In our quarterly Shooting Star series, we profile a team member who has exemplified a core Orion value. For this quarter's spotlight, Orion recognizes Michaela Keefe, Senior Sourcing Associate, for her drive to go all-in on every challenge she faces.
Sports were all around me while I was growing up: my grandpa was an NFL player, my uncles played college volleyball and football, my mom was an Olympic volleyball player, and my dad played for 9 years in the NBA. My parents didn’t pressure me into sports, but I was naturally drawn towards them. I’m 6’1”, so volleyball and basketball were easy choices.
I went through an interesting transition when I got to college. When I was younger, I was used to being the star player, but at Stanford, I was part of the best collegiate women’s volleyball team in the history of the sport. We won three national championships and went to the Final Four all four years I was on the team. I had teammates who were 6’9”, 6’6, 6’5, and 6’4”. For a while, I was the shortest player on my team playing a front row position! Most challenging of all, I fractured my back during my freshman year season, so I couldn’t play.
When you’re used to excelling at something, realizing that your role needs to change can be difficult. In those first few years of college while I was healing from my injury, I often spent over 40 hours a week – practicing, traveling across the country to games, watching film, lifting weights, conditioning, and going to countless doctors’ appointments and physical therapy sessions – just to not step foot on the court. It was a huge adjustment.
But I think that that was probably the biggest lesson I learned: if you’re pushing yourself hard enough and surrounding yourself with extremely talented people, you get to a point – whether that’s in school, in sports, at work, or in any another endeavor – where you’re no longer the best, and you have to grapple with that part of your identity changing.
Off the court, I was able to find my identity in new places. I already had the worst happen to me as an athlete when I got hurt – I just couldn’t play. In a way, that took the pressure off and made me see that it wasn’t the end of the world if volleyball wasn’t my primary focus.
There was so much more I was curious about. I explored different majors and took random classes that were far outside my comfort zone, like anthropology and statistics. I even ended up getting a master’s degree during my four years in college.
In volleyball – whether it’s trying to win a national championship or competing to become a starter on your team – sometimes you succeed, and sometimes you fail. Regardless of the outcome, you still give your full effort in every practice and game, as if you’re going to accomplish your goal every time. I’ve learned to give my all even when I know I could lose.
When I finished my master’s degree, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do for work. I started by applying to consulting jobs. I thought it would be a great way to learn about a bunch of different industries while improving my critical thinking, communication, and research skills in a collaborative environment.
I started my career at an expert network firm. I spent my time learning about new fields, getting in touch with high-profile professionals, and connecting them with my clients, most of whom were private equity firms and corporations wanting to understand a niche industry. I loved it. The workplace was super team-oriented, and I felt lucky to be so young in my career and having phone calls with CEOs of major corporations who had decades of experience in their respective fields.
The grit I built as a student athlete translated well in my work. When you play a sport, especially at the collegiate level, you get used to taking a lot of criticism. Despite spending hundreds of hours working on a certain skill, you’re continuously told you need to improve or that someone else is just flat-out better than you. It’s easy for that to hurt people’s feelings, but I think that experience taught me not to take things so personally and to be receptive of constructive feedback. So, even when I had to work hard to get in touch with someone who simply wasn’t interested in talking to me, I could shake off that rejection easily.
I wasn’t looking for another opportunity when a recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn and told me about Orion, but once I got an understanding of what a role on the Sourcing team would look like and how quickly the company was growing, I got pretty excited about the position. By the end of the interview process, I decided to take a risk. This was a pivot to a new industry, from a job that I liked and wasn’t necessarily looking to leave. I was taking a chance, but I bet on myself, and it paid off.
One of the few issues I had with my prior company was the very strict career trajectory. No matter how good you were at your job, you had to wait a set number of years until you were eligible for a promotion. Orion, on the other hand, didn’t have such a rigid structure around career pathing, which opened up more opportunities for my growth.
I think back to my first day here and remember sitting in on my first investing committee meeting, thinking, I don’t understand half these words. Am I in the wrong place? That was a surprise at first, but now I enjoy looking back on everything I’ve learned. It’s also a testament to the people here and their willingness to explain new ideas to someone who doesn’t have a finance or banking background.
Particularly for the Sourcing team, attributes are so much more important than experience. A lot of what we do is based on grit: success depends on following up with people or getting on a plane to see them in person. This role doesn’t require any specific background in finance. It requires that you’re the type of person who wants to learn and is willing to put in the work.
If you’re okay with getting told “no,” and you’re able to bounce back, you can thrive on this team regardless of what you studied. As long as you can be a sponge and ask a ton of questions, everyone here will answer them, no matter how basic you think they are. People at Orion genuinely want to help you and see you succeed.
I also think the best things in life, the things I’m most proud of, are hard. You gain more appreciation for the things that don’t come easily. So don’t be afraid to put yourself in a room where you feel like you don’t know anything. That’s just an opportunity to learn more than you ever thought you could.
Partnerships
Astra Service Partners
March 17, 2025
