Interview with Sequoia Blodgett from ABC Family’s TV Show - Startup U October Feature Newsletter 2015 | Page 2

Sequoia B Paves the Way for Other Entrepreneurs at Draper University alongside Billionaire, Tim Draper
Entrepreneur-in-Residence | Personal Development Owner of 7AM

On October 5, 2015, I was on an exclusive Press Conference with other media and bloggers to interview
Sequoia Blodgett whose face you have seen on the ABC Family’s Reality TV Show, “Startup U.” I was
very interested in interviewing Sequoia B because her career choice to provide personal development
through her company, “7AM” funded by Tim Draper himself and another venture capitalist was right up
my alley. In 2008, I was intrigued by the world of Life & Business Coaching, and immediately received
training and became a Master Certified Coach in various areas and a Licensed Distributor of Personal
Development Tools. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Sequoia B. She was super
excited to speak with all of us so early in the morning. Usually Sequoia B has extremely long nights,
however, on her media day, she was up and ready to go. She opened by giving us her background on
who she is and where she started.
“I worked with a commercial and music video director for 9 years and directed some really interesting
and cool pop videos for artists, such as Jacob Latimore and Justin Bieber. In May of last year, I got really,
really sick and I was hospitalized. I was trying to figure out what was wrong specifically, but nobody
knew. I had MRI’s done, a neurologist came and did brain scans, but they couldn’t figure it out. So I
started to reflect and think to myself, ‘if this was the end’ because I was that sick. Would I be excited
about the legacy that I’ve left? Would I be excited about creating really great visuals? Not necessarily
having the impact to the extent that I wanted, I was super, super excited about life coaching, personal
development, and self-help. I was really passionate about that stage, but haven’t really explored it too
much. So as I healed and got better I ended up moving in a different direction completely and started a
business at the time called, “Love Uncut” which later was changed to 7AM. This business is an online
marketplace all about personal development and relationship advice. In that process I found out about
Draper University.
Sequoia B heard about the program at Draper University and was interested in trying it out. She came
to Draper with really high hopes and expectations because of who Tim Draper was in society. She
packed up everything and left LA with blood sweated tears to reside in Silicon Valley. When Sequoia B is
passionate about something, she goes after it. Her drive led her to attend Draper University while
building up her company.
At Draper, she went through phenomenal exercises and activities that molded her skills set, then
Sequoia B started helping other students in the program. This facilitation process is part of the ecosystem at Draper University. She was later offered to be an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. She trusted her
intuition and due to what Draper has already done for her, she decided to take up the offer in January of
2015. Out of this, a reality show was birthed to reveal who they are and what they do as entrepreneurs.
The season finale is just around the corner. Be sure to tune into the ABC Family Network on October 15,
2015 at 5:00pm EST to watch the Startup U Season Finale.