With over a decade in tech sales, Andy Quach was looking for a career pivot–today, he’s shaping the future of tech as an inaugural AI Builder for Klaviyo. In this segment from a recent info session, hear from Andy Quach (MTM Class of ‘26) on how MTM ended up being the strategic and business-oriented move that he needed to make.
“Before MTM, I was in a career for about a decade in tech sales, working for different SaaS companies, startups, bigger startups and public companies,” says Quach. “And I felt like I was a little bit burnt out from the sales world. I did enjoy it to a point, but I wanted to have something more strategic, more business-oriented. So I wanted to pursue a career pivot and I thought that the MTM program equipped me with all the skills and the knowledge that I realized I had a gap in when I wanted to pursue that.
“When I tried to have internal transfers and whatnot, and I felt like there was more education that I needed, and I looked at a lot of programs. MTM felt like the right fit holistically–the curriculum was great, the faculty is outstanding, and UCSB is an outstanding school as well. The field project was a big sell for me as well.”
A cornerstone of the MTM program is the field project, during which MTM students work in teams and apply their technology management skills to solve business challenges. Quach worked with Procore, which is a global construction management platform with headquarters based right here in the Santa Barbara area.
“There are a lot of product updates that arrive at a high fidelity, and so that information needs to be translated for the sales team for them to communicate that to their customers in the field,” explains Quach on the nature of his Field Project. His team was tasked with identifying bottlenecks in the flow of communication and making concrete, data-backed recommendations for how to improve this crucial function. “We did a lot of investigation and a lot of research, by pairing academic sources with real-life interviews with all the stakeholders at Procore and comparable companies outside of Procore that are SaaS companies of that scale, and presented a solution that we believe that was very helpful for them.”
Alongside the Field Project, a major highlight for Quach during his time in UCSB’s MTM program was the New Venture Competition. Hosted by the Department of Technology Management, the annual New Venture Program serves as UCSB’s flagship entrepreneurial experience; undergraduate and graduate students from all academic backgrounds pursue entrepreneurial education alongside their core studies through experiential instruction and industry mentorship.
“It seemed like a pretty logical step to take, utilizing all the knowledge that we learned through our curriculum, and applying that to actually starting a business,” says Quach. “As a result of that, we do have a real business that is still active today with paying customers.”
That business is Colistable, a cross-listing automation software for watch resellers to enable them to sell smarter and more efficiently across multiple platforms with one listing rather than five. Quach and the Colistable team made it all the way to the New Venture Finals, securing cash prizes and honorable mentions.
Learn more about the NVP Colistable team.
A builder at heart, Quach currently works for Klaviyo in their inaugural class of AI Builders-in-residence. Klaviyo is a B2C CRM marketing platform that unifies customer data, marketing, and analytics all in one consolidated place to help businesses use AI-powered automation to deliver personalized emails, SMS, and other communication pathways at the right moment, which turns shoppers into loyal customers and drives business growth.
“My role is an AI Builder, a brand-new role they just rolled out in June, and I work on the ARIA team. So I work directly with teams across the company to identify high-impact problems, and we build practical AI-powered solutions,” explains Quach. “We also develop internal applications, AI tools, integrations, infrastructures, and workflow automations that help all fellow Klaviyo employees work much more effectively, so my role is very hands-on. I help discover problems, and a lot of what you learn in MTM is problem framing and building the solution."
“I love solving problems. I think that's something that I learned a lot about myself through MTM and that's why I wanted to pivot from sales to a role like this,” remarks Quach. “I love building, and that's something that MTM also really encourages–the spirit of building, trying new technologies, getting your hands dirty with AI tools and development tools. In this new AI age, it’s very democratized–anyone can produce quality software on the front end, but MTM also gives you the backbone to create more impactful software that's not just a really nice-looking front end that doesn't actually have any measurable business impact.”
With its cohort-based model, the MTM program offers a collaborative experience among students, which Quach notes is an important skill that translates to his work at Klaviyo today.
“In MTM, you’re working in lots and lots of teams. And I think that's an extremely valuable skill. It's different in this kind of setting, and I think MTM does a really good job of giving you that practice and the reps to be able to handle that when it matters the most in a professional setting, when the lights shine the brightest–managing different stakeholder relationships, being able to define requirements, being able to operate under that pressure of a team is incredibly important,” remarks Quach. “Professor Phillips said, ‘working with a bunch of different people of different backgrounds is imperative to be successful in the working world.’ And MTM does a great job preparing you for that.”
Reflective of a new age of AI and the AI-driven economy is Quach’s role as an AI Builder at Klaviyo.
“I didn't even know that role existed. These kinds of roles are starting to become a lot more industry standard with a lot of companies,” says Quach. “That's just the new age for technology companies. You don't want to have to source a whole dedicated engineering team to tackle some of these internal problems, when we can do that individually much faster, at a much higher fidelity.
“I didn't know that I wanted to do this role because I didn't know it existed, but MTM really opened my eyes to what is possible out there, and through MTM I also learned a lot about myself and what I wanted in a role to help me look for the right thing.
“A lot of the interpersonal skills that I learned MTM, including presentation skills, helped me through the interview process and helped me land the role."
Alongside the AI Builder position, Quach was also looking at GTM engineer, product management, and partnership roles–but Quach notes that choosing the AI Builder position was the right choice for today’s technological innovation and economy.
“AI fluency, having a builder mindset, and being able to tackle problems very quickly is a very, very valuable skillset that's not going anywhere,” says Quach. “As I interviewed for roles in different companies, that was a sticking point and that was a common theme for every single job. We need to be AI-fluent and AI-forward.
“Klaviyo is definitely not the exception. MTM’s AI Intensive course definitely equips students to be able to utilize those skills and propel themselves in the workplace to be AI fluent.”
In giving advice to future MTM students, Quach states the importance of the experiences and program highlights beyond the academic foundation that provide the most value for both those looking to start their career and those looking to make a career pivot.
“It's the connections that I got to make–the faculty is incredible–and the resources that made me feel very confident going to the job market, not only just from the interview side, but after landing the role as well,” says Quach. “Some case studies and projects I still reference when I want to solve certain problems that I've already solved in a really similar fashion.”
“I worked in the working world for 10 years, and there's so much that I learned in a nine-month program like MTM. You can see the alumni network that we have is very vast, and they're very successful as leaders at tech companies. This is a great catalyst to be able to be a leader in the tech world.”