Imperial alumnus Arsham Ghahramani (MEng Bioengineering 2014) is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Ribbon, a social platform centred around verified achievements and ownership.

Ribbon specialises in awarding lasting, verifiable NFTs via email, allowing individuals and companies to celebrate employee milestones and professional achievements. The Canada-based startup also aims to provide quantitative insights for managers, leaders, and HR teams, empowering companies to recognise their top employees.

We caught up with Arsham to learn more about Ribbon and his time at Imperial. 

Can you tell us about your studies at Imperial?
Studying Bioengineering was a tonne of fun because of the breadth. We covered mechanical, electrical, and software engineering topics at the same time as learning some biology and medicine. There’s no other course that gives you that range.

Tell us a bit about the company you are working on…
We started Ribbon when we noticed how many fake profiles were popping up on LinkedIn. Ribbon is a way for organisations to issue awards, verifying achievements such as anniversaries, experience, and other achievements.

In the long term we’re trying to build a professional social network that’s resistant to AI-generated content. As AIs such as OpenAI GPT-4/ChatGPT become more powerful, it’s going to become more important to be able to prove that you’re a human online.

What have been the highlights and lowlights?
Highlight: hiring our early team and getting to choose super smart and passionate people to work with.

Lowlight: pitching investors for the first capital is a lengthy process and you receive a lot of 'nos' on the way.

Who did you find inspiring at Imperial and why?
One person who stood out: Professor Darryl Overby. He was my Master's thesis advisor. I got a glimpse into how he ran his lab and I’d credit him for inspiring me to pursue a PhD.

What is your fondest memory of your time here?
Drinking yards at the Union Bar!

What are your plans for the future?
We’re expanding our team and building out Ribbon as a platform.

What would your advice be for fellow entrepreneurs?
Keep going. Any time I’ve ever achieved something I’m proud of, I look back and think about all the times I could have given up.

What makes you proud to be an Imperial alumnus?
Owing to Imperial’s science and technology focus, there are so many examples of alumni making a real impact on the world by solving difficult problems. From engineers to medics and mathematicians. I’m just proud to be part of a group that chose the "hard" problems.

What one word or phrase would you use to describe Imperial alumni?
Connected - Imperial has always been very international and being in a big city like London makes students more aware of the importance of networking and connecting with others.

You can connect with Arsham on Twitter.