Tony Pino ’10, MBA ’16
Economics Concentrator
Leverett House
One of the biggest compliments you can give Tony Pino is to say that he is in the business of noticing things. The entrepreneur believes his ability to be perceptive, intuitive, and comfortable with ambiguity has been pivotal to his career success. And they are qualities that he ties deeply to his Harvard undergraduate education. As the cofounder of the software startup Purview, Pino says he regularly draws on his liberal arts background to solve problems and collaborate with clients. Deeply grateful for the financial aid he received, he shares why his College experiences are always sources of guidance and what he does for Harvard in return.
What did you dream of doing before you came to Harvard?
I’ve always been interested in entrepreneurship. I was the kid in elementary school buying bulk pens and selling them one-off. I also had a small web development business and an online sports registration business in high school. None of these things made that much money, but I think it was an early lesson in how to sniff out an opportunity that’s interesting and not be too deterred by obstacles.
Did you know you wanted to go to Harvard?
I went to public school in Medford, Massachusetts, and was always very academically focused. I was aware of Harvard, but, despite the fact that it was in my backyard, I wasn’t sure it was an option for me. I had applied to Babson early action. I didn’t really fully understand what a liberal arts education meant, which is ironic given how much I value it now.
After talking with mentors and visiting campus, you decided to apply. Did receiving financial aid factor into your decision to attend?
I think at the time I didn’t fully appreciate what it did for me, but in retrospect, I’ve realized that I never had to sacrifice my curiosity or give up pursuing what was interesting to me. If I had a large financial burden, my thought process and decision making would have been more constrained. Psychologically, I would have been less willing to trust my intuition and explore.
I’ve realized that I was so fortunate to go to the College and participate fully in everything it had to offer. I never had to make tradeoffs because of a debt burden that would haunt me afterwards.
What was your Harvard undergraduate experience like?
At Harvard, you don’t learn accounting or marketing specifically, but you learn how to cultivate virtue. You learn about the world, how to think, how to make sense of your existence as a human being. It’s a singular moment in your development as a person, and to experience it with a group of wonderful folks is really profound and something I’m very grateful for.
Did you create any businesses while you were at the College?
Freshman year, I imported dress shirts from Italy, but starting a business for its own sake is rarely a path to anything that works. Typically, the best entrepreneurs are hit in the face with a problem that they are experiencing themselves. They can’t help trying to solve it. When I was in College, I was always asking: Do I need to create this problem? Am I looking hard enough for it? My sense was that it would be wise to go out and be part of other organizations, so I could learn osmotically.
How do you think your education shapes you as an entrepreneur?
I spent three years at a venture capital firm, went to Harvard for my MBA, and then spent four years at one of the firm’s investments, MiniLuxe [a socially responsible chain of beauty salons]. I joined them in an operating role and worked on every functional area of the business: real estate, construction, technology, marketing, and product development. I don’t think I could have done any of that without broad training on how to think about and perceive the world.
I left last year to start a software business company called Purview with my Leverett House roommate, Brett Thomas ’10.
What kind of problem is Purview designed to solve?
When I was at MiniLuxe, it was challenging to manage all of these units spread across the country. Problems would happen, and we didn’t know about them. Most software solutions were very time consuming to use and were passive in the sense that they only worked as well as users were willing to remember to use them. We built our software as a platform to automate check-ins. So, in the same way a manager does, the software checks in every morning. It asks frontline staff a bunch of questions: Is that working or is this working? Then, based on that information, we respond. We can give a summary to a regional manager. We can notify tech support, etc.
You’ve shared that you draw on your liberal arts background in running your business. How?
The way we got where we are is by being perceptive to what’s happening operationally and to how people work behaviorally. It’s as much psychological as it is mathematical. When you do anything new, ambiguity is the norm. You have to learn to trust your intuition and know how to scrutinize it. It’s very hard to do unless you have a background in liberal arts.
And when we talk to customers, one of the things that differentiates us is that we’re not technology guys building software, we’re liberal arts guys building software. For our customers, we are less technology vendors and more thought partners. If there was ever a time in my life to appreciate a liberal arts education, starting this company is one of them.
You live in Cambridge and serve as a nonresident tutor and sophomore advisor in Leverett House. What kind of career advice do you give Harvard students?
I really like what Jeff Bezos says: be stubborn on the vision and flexible on details. I think that’s great career advice. Also, a lot of people underestimate how much time it takes to develop a vision of what you want to be and then make it a reality. There is just so much out there for you to understand. I think a lot of people assume that having a career is like picking a class. Career paths and your future are not preassembled, which is empowering, but can also feel rather daunting.
What are your connections to Harvard like today?
Most of my closest friends today are friends from the College. It’s a very tightknit group of folks. And many of our investors in this business are friends from college. I met my partner, Camille Vasquez ’10, in Leverett House, and we’ve been together for nine years.
I’m an alumni interviewer for admissions and I’m also a donor. Receiving financial aid is one of the reasons I’m so involved now. When an institution is that generous to you, it really touches you. It instills a sense of duty to do well by Harvard and to pay it forward.