to Meehan’s colleagues.“I was able to learn how to communicate with others in a group and be able to accept others’ ideas and also being able to share my ideas in different ways,” Oddo said. “Also, I was able to work with lots of different types of people which in my opinion was very cool to do.”The hardest part of his Capstone experience was learning how to communicate in a business setting, said Oddo, adding that the fast-paced business world was different than anything he had previously encountered.“Some challenges I faced were being able to break down and understand what was being talked about in the meetings because of the way they talked and how they talked,” Oddo said. “It was very different from me just talking to my teacher on an everyday basis.”After graduating from Shelton High School, Oddo hopes to study sports science and medicine.“I hope I can maybe continue my experience and study [entrepreneurship] in college if I were offered the opportunity,” Oddo said.

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