Tech Forward

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! This week, I’m speaking with Mahi Inampudi, Vice President of Product and Technology at Envoy. Envoy creates and manages technology that aims to make the immigration process seamless and efficient for both immigrants and their employers. Having experienced the immigration process firsthand as an employee, employer, and a family member, Mahi’s decision to join Envoy was a very personal once. On today’s episode he’ll be sharing his story, as well as discussing some of the ways Envoy helps companies support international talent. With 18 years of experience in building software, Mahi’s career has spanned a period of rapid acceleration in the development of technology. In his role with IBM, he focused on building social collaboration software for large enterprise companies and later led the web, data, analytics and DevOps teams at Apartments.com. Mahi finds himself inspired by the swift evolution of technology over the last two decades, and that inspiration plays

Hello, listeners! Welcome back to Tech Forward. On this week’s episode, I’m speaking with Wes Kao, a marketing strategy and product launch expert who works as a consultant and advisor to multiple consumer brands and tech startups. She serves as a mentor to entrepreneurs through her roles with WeWork Labs and Backstage Capital. Previously, Wes was the founding Executive Director of Seth Godin's altMBA. Today on the show, we’ll be talking about the leadership lessons she’s learned during her career, and her advice to other managers on how to adequately encourage and support women in the workplace. After years of working in the corporate retail space, Wes found herself drawn to the rigorous thinking and problem solving aspect of the tech sector. She worked with Seth Godin to launch altMBA, an online leadership and management workshop which under her leadership grew from zero to 550 cities in 45 countries over a three year period of high-growth. She brings her wealth of experience to the table when mentoring entr

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! Today, for the final episode of our job seekers series, I spoke with Shondra McCray. A web developer and user experience strategist, Shondra recently moved from Texas to the San Francisco Bay Area to explore opportunities in tech. During our conversation, Shondra shares her journey navigating the job search process in Silicon Valley, as well as her advice for others looking to get their foot in the door in tech. After her UX role at Parker University and other jobs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, relocating to the Bay Area in June of this year was a massive shift for Shondra in more ways than one. In addition to the much higher housing costs, Silicon Valley’s professional culture was a stark departure from Texas. Some companies used language in their job descriptions that signaled their desire to hire a man for the role. Others made it clear that they would only consider candidates with an Ivy League education. For anyone looking to enter the tech sector, Shondra stress

Hello, listeners, and happy Thanksgiving to those of you in America! Welcome back to Tech Forward. This week, I'm rebroadcasting an early episode for newer listeners. Earlier this year, I spoke with Allie Burns, Managing Director at Village Capital. This global venture capital firm wants to build bridges for entrepreneurs looking to create an inclusive and sustainable world. Having worked with Revolution, the Case Foundation, AOL, Atlas Venture and more, Allie honed over the years a passion for working with young and emerging technologies. We discussed Village Capital’s unique model and goal to broaden access to capital worldwide, and to close the wealth gap for founders from underrepresented backgrounds. Village Capital is on a mission to reinvent the venture capital system in such a way as to truly back the entrepreneurs of the future. “The work we do is united by the principle of getting more capital to more people in more places, to solve the significant challenges in environmental stability and economic

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! For the second episode of our November job seeker series, I spoke with Michele Heyward, founder of PositiveHire. PositiveHire is a tech company engineered to bridge the gap between employers and women of color STEM professionals. Michele’s vision is to not only help experienced women of color find inclusive workplaces, but to help enterprises recruit them. PositiveHire does this via matching experienced women of color STEM professionals to relevant management positions within organizations. In this episode, we discussed Michele’s plans and aspirations for her business, as well as her advice for women and companies on how to begin to narrow the gender pay gap. PositiveHire grew, in part, from Michele’s previous experience in career coaching. Having heard similar stories of career struggles from many female engineers, she wanted to help as many women in STEM as possible — and as quickly as possible. “What I want PositiveHire to do is enable women from different

Hello listeners! Welcome back to Tech Forward. Throughout the month of November, we’ll be releasing 3 episodes as a part of our “job seekers” series, which covers tips, tactics, and resources for underrepresented talent to identify opportunities in tech. Today’s guest is Andrea Guendelman, founder and CEO of BeVisible. BeVisible is a social media career network that connects Latinos and Latinas across the country with companies searching for new talent. For recruiters, BeVisible makes it easy to access a talented pool of individuals whom they already know self-identify as Latinx — something no other platform can do. Together we discussed Andrea’s journey as a tech startup founder, and some of the many initiatives she’s led throughout her career to expand access to opportunities for the Latinx community in technology. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Andrea worked at a Washington, D.C. based non-profit that helped underrepresented talent connect to leadership positions. Upon moving to New Mexico, she

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners, and happy Halloween! This week, I'm reissuing a classic episode: my interview with Tina Lee, Founder and CEO of MotherCoders. Based in San Francisco, MotherCoders is a non-profit that’s expanding the tech talent pool by helping women with kids gain the skills, knowledge, and connections they need to thrive in today's digital economy. Tina’s career journey has taken her from management consulting and recruiting roles in the private sector, to philanthropy and nonprofit roles in the public sector. She’s passionate and prolific about the digital economy, especially the changing needs of women and families in a digital, globalized world. We discussed how MotherCoders came to be, and how Tina is helping moms of all types launch their tech careers. Currently, 86% of women will become moms, and with millennials becoming parents, there are more moms than ever with college degrees. As a person with caregiving responsibilities of her own, however, Tina discovered first hand that

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! My guest today is Alli Young, Founder and CEO of The Forem. The Forem is a professional training organization that develops the next generation of leaders while promoting gender equity. Through her work with The Forem, Alli focuses on helping women advance their careers and building healthy organizations as a key lever in driving innovation and revenue. Today, we’ll be talking about how she came to found the Forem, and the critical skills she believes all professionals — but especially women — need to successfully progress in their careers. Though she enjoyed her role as a Google leader, Alli found that it was difficult to pursue her passion for building and trying new things within such a large organization. She wanted to align her professional life with what she truly cared about: working with other women to develop and progress their careers. “Women have been failed by corporate America. How can I get more women into leadership roles where they have the power to aff

Hello, listeners! Welcome back to Tech Forward. On this week’s episode, I spoke with Betty Ng, tech entrepreneur, author, and founder and CEO of Inspiring Diversity, LLC (“iD”). In order to build more inclusive and collaborative communities, iD works with organizations to drive profitability and sustainability through increased employee inclusion, engagement, and performance. Betty has co-authored “PO-LING POWER™: Propelling Yourself and Others to Success” with her mother (Po-Ling Ng) and regularly speaks on PO-LING POWER™ and other empowering topics. Today, we’ll be talking about the inspiration behind iD, and how this framework helps companies break down barriers to diversity and inclusion. Though Betty was honored as a corporate trailblazer in 2015, she knew she was not pursuing her own vision for her authentic self. “I had a vision to be a successful social entrepreneur, not working in mergers and acquisitions.” Betty’s strength of vision came from her mother, a widowed immigrant woman with 4 young childr

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! This week, for the first time, I’m interviewing two guests: Gerri Kahnweiler and Cayla Weisberg, co-founders of Chicago-based InvestHER Ventures. InvestHER is an early stage investment firm that partners with and invests in female entrepreneurs. As a strong leader in philanthropy and civic engagement, Geri has a track record for empowering women and girls to reach their full potential. Her mission is to create funding opportunities for women who are focused on technology-enabled business services and data driven solutions for large markets. With her background in sales and a focus on people over products, Cayla offers hands-on thought leadership on startup scaling, pivoting, and operation excellence for InvestHER’s portfolio companies. We’ll be digging into the catalyst behind launching InvestHER, and how they’re working to level the playing field for female entrepreneurs across the country. Cayla and Gerri joined forces to launch InvestHER Ventures in 2016, a year wh

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! My guest this week is Rima Reddy, a Principal at XRC Labs, an early stage accelerator dedicated to investing in the next wave of disruptors in the consumer and retail goods industries. At XRC, Rima leads the startup sourcing and diligence process, and participates on the Selection Committee. Prior to XRC, Rima focused on e-commerce and omni-channel initiatives at Ralph Lauren, and served as an Equity Research Analyst at Goldman Sachs. She was recognized by Business Insider as "22 Female Angel Investors Every Startup Founder Should Know," and speaks extensively on the topics of early-stage investing and women in entrepreneurship. Today on the show, we’ll be talking about the support she provides to female founders, as well as her transition to becoming an investor herself. Since the retail industry can be notoriously slow, XRC’s main goal is to bridge the gap between larger, more traditional brands and promising tech startups in order to drive the entire ecosy

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! On this week’s episode, I spoke with Julie Pitt, director of Machine Learning Infrastructure at Netflix. Her team’s goal is to scale Data Science while increasing innovation. Prior to that role, she built the streaming infrastructure behind the "play" button while Netflix was transitioning from domestic DVD-by-mail service to international streaming service. Julie also co-founded Order of Magnitude Labs, with a mission to build AI capable of doing things like exploration, communication, and accomplishing long-range goals — in other words, tasks that humans find easy, but today’s machines find hard. Today, we’ll talk about Netflix’s unique culture and how Julie supports the other female engineers on her team. Julie’s work with machine learning at Netflix ties back to solving two problems: offering members the best choices, and ensuring they have as much control as possible over their personal experience. This requires answering a lot of questions, from where to find con

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! My guest this week is Angela Belt, Senior 3D Visual Stylist at Wayfair. Having graduated from Howard University with a degree in Fine Arts, Angela has over ten years of interior design experience including extensive experience styling for print, online publications, and video.  With a keen eye for what is on trend and a passion for interior design, she has styled shoots for ElleDecor, HGTV, AphroChic, and Maison et Objet in Paris. We discussed her transition into the world of tech through her role at Wayfair, and the initiatives she has championed to support the company’s diversity recruiting efforts. Though she initially saw herself forging a career in politics, Angela took a hard pivot into the world of art and design during her sophomore year of college. After graduation, she took a position with the furniture company Room and Board, which essentially served as a ten-year crash course on not only floor planning and drafting, but also everything required in

Hello listeners! Welcome back to another episode of Tech Forward. This week, I spoke with Chris Bennett, co-founder and CEO of Wonderschool. Combining high quality educational standards with the warmth of in-home programs, Wonderschool is a network of boutique early childhood education programs. With the Wonderschool platform, it’s easy for teachers to start and operate these programs — and for families to find them. Chris and I discussed his journey as an entrepreneur, as well as his passion for providing families with more affordable, high-quality options for early childhood education. Though some might hesitate to leave the stability of the financial sector for the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship, for Chris — who has many small business owners in his family — it was an easy decision. While attending the Wharton School of Business, he started his own business, but didn’t entertain the notion of continuing past graduation. After 2 years at a real estate private equity firm in Chicago, he felt the urg

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! On this week’s episode, I spoke with Michelle Glauser, founder and CEO of Techtonica. Based in San Francisco, Techtonica is a nonprofit that offers free tech training, plus living and childcare stipends, to local women and non-binary adults with low incomes. Michelle is also a software engineer and the lead organizer for PyLadiesSF — the world's largest chapter of women who code in Python. In 2015, she spearheaded the #ILookLikeAnEngineer ad campaign. We discussed her motivation behind founding Techtonica, what makes it different from other boot camps, as well as her journey into tech and entrepreneurship. Despite a lifelong interest in computers, Michelle found herself working full time at a startup doing everything except software engineering. Noticing the high demand for engineers, she signed up for a training program in 2012. While her experience was overwhelmingly positive — she had a new job within 2 weeks of graduation — she also witnessed, firsthand, the lack o

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! With more people tuning in each week, I decided to reissue one of my earlier episodes that new listeners might have missed. Back on episode 6, I spoke with Janet Wu, co-founder and CEO of SilkRoll, about sustainability in the fashion industry as well as the importance of building diverse teams from day one. An avid traveler, Janet was born in China, grew up in the UK, and currently lives in the Bay Area. During her 10 years as an investment banker, she helped over 50 publicly listed companies raise over $30B in financing. She then went on to serve as the CFO of clean tech startup One Earth Designs before founding SilkRoll. During a 2011 sabbatical, Janet connected with an issue that had long been important to her: sustainability. In traveling through South and Central America, she directly witnessed the environmental impact of modern industry on ecology, biodiversity, and indigenous culture of these regions. She found herself wondering, “How can I contribute

Hello listeners! Welcome to this month’s bonus episode of Tech Forward. When it comes to startups, success is often measured by the amount of venture capital funding they’re able to raise. But is this really an accurate barometer for a startup’s success? Your host shares her thoughts on that subject in this mini episode. You can also check out her blog post on this topic. Thanks for tuning in, and see you on Wednesday! Connect with us Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Hello and welcome back to Tech Forward! On this week’s episode, I spoke with Jennifer Marsman, the Principal Software Engineer of Microsoft’s “AI for Earth” group. Working with the group, she uses data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to aid with clean water, agriculture, biodiversity, and climate change. Jennifer has been recognized as one of the “top 100 most influential individuals in artificial intelligence and machine learning” by Onalytica, reaching the #2 slot in 2018. We discussed the work she has led with AI for Earth, the issue of bias, and her insights about building a welcoming culture in the tech sector. By running a global grant program, developing their own APIs, and funding projects, AI for Earth is, in Jennifer’s words, “a chance to use my passion for machine learning to make a difference.” One such project is FarmBeats, which is interested in sustainable, long-term solutions to maximize yield and, ultimately, reduce world hunger. To do this, they synthesize IoT, drones

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! This week, I’m excited to share my conversation with Paria Rajai, Founder and CEO of ModelExpand. Using the best practices that Paria and her team have observed over the years, ModelExpand partners with companies who want to attract and retain employees from diverse backgrounds. Paria began her work in diversity in 2008, designing global women in tech events with Yahoo's Business and Human Rights division. Since then, she has played an integral role leading the marketing team at Hackbright Academy, helped organize the inaugural Women of MENA in Tech Conference, and was profiled in Forbes for being a leader and advocate in the world of tech, marketing and diversity. We discussed her history of work around diversity and inclusion, as well as her recommendations to companies who know they want to change, but aren’t quite sure where to start. As the business world has struggled to match the growing diversity in the world at large, it’s important to clarify the d

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! This week, I spoke with Katie Macc, Chief Commercial Officer and Cofounder of Juntos Global. At a time when customers have low trust in their financial institutions, Juntos provides those institutions with a mobile-based conversation platform that increases consumer confidence. Prior to working at Juntos, Katie worked in microfinance, both in the Democratic Republic of Congo and, later, in the US. On today’s episode, we discussed her journey as an entrepreneur, and how Juntos is breaking down barriers to financial inclusion for many people around the world. As someone who has always relished the opportunity to build something, Katie’s transition from established jobs to true entrepreneurship was a natural one. Katie wears many hats at Juntos, balancing client-facing teams such as sales client services along with finance and HR internally. Despite the fact that their foreign markets — including Egypt, Paraguay, and Uganda — can make funding a challenge, Katie contends t