The Innovate State Speaker Series brings both emerging and accomplished Spartans back to campus for a fireside chat-style interview. These 60-minute sessions offer the chance for guests to share their perspectives on a wide array of topics like innovation, startup life, investments, and career paths. Students get the opportunity to hear firsthand about the hard knocks of the entrepreneurship & innovation hustle to maintaining work/life balance. These are stories of success, stories of failures, and stories of uncommon will—and you do not want to miss them.

About our Speakers

Aaron Letzeiser, Co-Founder & COO, Obie

Aaron Letzeiser is the Co-Founder & COO of Obie, a venture-backed insurance and risk management technology platform serving the 17 million real estate investors in the United States. Obie’s digital quoting platform and instant rate options make it the easiest and most transparent way in the market today for investors to obtain coverage.

Prior to founding Obie, Aaron started and grew several successful companies that he’s seen to an exit, including The Medical Amnesty Initiate, a public policy-focused nonprofit that he started while a student at Michigan State. In addition to his work at Obie, he is an active real estate investor and a Venture Partner at the San Francisco-based venture capital group Pioneer Fund. Aaron graduated with a degree in Political Theory from Michigan State University and was recently named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Ryan Letzeiser, Co-Founder & CEO, Obie

Ryan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Obie, a venture-backed leading digital provider of landlord insurance for single family rental properties. Obie’s digital quoting platform and instant rate options make it the easiest and most transparent way in the market today for investors to obtain coverage.

Prior to co-founding Obie, Ryan spent many years in the real estate private equity space where he bought and sold over $1B in residential real estate assets. In addition to his work building a residential portfolio, Ryan has acquired assets across the office, retail, and industrial real estate sectors. Ryan graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Michigan State University and a masters degree in architecture and real estate development from Clemson University.

Location

Entrepreneurship Lab (651 N. Shaw Ln., M025 Business Pavilion, East Lansing, MI 48824)