News Detail
Jason Krigsfeld '06
When Jason Krigsfeld (’06) graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in East Asian Studies and a specialization in Japanese Cinema and Society, he had no idea what to do next.
“I was looking at the job market in 2010 and I was just so scared to apply,” he said. “I felt, well, what can I do with a liberal arts education?” Jason envisioned going into academia, but a fellow Wesleyan alumnus had a business idea, one Jason describes as “solving real problems for real people using technology.”
Jason has no technical expertise. He doesn’t have a business degree. But he says he developed a valuable skill set through his education at Sage Hill and Wesleyan that contributed to his success as co-founder and chief experience officer of Lua Technologies in New York City. Lua’s core technology is a mobile real-time communication system designed to comply with privacy standards for the healthcare industry. Traditional text messaging does not safeguard patients’ medical information in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), but Lua does.
“Lua is a HIPAA compliant messaging platform used by hospitals, clinics and agencies, all around the world,” Jason said. “Our primary focus is accountability and productivity in the healthcare space.” Lua has grown rapidly in the healthcare niche, while also serving customers in financial services, hospitality, event management, and other industries. Jason particularly enjoys working with clients who organize music festivals. As diverse as his clients may sound, all share a need for reliable, secure real-time communication, and good customer service. That’s where Jason comes in.
“I’ve been a proponent of a burgeoning field called customer success,” Jason said. “Essentially, when software stopped being things we buy out of a box and instead became a service we pay for on a monthly basis, keeping customers became as important as finding new customers. You do that best by making sure they get a lot of value out of your product.”
The non-technical skills Jason gained through his education contribute to his customer service acumen. “Both Sage Hill and Wesleyan were so impactful on my entire worldview,” he said. “Key things that I can say contributed to my success were being analytical, having a very open mind to new ideas, to listen and not necessarily talk all the time, and also networking.”
“Stay in touch with a whole lot of people,” he advises other alumni. “So much of the help I’ve gotten in my life has come through people I met in college or high school. When I think about all my friends who have been most successful, it's not the ones who have 4.0s honestly. It's the ones who really built a network and forged their own ideas. A social education—learning how to have a good head on your shoulders, and how to communicate your ideas well—is just as important as books or anything like that. And I do believe that Sage Hill encouraged this.”
Jason hadn’t heard about the “Six Cs” —character, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and cross-cultural competency—the set of skills that are quite intentionally integrated into the Sage Hill experience. Yet he essentially named them as instrumental in his success. The Six Cs, plus hard work.
“There are a lot of ups and downs to owning a business,” said Jason, who still might like to work in academia someday. “The large afro that won me ‘Best Hair’ at Sage Hill now has a lot of gray in it, but ultimately, it’s very gratifying.”
Jason shares what he describes as a small New York City apartment with his wife, Yukie; Great Dane, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; and cat, Magic Johnson.
Sage Hill School
A college preparatory independent day school for grades 7-12.
20402 Newport Coast Drive, Newport Coast, CA 92657
Phone: 949.219.0100 | Fax: 949.219.1399
20402 Newport Coast Drive, Newport Coast, CA 92657
Phone: 949.219.0100 | Fax: 949.219.1399
Sage Hill School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship programs, and athletic and other School administered programs.