From Reunion to Startup: The Power of OC Connections

Josh Steiner (QG 2020)

Reunions are a valuable opportunity to reconnect with former classmates - but they can also spark powerful professional collaborations. At last year’s 2020 School reunion, this was exactly the case: Josh Steiner (QG 2020) pitched the idea for EmberPay to fellow classmate Charlie Baker (EG 2020) and just ten days later he joined him in San Francisco as co‑founder and CTO. 

Steiner, now CEO, had already committed fully to the venture, leaving his final year at UCLA after identifying the problem he wanted to solve and deciding to build EmberPay full time. 

His focus is a familiar frustration: splitting bills. The current process - one person pays, calculates what is owed, and requests repayment - takes around 30 seconds and is often avoided for smaller amounts due to the social friction involved.  

EmberPay removes this entirely by enabling real-time joint payments at the point of sale. Early testing shows the process reduced to just three seconds and lowers the threshold for splitting costs from about $24 to $4. More than 70,000 users have already signed up for early access. 

By integrating payments directly into shared interactions, EmberPay aims to replace reimbursement with instant, frictionless group transactions. 

We are delighted to see how our reunions continue to foster meaningful connections – in this case, leading to entrepreneurial success and transforming a simple conversation into a fast-growing startup.