You’re So Fly: Mariah Olson

1. Tell us a little about yourself and what you do. What does a typical day look like for you?

Hey there! I’m Mariah. I’m a Charlotte native, UNCC alum, and tech founder. My first company was an edtech nonprofit, Schoolhouse, which connects high school students around the world over Zoom for free peer-to-peer tutoring. At Schoolhouse, I helped develop the systems we needed to scale our community up to over 18k volunteer tutors and 170k learners—systems for screening, moderation, tutor training, volunteer management, etc. I discovered that I really love to design and build infrastructure to help people connect.

Since transitioning out of my day-to-day role at Schoolhouse last fall, I’ve been working on a nonprofit for mental health education, and more recently, an app to help people meet through shared activities. I usually start my day with a good breakfast (by far my favorite meal of the day!) and then head to Flywheel to work on whatever tasks need to happen—these days, that’s mostly been fundraising for the nonprofit and doing design + market research for the app.

2. What are you most passionate about in your work right now, and why?

Right now, I’m really curious about how tech might help strengthen communities by facilitating more shared activities. Repeated shared activities (whether work, school or religion) seem like the most natural way to develop connections, but with many people moving away from their hometowns, working from home, and opting out of organized religion, a lot of those opportunities have disappeared.

To this end, I’m working on an app to make it really easy to invite people around you to join for activities you are already wanting/planning to do. If you have thoughts or ideas about this, I would love to chat!

3. What’s something you’ve discovered about coworking at Flywheel that you didn’t expect before joining?

I discovered that working in a bank vault is excellent for focus!

4. How has being part of the Flywheel community impacted your work or your routine?

Since I’ve been working from home for the last six years, working here at Flywheel has reminded me how pleasant and energizing it is just to be around good people, even if you’re not working together.

5. When you’re not working, how do you like to spend your time?

I have four nieces and a nephew in the area, and hanging out with them may be my favorite thing. Outside of that, I really enjoy being outside running/hiking. Hoping to do my first backpacking trip next month!

6. What’s the one tool/item that you can’t cowork without?

The app Reflect—it’s a notes app that allows you to transcribe and organize your thoughts really easily. By default, whatever you write goes into your note for the day, but you can also add tags and references to make them more searchable. I love not having to think about where my thoughts should go before I put them somewhere.