Across The Lines

Priya Saiprasad is currently the youngest and only female VC partner at Mayfield Fund, one of the oldest and most respected venture capital firms in the Valley. Previously, Priya was a founding member of Microsoft’s investment fund, M12, where she launched M12's female founder's competition as part of her work to make access to capital easier for underserved female entrepreneurs.

In this episode, we speak with Priya about how Pilates was the wake-up call that helped her overcome a need for external validation, why we should aim to be respected instead of being liked, and how to find your voice in the workplace as a young woman of color.

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Episode resources:

Follow Priya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyasaiprasad/

Follow Priya on Twitter: https://twitter.com/priyasaiprasad?lang=en

Priya’s Business Insider profile: https://www.businessinsider.com/priya-saiprasad-mayfield-fund-enterprise-investing-2019-5

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If you enjoyed today’s conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We’d really appreciate it!

Learn more about the show at acrossthelinespodcast.com, follow us @acrossthelinespodcast, and subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.

Harpaul Sambhi is the Founder of Magical, a software company that helps non-technical employees automate repetitive tasks and be more productive. He founded Careerify while in college and successfully exited the company to LinkedIn in 2015. He then spent 4 years as a Product Manager at LinkedIn and Microsoft and left in 2019 to become an Entrepreneur in Residence at Bain Capital Ventures.

In this episode, we spoke with Harpaul about:

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Episode resources:

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If you enjoyed today’s conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We’d really appreciate it!

Learn more about the show at acrossthelinespodcast.com, follow us @acrossthelinespodcast, and subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.

Lindsay Meyer is the Founder and CEO of Batch, a shoppable home staging startup that works with high-end residential realtors, developers, and builders to create beautiful, bespoke spaces. Her career has spanned a diverse set of industries, ranging from venture capital to biotech to retail, and she was honored as a 2017 TIME Person of the Year.

In this episode, we spoke with Lindsay about:

Episode resources:

Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsaykmeyer/

Lindsay’s New York Times piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/technology/women-entrepreneurs-speak-out-sexual-harassment.html

Lindsay’s company Batch: https://www.visitbatch.com/

Lindsay speaking about harassment in tech: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/lifestyle/silence-breaker-lindsay-meyer-talks-about-harassment-in-high-tech/

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If you enjoyed today’s conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We’d really appreciate it!

Learn more about the show at acrossthelinespodcast.com, follow us @acrossthelinespodcast, and subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.

In this episode, we’ll be candidly sharing some of the triumphs and tribulations from the first few months of building the podcast. But more importantly, we wanted to express our gratitude for some of our earliest supporters and cheerleaders who have helped us build the foundation for this entire project.

We’ll be highlighting our five earliest supporters -- these folks are either friends, managers, mentors or all of the above.

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Episode resources:

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If you enjoyed today’s conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We’d really appreciate it!

Learn more about the show at acrossthelinespodcast.com, follow us @acrossthelinespodcast, and subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.

Samir Goel is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Esusu, a fast-growing social enterprise that bridges the racial wealth gap and increases financial access for low-to-middle income consumers. Esusu recently raised funding led by Acumen and Jeff Weiner’s Next Play Ventures.

In this episode, we spoke with Samir about the challenges of raising money as a person of color, how his parents felt about leaving a stable tech job for entrepreneurship, and why growing up in New York has shaped his own perspective on his Indian-American identity.

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Episode resources:

Follow Samir on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/goelsamir/

Samir’s website: http://www.samirgoel.com/

Learn more about Samir’s company Esusu: https://esusurent.com/

A NASDAQ feature on Samir and Abbey: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/faces-of-entrepreneurship%3A-samir-goel-abbey-wemimo-esusu-2021-01-15

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If you enjoyed today’s conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We’d really appreciate it!

Learn more about the show at acrossthelinespodcast.com, follow us @acrossthelinespodcast, and subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.

Deb Liu was the VP of Facebook Marketplace at the time of this recording, leading one of the company’s biggest strategic bets. In March 2021, she will be joining Ancestry, the world’s largest genealogy company, to become its next chief executive officer. Deb also co-founded Women In Product, which has more than 20k members in 27 countries, and currently serves as a board member at Intuit. Previously, she was at Paypal, eBay, and the Boston Consulting Group.

In this episode, we speak with Deb about growing up as one of the few Asian Americans in South Carolina, choosing when to break expectations to advance in your career, and why what got you to where you are won’t take you where you want to go.

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Episode resources:

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If you enjoyed today’s conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We’d really appreciate it!

Learn more about the show at acrossthelinespodcast.com, follow us @acrossthelinespodcast, and subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.

Jen Weedn is the Vice President of Business Development at Linkedin, where her team is responsible for partnerships with Samsung, Twitter, the New York Times, and many more. Jen has spent more than a decade leading business development at many of the biggest names in tech, where she’s seen the rise and fall of companies like AOL, Myspace, and Glam Media.

In this episode, we speak with Jen about:

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Episode resources:

Follow Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferyangweedn/

Jen speaks about leading as a female executive: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6609863032006893568/

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If you enjoyed today’s conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We’d really appreciate it!

Learn more about the show at acrossthelinespodcast.com, follow us @acrossthelinespodcast, and subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.

In this episode, we'll be speaking with Robby Kwok. Robby is the Chief of Staff to the CEO at Slack and was the former SVP of People who led a transition to remote work for the company. Robby’s career has spanned strategy and M&A at some of the biggest names in tech, including Yahoo, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

In this episode, we speak with Robby about the following:

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Episode resources:

Follow Robby on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbykwok

Robby’s transition to Chief of Staff: https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/302480

Slack’s move to remote work, led by Robby: https://www.businessinsider.com/slack-increased-remote-work-cultural-operational-changes-robby-kwok-2020-6

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If you enjoyed today’s conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We’d really appreciate it!

Learn more about the show at acrossthelinespodcast.com, follow us @acrossthelinespodcast, and subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.

In this episode we'll be speaking about the following:

If you enjoyed today’s conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We’d really appreciate it!

Learn more about us acrossthelinespodcast.com and follow us on Instagram or LinkedIn to get the latest updates on the show.

We hope you enjoy!

Angie & Jay

What is Across The Lines?

Across The Lines is a podcast that highlights the stories of Pan Asian American leaders and explores the intersection of their personal and professional journeys. Our vision is to inspire and empower the next generation of leaders through candid conversations about the confluence of identity and work.

You can check out our website or follow us on Instagram join us for future conversations.

We’ve heard enough content on professionals sharing their professional stories. For Across The Lines, we hope to better understand our guests as people. By doing so, we’ll understand them as professionals. During our conversation, we hope to inspire our listeners, humanize their story, and provide attainable advice for them to do the same.

We’ve focused on a unique balance of authenticity, vulnerability, and professionalism. We’ve addressed how it felt raising money as a person of color. We’ve heard guests reflect on the disorientation they’ve felt growing up in a lower-middle-class immigrant family, to now being one of the most powerful people in society. Guests have opened up about how external clout and validation has negatively impacted their mental health.

These are just a few of the themes we would like to cover with Across The Lines. Others include issues like the bamboo ceiling, the model minority myth, and our role in civic life. This is why we believe Across The Lines will provide value to our guests and listeners. 

We hope you enjoy!

Angie & Jay