PAST 38 BY 38 RECIPIENTS
Brendan Michaelsen
"My Purdue Engineering journey shaped my career right from the very beginning. In honors FYE I met an incredibly smart group of fellow engineering students that would turn out to be lifelong friends, study partners, and the founding team of my first startup. From Purdue FYE and beyond, I gained a rich toolset for solving problems, regardless of industry, and a tangible sense for the scope of problems to be solved in the real world. It was succinct and inspiring, and instilled in me a strong sense that Purdue graduates can forge their own career path."
Brendan Michaelsen | Mechanical Engineering
Co-Creator and CTO, Our Wave
In his dorm room on the fifth floor of Shreve Hall, freshman Brendan Michaelsen and a team of fellow entrepreneurs
co-founded their first startup, PearCircuit. For more than seven years, the company consulted and developed software for
startup clients and large organizations across healthcare, human insights, productivity, entertainment, and education
markets. The team also developed and spun off a product company, Liven, to a large investment group in Indianapolis, and
PearCircuit was later acquired by an Indianapolis-based AI company.
In late 2018, a longtime friend and colleague approached him about building a scalable way to empower survivors of
sexual abuse. At that point, survivors had only two choices for post-trauma support — in-person resources and
online spaces — and when engaging online, they opened themselves up to legal issues, vitriol, or further abuse. It
was a project near and dear to their hearts since both had loved ones impacted by abusive events.
In 2019, using empathetic user experience design and ethical, behavioral AI, Our Wave was launched for survivors to
share stories, receive customized support, and join a community of understanding. Michaelsen architected and built the
software for all of the online platforms and managed growth from just a few users in 2018 to 90,000+ in 2024. What began
as a team of three people expanded to 20. They have provided support to users in 45 states and 59 countries, furnished
direct resources 133,000+ times, and welcomed hundreds of heartfelt testimonials, messages of hope, and feedback to
validate their work.