Interview with Danny:
Building Focus, Discipline, and a Startup Vision
Introduction
Meet Danny, a third-year economics and politics university student, Co-Chair and Treasurer of QMBFS, with spring internship at Deloitte Consulting, an investment management internship at Aperture Investors and internship experience at Dow Jones in B2B Sales (EMEA). Also, Co-Founder of Afterloop, a startup aimed at helping early-stage teams communicate more effectively with AI woven directly into conversations.
In this interview, Danny shares how he turned academic challenges into motivation, his proudest personal achievements, and his vision for building a company that empowers entrepreneurs to stay focused.
Overcoming challenges:
Q: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve overcome so far?
A: The biggest challenge was probably during my foundation year at university. Everything was new, the environment and the education system, which was different from what I was used to in the U.S.
My first exam result was 43%, which was a real shock. I needed to average 70% to progress to Year 1, so I had to completely change my approach and work a lot harder. By the end of the year, I managed to score over 90% something in my final exam and achieve the required average. That was a huge relief and one of the most challenging things I’ve done.
Personal achievements:
Q: And what about your proudest achievement so far?
A: Okay, I'm going to go with something non-career related, for this one, something I've been working on lately is calisthenics. I’ve been working on it for a while and recently managed to do a front lever. If you don’t know what that is, just look it up, I've always wanted to do one of those.
Entrepreneurship and Afterloop:
Q: Moving on to your startup, what motivated you to start Afterloop?
A: The idea came from me and my co-founder. We noticed that early-stage startup teams often struggle with internal communication and admin tasks, which take attention away from product development and customers.
We wanted to build something that simplifies that reducing background noise and helping teams stay focused. I’ve always been interested in entrepreneurship, so when the opportunity came up, I thought, why not? It felt like the right time to start something new.
Q: What’s your vision for Afterloop?
A: Our vision is to become the number one communication app for early-stage founder teams. That’s the big goal we’re working toward.
Lessons from Dow Jones:
Q: You also interned at Dow Jones. What was the most important lesson you learned there?
A: I learned that doing the small things well makes a huge difference. It sounds simple, but not everyone pays attention to details, and people notice when you do. Also, showing initiative, seeking out new projects and meeting people helps you stand out. Those two things combined can take you far.
Time management & daily routine:
Q: How do you manage your time with all your commitments?
A: I rely a lot on organisation and planning tools. I use Notion for centralised management and Tick Tick for daily task tracking. Every task I need to do gets categorised: university, startup, applications, etc. Each evening, I plan the next day with four or five priorities, and I also reflect weekly on what went well and what didn’t.
I use time-blocking too before bed, I schedule the next day in two-hour blocks, so I always know what I’ll be doing when.
Q: What does a typical day look like for you?
A: I usually wake up around 7:00 a.m., have breakfast and coffee, then cycle to university or wherever I need to be.
From 8:30 to 12:30, I do my most focused work deep work. After lunch, I work from about 1:00 to 5:30 on admin or lighter tasks.
In the evening, I go to the gym for about an hour and a half, have dinner, and then do another couple of hours of work or prep for the next day. Before bed, I like to read for about half an hour. I’m usually asleep by 11:45 p.m.
Q: What book are you currently reading?
A: It’s in the productivity and self-improvement genre. I think it’s “never split the difference”.
Q: Which app do you mainly use for productivity?
A: I used to manage everything in Notion, but lately, I’ve switched to Tick Tick for daily tasks. It’s simpler and works better for me.
Goals:
Q: What’s your dream job?
A: My dream job is one where I wake up every morning genuinely excited to go to work and do what I love.
Q: And finally, what are you looking forward to this year?
A: I’m really looking forward to building Afterloop seeing where it goes, what challenges we face, and what we can achieve. It’s a new experience for me, and I’m excited about the journey.
