Anna Merzi is a senior at USC with a BA in Middle East Studies and Political Science. She is originally from Houston, Texas and is now living between LA and Newport Beach.
What have you been working on lately?
I’m the founder of Algo, a talent platform that connects highly skilled refugees to companies in the tech and creative industries. Our freelancers go through a strict vetting process to ensure project quality, and they specialize in a range of skill sets from IT/web/mobile dev to graphic design, content creation and SEO. With industry expertise and full-time employment needs, Algo’s freelancers are changing the dynamics of the freelancing industry, providing our clients with an experience that feels much more like having a personal remote team.
What inspired you to start your current / previous venture(s)?
I have always had an innate interest in the Middle East and a draw towards people who are victims of circumstance. I tutored refugees via Skype for a year, except “tutoring” is way too generous of a word — they were all working-age, multilingual and highly skilled. The issue was that none of them could legally access employment across eight countries, and those that could weren’t able to access funds from their bank accounts. Sitting across Skype, we all conceptualized Algo together, creating it to be the most universally legal employment option and accessible banking solution for refugees no matter where they are in the world.
What is your vision for the future of your company?
We want to go deep-vertical in the refugee reintegration process. Our team at Algo seriously believes in the untapped potential of refugees and the value they can contribute to the world around them. Right now, refugee reintegration is fragmented and does not engage with refugees in a way that allows them to add value to society or interact with the world around them as normal people. In the long-term, Algo is geared to become the borderless, tech-enabled solution for refugees, starting with employment and payment and eventually expanding into healthcare, housing and education.
What do you love about entrepreneurship?
Adding value to anything is really, really cool, but creating value out of thin air is seriously just the coolest. In doing so, you get to be creative, quick-thinking, and fast-learning, and you have the opportunity to do what you’re best at while engaging with people who fill in your talent gaps and teach you new things.
One piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Don’t just build something to build it– try to be a founder out of necessity. Find something that drives you crazy or makes you angry, and build your company around solving that one thing.
Coworking spaces or working from home?
Coworking spaces for the synergy, home for the free coffee and sweats.
If you were a city, what city would you be?
I will get back to you on this when I’ve been to more cities.
If you could start a company with anyone from history, who would you pick?
My dad– he’s a super brilliant autodidact and built a company from scratch in his 20s. I’d love to go back and see what it was like for him before things were more established when he was still a scrappy entrepreneur trying to hack things together.
Anna will be at the first roundtable dinner for Spark SC’s Founder’s community on Thursday, March 8th at 6PM!
