05/09/2026
“The only difference between someone with an idea and someone who changes things is courageous execution.”
Long before Gaia Technologies, SoulFlow, or Trojan Tank, there was a little girl in a Salamanca schoolyard selling Hello Kitty stickers to her classmates despite the warnings from the school dean. At 12 years old, Sara convinced her family to give her a loan for a camera so she could start her own photography business. What started as curiosity quickly became a mindset: don’t wait for opportunities, create them yourself. Be proactively opportunistic!
Born of Iranian, Spanish, and Peruvian heritage, Sara’s life has been shaped across cultures: China, Spain, the Netherlands, and now Los Angeles. Different cultures taught her different ways of seeing the world and the precious art of adaptability, but one belief remained constant: never settle, dare to swim against the current.
That mentality eventually led her to USC’s MSEI program. Today, alongside co-founder and fellow MSEI student Farima Seifi, Sara is building Gaia Technologies, a venture using synthetic mammograms to help solve the shortage of diverse, high-quality medical imaging data for breast cancer research. At the same time, she’s building SoulFlow, a platform born from customer discovery research that reimagines creative connection and community in Los Angeles.
And because one venture was never enough, Sara also created Trojan Tank: a fully student-produced pitch show connecting USC founders with real investors, Shark Tank casting directors, and entertainment professionals.
“It was the perfect intersection of my two passions: entrepreneurship and television,” she says.
Her advice to anyone afraid to start?
“Life is a lemon. Squeeze it to the last drop.”
