Billion Dollar Moves™ with Sarah Chen-Spellings | Global Venture Capital

"When times are hard, hold on to your vision. Remember why you started in the first place."

In a never-before like interview, we dive deep into the business of drones with the Malaysian power couple Kamarul A Muhamed and Azita Azizan who founded Aerodyne group, which is set to be the global leading provider of drone-based enterprise solutions, with over $30M raised, presence in over 35 countries, and over 350,000 assets inspected.

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👊🏻 3 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- Why picking your co-founder is the most important choice you can make, the secret in choosing people to work with

- What it takes to build a global footprint, can you expand too fast?

- The future of drones and aerial robotics, should you be afraid?

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⏳ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

02:29 - Why this idea, why now?

06:16 - Acquiring new customers, and proving the business case

10:52 - Taking the leap - how the power couple came to be

14:08 - Validating outside the country?

23:36 - Building for global growth - what strategy worked?

26:08 - Choosing the right partners and leaning into your intuition

30:52 - Rising expectations of the industry, aerial robotics and more

36:54 - Opportunity out of a crisis

39:12 - Billion Dollar Questions

On Aerodyne:

Aerodyne Group (https://aerodyne.group) is a DT3 (Drone Tech, Data Tech, and Digital Transformation) drone-based enterprise solutions provider, and a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence as an enabling technology for large-scale data operations, analytics, and process optimization. Aerodyne is ranked second in the world by Drone Industry Insights (DII) in its ‘Drone Service Provider Ranking 2020’; was named Frost & Sullivan’s ‘Asia Pacific UAV Services Company of 2019’; and is a recipient of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) Malaysia’s ‘Industry Excellence Gold Award 2019’. The company’s founder and Group CEO, Kamarul A Muhamed, is 'EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2020'.

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

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FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

"If not now, then when? I had no job, nowhere to stay but I had to try. Even if I failed, I would have the peace of mind that at least I tried. I would have always wondered, what if?"

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 👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- How to execute on a vision, as a non-technical founder: including dealing with imposter syndrome

- Career transitions and deciding to take that leap

- How eggs could be made without a chicken! (P.s. a $200B opportunity)

- Plant-based foods, alternative proteins and the scale of food technology today

- Building for the long run in biotech and leveraging the first mover advantage

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⏳ TIMESTAMPS

00:14 - Intro, what's on tap for this week

02:04 -Arturo finding his purpose, and taking a one-way ticket to San Francisco, obsessing about eggs

05:26 - Personal revelation to action and building a startup

11:05 - Non-technical founder on the hunt for a team 

15:38 - Wait, but how are you making chicken-less eggs again?

23:58 - Breaking news! The world's first animal-free protein?

27:26 - The landscape for alternative proteins

30:30 - Building moats!

32:09 - Where to expand to first?

37:57 - Abundance mentality and the future of alternative proteins

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More on Arturo: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/arturoe/)

Arturo is the founder and CEO of biotech food company, Clara Foods (now called EVERY), based in Silicon Valley that has raised over $50M in funding and makes real animal protein without the use of a single animal – starting with the world's first chickenless egg proteins. Prior to founding Clara in 2014, Arturo served under Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Credit Suisse. He has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30, the 2019 Person of the Year by the National Hispanic Institute, and one of 10 Latinos who inspire the United States by BBC World News. Arturo hails from Laredo, Texas, and grew up living on both sides of the US-Mexico border. He

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

Indonesia’s startups have been making headlines in the last few years, including most recently the news that online mall Bukalapak is set to raise $1.5 billion in the country’s largest-ever initial public offering - setting the stage for a wave of tech listings, with fellow unicorns GoTo and Traveloka to follow suit. Home to the region’s largest population, it is no surprise, Indonesia is in it’s primetime for entrepreneurs. This week, we begin to scratch the surface of the Indonesian startup storyline with veteran digital entrepreneur and evangelist Shinta Dhanuwardoyo.

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 👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- The IPO scene in Indonesia - what's going on? Bukalapak, raksasa GoTo and more

- Primetime Indonesia: the opportunity for digitization 

- The secret sauce of building unicorns in Indonesia

- Indonesia’s rising youth spending power

- Building in Indonesia: challenges and opportunities

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⏳ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro, what's on tap this week

04:17 - Architect turned entrepreneur, an Indonesian girl's curiosity

07:29 - Teaching herself to code and build websites

09:45 - Bubu's initial go to market

17:27 - Indonesia's startup growth story - how do we think about Indonesia?

21:29 - Domestic/dual listings, are the fundamentals there - Bukalapak, Gojek + Tokopedia

25:26 - Secret sauce of Indonesian unicorns?

29:56 - 17,000 islands - what about underserved markets?

35:03 - Billion Dollar Questions with Shinta! 

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More about Shinta (@shintabubu):

Shinta is a tech industry veteran and trailblazer. Since the inception of her first company Bubu.com in 1996, the award-winning entrepreneur has impacted Indonesia's digital landscape in countless ways.

Her first company, Bubu.com, started as a web development company that now houses multiple ventures targeting the Indonesian youth— from the hottest gaming competition to a collaboration agency bridging brands.

At the end of December 2019, she launched a new venture called Startupindonesia.co, which is an online platform to help connect all the startup ecosystems in Indonesia. The online platform is looking to democratize network and knowledge for Indonesia's tech startup ecosystem, especially those with a strong socio-economic impact. It is developed as Indonesia's online startup directory and online education center for tech-entrepreneurship. Shinta is currently the Head of the permanent committee for Digital Business, e-Commerce and Startups Development at Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Indonesia (KADIN) and she is also on the Board of Trustees of The Nature of Conservancy (TNC Indonesia).

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

--

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

In today's Billion Dollar Moves Breakdown, we bust some myths on the emerging markets and venture capital with THE emerging markets analyst, Mikal Khoso, VC at Wavemaker Partners, a cross border venture capital firm dual headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore and has raised over $580M across multiple funds.

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 👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- GoTo, Grab, Shopee - who will win in this multi-billion e-commerce showdown?

- Primetime Emerging Markets: the opportunity for digitization, leapfrogging

- The secret sauce of emerging markets

- Byjus, the best kept secret in edtech?

- SPACs: Real deal or a cover for the lack of fundamentals

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⏳ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro: what's on tap this week?

01:25 - Why emerging markets, why now?

03:34 - Exploding population

05:39 - Leapfrogging

08:35 - Political uncertainty? What's the risk premium here?

10:55 - Golden era of startups - analyst top picks

23:00 - GoTo: marriage of convenience?

29:16 - The exit story for emerging markets

More about Mikal (@mikalkhoso):

Mikal is based in LA with Wavemaker, focused on sourcing new deals, collaborating with partners on diligence and further iterating on the investment process and tech stack. He writes a popular weekly newsletter Emergent on the fastest-growing businesses in emerging markets. (reademergent.com)

Prior to joining Wavemaker Mikal was a partner at First Round’s Dorm Room Fund, a student-led venture firm that invests exclusively in student-founded companies. In his time at Dorm Room Fund he led two investments that have collectively raised $45 million in follow on funding. Prior to that he was an Associate at Underscore VC in 2017 where he led two investments as well that collectively have raised $40 million in funding.

Prior to that he worked at the New Ventures Team at Northeastern University, a corporate innovation team tasked with building Edtech companies for the university. Mikal graduated with a B.S. in Economics and Philosophy from Northeastern University.

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

"You can imagine the guilt - here I was building my startup when my actual baby was not coping well in school; with a learning disability, and recent epilepsy incident."

We love rooting for the underdog- but what does it really take to rise despite the odds, as THE underdog? Rosaline Koo founded CXA Group from her living room in 2013 after a storied career with multinationals, with ambitions to transform health benefits for employees. Tune in to her story from risking all her family savings to build her startup; to scaling to over a million users, raising over $50M from the likes of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's B Capital Group, EDBI, Openspace Ventures and more.

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the top US-Asia funders, founders and execs. 

From building a unicorn to IPO, and scaling a VC firm - all of these efforts require vision from the leaders at the helm. 

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 👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- How an underdog emerged to challenge global insurance players

- The opportunity for digitization in insurtech

- How to actually expand into new markets

- The sacrifice of a founder- the toll on personal relationships

- Building for the long run

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⏳ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro, what's on tap for this week

03:24 - Rosaline's life "a series of accidents", from a father that came to the US on a Dragon Boat

12:34 - "I think I needed to help execute" - startup journey begins in Malaysia

13:11 - A mother's guilt 

15:29 - Coming to a hard decision

18:50 - Taking all of the family's savings to start CXA

22:52 - Taking the leap: being bold enough to solve an industry problem

29:28 - Acquisition strategy: going head to head as a no-name brand

50:18 - Billion Dollar Questions!

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More on Rosaline:

Rosaline is the founder and CEO of CXA group, Asia’s only integrated flex and wellness portal (https://www.cxagroup.com/)

Rosaline invested $5M of her savings and borrowed another $5M to build CXA after 5 years trying to convince her previous firm to invest in Asia. Now CXA has over a million users across 20 countries in Asia and is being white-labelled as the SME bancassurance SAAS platform. CXA has been awarded Insurtech of the Year, Top CEO, Global Innovations in Healthcare, Asian Human Capital Leadership Award, Asian Insurance Innovations and HR Vendor of the Year for Corp Wellness and Comp & Benefits.

Rosaline supervised Procter & Gamble factory lines in Iowa and then worked at Bankers Trust on Wall Street. She launched two dot-com start-ups before moving to ACE insurance. Rosaline also grew Mercer Marsh Benefits' 14 APAC countries 800% over 8 years. She graduated from UCLA Cybernetics and Columbia Business School.

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

This week, we dive deep with Rajive Keshup in Singapore, Investment Director at Cathay Innovation, an early and growth stage venture capital firm with $1.5B AUM across San Francisco, Paris, Shanghai and Singapore, and closely affiliated with Cathay Capital Private Equity, a global private equity firm with $3B in AUM.

From the lens of a management consultant turned operator turned funder, Rajive talks about what it takes to be an entrepreneur’s first phone call in great and not-so-great times, and the real landscape of growth stage companies in SEA. 

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 👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- If you're not learning, you better be earning

- The current state of play of venture in Asia: are we drinking our own kool-aid in Asia? Inflated valuations, the hype of SPACs

- How to actually expand into new markets

- The arbitrage opportunity of Asia-US

- Building for the long run

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More on Rajive:

Rajive is an Investment Director at Cathay Innovation, based out of the Singapore office. (https://cathayinnovation.com/)

Prior to joining Cathay, Rajive played instrumental roles in scaling a number of Southeast Asian startups. Before moving to Singapore, Rajive was a Managing Director at PwC Strategy (formerly Booz & Co.) in New York City where he led the TMT sector for the firm’s Private Equity practice. Rajive started his career at AT&T doing corporate strategy & development in Dallas, Texas. He is also a former-founder having built, scaled and successfully exited a US-based startup in the pet services space. Rajive earned an MBA from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and a Bachelor of Science from Bentley University in Waltham, MA.

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

“If I was being invited into a room, it was for a reason. So it's about being confident in that I had something to offer. I wasn't going to sit at the periphery of the table and not speak” — Alethia Jackson

This week, we make a trip to The Hill with America’s Top Lobbyist, Alethia Jackson making some #BillionDollarMoves​! 

As VP of Federal Relations & Head of Advocacy for Walgreens (and now Chief DEI Officer!), Alethia is expanding patient access to pharmacy services while advancing the role of pharmacy in the healthcare system. As Chair of the Vaccine Equity Taskforce, she sees first hand, Corporate America’s healthcare battle especially during this time we are all living in. 

We unpack what it means to lead with your voice, the complex healthcare landscape and how to build partnerships that matter.

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 👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- How to be heard, and help others feel heard

- What it takes to make it in Corporate America

- The healthcare battle of our generation

- The quadruple aim of healthcare & how senior executives are thinking about it

- How digitization is affecting the future of healthcare

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⏳ TIMESTAMPS

00:11 - What's on tab for this week: the healthcare battle of our generation, 

02:29 - Alethia's DRIVE and where it came from

04:55 - The disparity of care

07:09 - How to find your voice, and come back from being perceived not in a way you'd like

11:14 - On power in Washington DC

15:11 - The quadruple aim of healthcare, the challenges

19:57 - Politics vs government; the politicization of healthcare?

24:08 - The retailization of healthcare

26:53 - Guest CAMEO! Nur Afifah & Renwei Chung - fake news, reimagining healthcare's front door

39:04 - BILLION DOLLAR QUESTIONS

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

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Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

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Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

Enterprise technology companies attracted $30 billion in funding, outpacing their consumer-tech peers (by a third) for the first time in five years. This trend reflects a deeper evolution at play, at the intersection of software development, adoption of cloud technology, and data analysis—and as many investors have said we’re still at the early stages of this massive sea change. 

But how did we arrive at this inflection point and what next?

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 👊🏻 3 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- How to actually manage diversity & not falling into the culture 'fit' trap

- What makes a billion dollar founder?

- Ethics in investing - where do you draw the line?

More on Cathy:

As a daughter of a software engineer and a small business owner, Cathy has been steeped in technology and entrepreneurship from an early age and today Cathy focuses on B2B SaaS, digital healthcare, and data businesses as partner at Sapphire Ventures, a leading venture capital firm that partners with visionary teams and venture funds to build companies of consequence. For nearly two decades, Sapphire has been investing capital, resources and expertise in innovative startups and technology-focused venture funds around the world with more than $6.8B in AUM across Sapphire Ventures, Sapphire Partners and Sapphire Sport, and with team members in Austin, London, Palo Alto and San Francisco. (https://sapphireventures.com/)

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

"Tolerate failure but don't tolerate incompetence. Till this day, I regret how I let a company go bankrupt— I've learned from that"

From microbiome manipulation, to genomic sequencing, biotechnology promises an unprecedented future.

But what does it really take to build a biotech company that will last?

This week, we chat with, Brian Conn, serial biotech CFO, who has raised over $300M, completed 20 M&A deals and is currently CFO of genomic sequencing company, Quantapore, co-founder of synthetic biology company, Levadura and advisor to VC firm, General Inception.

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 👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- How a non-technical founder can play a big role in building biotech

- How an unfocused strategy, is a strategy

- The evolution of biotech - have we leapfrogged?

- Navigating competition

- Key fundraising tips - should you care about dilution?

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⏳ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro: What's on tab for this week: biotech, role of startup CFO, fundraising

02:49 - Brian's lucky start in biotech

07:47 - The lousy accountant turned CFO

11:49 - The long road of biotech

14:45 - Biotech vs non-biotech

19:34 - Dilution, funding "and then we're done" - hard lessons

24:10 - Evolution of biotech, have we leapfrogged?

33:01 - Dealing with competition

36:20 - Special! Cameo from Dr. Sarah Richardson, CEO, MicroByre

50:20 - Billion Dollar Questions

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

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Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

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Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

From leveraging the $500Bn impact investing opportunity to building a unicorn to IPO, and scaling a VC firm - all of these efforts require vision from the leaders at the helm, and most importantly the willingness to PLAY IT BIG, as athletes in our own fields. This week, we took a different turn in examining high-performance and went deep with Dr.Jen, the first female NFL Coach on what's not playing big right now in the world of sport.

Dr. Jen Welter tackled her football career with tenacity and an unprecedented track record of pioneering firsts. Building on her career in women’s football, that included 2 Gold medals with Team USA, 4 World Championships and 8 All-Star selections, Dr. Jen busted into the men’s game, as the first female running back signed to a men’s professional team. She broke through the biggest boys club of all, the NFL, as the first female coach in the league and the Madden NFL 20 video game.

Now that's some #BillionDollarMoves​ we all want in on.

👊🏻 FIVE THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- How to defy crazy odds, even when you're told you can't

- How to not let fear define you

- How to turn being seen as the 'token' woman to being taken seriously as a team player

- Getting to the big table and bringing your voice

- The disparity between men and women's sport and what we must do

⏳ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

05:14 - Being Told She Wasn't Going To Be Good Enough

07:33 - Shifting Mindset Through Negativity

11:00 - Dr. Jen's Epiphany

13:29 - Getting The Call From Texas Revolution

18:16 - Are Companies Doing The Right Thing in Diversity Drives?

20:41 - Developing Allies

23:13 - Being The First & Only

23:58 - NCAA, Sedona Prince, The Disparity In Sports

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

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FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal