Young Professional Achievement Award For McGuire Alum Arteen Arabshahi

Arteen Arabshahi accomplished extraordinary things both before and after his graduation from Eller College of Management in 2013. 

Prior to graduating, Arabshahi worked on a venture of his own through the McGuire New Venture Development Program, spearheaded the launch of ‘Built In LA’ ‐ an online community for digital entrepreneurs ‐ and helped to run operations at Excelerate Labs, now known as Techstars Chicago.

Upon graduating, he joined Karlin Ventures as the second member of the team. At Karlin, a venture capital firm specializing in early stage enterprise software and marketplaces, Mr. Arabshahi was pivotal to investing in and overseeing dozens of companies. While there, he launched Karlin Fellows, a peer‐to‐peer fellowship program filling the void of mentorship for LA’s rising tech leaders. Mr. Arabshahi’s contributions to Karlin and the entrepreneurial community in Los Angeles were so expansive that he was  named as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Venture Capital in 2016.

During his tenure at Karlin, Mr. Arabshahi became an active Board member of TEDxVenice Beach and is a supporter of TWLOHA, a nonprofit raising awareness and support for those struggling with mental health. Additionally, he was named a Wells Fargo Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis. Mr. Arabshahi has been a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, and editorial contributor at multiple events across the country, including CAMP and Tech Crunch.

These combined professional and passion project experiences led him to become a founding member of Fika Ventures, a $40 million seed fund dedicated to serving entrepreneurs who are building enduring solutions to solve deep systemic problems.

In addition to being a champion for the entrepreneurial community, Arabshahi has been a strong partner to and excellent representative for Eller College. He began his service to Eller as the 2013 Eller Convocation student speaker. He went on to be featured as a successful alumnus in the 2016 Eller Progress Report and was a guest speaker at the Eller College National Board of Advisors meeting that same year. He has been a dedicated McGuire Center alumnus and is passionate about doing good in the world.

For these reasons and more, the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship was pleased to honor Arteen Arabshahi with the 2017 Young Professional Achievement Award.