°®¶¹´«Ã½

Ryon Batson ‘21 always has maintained a strong passion for business, ​​and during his time as an undergraduate at °®¶¹´«Ã½, he was conflicted about what path to choose in life.

During his sophomore year, Batson pursued electrical engineering at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science. Although he enjoyed it very much, he still craved a path that involved a business-inventive aspect.

This led to his discovery of industrial and systems engineering, where he could pursue his entrepreneurial and engineering interests in tandem. After graduation, Batson co-founded FairSplit, an artificial intelligence-powered insurance company designed to reduce tensions between workers and employers during employee transitions.

Q: What attracted you to Watson College?

A: When I came to °®¶¹´«Ã½, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do as a career. My dad was an electrician and had a private electrical company, and during the summers I would go out to work with him. I enjoyed doing electrical work, so I figured that I would follow in my father’s footsteps and pursue electrical engineering. In addition, as a first-generation college student, receiving an engineering degree seemed like a very notable thing to do.

Although I didn’t get into Watson College my first year, I persevered and got accepted my second year after applying through the intra-university transfer application. With the Engineering Design Division program at Watson, I was able to explore the various options in engineering.

Q: Why did you choose ISE?

A: I quickly realized that electrical engineering was very different from being an actual electrician. The time invested in studying compared to my academic results quickly made me realize how important it was that I followed my own passions. I always had a passion for entrepreneurship, and I became conflicted with pursuing electrical engineering and wanting to transfer to the School of Management.

When I transferred to Watson, not only did I have my mind set on engineering, I also invested my first year taking general education courses directed toward Watson College. Transferring to SOM certainly would have set me back. I didn’t want to drop engineering totally, so I went to speak with my counselors and advisors, and they mentioned a program called industrial and systems engineering. I wasn’t aware of what it was, but it sounded like business with engineering principles. I started taking some courses, and I could immediately sense that my passion was being fulfilled.

Q: Where did you intern as an undergrad?

A: I interned for three startup companies — Relo, Unified Scholars and Beam (formerly Edquity). I was privileged enough to learn the inner workings of launching a company. I was able to apply the knowledge that I was receiving at Watson directly to these companies, and that reassured me my decision to pursue ISE was the right call.

Primarily, it involved immersing myself in various roles within the companies, gaining practical experience in the process of designing and coding systems. This allowed me to witness the progression of projects from inception to completion firsthand.

Q: Did your experiences in your internship influence the development of your startup, FairSplit?

A: Absolutely. Funny enough, Relo is now FairSplit. I stayed involved with Relo past my internship, first as a volunteer, then as a part-time employee, and eventually becoming full-time as a co-founder and COO of FairSplit. At that time, we were focused on developing a system for people to relocate from one area to another and provide an insurance in the case they defaulted on their payments.

Since then, the pandemic and the advancement of technology prompted us to pivot from our original concept and confront a broader challenge. It became evident that our services were irrelevant without a stable income. Consequently, we decided to address the root cause: the transitions of employees into unemployment.

FairSplit, now an AI-powered insurance company, focues on streamlining various business activities such as mergers, acquisitions, headcount reductions and employee transitions through automated compliance measures. Additionally, we offer real-time insights into finances, employee benefits and industry trends to aid our clients in risk mitigation, thereby reducing costs. Our prepaid insurance system enables us to decrease the expenses related to offboarding benefits by over 15%.

Q: Did you ever think your ISE degree would lead you to this career path?

A: I didn’t quite know where my ISE degree was going to lead me. I originally thought it would have been either a heavily focused engineering path or a path related to business somehow. To my very own surprise, I landed a career that’s allowed me to apply both my technical background and the hint of business that industrial and systems engineering prepared me for.

Q: Can you share any specific lessons you learned from your journey?

A: You must learn how to measure the small wins. It is easy to become discouraged if you only visualize success from the broad scope. I like to say that every stroke of the paintbrush on a canvas matters to the overall concept or final image. It’s the same with developing a business. Every code written, every system built and every idea thought of contributed to the overall execution of the business model. Learning to value the small wins is necessary to be successful.

Secondly, successful entrepreneurship is more than just an amazing and unique idea. The idea is merely just the first step to entrepreneurship. There are other factors that go into being successful as an entrepreneur, like an exceptional founding team, and the ability to convince investors and partners that you are the one to execute this vision. Are you a second-time founder? Did you have a successful exit prior? These are also important. If the answer to these questions is no, you must be prepared to produce exceptional results and persevere much longer than your counterparts who’ve accomplished these things.

Q: Do you have any advice for °®¶¹´«Ã½ students?

A: Practice your introspection. If we take time to deliberately examine our thoughts, emotions and experiences to gain insight and self-awareness, we empower ourselves for greatness. This is a practice I have been doing subconsciously since 2017 when I decided to no longer pursue electrical engineering. That decision set me up for all my internships and led me to co-found FairSplit.

I encourage everyone to take note of the outcomes when you are following your instinct or gut feeling. Monitor the results of those decisions, and monitor what happens when you do not. The results should increase your confidence to follow that internal feeling. That is your guide to success.