Trowbridge’s Career Tracking Upward with Master’s Degree
You could say Justin Trowbridge’s life is on the fast track.
That’s because since the 42-year-old earned his Master of Science in Marketing degree in 2016, he’s been a little busy holding down multiple jobs, plus helping launch several spin-off companies. Fortunately, he’s also loved every minute of his post-graduation life.
Bellevue University caught up with Justin recently to learn a little bit more about the varied ventures he’s juggling and what’s next for him.
Tell me about your current roles with Contemporary Analysis and Omaha Data Science Academy? What do you enjoy most about your job with those companies?
I'm currently the Business Development Officer for both of those. Contemporary Analysis is a data science consulting firm that owns and operates our own data science academy. Then, in the last couple months, I've become the business development officer for the two different spin-offs that we have. In less than six months, I'm working with four different subsidiary companies and two or three more on the horizon so, it's been an interesting growth pattern.
The thing I love about it the most is I've kind of been able to build from the ground up, and nothing's off limits.
What are some of your latest ventures?
One of them is an inventory batch tracker. We built it for Conagra Foods, but we retained the technology, so we can then sell it to other companies that have the same challenges. We spun that into hemp tracking. The same solution, but rebranded for hemp. There is no hemp-based tracking solution that works with law enforcement, so we're pioneers in that.
We've got three or four more solutions in the works. The same problem we solved for one company applies to different organizations.
What were some of the unique challenges associated with the hemp tracker?
Hemp just became federally legal. Now, it's becoming legal at the state level. We stood up a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) compliant solution for Conagra and the same solution applied to hemp. Law enforcement agencies were struggling with how to regulate hemp and how to enforce those regulations. We said, “What if we give you a portal to the back side of this and you can scan a bar code or a QR code and see the history of that cargo from the moment that the seed started to the time it came onto their radar?"
They the law enforcement agencies were blown away. Contemporary Analysis has been working with Montana, Colorado, and Nebraska a little bit. We're looking at how we can help them implement it to help everyone benefit.
How did you first learn about Bellevue University and what led you to choose the school to pursue your master's degree?
I wanted to move away from sales and I always had passion for marketing, so I decided to go back to school. I looked at the bigger schools, the traditional schools. It was just kind of, "this doesn't fit anything I want to do.” I talked to people that I knew and trusted, business advisors, business leaders in the community and they said, "Go to Bellevue." I started looking online and saw tons of people come here, a lot of people that I know. They're respected professionals that come here and got degrees.
What did you enjoy most about your Bellevue University experience?
I just enjoyed the approach. It was straightforward. I felt that I was challenged. I learned a lot and the peers that I had in my classes were great. We all kind of pinged off each other and we all learned. We did a lot of online discussions which was interesting because we started kind of realizing, "Hey, we all need to be able to talk about the other person's stuff." It changes the way you think about things.
What kind of advice would you offer someone considering continuing their education?
If you're a working professional, Bellevue University is where you need to go. I know people who are on their third or fourth degree from Bellevue because it's just a perfect fit. They have a passion for what they do, so they keep going back for more.